Hydrogen Steel [Library Binding]

Zette McGee is a private investigator, and former cop, in a habitat on Ganymede. She abruptly retired from the force, rather than risk exposure of a personal secret. McGee is called out of retirement by a frantic phone call from android Kell Fallow, who knows her secret, and who swears he did not kill his family. Before Fallow can reach her, he is killed by a bomb in his gut.

At every step in the investigation, McGee, and Gideon Smith, a friend with a shadowy past, are stopped cold. It is the work of a firemind called Hydrogen Steel. Think of an artificial intelligence that has had eons of time (about a hundred years in human time) to grow and evolve. It can do a lot more than just read minds, for instance. Wherever they are, it can disable their ship, leaving them stranded in space. It can infect their neural implants with all sorts of major viruses. It can send an android that looks identical to McGee to destroy her residence. It can create intruders out of thin air, then disappear into thin air, to kill anyone it wishes. Hydrogen Steel can also infect McGee and Smith with bombs identical to the one that killed Fallow, forcing them to get quantum scans of their brains, and those scans downloaded into new bodies.

Hydrogen Steel's mission is to prevent any release of information regarding how the Earth disappeared years before. There wasn't any rubble from its destruction, just "poof." Another firemind, Otaru, finds out the truth, but knows that it will not survive the expected battle with Hydrogen Steel.

This is a gem of a novel. It's a really good mystery/thriller; how does anyone deal with an entity that can reach into your DNA, and do something nasty? It's also quite mind blowing, and is very much worth reading.

Zette McGee, a former Homicide inspector, gets a phone call. An android Kell Fallow is in trouble. He is being accused of murder. And he knows Zette's hidden secret: she is a property of Cytex Systems. An android that should not be self-aware. Zette promises to meet Kell at the cargo dock but she needs a little expert assistance. Gideon smith is retired "diplomat" who has hazy past that he won't talk about. He is just the person to trust. But nothing is as seems. Kell is blown up, or rather, the liquid bomb he had not known to carry was ignited as he landed. Next Zette's property is invaded and the HouseMind has no records of the intruder -- other than it was herself down to the DNA samples gathered from the air. Double. Why? What purpose? Gideon and Zette decide to depart to Kell's home world to find out, but during waiting for wormhole tube clearance, Gideon's military-surplus ShipMind was penetrated like butter. Who would have intrusion infoware like that? What powers are they faced against that try to stop their investigation?

After a very good detective story, the pace picks up and and everything that can be though of is crammed into the story: high speed chase through wormholes, the philosophical aspect what it means to be android but think like a human, rejuvenating medical procedures that allow one's brains to be transferred to another body, cyberpunk attacks that are beyond military grade, void space samurai entities, Japanese Otaru firemind which is one of the remnant of self aware AIs escaped beyond human control, and secret government cover up to "what happened to earth" (see previous book Eclipse). The Japanese culture is magnificent, but having a firemind Otaru modeled after it -- Geishas, Samurais and all -- is corny. The science that is introduced in the book is very creative, but stretches so far that it has no limits at all. Humans can live forever? Fireminds have already travelled the whole universe? Nanotech is so advanced that it is undetectable? The world is full of miracles that have no obvious boundaries what is possible. Yet more and more is introduced, like immortality "between the time gaps" as Otaru saves the lead figures. The philosophical questions of what is to be a human if the brains can be be scanned to other bodies, or if an android can think like a human, are fundamental questions of sole existence. Yet they are introduced like throwing a ball with left hand. Everything is miraculously solved, ice cube (Hydrogen Steel Firemind) is Godlike, yet naively trapped at the end and the android hero becomes immortal.

Two (2) stars. Written in 2007 this is loosely a book 2 in the same universe as Eclipse. The same problem that was present Eclipse book is manifested again: too much is going on and concepts introduced are beyond comprehending -- the reader detaches from the story as soon as he starts to ask "is this is possible?" The marvels of the science stack on one another in increasingly bigger blocks and the story starts to become indifferent. There are many clever ideas, very innovative science, but not all that would not have been necessary. Sticking to the promising detective start and building the mystery slowly would have accomplished the same elegantly in Asimov style. Not dull, but an exemplary of a herring salad.

It's rare to see a genuine mystery embedded into the rich fabric of a science fiction setting, but HYDROGEN STEEL accomplishes both in the tale of a retired homicide inspector Zette, called out of retirement to help a former android accused of murder. Her attempts to save Kell will endanger her own closely-held secrets and leads to personal danger when Kell is killed and her home is destroyed. You won't find many more science fiction titles holding so much gripping mystery action and twists of plot, making HYDROGEN STEEL a top pick for both science fiction and mystery lending libraries.

Diane C. Donovan

California Bookwatch

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