One hundred thousand colonists can’t disappear. No bodies. No evidence of an attack. Just gone. On what should have been a routine cargo run to the far edge of the Coalition, Captain Ethan Walker is carrying a payload of medical technology and two passengers returning home to Starlight Colony. When they arrive, they discover that everyone on the planet is missing. The company he works for wants … company he works for wants him to leave immediately, but he’s obligated to report to FleetCom that the entire population has vanished. Captain MacKenna of the Magellan, tells him stay put until they can arrive to begin an official investigation.
Caught between his legal responsibilities and the need to know what happened, Walker has to resist increasing pressure to defy orders. Unfortunately, his passengers make a decision that forces him into doing the one thing he can’t do.
Captain Walker must risk his ship and crew to return to the surface even though it may ultimately cost him everything.
Get the exciting opening book to the new Wings of Earth series.
more
Eric Michael Craig is a hard sci-fi author who caught my attention with his Atlas and the Winds and Shan Takhu Legacy series, both of which are gems in the genre. Therefore, I knew what to expect going into the Wings of Earth series, and yet Craig still managed to surprise me.
His previous books focused on deep conceptual dives, from the political chaos of a planet-killing asteroid to the humanity-defining event of discovering alien technology. They have all been compelling reads that feature Craig’s signature weight and tone. In addition, the science is always sound and the wit is always sharp.
This portrait also applies to Echoes of Starlight, but with one major twist. In lieu of a major ensemble cast interacting through a complex dance, this story focuses on the decisions of a single character. Given the author’s penchant for weaving intricate narratives, one would think that this approach would lock his creative gears. Far from it. While reading this book, I got the distinct impression that Craig was having fun.
Ethan Walker is the captain of the Olympus Dawn, a cargo freighter on its way to deliver medical supplies to the Starlight colony planet. When he arrives at the system, all coms have been lost and he needs to figure out why. One ill-advised decision after another leads him and his crew to the planet surface, a hostile environment that would love nothing more than to melt the flesh from their bones.
Walker is not a reckless character, mind you. His decisions are informed by a do-good attitude, which earns him plenty of cred with the reader. It just so happens that his judgments cascade into very bad situation. Before long, a mysterious illness adds to the stress of a cryptic cargo, which adds to the stress of restless passengers, which adds to the stress of a hard-line boss, which adds to the stress of having no idea what the hell is going on with the colony. He gets pushed to the mental brink, and we feel every inch of his pain.
And then a shuttle disappears, which tosses the proverbial **** into the fan. (Anything from here would be spoiler territory, so I’ll leave it at that.)
Unlike Craig’s previous works, this is a centralized story about personal choices. There are no epic space battles or clashing armies. Craig throws the reader into the cockpit of a modest freighter and lets the main characters reveal themselves through the consequences of their actions. They don’t start wars, but they do annoy superiors and put their jobs in jeopardy. You know, regular folk stuff (in space).
Echoes of Starlight is a really fun read and a great launching point into the Wings of Earth series (which shares a tie-in to the Shan Takhu Legacy). The tale continues with Dust of the Deep, which I will happily dive into next. I highly recommend this book and strongly suspect that Craig has another gripping saga on his hands.
Echoes of Starlight is the first book in a new series by Eric Michael Craig. The Wings of Earth series is set in the same universe as the Shan Takhu Legacy series, but is set about a hundred years after the events of that series. Captain Ethan Walker is the captain and lease holder on the Olympus Dawn, an ordinary cargo freighter. He is a man trying to do a simple job – deliver his cargo of material and passengers to Starlight, a planet in the Kepler 186 system. But things quickly go sideways for Captain Walker and his crew as the navigation beacon for the Starlight colony is offline. When they arrive at the planet they cannot reach anybody on the colony and find no signs of life. Captain Walker must make some critical decisions as he and his crew struggle not only with the mystery of a missing colony, but also the strict rules for handling cargo. As Walker is forced into making decisions that violate his contract, he risks ending his career to find out what has happened on Starlight.
Echoes of Starlight really should have been subtitled “Captain Walker and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Delivery”. From the beginning Walker is put into a very tenuous position as the captain of a cargo vessel. His responsibility is to his crew and cargo – especially the cargo, as his Cargo Compliance Controller (Triple C) Leigh Salazar constantly reminds him. In fact, the Triple C has the power to remove Walker from his position as Captain if he violates company policy. So as the simple mission of delivering the cargo and passengers goes awry Walker’s life, and his career, quickly spiral out of control. I really loved this story for the contradictions it presents. Walker’s mission is simple – on the surface not anything to write home about – but it quickly becomes very complex with lives and careers on the line and how he handles everything really defines his character. You get to know him and the reasons for his decisions (right or wrong) and this makes Walker become a character you care about and root for. I could easily relate to his situation, and I would have struggled with the choices he had to make, and that makes for a compelling story. Per usual with Eric’s stories there is no “bad guy” and nobody is doing anything out of malice or for “evil” purposes. It is just people doing their jobs as they best feel they can do them; how they react when the ordinary becomes extraordinary and the rules no longer apply defines their character and makes for an exciting, character-driven story.
I highly recommend Echoes of Starlight. While there is almost no action (no thrilling space combat or alien encounters) Captain Walker’s story, and the events that play out in the book, make for great reading and stand up to the best science fiction out there. Eric Michael Craig has delivered an outstanding character-driven story that pulls you in and makes you care about what happens when ordinary people are forced into extraordinary situations.