InterstellarNet: Enigma

By: Edward M. Lerner
Publisher: FoxAcre Press
Publication Date: June 2015
ISBN: 978-1-936771-64-6
Reviewed By: Kristi Benedict
Review Date: June 2015

Being a historian was much more than a career for Joshua Matthews as he was fascinated by the facts of the past and how moments through time have been linked together. His latest theory was that the InterstellarNet, a community of worlds in the solar system, have had similar historic occurrences around the same time even before these worlds were able to communicate with each other. Finally, he is given the chance to write down the history of InterstellarNet and have it published. However, before he has the chance to get started he disappears for a full month with no recollection of where he was or who he was with. One day he is just dropped off by a driver in a taxi cab feeling as if he was hungover from the night before, but that night was nearly thirty days ago.

Suddenly completely disgraced, Joshua is unemployed and loses the chance to publish the history of InterstellarNet. Not wanting to give up on his idea so easily Joshua continues to wonder exactly what happened to him as there was no security camera footage of him anywhere, no phone calls, and no memories. How could someone completely disappear off the grid for a full month? It comes to his attention that someone could have planned this, that someone did not want him to write the history of InterstellarNet so before he even got started they made sure it could never begin. As Joshua starts investigating he gets into a conflict that reaches across the entire solar system.

Reporter Corinne Elman survived the Hunter Invasion and that has been her ticket to fame for the past twenty years as they are still doing stories on it. However, the nightmares of that time still haunt her and even though it has brought her fame she is ready to find a real story again that she can dive into. When Joshua Matthews shows up and seems to have had a month long drunken party, Corinne decides this is her chance to become a reporter again and get to the bottom of what really happened to Joshua. She never dreamed it would take her as far as it does.

As I've mentioned in other reviews, science fiction is one of my favorite genres to read so when I saw this particular one it looked like it would be right up my alley. There were many elements of this book that I enjoyed as the incredible futuristic setting of the solar system was immensely fun to imagine as were all of the different worlds within it. Also, whenever the plot is so interwoven and each new chapter brings to life new pieces of the puzzle, that definitely makes a book a fun read and this one did do that. The one thing I did not enjoy was that I sometimes found myself reading over the same few lines to understand what I was reading. The writing was at times just so detailed and technical that it took me a little while to compute exactly what I was reading.

Quill says: An intriguing science fiction novel that creates an unforgettable view of what the future could be.