After a collision in space causes a fire on-board the Váli, the artificial intelligence (AI) wakes the crew from cryo-sleep, including Daisy, the ship’s technical officer. With six months still to go towards their destination, Daisy keeps herself busy by fixing up the ship, but it seems there is a lot more wrong than one little impact could have caused. As Daisy tries to patch things up, she becomes ever more aware of the inhumanity of the rest of the crew, as she seems to be one of only a few who are not cybernetically modified in some way. When an accident kills an un-enhanced human, and Daisy learns of a hidden cyborg on the ship, and the AI seems to watch her every move, Daisy begins to wonder if the ship and its crew can be trusted.
DAISY’S RUN by Scott Baron starts a little slow as the reader first meets the crew, learns about the disaster that forced their premature wake-up call, and wades through all the technical jargon, apparently necessary to ensure one realizes that this is a science fiction novel. However, once the setting and characters have been established, just after the 40% mark, the story picks up. From there onwards, as Daisy delves deeper into the conspiracy, the novel speeds up and the reader is left wondering if the narrator is reliable and what the truth behind the crew’s actions really mean. The surprising reveal leaves one eager to continue with the rest of the CLOCKWORK CHIMERA series.
With the exception of the protagonist, most of the characters are paper-thin, an issue that will probably be rectified as we get to know them better in subsequent installments. The author makes use of close third person narration, which does sometimes stray into omniscient third person with a few authorial comments thrown in to create suspense, but tends to distract and suspend immersion. Otherwise, the novel is well-written, the plot is interesting and the setting is believable. There are some sex scenes, violence and swearing, with a few subtle references to ’80s and ’90s space movies, which will appeal to more mature readers.
For fans of science fiction, DAISY’S RUN will deliver an intriguing escape into a distant dystopian future that is sure to get the adrenaline pumping.
~ Suneé Jones for IndieReader