The Immortality Thief by Taran Hunt

 

 

Book: The Immortality Thief (The Kystrom Chronicles #1)

 Author: Taran Hunt

608 pages

Expected Pub. Date October 11 2022

Publisher: Solaris

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Immortality Thief is a ridiculously fun, fast paced, seat-of-your-pants read full of treasure hunts, traps, deadly enemies, betrayal, secrets, mysterious aliens, adventure and action as the story races to the find the secret to immortality.

Far off the edge of human existence, beside a dying star lies a nameless ship abandoned and hidden, lost for a millennium. But there are secrets there, terrible secrets that would change the fate of humanity, and eventually someone will come looking.

Refugee, criminal and linguist Sean Wren is made an offer he knows he can’t refuse: life in prison, “voluntary” military service – or salvaging data in a long-dead language from an abandoned ship filled with traps and monsters, just days before it’s destroyed in a supernova. Data connected to the Philosopher’s Stone experiments, into unlocking the secrets of immortality.

And he’s not the only one looking for the derelict ship. The Ministers, mysterious undying aliens that have ruled over humanity for centuries, want the data – as does The Republic, humanity’s last free government. And time is running out.

In the bowels of the derelict ship, surrounded by horrors and dead men, Sean slowly uncovers the truth of what happened on the ship, in its final days… and the terrible secret it’s hiding.

The Immortality Thief is Taran Hunt’s publishing debut and my goodness, it is one hell of a debut.
The story is not a particularly complicated one. Linguist Sean Wren is ever so slightly persuaded to go looking for something called the philosopher’s stone, which is a key component in the Republic’s fight against the inhuman Ministers, a long lived might be human, might not, race that currently rule humanity. Initially, they try to persuade him to undertake the task by offering to wipe his and his friend, Benny’s criminal record and also paying him lots of cash. Unfortunately, Sean has this little impish side that has to push, and they subsequently settle for putting a bomb in his and Benny’s head. They then send them to a long-lost space station type thingy that is hovering ever so closely next to an exploding supernova. Along with Benny and a member of the group that have ‘hired him’ they make their way there.
From here, as you can imagine, everything slightly goes pear shaped. In a race against time, because the planet is going to go full supernova in a matter of days,they realise that far from being abandoned for the last thousand years like they were told, the place has people, well a person, on it! And just to make the matters a little bit worse, a contingency of Ministers turn up to find exactly the same thing that Sean and the gang want. Oh! And there happens to be a ship full of monsters that either want to eat you or kill you, or maybe both!
Lots of things happen of things happen, but eventually Sean finds himself with the most unlikeliest of companions and the knowledge of where the Philosopher’s Stone is located on the small planet sized space station.
However, to get there, they have to navigate a space station full of mutants and monsters all intent on killing them. Not only that they will discover secrets along the way, not just about the nature of the station that they are on, but about themselves.
The Immortality Thief is one of those books that as soon as the it starts, it immediately decides that the fastest point from A to B is to run like hell. The plot moves along at a blistering pace revealing secrets like hidden doors so that you can catch your breath for a little minute.
The characters develop really well, and you find that it is not long before your allegiances change and you don’t know who your are rooting for.
The Immortality Thief is an enjoyable thrill ride of a book and if you like your sci – fi fast and explosive then get your mitts round this.