Starship Alchemon

Starship Alchemon is an entertaining read, and clearly, the author has delighted in all those little details that flesh out a novel to make it seem as 'realistic' as possible.
There is a palpable sense of futility for part of the novel that had me reading during the day, rather than at night, in order to get to the end and while the ending was somewhat drawn out, it was also both quite satisfying and a little bit frustrating.
That said, there were points that tested my interest and there were a large number of 'information dumps' that could possibly have been woven more neatly into the story. The characters could have been more fleshed out, but the backstory of the important ones was interesting and believable.
Overall, an entertaining and intriguing read.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my review copy.

89 points, 4 ½ stars

Starship Alchemon was a ton of fun. From beginning to end, I enjoyed myself. The story took time to play out, and even at the end I was surprised at what was going on. It is always more entertaining when I can't guess everything before it happens.

First off, the worldbuilding is well done. It took a little bit of time to put all the pieces together in the beginning, but that was okay. I was a bit worried about the list at the beginning of the book with all the various parts to the spaceship, but that turned out to mostly be a non-issue. Initialisms just aren't by forte and I'm glad I didn't have to keep going back and forth every time one came up. The elements of sci-fi that Hinz chose to include really worked well in the story.

There were also a lot of characters, and I liked them all. Each character had something about them that contributed to the story as a whole. Which is a lot easier to do when every one of the characters is stuck on the same spaceship traveling through space. It also helps when it is a small crew. Yet it was still really well done.

The characters:
- There is the strong psychic who is fighting off recurring nightmares, and may be tormenting the crew because of it.
- There is the captain who is in way over their head, but has to make the best of it if they're going to survive at all.
- There is the guy in charge of all the science experiments, who doesn't care about the fact they're in danger so long as they get to continue their experiments.
- Then, there is the guy who has started displaying signs of going crazy.
- Plus more very good characters who didn't have as much impact. 

Plus there is the lifeform that they retrieved from the planet. They don't know what it is. They don't know what it is doing. They don't know how to stop it from doing what they know it is doing. They don't know how the thing is doing it. And it is terrifying. It is messing with the ship, the thing they need to live. They can't fight back. It seems to have a goal, and even a personality, but they cannot communicate. There is no outside help. Everyone seems to be affected by it. Everything about this mysterious lifeform is terrifying. There is just this sense of crushing doom that works very well.

This is a book where things go from bad to worse. I really enjoyed reading it. I'm a bit surprised that I couldn't work out the end before it came. I like being surprised in a good way. The buildup to the ending was incredible. It didn't feel like it came from nowhere, it was very organic. It drew from the facts presented from the very beginning to create one wonderful ending. The whole book reminded me of one of my favourite Doctor Who episodes, which I never, ever thought to see in a book, so this was even more astounding for it.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Christopher Hinz, Angry Robot, and Netgalley for providing the opportunity to review this copy.

This novel follows the lives of nine explorers aboard the titular starship, Alchemon, as they are despatched to the distant world of Sycamore to investigate an “anomalous biosignature”. What they find on Sycamore, and the events that transpire as they attempt to return their find back to Earth, make for what ultimately turns out to be a frenetic, high-stakes space adventure.

The first half of the novel focuses on the ship’s arrival at Sycamore and the crew’s discovery there of an apparently alien organism which they christen Bouncy Blue. What’s even more intriguing is the second organism they identify inside Bouncy Blue, a second organism they call Baby Blue (they’re an original bunch, these explorers). After a brief discussion they bring the organisms back aboard Alchemon and begin their journey back to Earth, and that’s when the trouble begins. Crewmembers start to act irrationally, equipment starts to malfunction, and the AI that oversees the ship begins to fall apart.

The narrative does start off quite slowly, though I suspect that’s got a lot to do with the various character arcs and threads the author has woven into this story. All nine characters aboard the Alchemon have something major to contribute to the narrative, and Hinz juggles the character development between the nine of them really well. Each character gets their own share of the limelight and while a few do seem to get the lion’s share in the second half of the story, none of them seem superficial or are ignored in any meaningful way.

