Silversands [Kindle Edition]

Silversands is by Gareth L Powell and it instantly piqued my interest when I heard about it earlier this year. As it's only a short novel (coming in at 160 pages) it was one that I picked up once I'd received the review copy to pass a couple of hours one afternoon. I thoroughly enjoyed what I read and found that despite the small page count Gareth L Powell has delivered a great novel in a very interesting setting.

Starflight has been achieved by the use of ancient alien wormhole devices that has no way to control the destination, and human colonies are spread throughout the galaxy because of this. Avril Bradley is part of the crew of the Pathfinder, a ship sent out from Earth to find these lost human colonies. But she has an ulterior motive: she's trying to find the man she believes to be her father. As the Pathfinder arrives in the Silversands star system she discovers that this is the place she's been looking for and now has the hope of finally tracking down the man she's after, Cale Christie. When an explosion damages their ship the crew of the Pathfinder find themselves stuck while they must make repairs and it gives Avril the opportunity she needs. She finds herself in the middle of political struggles and the quest of secret factions to uncover the past while looking for the answers she wants.

The main characters of Avril and Cale are the ones that the story follows and their individual circumstances make for some very interesting situations. They're both believable and realistic and the same could be said for the supporting characters too. With subjects such as colony ships, digital personalities and political intrigue, Silversands is a satisfying and enjoyable read and Gareth L Powell makes the most of these characters and backdrop to tell a page turning story.

However, despite how much I enjoyed Silversands there were a couple of small reservations I had. The first was that while the story flies along at a good pace, it sometimes suffers for not being a little more drawn out. There are lots of things going on and a little more time spent on the story would have benefited enormously - I could easily see this being expanded to full novel length. The other aspect is to do with the way that ftl travel is done - it feels rather like Stargate to an extent. You know, ancient devices that use wormholes to travel between stars. This becomes more apparent by the conclusion, but it does not detract in anyway from the story as it's different enough to be satisfying.

Silversands is a novel I would recommend as a quick, enjoyable read and I'll be keeping my eyes out for more work by Mr Powell.

This book holds some great ideas, in particular the main theme being that humanity have discovered a set of interstellar wormholes, but have no idea how to navigate them. The basic plot is good, and moves forward at a good pace, but the problem is that it's really just a short story, or at best a novella, and as such is much too shallow, especially given the number of characters involved, meaning you never really attach to any of them.

I like Gareth L. Powell and I loved The Last Reef. I am also pleased to see a full length novel of Akk Akk Maqaque is in the pipeline. Silversands is a nice complete novel set in a universe where star gate use is not fully understood and ships may end up just about anywhere. A colony has developed on a chilly world and in the system around it. A ship from Earth arrives and sets off a train of events that has the planet split and up in arms. I liked the tale and the feel of the universe. The writing felt a little unpolished, as if this was an early draft. It mostly flowed OK, but sometimes I just felt there should be a little bit more than a statement of occurrences. All in all though it was an enjoyable read, and felt a little like Ken Macleods Engines of Light.