Faith

by John Love

Overview

Moby Dick meets Duel in John Love's debut novel of Space Opera and Military Science Fiction! Faith is the name humanity has given to the unknown, seemingly invincible alien ship that has begun to harass the newly emergent Commonwealth. 300 years earlier, the same ship destroyed the Sakhran Empire, allowing the Commonwealth to expand its sphere of influence. But now Faith has returned! The ship is as devastating as before, and its attacks leave some Commonwealth solar systems in chaos. Eventually it reaches Sakhra, now an important Commonwealth possession, and it seems like history is about to repeat itself. But this time, something is waiting: an Outsider, one of the Commonwealth's ultimate warships. Slender silver ships, full of functionality and crewed by people of unusual abilities, often sociopaths or psychopaths, Outsiders were conceived in back alleys, built and launched in secret, and commissioned without ceremony. One system away from earth, the Outsider ship Charles Manson makes a stand. Commander Foord waits with his crew of miscreants and sociopath, hoping to accomplish what no other human has been able to do — to destroy Faith!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781597803915
Publisher:	Start Publishing Llc
Publication date:	01/01/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	376
File size:	642 KB

About the Author

John Love spent most of his working life in the music industry. He was Managing Director of PPL, the world’s largest record industry copyright organization. He also ran Ocean, a large music venue in Hackney, East London. He lives just outside London in north-west Kent with his wife and cats (currently two, but they have had as many as six). They have two grown-up children. Apart from his family, London and cats, his favorite things include books and book collecting, cars and driving, football and Tottenham Hotspur, old movies and music. Science fiction books were among the first he can remember reading, and he thinks they will probably be among the last.

Editorial Reviews

Some hundreds of years in the future, humankind and several alien races have formed the galaxy-spanning Commonwealth. After a mysterious spaceship called Faith destroys the Sakhran Empire, the Commonwealth eagerly fills the power vacuum. Then Faith begins harassing Commonwealth colonies, killing off armed resistance and showering cities in sewage before disappearing. The Commonwealth’s best weapons against it are the Outsider ships, a Dirty Dozen–like fleet of brutal and expendable soldiers. When Faith and its mysterious crew threaten a Commonwealth world, the Outsider ship Charles Manson is called on duty, and Cmdr. Aaron Foord decides to destroy Faith even if that means demolishing Commonwealth ships that get in his way. While the story eventually devolves into murky faux-profound allegory and Love’s decision to make two of his three protagonists former rapists feels gratuitous and jarring, Love’s deft touch with complex characters and ethical quandaries make his work worth reading. Agent: Paradigm. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Faith is a science fiction debut of the highest order. It has fascinating, well-rounded characters who will remain with you for a long time. It has gorgeous, understated prose. It is chock-full of tension, making it a compulsive page turner. It has an intriguing fictional universe which, I hope, will host more novels in the future. It's got one of the highest signal-to-noise ratios I've encountered in a long time, which, if you think about it, is really something, given that the vast majority of it describes one long, protracted battle. Faith is a novel I maybe would have expected from the mind of Iain M. Banks—and if that isn't a compliment for an SF debut, I don't know what is. What I do know is that it's only early January, and I'm already sure that this novel will end up on my list of 2012 favorites.
— Tor.com

Stefan Raets

The book closely resembles a military thriller—a daring commander tracking an enemy sub across the seas—but Love provides readers with plenty of sf color: aliens whose history seems drawn from ancient Eygptian influences, human warships named after psychopaths and crewed by dysfunctionals like the hero, Commander Foord of the warship Charles Manson, and other fun stuff. Love has a quirky style—a character's eyes are "as warm and golden as urine"—and it seems virtually impossible to imagine an sf fan who won't thoroughly enjoy the tale.

Booklist

If you're looking for a good ship-vs-ship story with a thought-provoking plot and an ending that will leave you surprised, maybe angry, possibly confused (until you think it over for a bit), and definitely entertained, you'll discover that Faith is one of those rare science fiction stories with plenty of twists and dozens of questions... and those don't come along all that often in my opinion.

Wired.com's Geek Dad