Calculated Risk by K.S. FergusonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Conspiracy to defraud, murder, assault and family break-up against a background of a new flu pandemic that has decimated the Earth’s human population could all be possible scenarios for this book in the guise of a new crime thriller. They all appear in K S Ferguson’s novel, except that the events are all taking place somewhere within the asteroid belt of the Solar System, to make it exciting sci-fi. The author takes great pains to provide the reader with plenty of events, sci-fi machines and gadgets in the tale that add the authenticity required for such an adventure. The characters are strongly drawn and believable each with their own particular foibles and strengths. There are moments of light humour within the excellent dialogue and the pace is suitably fast, especially towards the finale, although, at times I found some passages rather long and slow when financial complications and sub-plots had to be explained. But I became very quickly pulled back into the novel by the inter-play between Rafe and Kamala, the two main protagonists. For a change I was left wanting more at the end of a new sci-fi novel that did not rely on new gizmos and concepts, but instead relied upon a fascinating plot with genuine characters that I grew to like and care about!
I was very aware of the moral undertones that floated in and out of the story every so often, finding that a little hard to swallow, and noticed one or two items of strange punctuation and grammar which affected my final rating score. I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest, non-reciprocal review.
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