Reckoning Infinity

By John E. Stith

"It's early in the new millennium, and the outer reaches of our solar system have been explored. Vast orbital stations the size of middle-sized countries dot the system, filled with thriving colonies. Mankind has grown to fill the void and is poised to colonize the stars. The universe seems to be a stable, comfortable place—and the only voices to echo through space have been human.
Until now.
A fast-moving entity the size of a small moon has entered our solar system. Is it a ship? A new life form? An alien probe sent to destroy other sentient races?
Lieutenant Commander Alis Mary Nussem, disfigured in a devastating ship accident and now more machine than woman, agrees to go on the dangerous mission to investigate the object. She is eager to make a difference and somehow reclaim the humanity that she lost. What she doesn't bargain for is the sudden appearance of Lieutenant Karl Stanton, a man whose life seems to resemble Job's—and who was directly responsible for the accident that nearly killed her. These two very different people must work together on an odyssey that will force them to reevaluate their very lives. And what they find will change mankind's universe forever....

""Wondrous situations, marvelous discoveries, good characters, and a nicely tuned plot.""—Science Fiction Chronicle

""Highly recommended.""—Library Journal"

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wildside Press
• Release date: Dec 6, 2013
• ISBN: 9781479409457

Reviews for Reckoning Infinity

[macha_4 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

sigh. this is not worth the read: it's poorly written, the dialogue is stiff and artificial, the descriptions are boring, and the character's voices sound fake because they don't fit their profiles. what is amiss with TOR that it is publishing books of this calibre? it's a fair enough premise, and a good title. now somebody needs to write a decent book around it.

[bragan_8 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An SF novel about a group of people investigating a strange object that's entered the solar system, which might be a ship, or might be an organism, or might be both. But things get dangerous very quickly, and once they're in, it turns out not to be nearly as easy getting back out again.It's a decent enough example of this particular kind of SF novel. My biggest complaint about it is that the exploration isn't nearly as exciting and sense-of-wonder-infused as it really should be. There are some fairly suspenseful moments where the crew's survival is in danger, but far too much of the story involves crawling through endless, featureless tunnels, and while the artifact is interesting in an abstract kind of way, significant revelations about it are few and far between. I do, however, like the way the author pays attention to scientific details, particularly the realities of moving around in low gravity, without resorting to lots of clunky exposition or narrative-stopping physics lectures. And although the characterization is far from perfect -- one character who should be immediately sympathetic, for instance, comes across as far too self-pitying, and another who might be obnoxious in an entertaining way instead becomes annoyingly one-note -- at least there is a sincere attempt at characterization and everybody acts reasonably human, something that is by no means guaranteed in a hard SF story.