Dark Orbit

May 4, 2015
When a new planet is discovered, 58 light years away from the Twenty Planets, exoethnologist Sara Callicot is one of the scientists sent to explore it. She’s also secretly assigned to protect Thora Lassiter, a mystic who was involved in unrest on the planet Orem. When their ship reaches the planet Iris, they find it surrounded by dark matter. Soon a member of the crew dies, Thora disappears, and the scientists find a civilization in the heart of the planet that challenges their preconceptions. Gilman (The Ice Owl) incorporates intriguing ideas about interplanetary travel, gender roles, mental health, and the senses, but the overall effect is a jumble that doesn’t know what it is trying to say. The story jumps from espionage to murder to first contact to philosophy at dizzying speeds, without resting anywhere long enough to come to any conclusions. The one exception is the charming portrayal of a civilization of the blind, which showcases Gilman’s talent for description and character. Agent: Gary Heidt, Signature Literary.

Starred review from May 15, 2015
A gripping story in which travelers to a distant world grapple with new people, new ideas, and ancient obsessions. Saraswati Callicot is a Waster-a scientist who spends her life traveling light-years from home to explore new worlds, leaping across decades in an instant, stepping in and out of the flow of ordinary human time. Her latest mission is her farthest, and strangest, trip yet: she's traveled 58 light-years to explore a new planet surrounded by dark matter and secretly observe her crewmate Thora Lassiter, a member of the interplanetary elite who was embroiled in a religious uprising on the planet Orem. But when Sara, Thora, and their colleagues arrive in orbit around the planet known as Iris, nothing is as it seems-not the uninhabited, light-filled plane, not the bizarre, bewildering phenomenon they come to call a forest, not even the brutal murder of one of the crew. Like the best science fiction, this book raises cosmic questions about how the human mind grapples with something totally new and how we can be sure we know anything-even, or especially, ourselves. But those questions are woven into a tight, mystery-driven narrative whose pace never flags. Gilman (Ison of the Isles, 2012, etc.) has created a breathtakingly strange new world, and she's populated it with vivid, compelling characters. A thoroughly engrossing story with a fast-paced plot, memorable characters, and big ideas, this book is science fiction at its very best.

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July 1, 2015

Exoethnologist Sara Callicot is a waster, a traveler by light beam to distant space, unable to maintain normal relationships with other humans because she ages decades during each of her missions. When a questship reports discovery of a planet that may support life, Sara is recruited to go, not just as a scientist but to watch secretly Thora Lassiter, a mission member with a history of instability and the daughter of a powerful man. Arriving on questship Escher, Sara finds a welter of problems: philosophically opposed crewmates, hints of espionage, a maze-like habitat, and the beautiful but hostile surface on planet Torobe. Complications thicken with a shipboard murder, Thora's disappearance, and the unexpected discovery of alien residents. VERDICT Blending mystery, philosophy, and science gracefully in a twisty plot, Gilman (Ison of the Isles) has written a challenging but ultimately satisfying space adventure that explores how the most basic preconceptions can distort our outlook. It's a winner for any sf fan, of special appeal to those with interests in epistemology, ethics, or physics.--Neil Hollands, Williamsburg Regional Lib., VA

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