A Son of the Rock

Abbadon Books, 2013, 284 p.

This is the second novel set in Brown’s “Weird Space” universe. Den Harper, a telepath who has absconded from the authoritarian Expansion to trade among the spaceways of the much less regimented, almost lawless, Satan’s Reach, visits the planet Ajanta to sell a steamship engine. There he becomes embroiled with the fortunes of singer Zeela Antarivo whom he saves from a fate worse than death at the hands of the local aliens who enslave humans by means of a drug ubiquitous on Ajanta. The Ajantans regard Zeela as their property and thereafter chase the pair all across the Reach.

Meanwhile, bounty hunter Sharl Janaker is tasked by an Expansion General to return Harper to their employ in order to deal with the threat of the Weird, aliens whose lurking presence in human minds can only be uncovered by telepathy. She is accompanied by Helsh Kreller, one of the Expansion’s old enemies the Vetch, but now in alliance to counteract the Weird. Kreller has reasons of his own to recover the spaceship Harper stole when he absconded.

Spoiler alert! I thought the twist involving Kreller towards the end of the book didn’t quite square with the underlying narrative thrust of the two Weird Space books so far.

A lot of the adventures here are reminiscent of Brown’s stories of Salvageman Ed, which I read during the summer. Like that collection Satan’s Reach is not the most profound of Brown’s books. It’s good entertainment though.