Miles Cameron is the pen name of Christian Cameron, a Canadian novelist. He earned an honors BA in Medieval History from the University of Rochester in 1987. Following his studies, Cameron served as an air intelligence officer in the United States Navy, After his military career, Cameron transitioned to writing full-time. Under the pseudonym Miles Cameron, he is best known for his fantasy novels, including the “Traitor Son Cycle” series, which begins with “The Red Knight,” published in 2012. He has also authored the “Masters & Mages” series, starting with “Cold Iron” in 2018.
Out in the darkness of space, something is targeting the Greatships.
With their vast cargo holds and a crew that could fill a city, the Greatships are the lifeblood of human occupied space, transporting an unimaginable volume – and value – of goods from City, the greatest human orbital, all the way to Tradepoint at the other, to trade for xenoglas with an unknowable alien species.
It has always been Marca Nbaro’s dream to achieve the near-impossible: escape her upbringing and venture into space.
All it took, to make her way onto the crew of the Greatship Athens was thousands of hours in simulators, dedication, and pawning or selling every scrap of her old life in order to forge a new one. But though she’s made her way onboard with faked papers, leaving her old life – and scandals – behind isn’t so easy.
She may have just combined all the dangers of her former life, with all the perils of the new . . .
Gollancz
I was in York on a meetup with some great people from the BFS and while trying to stop myself from buying books one of the members told me (as I love Sci-Fi) that I needed to read Artifact Space. I was skeptical as I have waaaay too much to read currently and was trying to not get too much. But then she mentioned that the Greatships were shaped like swords…. swords! in space. I was intrigued. I came home and bought the eBook and despite having a list of books already planned out for the year I thought I would read a couple of chapters to see what I thought. That was that, I stopped reading my other books and just read this one.
It was hard to tell as I was reading electronically but this is a chunky book. Not that I noticed as I flew through it. The story follows an orphan Marca Mbaro who has come from a horrible place and managed to achieve her dream of joining the service and serving on one of the Greatships. Serving the DHC (Directorate of Human Corporations) as they follow the trade route to buy and sell Xenoglass a very sought-after material created by a mysterious alien race known as the Starfish. As her adventure starts and she is training she is soon found to be a quick study and “lucky”
It doesn’t take long to find out someone is doing something that hasn’t been done before. Destroying Greatships. She is quickly pulled into the mysterious and dangerous world of spying and merchanting. using her wits and skills to survive in an increasingly dangerous universe.
Cameron does a great job of explaining the technology without using too much science. The Greatships jump through Artifact Space along pre-planned routes and face dangers as the threat increases. I loved the duality of the rail guns, both for offense and launching the smaller fighters into space.
Artifact Space is full of engaging and well-crafted characters and the world-building is fantastic. Miles puts in the work to ensure that when reading this journey you are right there with her. It is clear in his writing that he was in the military and this enhances the story.
There’s not much else I can say without spoiling the book. So I will say if you like military-type Sci-Fi then get this book read. It was a fantastic story and it was a great recommendation.
My only annoyance was. As I have a library this is a book I would like to own so I was rather annoyed to find out there is no hardback that I could see for this book. Frustrating as I cannot wait until August to buy the paperback of the sequel Deep Black. So they are not going to match on the shelf… A readers nightmare.
The story continues with Deep Black which has recently been released. I will be getting to this soon having added it to my list of books to read for this year, as there is no way I can wait. I am also currently reading a collection
You can purchase Artifact Space from your local Bookshop supporting indie bookshops is important and something I am very in favor of. I like nothing more than to browse physical books. Or if you want you can shop at your local Waterstones, or online at Amazon
