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Crash
The Market rules all, plotting the rise and fall of fortunes without human intervention. Mankind, trapped by a rigid hierarchy of wealth, bends to its every whim. To function, the Market must expand without end. The Earth is finite, and cannot hold it, and so a bold venture to the stars is begun, offering a rare chance at freedom to a select few people. But when the colony fleet is sabotaged, a small group finds itself marooned upon the tidally locked world of Nychthemeron, a world where one hemisphere is bathed in perpetual daylight, the other hidden by eternal night. Isolated and beset, the stricken colony members must fight for survival on the hostile planet, while secrets about both the nature of their shipwreck and Nychthemeron itself threaten to tear their fragile society apart.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
479 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published June 25, 2013
8 people are currently reading
326 people want to read
About the author
Guy Haley
279books672followersGuy Haley is the author of over 50 novels and novellas. His original fiction includes Crash, Champion of Mars, and the Richards and Klein, Dreaming Cities, and the Gates of the World series (as K M McKinley). However, he is best known as a prolific contributor to Games Workshop's Black Library imprint, and has sold over 2 million books set in their Warhammer universes.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
August 19, 2013
Whoa, so Guy Haley has a new novel out, and my library inexplicably has it in stock not two months after its release. Kudos to my library for whatever motivated that purchase. Thanks to my subscription, I discovered Haley through and its sequel, , two mysteries set in a future where strong AI has become a fact of life. In Crash, Haley takes a slightly different approach to the future, but the results are still delightfully entertaining and thought-provoking.
Set in the twenty-second century, Crash depicts an Earth on which the cries of Occupy Wall Street have fallen on deaf ears. The 0.1% have become the 0.01%—the “Pointers”—a select few families who control 80% of the world’s wealth while everyone else toils in the proverbial muck to eke out an existence. The automation of the economy that we started in the late twentieth century has continued full-force, with the stock market now existing predominantly as the Market, a sub-sentient network of trading algorithms supervised (but seldom scrutinized) by human traders.
It’s a future that is drearily realistic considering our present. If corporations finally shove geriatric governments to one side and take a more active role in daily affairs, if people become even more complacent and unwilling to take a stand and try for change, then the future could very well be like Crash. Haley channels much of the cyberpunk vibe of ’s Sprawl, but with less of a focus on the deleterious effects of unchecked technological augmentation. This is a world where augmentation is affordable only to the mega-rich, and all the proles are just trying to get by.
Instead, Haley develops a discourse around the nature of power and its abuses. First, on Earth, he shows how the asymptotic gap between rich and poor has warped the power relations in society. The Pointers� word is essentially law. Everyone else toils, eking out a miserable existence and hoping not to get noticed for the wrong reason. Most of the Pointers have a belief in their right to power in a divine rule sense—their ancestors were wise enough to become wealthy, and now they have an obligation to rule everyone wisely so that they can stay wealthy. Hmm.
The question is whether this vicious cycle of exploitation and destitution can be broken. With the situation on Earth, which is now home to twenty billion humans, looking increasingly poor, the Pointers have decided to launch a fleet of colonization ships. Two Pointers accompany the colony sleeper ship ESS Adam Mickiewicz on its voyage. Sabotage causes it to leave the fleet and crash on a different, tidally-locked world. Its unintended detour took 500 years, and now 900 years have passed on Earth.
Haley never revisits Earth; the rest of the story focuses exclusively on how the 4000 survivors pick up the pieces of their colonization effort. For all they know, they could be the last surviving humans in the universe. This enforces a strong feeling of isolation, and factions begin to form as priorities shift. Insectoid-like aliens attack the settlement frequently, attracted by its radio emissions—but if they are as sentient as they appear, is killing them wrong?
One faction doesn’t care. The two Pointer brothers, Leonid and Yuri, aren’t as power-hungry as their father. He feared this and sent a servant genetically-engineered to have unquestionable loyalty to him. This man, Anderson, strong-arms Leonid into wresting control from the democratic council he set up and instituting martial law. What follows is a chilling flirtation with the type of oppressive totalitarian government that manifested in the middle of the twentieth century. Haley doesn’t spend too much time in this mode—he keeps the pace moving pretty swiftly—just long enough to establish that tone before moving on to the next stage of the colony’s development.
