Blood Orbit

Fiction
Crime that’s out of this world

BLOOD ORBIT

A Gattis File Novel

By K.R. Richardson

495 pp. Pyr

Reviewed by Eric Petersen

Author K.R. Richardson (actually Kat Richardson writing under a not-so-secret pseudonym) offers the first in what promises to be an intriguing series that blends police procedural, crime noir, and thought-provoking science fiction. In the distant future, the exotic, corporate owned planet Gattis serves as a tourist haven where vice drives the economy.

The corporation that owns Gattis promised the two native, human-like races that live on the planet, the Dreihleen (who have yellow skin) and the Ohba (who have blue skin), prosperity and the good life that comes with it. Instead, both races have felt oppressed and disenfranchised for generations.

Unfortunately, they hate each other more than the corporation, and the corporate leaders are experts at stoking racial tensions and using them to keep both races down. The Dreihleen have it the worst; while they’re largely confined in ghettoes, with many forced to turn to crime to make a living, the Ohba have it much better – but not nearly as good as the rich and powerful non-native families who live on Gattis.

Angra Destrelas, the thoroughly corrupt capital city “where you can get anything, be anything, do anything if you know the right people or have enough money” is the last place that young rookie cop Eric Matheson, fresh out of the academy, hoped to end up.

An idealist, he became a cop to get away from his rich and powerful family whom he loathes, and to do some good. He doesn’t want to be assigned as a company cop who protects and serves corporate interests instead of the people. On the job for less than a month, Matheson gets a chance to serve justice when he and his training officer stumble onto a horrific crime scene.

They find the bodies of sixteen people, all of them Dreihleen, executed in cold blood in a jasso (illegal gambling club)  – apparently by a killer who is Ohba, which places the corporation in a precarious position, as a race war would be bad for business. Very bad.

When Matheson’s superior is injured, CIFO (Chief Investigating Forensic Officer) Inspector J.P. Dillal is given the case, and Matheson is appointed his assistant. The corporation wants the case closed quickly and the mass murder blamed on militant gang violence, but Inspector Dillal is only interested in justice.

Dillal isn’t like most of the corrupt cops on Gattis – he’s a cyborg. He volunteered to be the guinea pig in an experiment to surgically install cybernetic technology in a living body – technology that gives him the ability to process forensic evidence at the scene of a crime, then upload the resulting data to the department’s computers later.

Being half-machine, he’s considered a freak, but he couldn’t care less. Born of mixed race (he’s half Dreihleen and half Ohba) and hated by both races, he was already a pariah on Gattis. Still in recovery from his cybernetic implant surgeries, the doctor gives him a stern warning that if he pushes himself too hard, the implants could fail, resulting in his death.

As he and Matheson begin their meticulous investigation, Dillal knows how high the stakes are. With the planet on the verge of a race war and a corrupt corporation determined to protect its interests at any cost, their lives are on the line – whether they bring a brutal killer to justice or not.

As they journey through the dark underbelly of Angra Destrelas, the case becomes more and more complex – especially when Matheson falls in love with a beautiful Dreihleen girl who may not be what she seems. But then, Inspector J.P. Dillal may not be what he seems, either…

With its dazzling prose, unusual setting, elements of mystery and noir, and thought provoking commentary on the insidious nature of racism and the so-called revolutionaries who would exploit it for their own ends, Blood Orbit is an intriguing work of science fiction that should please both sci-fi and mystery fans. That said, it has its flaws.

Author K.R. Richardson does a fantastic job in building her distant world and the character and culture of its alien races, but the broken English they speak and the frequent explanations of what their accents sound like become tiresome quickly – in a novel that’s nearly 500 pages long.

Which brings me to the issue of pacing; the narrative moves briskly enough for the first half of the novel, then starts to drag seriously in the second. At least a hundred pages could and should have been cut in the editing process to tighten up the pace. In detail-rich science fiction, wordiness kills.

Despite these flaws, I recommend Blood Orbit to science fiction and mystery fans. Its protagonists are likable and their world compelling enough to carry a series. I’m certainly interested to see where the author goes with it.

Eric Petersen is an administrator and blogmaster for the Internet Writing Workshop, an international, online writer’s group run out of Penn State University. You can reach him by e-mail at EricPetersen1970@hotmail.com