Our planet is in ruins. Three hundred miles above its scarred surface orbits Outer Earth: a space station with a million souls on board. They are all that remain of the human race.
Darnell is the head of the station’s biotech lab. He’s also a man with dark secrets. And he has ambitions for Outer Earth that no one will see coming.
Prakesh is a scientist, and he has no idea what his boss Darnell is capable of. He’ll have to move fast if he doesn’t want to end up dead.
And then there’s Riley. She’s a tracer – a courier. For her, speed is everything. But with her latest cargo, she’s taken on more than she bargained for.
A chilling conspiracy connects them all.
The countdown has begun for Outer Earth – and for mankind.
Tracer is a *huge* amount of fun, a thrill ride of action-packed sci-fi that you don’t see too often. It’s set on a massive space station containing the remnants of the human race, a million souls crammed into an 18-mile long metal ring. It’s tense and claustrophobic, overcrowded and dirty out there in space, and you feel every bit of it.
The action comes thick and fast and frantic. Right from the start you’re along for the ride with Riley and the rest of the Devil Dancers, a crew of tracers – free-runner couriers who transport cargo around Outer Earth. Rob has a deft ability to put you slap-bang front and centre of the action as the crew move around the station and you get a real feel of tension as the story unfolds, with the viewpoint shifting from Riley to Darnell, Prakesh and the others.
I loved the characters and the setting. Riley is a fantastic kick-ass free-running heroine. Parkour in space – what’s not to like? Darnell is suitably evil as our bad guy and there are plans within plans within plans…
Tracer is due to be published by Orbit Books on 16th July 2015.
I highly recommend picking it up.
[Edit] Met up with Rob on his signing tour when he came to Leeds. He brought the sunshine with him, which was nice.
He also assures me that the follow-up to Tracer will be turned all the way up to 11…
espresso coco 