Blind Angels

by Terry Madden

Camber Maypole was human once, an avid climber and chief medical officer aboard the launch crew of the Vera Rubin, a colony ship headed for a distant planet. But the day before launch, she was scrubbed from the mission for "insubordination." Against her will, her consciousness was digitized and sent through space to a distant moon in a distant star system. Varanasi.

Centuries later, the AI controlled Vera Rubin approaches its destination. Aboard the ship, Seraph Stone, down-on-his-luck farmer, father, and alcoholic, receives a message from a long-dead member of the original crew. He’s told to contact Camber Maypole, who waits for their arrival with thousands of immortal exiles like her, lost in a digital paradise. The message warns of a cabal of digitized minds who threaten the lives of the arriving colonists, if they even make it that far. Starvation, political division, and a cult of extremists threaten to tear the ship apart from the inside. Faced with a choice between his family and humanity, Seraph is determined to save them both but risks losing it all.

As Maypole turns from her role as doctor to warrior, she begins to understand why she was sent to Varanasi and that there is more to being human than your hardware.

For fans of Altered Carbon and Snow Crash.

354 pages, Paperback

Published October 8, 2024

Reviews

[Maureen]

What a rush this was! There are quite a few characters to follow, but they all are very well-written and not difficult to keep track of. The chapter designations help immensely with this. I'm not a 'technical' sci-fi reader and as such, I found this book to be just enough in technicality and computer stuff. I love that there was no jargon except the colonists' swear words, which are similar enough to the 20th century to be familiar but different enough that you feel the passage of time.

I absolutely love the plot and the timeline made complete sense, with the generation ship headed off to a new world to escape the humanity-ending plague of the 22nd century. (Or 21st? Dates don't stick in my head apparently.) Some peoples' consciousnesses were beamed ahead to set up the new colony, where after 200+ years, they found the virtual world to be better and more real than the actual world. In Virtual, they occupy avatars and can feel, touch, taste, and smell. In The Real, they occupy androids, which don't include any connection to the senses except sight and hearing. See? Boring. And of course, there's an evil faction that has been planning bad things since before the Vera Rubin left Earth's orbit.
These characters are really great and the world building is wonderful. I think this would make a phenomenal movie!

[Suzy Olear]

This is the first book I read by Terry. And boy was it a non-stop action thrill ride of fantasy meets sci-fi meets cyberpunk. The characters are all intriguing and interesting individuals, and I enjoyed the fast paced action on every page of this book. Start to finish it grabs you and won't let you go until you're finished reading. A fast paced action thriller full of mystery, fantasy, love, loss and unexpected turns. I am so excited for what's to come next. I hope you all read this book and enjoy it as much as I did!!! Terry is a masterful storyteller, and I cannot wait for what she has next in store.

[YumeNouveau]

Fast, intriguing and highly entertaining read, love a good sci fi with modern twists that make me think about consciousness and our souls! So caught up in this world and the flawed but relatable characters and can’t wait for more of this series!