Pushing Ice

From Publishers Weekly As this spectacular, large-scale space opera opens, Janus, a moon of Saturn, now revealed as an alien artifact, has suddenly left orbit and headed for interstellar space. The Rockhopper, a comet miner commanded by Capt. Bella Lind, is the only spacecraft in the solar system positioned to catch the huge alien machine. Though a short exploration is all that's planned, the Rockhopper soon finds itself trapped in Janus's time- and distance-distorting slipstream. Determining that Janus is heading toward an even more gigantic artifact orbiting the star Spica, the comet miners settle down to form their own castaway civilization, a process marred by the bad blood between those who support Captain Lind and those who blame her for their fate. Janus soon proves itself to be an incredibly strange and ever changing environment. Eventually, the castaways reach the Spica artifact, encounter several very alien species and discover that their fate is even stranger than they could have imagined. Reynolds (Century Rain) is occasionally clumsy in his character interactions, but he has a genius for big-concept SF and fans of Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama and Larry Niven's Ringworld will love this novel. Copyright В© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Alastair Reynolds, an astrophysicist and the author of six previous novels, including the critically acclaimed Revelation Space series (beginning with the title novel in 2000), has established a reputation as the purveyor of big ideas in science fiction, particularly in the space-opera genre. Critics admire the author for his storytelling abilities and his grasp of hard science fiction, as well as for his willingness to explore issues that, in the hands of a less confident writer, might fall flat. By bringing developed characters and clearly articulated scenarios to the page, Reynolds has cultivated a growing audience of devoted readers. So he's not yet Arthur C. Clarke. Who is? Copyright В© 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. 2057. Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclear-powered ship, the Rockhopper , push ice. They mine comets. But when Janus, one of Saturn's ice moons, inexplicably leaves its natural orbit and heads out of the solar system at high speed, Bella is ordered to shadow it for the few vital days before it falls forever out of reach. In accepting this mission she sets her ship and her crew on a collision course with destinyfor Janus has many surprises in store, and not all of them are welcome... In 2057, Bella Lind and the crew of the Rockhopper mine comets for their ice, but when Janus, one of Saturn's ice moons, inexplicably leaves its orbit and heads out of the solar system at high speed, Bella is assigned to follow it.