The Ghosts of Triton - Ken Catran
Book 2 in 'The Solar Colonies.' Preceded by 'Doomfire on Venus.' Followed by 'Shadow of Phobos.'
A slightly obscure series from the '90s, the 'Solar Colonies' takes place in the "distant future" of (in this case) 2044, in which Earth has colonized Mars and the asteroids with genetically altered humans, tinted to have green, blue or red skin (depending on their home area). This immediately allows the series to explore issues of racism in a different context, at least in books 2 and 3 (which I have owned since I was young) - I haven't read book 1.
In this book, cadet Dexter (from Earth) has encountered some strange apparitions while remote mining on Triton (driving Android-like 'Copies' using a mental link from an orbit near Mars) on Triton. These apparitions resemble historical figures from Earth, although to begin with Dex doesn't recognise them as such. An accident involving the copies leads some of his co-workers to be severely injured, and - with his command quite sceptical of his tale - he is forced to travel in person to Triton to figure out what happened. The crew he is travelling with consists of two red-skinned 'Rockies' from the asteroid belt, and two Martians (one blue skinned, one green skinned), none of which trust each other all that much and all of whom distrust Dex. Asa, one of the Rockies, has even more reason to dislike Dex, as one of her close friends was among those injured in the accident.
Once this team arrive at Triton the mystery deepens, eventually taking quite an unexpected turn, with Dex and Asa being thrown into a strange and potentially life-threatening scenario. To say much more would be to spoil the reveals.
In exploring prejudices, this is an interesting book. In world-building this is also an interesting book. It also ends on a slightly melancholic note. And it was written by a New Zealand author.
Random.
But I like it.
Completed 18 January 2024.
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