Some of those humans have to live with their guilt. Dariusz is the saboteur, sympathetic because he is motivated out of love for his son and ignorant of the true motives of his employer. When he discovers that his actions have caused the deaths of so many people, he is nearly incapacitated by grief. He only stays around long enough to receive the retrovirus that will allow him to digest the planet’s indigenous vegetation. Then, he strikes off on self-imposed exile, determined to find the ship’s Systems Core and return it before turning himself in for sentencing and probable execution.
Meanwhile, the sophisticated technology rebels. Somewhere along the way, we realized that electronic computers just don’t cut it, and we started building robots with organic brains in jars. Unfortunately, this causes no end of problems. So the colonists have to start falling back on older technology and means of production, as symbolized by Sand’s enthusiastic rediscovery of how to do heavier-than-air flight from scratch. Part of this is a commentary on how dependent we’ve become on technology. Part of this is a demonstration of the stupidity of making all our technology too complex (complexity breeds failure modes). But mostly, I think, Haley demonstrates the versatility of humankind.
For Crash might be dark at times, but it is ultimately an optimistic vision of the future. It might have shadowy artificial intelligence presences, but it is ultimately about the ability for humanity to survive. It might present us with a dismal vision of Earth’s future and a dark opinion of how much power corrupts, but it is ultimately a story of hope and resilience and essential decency winning out over fear. It’s about how much we repeat the same mistakes, over and over, despite what we have learned—but how we swear, every time, we will do better.
So next time, let’s do better already.
With Crash, Haley showed me he can do more than write mystery novels. This is a multi-layered story with several key protagonists. His vision of the future is, if not well fleshed-out, then defined well enough for me to fill in the gaps myself. I was hooked while I was reading, and I was sad when it was over. But I also like that it is a standalone story without a sequel hanging over its head. I can breathe when I get to the ending.
Set in the twenty-second century, Crash depicts an Earth on which the cries of Occupy Wall Street have fallen on deaf ears. The 0.1% have become the 0.01%—the “Pointers”—a select few families who control 80% of the world’s wealth while everyone else toils in the proverbial muck to eke out an existence. The automation of the economy that we started in the late twentieth century has continued full-force, with the stock market now existing predominantly as the Market, a sub-sentient network of trading algorithms supervised (but seldom scrutinized) by human traders.
It’s a future that is drearily realistic considering our present. If corporations finally shove geriatric governments to one side and take a more active role in daily affairs, if people become even more complacent and unwilling to take a stand and try for change, then the future could very well be like Crash. Haley channels much of the cyberpunk vibe of ’s Sprawl, but with less of a focus on the deleterious effects of unchecked technological augmentation. This is a world where augmentation is affordable only to the mega-rich, and all the proles are just trying to get by.
Instead, Haley develops a discourse around the nature of power and its abuses. First, on Earth, he shows how the asymptotic gap between rich and poor has warped the power relations in society. The Pointers� word is essentially law. Everyone else toils, eking out a miserable existence and hoping not to get noticed for the wrong reason. Most of the Pointers have a belief in their right to power in a divine rule sense—their ancestors were wise enough to become wealthy, and now they have an obligation to rule everyone wisely so that they can stay wealthy. Hmm.
The question is whether this vicious cycle of exploitation and destitution can be broken. With the situation on Earth, which is now home to twenty billion humans, looking increasingly poor, the Pointers have decided to launch a fleet of colonization ships. Two Pointers accompany the colony sleeper ship ESS Adam Mickiewicz on its voyage. Sabotage causes it to leave the fleet and crash on a different, tidally-locked world. Its unintended detour took 500 years, and now 900 years have passed on Earth.
Haley never revisits Earth; the rest of the story focuses exclusively on how the 4000 survivors pick up the pieces of their colonization effort. For all they know, they could be the last surviving humans in the universe. This enforces a strong feeling of isolation, and factions begin to form as priorities shift. Insectoid-like aliens attack the settlement frequently, attracted by its radio emissions—but if they are as sentient as they appear, is killing them wrong?
