Emma is the only human on the planet-sized Violet Enforcer starship. She receives a mysterious message from her lover taunting her to retrieve a gift that he left on the exterior of the ship. Intrigued, she goes outside only to have her spacesuit try to kill her. An investigation into the true source of the message leads to the discovery of a bomb planted in the ships propulsion system. An identical bomb on another starship is not found in time, and thousands of humans, including Emma’s fiancé, are killed along with thousands of members of other species that comprise the galactic police force, Concord. At the same time, unmanned buoys that monitor the activities of species that Concord does not permit to leave their star systems are disabled. All the evidence points to Earth.
Concord: Sabotage is a story of nearly infinite scale. Chris Mason has invented whole universes and done it very plausibly, then he populated the galaxy with scores of fantastic creatures. He even invented pronouns for the unisex species, which smacks a little of the gender identity issues promulgated on universities these days. Nevertheless, Mr. Mason has done a fine job with Concord, as he always does. I must say that the numerous creatures with whom Emma shares the spaceship that is the size of Pluto challenged me to remember who had feathers and who had two heads, but his gentle reminders brought me back on track. The hard science has tremendous verisimilitude, and the mythology is intriguing. Chris Mason’s prose never disappoints. Buy a copy, and read Concord: Sabotage. You won’t regret it.
Highly Opinionated 