September 8, 2024: Theft Of Fire

At Imaginarium last month, I heard a couple of dozen quick pitches for "You should read this book!" I gave in to just one of them. I read the first chapter immediately, and hated the antagonist so much that I set the book down to finish later. (I didn't want her to have a redemption arc. I wanted her to go out the airlock.) When I finished the book, it was in one long sitting, and you know why? It's very good!
 
Theft of Fire is set in the fairly near future. Humanity made it to space, mostly out of desperation. The Asteroid Belt is being mined, and this story is about one of those miners and the worst day he ever had. Except things go downhill from there.
 
Devon Eriksen writes well and engagingly. There's no obvious comparison; I can't say "This is like so-and-so's work." He writes like Eriksen, and that's fine with me! From what I can see (he is an engineer, and I am not), the science is solid. But what matters more is that the characters are solid. I can well believe that these idiots are out there, yelling at each other when they ought to be . . . Well, read the story!
 
Or listen to it. There's a Kickstarter right now for an audiobook version, with a few days left to support. The story is told in first person present, so it has an immediacy that should lend itself well to audio.
 
Theft of Fire reaches a reasonable conclusion, but it is absolutely not the end of the story. Eriksen's working on a sequel now and plans two more.
 
Recommended!

-- Steve Jackson