Professor Richard Helms, a man with an altogether questionable past, is heading up a research expedition on New Amazon, a lush but savage planet that is home to some of the most violent and deadly flora and fauna imaginable, living in a toxic mix of acid rains and acid atmosphere. The twist in the tail though is the end game. The scientists and their military protection are only here to catalogue the contents of this planet so they have a record of what was there before they start terraforming and, in the process, destroy every organism on it, scorching it back to bare rock before rebuilding it in the image of earth.
Unfortunately Juno, the quantum computer of almost infinite power that controls the entire operation, decides to go offline and all the robots and droids that usually serve the human colony turn against them and, during a vicious assault, hundreds of scientists and soldiers are killed, leaving just Helms and a handful of survivors trapped on the planet with no communications, no transport and no way of leaving. But that’s not the worst of their problems and as the small group battles to stay alive on this deadly planet, they deteriorate, argue and fight until the truth behind their predicament reveals itself to be much stranger than they ever imagined.
Red Claw hooks the reader in right from the get-go and doesn’t let up until the final page. The pace is relentless and the plot, while a bit convoluted, is utterly compelling, twisting and turning and keeping you guessing till the very end. Philip Palmer has a background in writing for film and television and it shows here, but not just in killer robots, alien monsters or mad scientists. While he writes extraordinarily visually with distinctive and descriptive passages that draw you right into the action, there’s no waste in his prose, no long-drawn-out exposition to slow things down. In fact it rather does the opposite, only explaining technology or science where absolutely necessary and even then, only as it serves the story.
But despite the pulp feel of Red Claw it does have some depth. The cast of characters – and there’s a lot of them – are well-rounded and distinct and their quirks and habits are nicely drawn, working well to reveal layers in their personalities; the soldiers, bred and programmed to be utterly loyal and wishing only for a glorious death in battle, the geek scientists feeling suitably superior despite there utter reliance on the soldiers for survival and the whole making a pointedly satirical swipe at the cruelty of humanity as civilisation is suddenly stripped away.
Red Claw is an utterly satisfying, fast and furious read, violent, sexy and laugh-out-loud funny in places it provokes thought but doesn’t preach and all the while it’s hugely entertaining. Definitely recommended.
Red Claw is published by Orbit and is available to buy from Play.com, Blackwell and all good book stores.
Philip Palmer maintains a blog.