Again a
good indie sci-fi book. This time we are dealing with a novel set in another
planet colonised by humanity for a long time. Therefore the story takes place in
a far future. Rhea is a planet similar to Earth, but more humid and with a
greater gravity. It is located over eleven light-years away from here, so
communications and travels between the two planets take a long time. For this
reason Rhea has lived a development completely independent from that of the Earth.
On Rhea nearly all passes through the net. People have a chip implanted in the
brain due to which they are permanently connected. This allows them to
communicate in real time, but also to use the net to perform the most common
functions, such as turning on a light or open a door. The peculiarity of this
system is that all communications on the net are public, there is no privacy.
The lack of privacy prevents a misuse of the net, but at the same time limits
the freedom of the people.
In this
context moves Pimm, the detective called to solve a complicated murder case.
The suspect is a woman just arrived from Earth. The person that hosted her is
found dead and all the evidences seem to point against the Earthling. She
cannot prove her innocence because she does not have a chip in her brain able
to say where she was and what she was doing at the time of the murder.
The novel
is a true crime story, in which the detective follows the evidence, sometimes
in the traditional way to circumvent the problem of privacy, and must discover
what lies behind this murder, before a court decrees the guilt of the woman and
then sends her back to Earth.
The plot is
really well built; the author's style is captivating. It's really hard to put
this book down, because the story is told with virtually no breaks and all
events take place within a few days.
However, I
stopped at four stars because of the ending. The book reaches its climax, with
the discovery of the murderer, a bit before the end and then takes an
unexpected turn, which suddenly numbs its pace, dragging it with fatigue to an
abnormal epilogue, whose purpose is not clear. The last chapter, which sees an
unmotivated change of point of view, leaves a bitter taste in your mouth and,
instead of adding something to the book, impoverishes it. What a pity.
In spite of
that “ReEarth” is a novel characterized by a remarkable originality and bodes something
interesting for the future works by this author.
ReEarth
on Amazon.com.
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