Horizon by Keith Stevenson

First published in Australia in 2014; published by Voyager Impulse (HarperCollins) on November 1, 2014

A crew on a deep space mission to a planet called Horizon is awakened early -- except for the dead one and the one who is in a coma. The ship's Artificial Intelligence is offline. The woman in a coma is actually a transhuman who, upon awakening, is aware that a dangerous message, purportedly from launch control, is awaiting delivery to the AI. The political situation on Earth has changed while the crew has slept, leading to a change in the mission -- assuming the crew is willing to follow the new orders.

Some of Horizon is a traditional murder mystery. After another death, the reader is asked to join the captain in guessing who is at fault. Is the transhuman sabotaging the mission? Is the AI at fault, and if so, did the AI (which seems to have some serious mental health issues) become malicious on its own or has someone tampered with its programming? Is one of the other feisty crew members sabotaging the mission or just killing for sport? It is difficult for the captain to know which crew members to trust, but it is even more difficult to understand the true agenda of the people who now run Launch Command.

As I was reading Horizon, I kept thinking "this would make a good movie," probably because the plot is similar to hybrid sf/mystery movies I've seen. The novel's elements are all familiar but they are arranged cleverly. Keith Stevenson's integration of transhumans, posthumans, and aliens -- all of whom might or might not be in conflict with plain old humans -- pushed the right buttons for me. Alliances are constantly shifting as characters reevaluate the agendas and trustworthiness of other individuals. The story is smart, the characters are well-drawn, and the plot is engaging despite its familiar background.

Horizon has no padding or wasted words. The pace is brisk and while the ending seems hurried, it satisfied me. This is a small story that tries to be a big story and doesn't quite reach those heights, but it works well as the story of a small group of people encountering the unknown while dealing with political forces that they know too well. As a debut novel, Horizon is a solid effort.

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