Exploration of Space and Colonization are two of my most cherished aspects of Science Fiction. So a novel that mostly is set on a Generation Ship two and a half centuries old, headed for a star system twelve light years distant, where there awaits a tremendous surprise....how could I not adore it? Plus: there's a significant cult whose leader is way charismatic but justifiably more insane than either Jim Jones or David Koresh or the Heaven's Gate cult? The suspense is tremendous, a fair-sized cast of characters is handled quite skillfully, and in first place stands a genuine Feckless Hero [who could model for The Fool card in Tarot], but he's really admirable because he just-won't-stop. (He is, also, the habitat Chief Constable.) A really Champion novel!

The first novel in Tomlinson's Children of a Dead Earth series.
An interesting science fiction story featuring a "generation-ship", which has set out from a dying Earth in the hopes of finding a new home for the human race.

The main character, Bryan Benson, is interesting: he's a retired, revered sports hero, now working as a detective. I feel like I've read something similar to this (that is, a celebrity in one field, retired to become a detective) in a "traditional" crime novel, but it was pretty cool to see it used in a science fiction novel. Tomlinson does a very good job adapting the missing-person case to this setting. It's well-written, well-conceived, and engaging throughout.

I've read the second book in the series, TRIDENT'S FORGE, which I'll review very soon, too.