This is the first in a six-volume science fiction novel series written by Paul Preuss, with input and introductions by Arthur C. Clarke. It has a rather convoluted origin, being based on Arthur C. Clarke’s 1948 novella “Breaking Strain”, which Preuss was developing as an interactive text computer adventure game in the late 1980s. That project was shelved, but not before Preuss had written hundreds of pages of script. Also, Clarke’s novella was written before it was realised that Venus's environment was extremely hostile, so Preuss had to make the necessary adaptations to make the story work.

For the book series, Preuss sets up a background mystery around the main protagonist, “Sparta”. A product of her parents’ special educational programme designed to develop and enhance a child’s multiple intelligences (linguistic, bodily, mathematical, social) before being taken by a mysterious government agency and receiving numerous biotechnic implants in their desire to create a “superhuman” agent.

At the start of the story, Sparta finds that her recent memory has been wiped, her parents are gone, and she is incarcerated at a secret medical sanatorium. She escapes, determined to seek answers, but, having changed identities (now calling herself Ellen Troy), this first book does not advance the mystery much further. Instead, after she takes a job at an organisation called the Board of Space Control, the story is centred on her investigations into a disaster that befalls the space freighter “Star Queen” as it delivers some interesting (and diverse) cargo to Venus.

Part 1, which describes Sparta's escape, suggests that this book will be an action thriller, but that is just scene setting. Instead, it turns into a rather sedate crime story when the plot begins to follow Clarke’s original story. This seems simple to begin with, but after layer upon layer of complexity are added, the reader will come to realise that there are several schemes from different characters all overlapping here.

Despite having biotech enhancement, Sparta is no muscle-bound superheroine. However, she is quick, super-smart, and able to find answers and draw the correct conclusions about the crime mystery swiftly. To some extent, the answers seem to come to her too easily, and this shortens the story. She is certainly adept at discounting suspects without much difficulty.

Sparta is a rather bland character without personality or preferences. As the story progresses, she remains a blank slate, which the loss of recent memory alone cannot explain. Her conventional, strait-laced approach is devoid of any interesting quirks, such as the eccentricity of Poirot or the endearing peskiness of Inspector Columbo.

When the Star Queen mystery is solved, some further morsels of information about Sparta’s enigmatic background are drip-fed at the end before the cliff hanger sees a mining robot uncover something curious on the planet’s surface, setting up Volume II.

Taken alone, this first book in the series is not as good a sci-fi crime story as others I have read, such as Chris Brookmyre’s “Places in the Darkness”, also reviewed on this site. Notwithstanding, I think it just about provides sufficient interest to merit continuing with the second volume, “Maelstrom”, just to see if Preuss hits his stride and the series can find the slight improvement it needs.