Wednesday, June 30, 2021

The Ninth Metal by Benjamin Percy

 

At first, people gazed in wonder at the radiant tear in the sky, a comet. A year later, the celestial marvel became a planetary crisis when Earth spun through the comet’s debris field and the sky rained fire.

The town of Northfall, Minnesota, will never be the same. Meteors cratered hardwood forests and annihilated homes, and among the wreckage a new metal was discovered. This “omnimetal” has properties that make it world-changing as an energy source - and a weapon.

John Frontier, the troubled scion of an iron-ore dynasty in Northfall, returns for his sister’s wedding to find his family embroiled in a cut-throat war to control mineral rights and mining operations. His father rightly suspects foreign leaders and competing corporations of sabotage, but the greatest threat to his legacy might be the US government. Physicist Victoria Lennon was recruited by the Department of Defense to research omnimetal, but she finds herself trapped in a laboratory of nightmares. And across town, a rookie cop is investigating a murder that puts her own life in the crosshairs. She will have to compromise her moral code to bring justice to this now lawless community.

A good sci-fi read, well-written and interesting.  5/5 stars, highly recommended.

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