One faction doesn’t care. The two Pointer brothers, Leonid and Yuri, aren’t as power-hungry as their father. He feared this and sent a servant genetically-engineered to have unquestionable loyalty to him. This man, Anderson, strong-arms Leonid into wresting control from the democratic council he set up and instituting martial law. What follows is a chilling flirtation with the type of oppressive totalitarian government that manifested in the middle of the twentieth century. Haley doesn’t spend too much time in this mode—he keeps the pace moving pretty swiftly—just long enough to establish that tone before moving on to the next stage of the colony’s development.
Some of those humans have to live with their guilt. Dariusz is the saboteur, sympathetic because he is motivated out of love for his son and ignorant of the true motives of his employer. When he discovers that his actions have caused the deaths of so many people, he is nearly incapacitated by grief. He only stays around long enough to receive the retrovirus that will allow him to digest the planet’s indigenous vegetation. Then, he strikes off on self-imposed exile, determined to find the ship’s Systems Core and return it before turning himself in for sentencing and probable execution.
Meanwhile, the sophisticated technology rebels. Somewhere along the way, we realized that electronic computers just don’t cut it, and we started building robots with organic brains in jars. Unfortunately, this causes no end of problems. So the colonists have to start falling back on older technology and means of production, as symbolized by Sand’s enthusiastic rediscovery of how to do heavier-than-air flight from scratch. Part of this is a commentary on how dependent we’ve become on technology. Part of this is a demonstration of the stupidity of making all our technology too complex (complexity breeds failure modes). But mostly, I think, Haley demonstrates the versatility of humankind.
For Crash might be dark at times, but it is ultimately an optimistic vision of the future. It might have shadowy artificial intelligence presences, but it is ultimately about the ability for humanity to survive. It might present us with a dismal vision of Earth’s future and a dark opinion of how much power corrupts, but it is ultimately a story of hope and resilience and essential decency winning out over fear. It’s about how much we repeat the same mistakes, over and over, despite what we have learned—but how we swear, every time, we will do better.
So next time, let’s do better already.
With Crash, Haley showed me he can do more than write mystery novels. This is a multi-layered story with several key protagonists. His vision of the future is, if not well fleshed-out, then defined well enough for me to fill in the gaps myself. I was hooked while I was reading, and I was sad when it was over. But I also like that it is a standalone story without a sequel hanging over its head. I can breathe when I get to the ending.
August 21, 2016
A slow start to this one did not dampen my overall enjoyment of the story. Throughout the book Guy Haley demonstrated time and again his complete understanding of the human condition. The pages drip with our vulnerability, deceit, and triumphant spirit.
I'm not a huge sci-fi reader but the premise of this one seemed grounded enough in reality and the plot delivered such. Haley's take on the future of financial markets gave me chills; I can see this coming to pass one day. As well his "Pointers" are mirrored today in our own society of opulent wealth and the gap between the haves and have not's. As with the best of writing, it makes you think while entertaining you.
Other than the slow start, the only complaint I have is the ending. The narrative seemed to stumble a bit to the conclusion. Nothing major just not the best ending after such a masterful tour de force.
I'm not a huge sci-fi reader but the premise of this one seemed grounded enough in reality and the plot delivered such. Haley's take on the future of financial markets gave me chills; I can see this coming to pass one day. As well his "Pointers" are mirrored today in our own society of opulent wealth and the gap between the haves and have not's. As with the best of writing, it makes you think while entertaining you.
Other than the slow start, the only complaint I have is the ending. The narrative seemed to stumble a bit to the conclusion. Nothing major just not the best ending after such a masterful tour de force.
October 14, 2016
Un excellent récit : de nombreux concepts (voyage spatial, intelligence artificielle, survie, adaptation, choix politiques, exobiologie, choix philosophiques, choix humains etc etc ) le tout en moins de 500 pages
Bravo Monsieur Haley : Crash, c'est à mon humble avis, de la science fiction au sens noble, un vrai page-turner Bref j'ai aimé me "crasher" sur Nychthemeron La fin laisse place à l'imagination pour les suites possibles ( Unit 7 : "you are not alone, not only here, not only men There are others Beware of them")
Bravo Monsieur Haley : Crash, c'est à mon humble avis, de la science fiction au sens noble, un vrai page-turner Bref j'ai aimé me "crasher" sur Nychthemeron La fin laisse place à l'imagination pour les suites possibles ( Unit 7 : "you are not alone, not only here, not only men There are others Beware of them")
January 4, 2018
You can read the full review over at my blog:
Shadowhawk takes a look at the latest novel from Guy Haley for Solaris Books.
