ISBN:
0743300149
Publisher: CLOCKTOWER FICTION
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 Arrizida
Yokoi is a nineteen-year-old telepath assigned to the Implementation sabership
Haltija, whose historic mission to the lost colony world Lennon is the
first to reach that planet in 400 years. Zida and her crewmates discover
a civilization that has struggled to survive on a cold, metal-poor world
- and, perhaps, the secret of immortality. But someone aboard Haltija
doesn't want that secret returned to Earth - and will commit murder to
prevent it.
Before
she realizes it, Zida and the other offworlders find themselves swept
up into a conflict between Lennish states, in which escalating violence
leads to tragedy and madness. The only thing Zida can be sure of is that
she may never see Earth again…. |
"Fast-paced
and detailed, Blood Relations incorporates a multitude of threads
into the tapestry of its plot. Several science fiction conventions are
at work here, from first contact to sentient ships to telepaths, but A.L.
Sirois somehow makes it all work. Like the plotlines, a multitude of characters
proliferates in this story." - Karen L. Shibuya, Inscriptions
"If… this [review] sounds like cover copy to entice you
into buying Blood Relations, it is intentional. The book is that
good. Why it didn't appear from one of the mass-market houses is beyond
me. Maybe the wrong editor read it on a bad-coffee day... The story has
all the aspects we've come to expect from those so-called major houses
-- vivid characters, strong pacing, intriguing technology, twisty plotting.
Best of all, Blood Relations doesn't betray the characters by offering
them as a sacrifice to plot." - Rodger Turner, The SF Site
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As
a writer of science fiction, I think it’s satisfyingly appropriate
to have a available in a format that was itself science fiction until
very recently. The concept of the electronic book is something that’s
been around in sf novels for any number of years. Its advent nicely
rounds out a century that has seen some amazing technological breakthroughs.
Mass-market publishing didn’t really exist a hundred years ago.
It may not exist a hundred years from now, but one thing we know: people
love stories. That won’t change, so stories will always be available
in some form or another.
Blood
Relations, the story of an interstellar expedition to a world that
has lost contact with Earth for four centuries, is part of a much larger
conceptual piece of future history that I've been working on for many
years.
The idea
of a future history was pioneered by Olaf Stapledon in Last and First
Men, but it was Robert Heinlein, author of Stranger in a Strange
Land, who really beganmining the concept back in the Forties. Much
of his fiction fits into an over-view of human history reaching into
the far future. It’s a way of dealing with human interactions on
a broad scale -- plus it allows a writer to occasionally use the same
characters in different books and stories. Isaac Asimov did some of
this, too, in his Foundation series.
The main
characters of Blood Relations are Neil B, the captain of the
starship, and Arrizida “Zida” Yokoi, a young telepath assigned
to the ship. Zida, an orphan since infancy, comes from a world named
Hotei. Neil is a native of Hoagland, a huge orbital colony circling
Earth.
Once Neil
and his crew reach their destination, they find a colorful civilization
that has struggled to survive on a world almost devoid of metals, inhabited
by odd creatures and pummeled by terrible storms. Zida eventually finds
herself at the center of an incredible discovery: the Lennish are harboring
a strange and wonderful secret that may well affect the entire course
of human destiny.
I know Zida
well, having had her inside my head for almost thirty years. I have
other books and stories mapped out for her. Zida's adventures will eventually
take her to the very core of the galaxy and thousands of years into
the future, where she will confront a terrifying menace that has been
preying on humans since long before she was born.
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