The Bengali Station series is what got me really into Eric Brown’s writing and it still is the best of what I have read of him a year later. I started with Xenopath and Cosmopath because this one took forever to get to me, I think there was snow in the UK and everything stopped including the Royal Mail (that is really exotic for us who are used to a meter of snow in the winter. No we don’t have polar bears on the streets that are in Norway).

The setting is Bengali station and just the name tickles your imagination. Jeff Vaughan, the main character is a bitter and jaded telepath earning his living scanning arriving starships for unwanted elements. He hates being a telepath seeing the severs in the minds of the humans he meets at work, but he hates himself most of all so he hangs at a bar where he befriends a young girl Tiger who becomes his only friend but she is even lower than he and before long she overdoses on a new drug called Rhapsody. This set of a chain of events that tie into another discovery he makes concerning his boss at the spaceport and an off-world religious cult with ambitious plans. What is going on is much bigger and grander than you suspect at first but it is released step by step and it keeps you guessing up until the very conclusion.

I particularly liked the Hindu and Thai cultural parts of the story exemplified by Tigers younger sister Sukura left behind in the bar district below, dreaming of reuniting with her sister. Her life is really miserable and unfortunately it might only be the aliens that are the difference for many people that make their living there today. It is chilling if you really think of what is going on in some of those scenes.

This would make a great movie; the tension and suspense are great. Vaughan explores mysterious temples and alien worlds, are stalked by would be assassins from his past and are trapped by aliens while trying to uncover the truth with his reluctant police confidante Chandra.

This is a gritty and earthy story set on a space station that reminds of the tourist traps of the Far East. Jeff Vaughan is a flawed piece of humanity but that makes him more interesting and you know how much I like characters and there is a lot of personality in this one. It lives up to the high expectations I got from reading the two sequels. Highly recommended.

Book information

Necropath (Bengali Station 1) by Eric Brown (Solaris 2008) – Amazon US | UK – I bought my copy from Amazon

Bengal Station: an exotic spaceport that dominates the ocean between India and Burma.

Jaded telepath, Jeff Vaughan, is employed by the spaceport authorities to monitor incoming craft from the stars. There, he discovers a sinister cult that worships a mysterious alien god. The Church of the Adoration of the Chosen One uses drugs to commune with the Ultimate, and will murder to silence those who oppose their beliefs. The story follows Vaughan as his mistrust of his fellow humans is overturned by his love for the Thai street-girl Sukura, while he attempts to solve the murders and save himself from the psychopath out to kill him. Necropath is Eric Brown’s triumphant return to hard SF.

 

I want to interest new people to Science Fiction, this vibrant genre of new ideas and wow moments, thus the 10010 Top Military Science Fiction Series and the new Formidable Female Protagonists in Science Fiction part 1, part 2 and part 3 in April.

I read 16 books in April, helped by the weather and  Easter holidays. As I am writing this, I see the brown grass, even some green grass coming out of the snow, there are still piles of snow lying around and our two weeks of spring is just around the corner.

Writing is fun, doing research for the articles is also fun as I had to go back to many of my favorites and recap a little of the adventures we had together. As a ‘punishment’  for that I got a long list of rereads to do, 20 something novels or series, sweet joy.

I am a bit backlogged when it comes to reviews but the unpublished ones are halfway finished or better, I dream of having a pile of 20 or so reviews ready for when ever I need them.

These are the most popular posts in April according to Google Analytics. I am a bit sad flickering pictures of SciFi is more popular than novels but I see where it is coming from.

1. Amazing New SF Short Film: The Raven
2. The Gates – an update on ABC’s New Supernatural Summer Show
3. Spielberg’s Untitled Alien Invasion Project – Pilot Review
4. Formidable Female Protagonists in Science Fiction part 2
5. Interesting TV Pilots Round Up
6. 10010 Top Military Science Fiction Series
7. Formidable Female Protagonists in Science Fiction Part 1
8. New Science Fiction Books in May 2010 there is a revised list up now
9. Trends in Current Science Fiction part 4
10. Casts for upcoming CW fantasy drama Betwixt

My backlog of reviews finished in April:

1. The Crucible of Empire by Eric Flint & K. D. Wentworth (Jao Empire 2)
2. Coyote Destiny by Allen Steele (Coyote Chronicles 2)
3. Trade of Queens by Charles Stross (Merchant Princes 6)
4. Gardens of the Sun by Paul McAuley (The Quiet War 2) review on Temple Library Review
5. The Myriad by R. M. Meluch (Tour of the Merrimack 1)
6. Wolf  Star by R. M. Meluch (Tour of the Merrimack 2)
7. Pleasure Model by Chrisopher Rowley (Netherworld 1) review on Temple Library Review

Books read this month:

