A treasure hunter in a Mars colony discovers a potentially dangerous record of an ancient man’s mind in Franklin’s SF novel.

In the far future, Maggie Lebedev lives in a colony on Mars and is a “technomancer,” meaning she can repair and reactivate old technology. It’s a post-intergalactic war universe, and Mars and Earth are controlled by tharks, which are fearsome, murderous four-legged, two-armed creatures. Maggie and her crew come across an old shipwreck that contains a nuclear thermal rocket engine, which they can sell, and they also find a skull. It has a “brainstone” attached, which stores a recording of a person’s life. Intrigued, Maggie gets the interface working and finds it belonged to Lt. John Gray of the torchship Tereshkova. He was a Space Force pilot, but oddly there’s no mention of him in the records. So why the coverup? As Maggie connects to the brainstone and pores through his memories, a new threat emerges when a mysterious villain appears and tries to seize the artifact. Maggie learns that Gray’s ship can travel in hyperspace, a capability the tharks deny being possible. If she can resurrect Gray in another body, perhaps the two of them can restore Gray’s ship and permanently subvert the rule of the tharks. It won’t be an easy battle, as “the old lizards who run the United Colonies are not going to give up a single joule without a fight.” Franklin’s space drama is vast in scope and in its efforts to create a new world with all new life forms and language. The premise is irresistible, and the narrative’s alternating perspectives across very different time periods on the Mars colonies work well. The protagonists are attractive and relatable characters with loads of talents and capabilities. The complexities of the novel can be overwhelming at times, however, and the space-age lingo and ever-evolving plot points are cumbersome and slow the story’s momentum.

SF that delivers a complex world and compelling characters. – Kirkus Reviews