Of all the characters perhaps the most interesting is LeaMarsa de Host, the ship’s resident psychic. It’s fairly obvious from the start that she’s going to be an integral part of the overall story arc, though the way in which Hinz plays with reader expectations surrounding the character is superlative. Right from the beginning of the story we’re given this sense of her being as much a part of the ship’s problems as the alien creature, though there are little flashes of insight that suggest she might be an unwitting party to what’s going on.

The action really begins to take off in the second half of the novel, though there are still a few twists and turns to come. The tension gets racked up to ten quickly, and with it the narrative really begins to gain pace. The final act fairly flies by, with a few characters falling by the wayside, and while I’ll admit the resolution does carry a bit of a whiff of deus ex machina it still fits within the framework Hinz has laid down in the four-hundred pages leading up to that point.

Despite the slow start, I was surprisingly satisfied with the way this novel turned out, and will certainly be adding Hinz to my list of authors to take a closer look at. If you’re a fan of modern space opera or like to have a touch of mystery in your science fiction then I’d say give this one a try. Definitely worth four out of five stars in my estimation.

Honestly? What a birthday present this will be when I get the print copy!
I loved ti so much that I decided to go out and grab the print copy, and it's released around my birthday, so win.
A really enjoyable book - palpably tense and taught and well written - the author has given the science element as much thought as the fiction and though I had a very few minor niggles, I loved the whole book.

I received a copy of this book on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

4 3/4 stars

Starship Alchemon by Christopher Hinz 11/12/19 (Angry Robot)

In his foreword, Christopher Hinz cites a number of influences on his early, and now reworked space opera including A.E. Van Vogt and the Aliens movies. I hope he’s referring to Van Vogt’s Voyage of the Space Beagle, often cited as important source material for Alien, chest-burster and all. Alchenon is a research ship exploring the planet Sycamore when they discover a bloblike alien lifeform unlike anything else on the planet. Not only that, but there appears to be another lifeform inside it. Naturally, they take it on board before heading back to Earth. With a crew that includes a high functioning psionic with issues with just about everything, a first officer that may or may not be going insane, and an AI that can take control of the ship away from the humans anytime it decides they’re doing a bad job, what could go wrong? Yeah, pretty much everything.

The nine members of the crew of the Starship Alchemon are sent to investigate a mysterious anomaly on a distant planet. But the mission is far from straightforward and the crew are soon battling for their lives.

Starship Alchemon started life as Christopher Hinz’s 1980’s novel Anachronisms, but this version is not a simple rehash. It has an up-to-date feel and explores the characters in more depth, as well as tightening the whole worldbuilding experience.

Each of the crew has their own particular skill set, with some possessing extraordinary abilities, like the character LeaMarsa de Host’s powerful psionic qualities. But there is careful attention paid to giving each of the characters a significant role in the story.

The first half of the novel is slow, but the moment strange and ominous events begin to kick off, there is an “Alien” narrative in the sense of the crew just fighting to survive the escalating events.

Anachronisms could probably be thought of as being “of its time” however, put in the context of 1980’s science fiction, it still makes for an interesting read. Despite having been exposed to the novel in its first incarnation, I enjoyed this second outing, which can be thought of as having its own personality in terms of a new science fiction novel to read.

This is a sci-fi book according to my heart. It's entertaining, it makes you think and it keeps you hooked till the end.
I loved the well thought world building, the fleshed out cast of characters and the well crafted plot that kept me hooked till the end.
It's the first book I read by this author and won't surely be the last.
It was an excellent read, strongly recommended.
Many thanks to Angry Robots and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Indeed, if this type of adventure lights your fuses, then this offering comes highly recommended. The story is as cosily familiar as a cup of evening cocoa – a highly talented, but disruptive member of the crew that either clashes or attracts that fascinating-but-lethal thingy which has been brought aboard for further research, despite the foreboding of senior crew members.