“One of the best science fiction novels I’ve read to date, Crash perfectly captures the idea of life at the frontier, one driven by economics and social change. Fascinating is the word that comes to mind.� ~Shadowhawk, The Founding Fields
There are a small handful of authors working in the industry right now who I would class as automatic reads for myself. They are the ones that I can read without any kind of reservations and go in expecting to be wowed and amazed. Guy Haley is one such author. The first two of his books that I read, Reality 36 and Omega Point, were not as good as I’d expected them to be, but they were still good reads all the same. They had some great ideas to be sure and that’s what I loved about them the most. Guy then took those ideas several steps further and gave us Champion of Mars which was a phenomenal book in almost all respects. He then followed it up with Baneblade, a Warhammer 40,000 tie-in novel which changed the way I look at Warhammer 40,000 fiction by presenting a very detailed look into the setting as far as the tank armies of the far future are concerned, Hard SF in a way. And now, he’s given us Crash, another science fiction novel that is quite a space opera adventure about colonizing a new world. He’s put out some other books in the last year or so but I haven’t had a chance to read them as yet, something I do regret. I will hopefully be correcting that soon.
Crash is a book that I got because it had Guy Haley’s name on the cover. That’s really the long and short of it. I knew only the barebones stuff about it, that it had some kind of a take on business and market economics of the future and that it was SF. Knowing so little prepared me well to be wowed and amazed at every turn because that’s what the novel did for me. It starts off on the Earth of the future, where all trading markets are unified in a virtual-access system that is operated in real-time by plugged-in traders and compliance officials. It then moves on to talking about the social changes of the future, an era in which genetic engineering has given rise to a new subdivision of the human race. From there, it finally moves on to the romantic notion of space exploration and colonising a new planet.
In short, the novel throws out a lot at you, but Guy being Guy, all the complexities are easy to traverse. There’s not a moment where you feel lost or uncertain. And a large part of that is due to Crash’s diverse cast of characters, all of whom have a specific and great part to play in the narrative conceived by Guy.
Shadowhawk takes a look at the latest novel from Guy Haley for Solaris Books.
“One of the best science fiction novels I’ve read to date, Crash perfectly captures the idea of life at the frontier, one driven by economics and social change. Fascinating is the word that comes to mind.� ~Shadowhawk, The Founding Fields
There are a small handful of authors working in the industry right now who I would class as automatic reads for myself. They are the ones that I can read without any kind of reservations and go in expecting to be wowed and amazed. Guy Haley is one such author. The first two of his books that I read, Reality 36 and Omega Point, were not as good as I’d expected them to be, but they were still good reads all the same. They had some great ideas to be sure and that’s what I loved about them the most. Guy then took those ideas several steps further and gave us Champion of Mars which was a phenomenal book in almost all respects. He then followed it up with Baneblade, a Warhammer 40,000 tie-in novel which changed the way I look at Warhammer 40,000 fiction by presenting a very detailed look into the setting as far as the tank armies of the far future are concerned, Hard SF in a way. And now, he’s given us Crash, another science fiction novel that is quite a space opera adventure about colonizing a new world. He’s put out some other books in the last year or so but I haven’t had a chance to read them as yet, something I do regret. I will hopefully be correcting that soon.
Crash is a book that I got because it had Guy Haley’s name on the cover. That’s really the long and short of it. I knew only the barebones stuff about it, that it had some kind of a take on business and market economics of the future and that it was SF. Knowing so little prepared me well to be wowed and amazed at every turn because that’s what the novel did for me. It starts off on the Earth of the future, where all trading markets are unified in a virtual-access system that is operated in real-time by plugged-in traders and compliance officials. It then moves on to talking about the social changes of the future, an era in which genetic engineering has given rise to a new subdivision of the human race. From there, it finally moves on to the romantic notion of space exploration and colonising a new planet.
