Amid the Crowd of Stars

October 26, 2020
Leigh (A Rising Moon) puts an inventive spin on a familiar trope in this provocative tale of first contact set in the far future. Long before the novel’s start, a devastating meteor strike cut Earth off from other colonized worlds, forcing the now isolated colonists to biologically adapt to their adopted outposts. Now Earth starship Odysseus visits one such outpost, the planet Canis Lupus, for the first time. The crew finds a populace eager to visit the ancestral home world they never knew—but potentially harboring diseases lethal to earthlings. As Terran exobiologist Ichiko Aguilar explores the planet, she discovers a culture divided into Mainlander clans and the Inish: archipelago settlers whose bond with the arracht, a sentient aquatic species indigenous to Canis Lupus, represents first contact between humanity and extraterrestrial life. Leigh depicts the Lupusians as wonderfully earthy descendants of the British Isles, and his treatment of Ichiko’s friendship with the empathetic Inisher Saoirse ineluctably draws the reader into the story. Exploring big ideas about interplanetary travel, this finely crafted sci-fi saga is full of both surprises and charm.

January 1, 2021
In Leigh's latest (after A Rising Moon, 2018), Ichiko Aguilar is an archaeologist, sociologist, and exobiologist who travelled on the Odysseus to study the survival and subsequent evolution of humans on Canis Lupis. Abruptly abandoned as Earth dealt with the ramifications of a massive meteor strike, crew members of First and Second Base were forced to leave biological containment due to a lack of supplies from Earth. They became settlers on the planet with all the inherent difficulties, including new diseases and a need to domesticate local flora and fauna. Over the centuries, the Mullin and Craig clans established a home on the Inish archipelago, eventually resulting in a war with the mainland clans more than 200 Terran years ago. Saoirse Mullin, reluctant heir to the Mullin clan, is as eager to meet Ichiko and learn of Earth as Ichiko is to learn of the Inish. But both sides are withholding secrets that could lead to violent clashes between the Terrans and Lupusians. This exciting read explores real dangers and the resulting consequences humanity may encounter on new planets.

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