After a five year sabbatical following the tragic death of his wife and fellow agent Alysha, Keon Rause returns to the distant colony world of Magenta to resume service with the Magentan Intelligence Service. With him he brings an artificial recreation of his wife’s personality, a simulacrum built from every digital trace she left behind. She has been constructed with one purpose – to discover the truth behind her own death – but Keon’s relationship with her has grown into something more, something frighteningly dependent, something that verges on love.
Cashing in old favours, Keon uses his return to the Service to take on a series of cases that allow him and the artificial Alysha to piece together his wife’s last days. His investigations lead him inexorably along the same paths Alysha followed five years earlier, to a sinister and deadly group with an unhealthy fascination for the unknowable alien Masters; but as the wider world of Magenta is threatened with an imminent crisis, Keon finds himself in a dilemma: do his duty and stand with his team to expose a villainous crime, or sacrifice them all for the truth about his wife?
Cashing in old favours, Keon uses his return to the Service to take on a series of cases that allow him and the artificial Alysha to piece together his wife’s last days. His investigations lead him inexorably along the same paths Alysha followed five years earlier, to a sinister and deadly group with an unhealthy fascination for the unknowable alien Masters; but as the wider world of Magenta is threatened with an imminent crisis, Keon finds himself in a dilemma: do his duty and stand with his team to expose a villainous crime, or sacrifice them all for the truth about his wife?
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Reviews
A perfect example of what I like to read
Crime noir in the style of Blade Runner.
Immersive SF, full of world-building detail, with a twisted love story at its heart.
It reminded me... of Peter F Hamilton's work... I thoroughly enjoyed it and with two more sequels due, it's a solid and promising start.
All the rigour of a tightly plotted classic crime story with all the technicolour thrills of SF at its most gaudy. Wonderful.
Peters has created a masterpiece here with his eloquent writing and fascinating characters.
Interesting and powerful
It's easy to see why FROM DARKEST SKIES has already been optioned for TV, what with its cinematic action and fast-paced plot, but the real strength lies in the humanity of its characters.
Peters' convincing
world-building and a tense plot mean
that this is a debut destined to make
waves.
Fast and fluid, compelling and above all thoroughly enjoyable.
Not only a gripping SF crime thriller but a moving investigation into the limitations and capabilities of artificial intelligence.
A masterly piece of writing and plotting that manages to merge classy space-opera with a police procedural as twisty as a Christie
A first class SF thriller. Even though Peters wrapped up the case, I still wanted to know more about the universe of Magenta.