In short, the novel throws out a lot at you, but Guy being Guy, all the complexities are easy to traverse. There’s not a moment where you feel lost or uncertain. And a large part of that is due to Crash’s diverse cast of characters, all of whom have a specific and great part to play in the narrative conceived by Guy.
July 11, 2013
A great combination of intrigue, human conflicts, action and encounters with alien lifeforms in this sci-fi story. I greatly enjoyed it. Looking forward to reading the sequel.
August 13, 2016
Crash is a fantastic novel. That much I could tell from the early chapters on. Opening the new year with a book such as Crash really lifted my spirits - it is engaging, emotional, even frightening. It offers so many different things, woven into a convincing and satisfying narrative, I can only tip my hat to Guy Haley in respect and offer thanks for yet another quality read.
The book opens up with two expositional pieces of in-universe speeches or lectures, which immediately set the stage for the state of the Earth, roughly one and a half centuries into the future. They describe how humanity's outgrowing, and ruining, mother earth, and will have to take to the stars to spread their legacy, but also how the flow of wealth has become stagnant and how the ruling elite, the Pointers, have established their reign over the other 99.99% of earth's population.
From here on out, I was gripped. Haley took current problems, science's prophecies and the general consensus of today, took it further down the road for another century, and founded his world on the wide discrepancy between the prosperous elite and the bitter poverty of everyone else.
At the center of this, he also took the stock market to eleven, turning it into a pseudo-sentient being that acts mostly on its own, ever busy to keep making money for those who already have enough to not notice it multiplying further.
While the main part of the novel's story surrounds and succeeds the title-giving Crash of the ESS Adam Mickiewicz, it is the first part of 6 chapters (out of a total of 24), playing on Earth and in transit, that sets the mood for the whole book. It does so excellently, and when a sense of normality finally reasserts itself long after the Crash, the reader can actually feel relief, but also regret, being gone from this planet and its population set onto the path of selfdestruction.
The story's main characters, Dariusz Szczeciński an impoverished geoengineer seeking to keep his family fed at all cost, and Cassandra 'Sand' De Mona, a cocky space pilot looking to escape monotony, as well as the supporting cast of various types, are all interesting to read about in their own ways. Some are real stand-out types, like Yuri Petrovitch, son of the Pointer responsible for the Mickiewicz's part of the space colonization program, or Corrigan, a security guard enlisted by the Pointers. Many others appear (and disappear) throughout the course of the book, some of which you will love, others hate.
Even though Crash has such a highly diverse cast, however, the colony effort and the hostile planet the Mickiewicz is destined to crash onto, are the real stars of the book. Right from the prologue on it gets clear that things went wrong, and the colonists have not reached the right destination, instead being stranded on a planet of which one half is bathed in eternal sunlight, whereas the other lives in darkness. Nychthemeron is a world so hostile and otherworldly, every bit of the way turns into a struggle, and the colony First Landing has to face threats from without and within to survive.
As technology failed, supplies dwindled and humanity's base instincts came to the fore, Crash shone with a believable tale that kept me on the edge of my seat.
As the book progresses, multiple timeskips are happening between chapters or parts of the novel. This helps immensely at showing the reader the growth of the settlement, but also the characters. Relationships between characters develop throughout the story, the people adapt to their environment and technological progress is being made. At no point did I feel that the story got bogged down, and seeing the characters I came to like grow with their new home was very satisfying.
And they had to grow, otherwise Nychthemeron would have swallowed the pioneers whole. Once again, I cannot stress it enough, Guy Haley excelled at creating a believable, rich environment for one of his stories. Leave it to the man to get you places, both hostile and beautiful. While I would not exactly enjoy a vacation on this two-sided world, it fascinated me with its geography, ecosystem, flora and fauna. There is a lot of depth here, and I would love to see it expanded on in future novels, if they are to be.
If it wasn't clear enough already, I adore this novel. It was refreshing, kept me on edge, made me laugh and frown, had me care about its characters and anticipate the worst. The revelations at the end of the novel had me wide-eyed and grinning soon afterwards, and I loved every bit of it.
