The second in Sara Creasy's debut series (after Song of
Scarabaeus) plunges the reader into danger from the
first page. Edie Sha'nim is dying, dependent on injections
of rare neuroxin, poisonous to most humans, to keep
functioning. Her particular cybertech skill set of working
intimately with living building blocks as worlds are
transformed makes her most valuable to the crushing might of
the Crib, the government ruling over most of the central
planets. She and her bodyguard and potential lover Finn are
determined to use her skills to free those worlds on the
Fringe who are falling one-by-one under the control of the
central government, and losing their freedom.
A chance discovery changes Edie's goals when she realizes
she is no longer the only cybertech from her homeworld, in
fact Crib has sunk to even lower depths, taking children
from her home planet and raising them as cybertechs, without
any recourse to any other life. How can she leave them
trapped in the life she once escaped and live with herself?
No matter the cost to the Fringe, she must try to free them.
CHILDREN OF SCARABAEUS picks up where Song of
Scarabaeus left off, and ties the second book back into
the fate of the planet Scarabaeus as well as broadening the
impact on the rest of Sara Creasy's universe. The first book
in her series, Creasy's debut novel, was nominated for an
Aurealis Award for Best SF Novel. I was pleased to discover
a tightly-plotted science fiction series with emphasis on
cyber skills as they meld with biological forms. The
speculative threads of science projected onto a future
universe ring true without obscuring the human story driven
by the main characters but the storyline, despite scenes of
emotional power, never veers too far from the core framework
of speculative fiction. Creasy is a terrific addition to the
ranks of authors such as Heinlein, Asimov and Bujold.
The crib is everywhere . . . Edie Sha'nim believes she and
her bodyguard lover, Finn, could find refuge from the
tyranny of the Crib empire by fleeing to the Fringe worlds.
But Edie's extraordinary cypherteck ability to manipulate
the ecology of evolving planets makes her far too valuable
for the empire to lose. Recaptured and forced to
cooperate—or else she will watch Finn die—Edie is shocked to
discover the Crib's new breed of cypherteck: children. She
cannot stand by while the oppressors enslave the innocent,
nor can she resist the lure of Scarabaeus, the first world
she tried to save, when researchers discover what appears to
be an evolving intelligence. But escape—for Edie, for Finn,
and for the exploited young—will require the ultimate
sacrifice . . . and a shocking act of rebellion.
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