Dreaming In Smoke [Paperback]

Trica Sullivan's SFnovel debut was Lethe (1995), which was followed by Someone To Watch Over Me (1997): this is her third book. It drops readers in at the deep end with a truly bizarre opening that turns out to be heroine Kalypso Deed's surreal perception of a major crash in the AI computer to which she's linked ... and which she should have been guarding. Unfortunately this machine runs the main human outpost on T'Nane, a watery colony world with a strange and poisonous biosphere. As things fall apart, Kalypso finds herself sailing alien seas as captive of an almost literally mad scientist who plans to bridge the gap between Earthly and T'Nane biology--using her as an unwilling experimental subject. Painful episodes follow, described with clinical detachment. T'Nane's exotic ecology is richly imagined, as are the surreal metaphors of cyberspatial interfacing with the mysteriously mutating AI core. Various human factions argue and grumble at occasionally tiresome length; Kalypso herself is a moody, passive heroine who does rather little except when bullied by others. But the writing is excellent and the ultimate biological revelations (though familiar in outline from much past SF) feel satisfying and right. Sullivan remains a writer to watch. --David Langford

On this bright new world there are those who want to keep science prime mover of society and those who simply want the land they were promised and to live full lives building a new civilisation of their own construction. One of the elements which has allowed the colonization of such a far flung planet (many light years from earth) is induced dreaming - a state which counteracted the adverse effects of leaving so many consciousnesses in deep sleep during the journey time and also expands mind power once human is reawoken. Kalypso Deed works in the vital dream induction centre that is empowering the brains that will one day govern - one night a routine program goes haywire and the biologist undergoing dream induction runs riot. This is the start of the breakdown of the supercomputer that has been running things since Man's first arrival. Things go from bad to worse and it looks like everyone will have to leave their artificial environment and take their chances outside on the planet's surface... And Kalypso is being held responsible.

Tricia Sullivan lives in London with her husband. She is the author of one previous science fiction novel, LETHE, published in 1995 by Gollancz.