Crash definitely deserves a continuation, or as many as Haley would be willing to put to paper. First Landing and Nychthemeron still have a lot of stories to tell - and if Guy gets to write them, I'll be around to read. I recommend you do the same by starting with this book. If you have even the slightest passion for science fiction, you will appreciate it.
November 5, 2015
Add disaster movie, adventure in space and political struggle - in the end you will get an explosive mix with a message to your brain. The book have it's charisma -
some scenes are among the greatest I've read in years. This is the fifth time Guy Haley has impressed me as a sci-fi writer outside the Warhammer 40k universe. He is a talented (amazingly talented) person and truly deserve all the praise you can give him!
some scenes are among the greatest I've read in years. This is the fifth time Guy Haley has impressed me as a sci-fi writer outside the Warhammer 40k universe. He is a talented (amazingly talented) person and truly deserve all the praise you can give him!
August 21, 2013
This could have been a great pair of books but ends up throwing out ideas but not developing them. It gets an OK rating because the ideas have potential. Where were the editors at Solaris when the author needed them most?
January 5, 2018
Having picked this book up almost on a whim, I was then unable to put it down and I read it in a day. Intrigue, alien worlds, monsters, disasters, heroes, spaceships - this book has them all. Loved it.
The book actually has 479 pages.
The book actually has 479 pages.
February 15, 2014
Phenomenal book. Great storytelling.
May 14, 2018
An interesting piece of SF. I liked the idea of computers made of grown human brains and what might happen. I was only disappointed that the blurb said there were two main characters - a man and a woman but really there wasn't that much made of the woman. Worth reading
September 8, 2017
Great start but a disappointing finale
March 25, 2018
Couldn't stop reading after I picked it up.
July 4, 2018
It's not bad. It's well-written and plotted. There's really nothing wrong with it- it's just not the grand space opera I thought it would.
September 23, 2015
FIVE STARS -- I would give Ten Stars if I could!
This novel is a very good mix of politics and economics, as well as Sci Fi. It could be in a category all its own --"Political Science Fiction"! It is set in the year 2151 and is very realistic. It has futuristic inventions. But all good SF needs well drawn characters and the book's characters are drawn very well -- you want to know them better. The characters seem as if they are real. I just stumbled across this book by accident in the Brooklyn Heights Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library in late 2013 and enjoyed it immensely.
THIS BOOK SHOULD DEFINITELY BE MADE INTO A MOVIE! ONE WITH TOM CRUISE - HARRISON FORD -- ROBERT DOWNEY---JENNIFER LAWRENCE AND GWENETH PALTROW! Mr. STEVEN SPEILBURG -- YOU SHOULD READ IT!
I could see Jennifer Lawrence of "The Hunger Games" being the tough female Spaceship Pilot ("Cassandra") in the movie. But the title "Crash" is too short! It makes people think of a "Plane Crash". I would title the movie "Crash On A Strange Planet" and say in the ads that it is based on the book "Crash" by Guy Haley, even though no one in America knows who he is.
I am at a loss to understand why this book and its British author are not well known, at least in the States. I would compare Haley favorably with Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein and his fellow Englishman --Arthur C. Clark. Yes, he is that good!
The book deals with the "Inequality Issue" and even has a special term for the top ONE percent of the top ONE percent: "Pointers"! The "Pointers" decide that Earth is not worth living on any more and finance a one-way trip for many people to go to an Exosolar Planet, using more than one Starship.
But things go wrong and I will not give away any more of it. I think that you will enjoy reading this.
BTW, I mentioned this book in an article I am writing ("Finding Order Amid Chaos: Big Data Analytics, The 2008 Financial Crisis, and Science Fiction Becoming Fact").
Well, since my "Article" is now 154 pages long, (and counting!), I suppose it will have to be a book!
But my book is a better book because I was able to quote from Guy Haley's "Crash"! Thanks, Guy!
I am located at>
This novel is a very good mix of politics and economics, as well as Sci Fi. It could be in a category all its own --"Political Science Fiction"! It is set in the year 2151 and is very realistic. It has futuristic inventions. But all good SF needs well drawn characters and the book's characters are drawn very well -- you want to know them better. The characters seem as if they are real. I just stumbled across this book by accident in the Brooklyn Heights Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library in late 2013 and enjoyed it immensely.
