From Darkest Skies, Sam Peters
From Darkest Skies, Sam Peters
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From Darkest Skies
Book 1

Author: Sam Peters

Narrator: Peter Noble

Unabridged: 10 hr 11 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Gollancz

Published: 04/20/2017

Synopsis

After a five year sabbatical following the tragic death of his wife and fellow agent Alysha, Keona Rause returns to the distant colony world of Magenta to resume service with the Magentan Intelligence Service. With him he brings an artificial recreation of his wife's personality, a simulacrum built from every digital trace she left behind. She has been constructed with one purpose - to discover the truth behind her own death - but Keona's relationship with her has grown into something more, something frighteningly dependent, something that verges on love.

Cashing in old favours, Keona uses his return to the Service to take on a series of cases that allow him and the artificial Alysha to piece together his wife's last days. His investigations lead him inexorably along the same paths Alysha followed five years earlier, to a sinister and deadly group with an unhealthy fascination for the unknowable alien Masters; but as the wider world of Magenta is threatened with an imminent crisis, Keona finds himself in a dilemma: do his duty and stand with his team to expose a villainous crime, or sacrifice them all for the truth about his wife?

Read by Peter Noble

(p) 2017 Orion Publishing Group

About Sam Peters

Sam Peters is a mathematician, part-time gentle-person adventurer and occasional screenwriter who has seen faces glaze over at the words 'science fiction' once too often. Inspirations include Dennis Potter, Mary Doria Russell, Lynda La Plante, Neal Stephenson, and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Has more hopes than regrets, more cats than children, watches a lot of violent contact sport and is an unrepentant closet goth.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Gary on May 04, 2018

6.9 out of 10 @ [URL not allowed] Sam Peters’ From Darkest Skies is a sci-fi crime thriller that follows Keona Rause, an intelligence agent who returns from Earth to the colony world of Magenta to solve the years-old murder of his wife, fellow agent Alysha. The twist is that he......more

Goodreads review by Nemo ☠️ (pagesandprozac) on May 18, 2017

I AM SPEECHLESS. but only metaphorically, because, y'know, i'm typing this right now. but holy shit. holy shit this was phenomenal. the plot was absolutely incredible and i'm trying to figure out how to convey to you how amazing it is without giving it away. it is astonishingly complex and clever, an......more

Goodreads review by Esme on February 12, 2020

I had four audiobook credits to use and didn’t know what to get, so I asked twitter authors to give me a summary of their stuff if they had an accompanying audiobook. It had been a while since I had read sci-fi and the description for this one caught my attention so I picked it up. The beginning is a......more

Goodreads review by Kate on January 03, 2018

Enjoyable SF crime fiction set on the extraordinary planet of Magenta......more

Goodreads review by S.J. on April 21, 2017

This noir thriller has a wonderful setting – the planet Magenta has an unfriendly, heavy gravity and terrible weather, to the extent that buildings are more like bunkers in order to survive the terrible storms and the only transport system is an underground railway. Peters’ scene setting is spot on,......more

Quotes

A first class SF thriller. Even though Peters wrapped up the case, I still wanted to know more about the universe of Magenta. Peter F. Hamilton

Not only a gripping SF crime thriller but a moving investigation into the limitations and capabilities of artificial intelligence. GUARDIAN

A masterly piece of writing and plotting that manages to merge classy space-opera with a police procedural as twisty as a Christie Joanne Harris

Immersive SF, full of world-building detail, with a twisted love story at its heart. Financial Times

Interesting and powerful SFX

It's easy to see why FROM DARKEST SKIES has already been optioned for TV, what with its cinematic action and fast-paced plot, but the real strength lies in the humanity of its characters. SciFiNow

Peters' convincing
world-building and a tense plot mean
that this is a debut destined to make
waves. THE MORNING STAR

It reminded me... of Peter F Hamilton's work... I thoroughly enjoyed it and with two more sequels due, it's a solid and promising start. FANTASY BOOK REVIEW

Fast and fluid, compelling and above all thoroughly enjoyable. SF BOOK

Crime noir in the style of Blade Runner. THE BOOK BAG

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