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Singularity's Ring by Paul Melko
01/04/2008 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: TOR/SciFi Channel. 316 page hardback. Price: $24.95 (US) $27.95 (CAN). ISBN: 978-0-7653-1777-3. Buy Singularity's Ring in the USA - or Buy Singularity's Ring in the UK  check out website: www.tor-forge.com and www.sff.net/people/melko
The future is bleak for the mankind left on Earth as a large proportion of the population left for parts unknown a long time ago. In their wake, preparations are made to create a unique crew to pilot a spaceship to locate them. To this end, sets of humans are bio-engineered. Sets being the operative word as with them being equiped with phermone glands, pod or groups of people can function without verbal communication. Each member of the team has their own speciality but a concensus has to be reached in their connected action.
The Apollo Papadopulos pod we watch is unique as we discover later as a quintet. After surviving an avalanche and rescuing part of another team, we follow their adventures as they face off against an adversary out to stop their growing up and prep for the mission. Saying anything beyond that really gets into the spoiler zone with the plot as they have to sort out conspiracy and such.
This story is told from multiple first person perspectives. Considering how the Apollo Papadopulos pod works this is a useful perspective even if it isn't always clear who is which when doing the switch between them and other characters. It's just a shame when author Paul Melko uses characters outside of the pod they still have the same voice. It doesn't happen very often although you have to think who you're hearing the story from, especially as you can't distinguish between the sexes neither. Whether this is intentional or not is debatable but I think I would have been inclined to push harder to distinguish between them.
If you read about the story, you would suspect that it was heading into space yet the action is mostly Earth-bound and a lot of the back story can only be gleaned from the inside page. First person perspective won't show everything that is going on but such a narrow perspective can work against informing the reader of the general scenario of the story, especially when so little is really shown. As a first novel, it can be commended. A little more effort would have made this book a classic.
GF Willmetts
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