BOOK REVIEW | THE GANYMEDAN | R.T. ESTER

ABOUT THE BOOK

A dark science fiction debut examining agency and sacrifice through one man’s desperate attempt to reach home after he murders his tyrannical employer.

Verden Dotnet made an easy living mixing drinks for the creator of all sentient tech in the galaxy—until he decided to kill the creator. Now this man is dead, really dead, no cloud back-ups, and V-Dot is on the run, carrying a galaxy-shattering secret in his pocket. When he misses the last ship back to Ganymede, he convinces an old, outdated but still sentient cargo ship, TR-8901, to give him a lift.

But TR suspects that something is up—it is hearing rumours about his creator’s death, and the man who fled the scene. But TR is a dutiful ship, and will carry out its duties until proven otherwise…

REVIEW

Verden Dotnet has just murdered his boss. The most powerful man in the galaxy. The father of AI and the man responsible for taking humanity to the next level.  And now he lies dead. Poisoned by his professional mixologist.

Now, Verden needs to get home. He needs to give the proof of the reason he killed the most powerful man in the frontier. But he needs a ship. One that will take him to where he wants.

However, as an inhabitant of Ganymede, he has grown up distrusting the sentient machines and the only ship that will transport him is a sentient ship called TR – 8901.

As the two visit the different stations looking for Verden’s contacts, TR’s suspicion grows that the passenger that he is carrying is actually the galaxy’s most wanted man.

The Ganymedan is a taut sci fi thriller that follows the main protagonists across the galaxy as Verden tries to escape the people that are trying to capture him.

As we move through the story, snippets of information are given to the reader so that the mystery of why Verden actually killed his employer. However, in the meantime as we travel with Verden and TR, Ester builds the world and the characters. Verden, prior to this incident is a drifter, who after spending some time in the galaxy’s penal colony called The Island manages to land a job with LP (the aforementioned most powerful man in the world). We learn of how he came to be in LP’s employ through a series of flashbacks.

The ship, TR on the other hand is old and is contemplative. We learn that the first generation of sentient ships had a pact to kill themselves, but in the two centuries that TR has been sentient he has never actually gone through with this.

It is through TR that we learn about the world of the sentient machines. Their rise from mere mechanical servants to living beings with a religion and philosophy. It is in these moments that Ester explores some of the bigger concepts of the book, such as what it is like to be human.

Ester writes confidently and assuredly, never holding the hand of the reader, but instead throwing them into the world with very little explanation of the terms and slang that populates the book. This gives the reader a dynamic view of the background universe and how it is structured making it organic in its growth rather than dumping passages of information on the reader.

The Ganymedan is a great debut that is great for those who like their sci fi taut and deep.