Silence of the Stars
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James Enoch is supposed to be dead. Last he knew, his illustrious archaeology career had ended, along with his life, in the fiery climax of a botched excavation. Chief Engineer Lania Surkov, on the other hand, is a disgraced planetologist with no desire beyond restoring her prior standing with the Terran Coalition and returning to Earth. Thawed from cryo-sleep after a century-long journey, these unlikely candidates find themselves tasked with a dangerous mission six lightyears from home.
The planet they land on, Cambridge II, is supposed to be a barren, lifeless wasteland. However, they are shocked to find that there is a successful, pre-Coalition human colony already thriving planetside, enabled by the enigmatic functions of an alien terraforming device. Tensions boil over into outright hostility as Lania and James become the only things standing between humanity and full-scale interstellar war.
Praise for this book
An approachable Asimov
It is hard to have a story worth telling, a well composed story, and -- most challengingly -- a good ending to a book. Patrick checks off all those boxes.