SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW: The Nemesis List - RJ Frith

Release Date: 05/11/10

BOOK BLURB:

Humanity has expanded into the stars but at the price of its freedom. An autocratic and overbearing Government now rigidly controls every technical and scientific advancement. Deviation is punishable by death. Out on the edges of space, criminals thwart the law, making money out of illegal tech, their ships jumping from galaxy to galaxy to avoid detection. Ex-soldier Frank Pak doesn't care about politics or breaking the law, he just wants to keep his ship running. When he's offered a contract to escort a runaway back home to his loving family - he doesn't ask questions. But his cargo is more dangerous than he realizes. Jeven Jones is no ordinary passenger. A result of illegal human experimentation, he's a fast-tracked evolutionary leap into future. Thanks to his ability for perfect recall and a series of mental skills that he has no control over, Jones is a wanted man. The Government wants him dead. A fledgling revolution want to use him to unlock every advancement the Government has ever denied them. If Jones lives he'll start a war. If he dies the entire future of humanity dies with him...


REVIEW:

New talent is something that needs to be not only nurtured but carefully cultivated. Such is the case with this offering, the debut, of RJ Frith.

Winner of the UK’s biggest Science Fiction Writers Competition, The War of Word’s, it’s easy to see why. Whilst it has a futuristic setting, which is richly crafted, for me, it is the characterisation that really stands out. Jake/Jevin/Jones is a wonder. He has the smarts, he is manipulative but above all else it is his sense of self that readers will latch onto.

The dialogue is great, the setting expansive and above all else RJ knows how to a manipulate a story like a weaver masters a loom, presenting a rich tapestry of spacescape’s with threads of destiny cleverly woven within the plot. Add to an almost godlike game of chess where characters try to figure out if their key players or pawns and this gives the reader an almost epic set of worlds ripe for exploration. Finish off with politics, revenge and hidden truths and it is all set to go supernova.