The story was a bit slow to get going, as Hinz writes on the harder side of the sci fi spectrum, so there is a fair bit of tech stuff to get through. It seemed enjoyably plausible, though I did find, in common with many books within this sub-genre, that the characterisation suffered. So no one is written in much depth and as a consequence, I didn’t really care all that much for anyone. However, as the stakes went on rising, that became beside the point, anyhow as there were deaths amongst the crew that took me by surprise.

The pace certainly picked up as the story wore on and by the final quarter, it became difficult to put down as I was keen to discover how this one was going to end. I really couldn’t predict exactly which way this one was going. Hinz’s experience showed in his deft handling of the denouement – the snag with raising the stakes, is that the payoff needs to be sufficiently satisfying so that the conclusion doesn’t fall flat. It didn’t.

All in all, this was a classic sci fi alien encounter with plenty going on, and if lacked something in originality and character depth, it made up for it in the steadily rising tension and successful ending. Recommended for those who enjoy their sci fi from the golden era. The ebook arc copy of Starship Alchemon was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest opinion of the book.
7/10

What an impressive amount of worldbuilding "Starship Alchemon" has! It was quite mind blowing how much detail the author put into creating this futuristic world. It was a little overwhelming at first and hard to wrap my mind around, but once the book fell into stride around the 25% mark it all started falling in place.

It did take several chapters for me to get into the narrative, but once I did I couldn't stop reading it. So don't let the slow initial chapters turn you off- it eventually picks up and is pretty much non-stop action from that point. There's a lot of backstory and set up required for this detailed of a story so the pace of the beginning of the book is understandable.

There is a lot of intrigue and mystery woven throughout this tale, leaving me continually second guessing the characters and their place within Hinz's world. There was so much ambiguity with many of them and it took me awhile to connect with the majority of them, but I think that added to the general mysterious air the book has.

The ending was a little lackluster, but it honestly fit well overall with the tone of the novel. As far as hard science fiction goes, "Starship Alchemon" definitely hits the mark.

Thank you so much to Angry Robot via NetGalley for the eARC of Starship Alchemon in exchange for an honest review!

Synopsis omitted for netgalley

Starship Alchemon throws a pretty interesting crew of characters together on a research mission to investigate a bacteria growing on a distant planet where there shouldn't be life forms. One thing leads to another and they are battling a disastrously powerful life form trying to get home alive.

Let me start with the characters: the ship is guided by an AI enhanced human named Jonomy, who links with the ship to guide and run interference. An interesting history is provided on these enhanced humans, and I enjoyed finding out that he also had a personality and life and conscience of his own. LeaMarsa, the psionic (psychic type) brought onto the mission is the other central character. She has a troubled past and probably the most interesting background, as she discovers the true purpose of the life form on board and her powers send the rest of the ship into catastrophe. (Think betazoids on steroids for Star Trek fans). There are a handful of other characters including a snarky researcher, his assistant, the captain and ship doctor, and a psychologically troubled first officer.

There are quite a few subplots too, such as a shady character who is running these space missions. I wish that line had been resolved a little more. There is the history of the life form on board and LeaMarsa's interactions with it. The relationship between the captain and doctor provides a nice touch. The subcharacters have their own little storylines too. There is a lot going on. Sometimes it turned into a jumble but I enjoyed the book quite a bit.

Technology plays a huge role as well, as it should in a sci-fi book! The levels of the ship's AI each play into the other lesser levels. There are robots and weapons and computers and space portals for transports into other galaxies.

Overall I think this was a long but honestly interesting book. The ending seemed a bit easy but I would recommend for any sci-fi fans. If you are like me and love space themed reads like Star Trek as the biggest example, I think you'll enjoy this. It released earlier in November so check it out if it seems up your alley!

The blog post can be seen at https://onenursereader.wixsite.com/onereadingnurse-1/post/starship-alchemon-by-christopher-hinz