Space Pilot Conor Grant
Todd Templeman, 2012
Logic Factory
446 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780988297500
Summary
Space is lovely, dark, and deep, but he has promises to keep ....
In a future that embraces humanity's desire to explore and exploit the Solar System, raiding pirates have managed to hide their enormous strange base somewhere inside it. Space Pilot, Connor Grant, is about to learn just how immense it can be out there. Even in the age of metadrives, rescuing a friend lost in the Outer System is no easier than finding a coin tossed in the ocean.
And while pilots enjoy visiting the great cities of the Inner System, as engineers continue upgrading their ships with fantastic inventions, everybody will find out soon enough that someone tougher than pirates has been hunting in the Asteroid Belt. (From the book cover.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1970
• Where—Seattle, Washington, USA
• Education—B.A., University of California, Berkeley
• Awards—CODIE Award (computer games industry award)
• Currently—currently lives in California
Born in Seattle, WA in 1970, Templeman spent his childhood moving around the world as his parents chased one adventure after another. From his family's American-style pizza franchise—the first of its kind in Australia—to the oil business in Dallas, Texas, to owning Kentucky Derby co-favorite, Total Departure (1982), Templeman learned that the key ingredient to making any dream happen is belief.
Templeman has worked in the computer games industry, specializing in sci-fi games for seventeen years. He produced the game, "Ascendancy," first released in 1996, which won the CODIE Award for Best Strategy Software, and is now on the iTunes App Store, where it has been featured globally as a Staff Favorite. Before that he attended UC Berkeley, majoring in English. He lives with his family in California.
Templeman began work on SPCG with his seven year old son, as they told stories together about space. He finished the first book in the series when his son was fifteen, and readers will see the characters in the book mature throughout. No—the author having fully succumbed to the writing bug—Book Two in the "Space Pilot" series is in progress, and will be on the shelves soon. The first four chapters of Book Two, Sheyn's Retreat are included in the current edition of Space Pilot Connor Grant as an excerpt at the end. (From the author.)
Book Reviews
(See Amazon for additional customer reviews.)
The characters are well developed and the plot does keep you interested to the very end.
Robert
Waiting impatiently for the next book.
Steve Kile
Here is another excellent addition to the science fiction genre.
E. Duffield
Discussion Questions
1. If you could have the chance to live in a metropolis on Mars, what would most attract you to making the move?
2. If you found yourself living further out in the Solar System, where the law cannot yet reach, what things would you try to do to keep yourself reasonably secure?
3. In spite of the viciousness of Dav Sheyn, do you share any of his frustrations with what he claims is a ubiquitous injustice in modern civilization?
4. SPOILER ALERT: What would be your reaction if you suddenly discovered that humanity had created an entirely new species of terrifying creature, based on manipulating the human genome. Would these creatures, created by man, be born with natural rights?
5. If you could equip your own spaceship, can you think of any gadgets, gizmos, or features you wish you could have that you've never heard of before?
6. What do you think would happen to you if you went to the authorities with absolute proof in-hand that you had discovered a hostile alien species?
7. In an age where practically anything can be faked, whether audio, video, or written on the page, do you think something like the Notary Corps will be necessary in the near future?
8. If technology advanced to the point where individuals could reasonably protect themselves and their children against aggressors, do you think it would be possible—somewhere—for a human society to prosper in the total absence of rules?
(Questions provided by author.)