1. Dust by Elizabeth Bear (Jacob’s Ladder 1)
2. Chill by Elizabeth Bear (Jacob’s Ladder 2)
3. Shadow of the Scorpion by Neal Asher (an Agent Cormac novel)
4. Grindlinked by Neal Asher (Agent Cormac 1)
5. The Line of the Polity by Neal Asher (Agent Cormac 2)
6. Brass Man by Neal Asher (Agent Cormac 3)
7. Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell (Golden Age of the Solar Clipper 1) – audio book
8. Half Share by Nathan Lowell (Golden Age of the Solar Clipper 2) – audio book
9. Full Share by Nathan Lowell (Golden Age of the Solar Clipper 3) – audio book
10. Double Share by Nathan Lowell (Golden Age of the Solar Clipper 4) – audio book
11. Captain’s Share by Nathan Lowell (Golden Age of the Solar Clipper 5) – audio book
12. The Sagittarius Command by R. M. Meluch (Tour of the Merrimack 3)
13. Strength and Honor by R. M. Meluch (Tour of the Merrimack 4)
14. A Mighty Fortress by David Weber (Safehold 4)
15. South Coast by Nathan Lowell (A Shaman’s Tale in the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper) – audiobook
16. Primary Inversion Catherine Asaro (Saga of the Skolian Empire 1)

I listen to a number of short stories mainly from my list of Science Fiction Podcasts and one stood out:

• His Master’s Voice By Hannu Rajaniemi on Escape Pod 227 a Review

I curse the postal services in multiple countries as the books I ordered takes forever to arrive. How is it possible that a single book in an ‘envelope’ can takes 30 days from the US or in some cases even from UK to Sweden at this age? These books arrived this month (bought by me) some even on time, that’s what makes it so hard to understand why some doesn’t.

1. Necromancer by Eric Brown (Bengali Station 1)
2. Strength and Honor by R. M. Meluch (Tour of the Merrimack 3)
3. The Sagittarius Command by R. M. Meluch (Tour of the Merrimack 4)
4. A Mighty Fortress by David Weber (Safehold 4)
5. The Orphaned Worlds by Michael Cobley (Humanity’s Fire)
6. Deliverer by C. J. Cherryh (Foreigner 9)

Don’t miss my series of

New books makes me happy, today brought three packages of joy. I am especially happy I got Necropath since I ordered it 2009.

1. Necropath by Eric Brown (Bengali Station 1)
2. Strength and Honor by R. M. Meluch (Tour of the Merrimack 3)
3. The Sagittarius Command by R. M. Meluch (Tour of the Merrimack 4)

This is the third, and final long awaited book in the Bengali Station Trilogy. My wait has been longer than most, the postal service in Europe took the long way from UK to me. Anyway…

Jeff was the fourth telepath assassination target and only survivor in a recent killing spree. The authorities didn’t have any clue what was behind it. Jeff, his beloved wife and two daughters goes into hiding in a safe house as a security measure while they struggle with how to pay for their daughters cancer treatment. Their insurance only pay for a fraction of the cost.

Bengali stations own Fagin, Dr Rao shows up unexpected at their doorsteps and offer Jeff a meeting with the billionaire Rabindranath Chandrasakar about a job. Vaughan sees the man about a job. He is made an offer hard to refuse, the best treatment available for his daughter’s cancer and a nice bonus if he reads the mind of a dying spacer on an unexplored world at the edge of known space. Jeff would never ever again link with a mind as it is dying feeling it slip away in oblivion, but for his daughter he agrees to become a Necromancer again and go to Delta Cephei VII.

Chandrasakar’s expedition to Delta Cephei VII is a nest of treachery and deceit, and the planet itself holds alien secrets that might change the way we look at the universe forever.

This is a worthy conclusion of The Bengali Station Trilogy that started with Necropath (which I haven’t read yet, it’s in the oh so slow postal service’s hands) and Xenopath.

Eric Brown has built a world where humanity has reached the stars and where every-day life still seems real. The Bengali influence is also a difference approach than most other more North American ones. The reality of the little people is masterfully illustrated by Eric.

The story here is initially told  from two perspectives, Jeff Vaughan’s and his fellow telepath Parveen Das, an expedition member with some moral dilemmas to deal with. She is a Xenologist, an Indian secret agent, convinced communist and in love with a billionaire. The dilemmas facing a telepath able to read another mind, or getting his/her’s mind read is  also covered in interesting detail. From both Jeff’s and Parveen’s point of view.

Characterization is a strong point in Eric Brown’s writing. I have come to love the people in this series Jeff, Sakura, Dr Rao and so on. Luckily for us all there is openings for many more stories in the Bengali Station universe.

Presence and details are another strong point. Bengali Station, alien cities and planets all come  alive from the words of Mr Brown.

I suspect and hope this isn’t the last time we meet Jeff Vaughan, Cosmopath.

Today’s books. Click the titles  to order from amazon.com. Other links are local to the author’s profile or to the series.

1. Cosmopath by Eric Brown (Bengali Station 3)
2. MultiReal by David Louis Edelman (Jump 225 2)
3. Young Flandryby Poul Anderson (Technic Civilization Saga 4) is an Omnibus edition of Ensign Flandry, A Circus of Hells and The Rebel Worlds
4. The Magician’s Apprentice by Trudi Canavan (Takes place hundreds of years before The Black Magician Trilogy)

It’s two years after Necropath and Jeff has married Sakura and they await their first child when Jeff gets an offer he can’t refuse. He is back as a telepathic detective and soon he is investigating murders connected with Malloy. The plot thickens  and his telepathic abilities and insight in the workings of Bengali Station serve him well when he has to find the urchin connected to the case.

The finale is a showdown on the planet Malloy where he have to stop a genocide.