THIS BOOK SHOULD DEFINITELY BE MADE INTO A MOVIE! ONE WITH TOM CRUISE - HARRISON FORD -- ROBERT DOWNEY---JENNIFER LAWRENCE AND GWENETH PALTROW! Mr. STEVEN SPEILBURG -- YOU SHOULD READ IT!
I could see Jennifer Lawrence of "The Hunger Games" being the tough female Spaceship Pilot ("Cassandra") in the movie. But the title "Crash" is too short! It makes people think of a "Plane Crash". I would title the movie "Crash On A Strange Planet" and say in the ads that it is based on the book "Crash" by Guy Haley, even though no one in America knows who he is.
I am at a loss to understand why this book and its British author are not well known, at least in the States. I would compare Haley favorably with Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein and his fellow Englishman --Arthur C. Clark. Yes, he is that good!
The book deals with the "Inequality Issue" and even has a special term for the top ONE percent of the top ONE percent: "Pointers"! The "Pointers" decide that Earth is not worth living on any more and finance a one-way trip for many people to go to an Exosolar Planet, using more than one Starship.
But things go wrong and I will not give away any more of it. I think that you will enjoy reading this.
BTW, I mentioned this book in an article I am writing ("Finding Order Amid Chaos: Big Data Analytics, The 2008 Financial Crisis, and Science Fiction Becoming Fact").
Well, since my "Article" is now 154 pages long, (and counting!), I suppose it will have to be a book!
But my book is a better book because I was able to quote from Guy Haley's "Crash"! Thanks, Guy!
I am located at>
January 29, 2017
Une terre au bord de l'asphyxie : surpopulation, inégalités .. La survie de l'humanité est dans la colonisation d'autres planètes. A la suite d'un sabotage, le vaisseau ESS Adam Mickiewicz, avec des milliers de colons à son bord, s'écrase sur l'hostile et fascinante planète Nychtemeron. Je me suis régalée tout au long du récit. La fin me laisse cependant sur ma faim, un peu expédiée rapidement. J'aimerais aussi une suite sur Nychtemeron. Et même des suites, ailleurs dans cet univers .... "We are not the creation of man, we are an emergence". A bientôt, Adam ?
March 23, 2014
When this book gets cooking, it's really good. Lots of cool moments and really nicely writen scenes. SF tropes are earnestly piled within: waking from stasis, as an opening; emotionless human(oid)s; stun guns; alien monsters attacking; lack of contractions when speaking; cool spaceships; etc. Crash is a smart novel, cautionary and pretty dark. It falters only when the politics that had been set up in the beginning begin to play out, at the end, in no uncertain and almost hokey terms.
October 9, 2014
I had so many problems with this one....ugh!
...All the reviews were so great, am I missing something??
Maybe it's me...maybe this book is just too smart for me... *thinking* ...Or maybe, Guy Haley is a Pointer and he got all his Pointer friends to give him 5 stars!?
...Yup, that's gotta be it, because I can't accept the latter :)
...All the reviews were so great, am I missing something??
Maybe it's me...maybe this book is just too smart for me... *thinking* ...Or maybe, Guy Haley is a Pointer and he got all his Pointer friends to give him 5 stars!?
...Yup, that's gotta be it, because I can't accept the latter :)
March 10, 2014
If you are looking for a sci-fi book to immerse you in awe but is firmly grounded in plausibility,carry anthropological debates, yet excites you at the edge of the seat � you gotta read this book
July 23, 2016
3.5.
Good, quick read with a lot of interesting ideas. Could have spent more time developing them, to be honest, but I also get the sense that the Author intended to keep a lot of things unanswered.
Good, quick read with a lot of interesting ideas. Could have spent more time developing them, to be honest, but I also get the sense that the Author intended to keep a lot of things unanswered.
Want to read
July 17, 2013
August 7, 2014
Over-all a good story. Some of the characters didn't seem as intelligent or believable as I thought they should have, but the technology and society were quite engaging.
won-t-finish
March 15, 2018Includes content near the beginning that I'm not interested in reading.
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