Review: Artifact Space

Artifact Space by Miles Cameron
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a first-rate piece of MilSF/Space Opera. A young cadet in a public orphanage gets a hacker to forge her graduation credentials so that she can join the crew of a Greatship; a massive, interstellar trade/combat ship that circles the region of space where humans have spread.

Our young cadet has problems both small and large. Her small problems include the above forgery and also where the head of the orphanage is trying to blackmail her. Then she also needs to develop as a pilot of the small trade/fighter transports that service the Greatships. And learn all the basics of being an officer. And learning about galactic trade, repelling boarders, shooting guns and other little necessities.

The large problems include uncovering a network of spies and saboteurs that are trying to take out the Greatship Athens. Uncovering the mysterious enemy who is blowing up the Greatships. Helping to find a way to communicate with the alien "starfish" whose xenoglas makes the great galactic circle of trade viable.

The book is a non-stop joyride that would make Robert Heinlein proud. I literally could not put this down; the hallmark of excellent storytelling. The best book of 2021 that I've read thus far.

Miles Cameron hits another home run!

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A small gripe. Most won't notice it.

The political system is somewhat odd. There is a wealthy upper class that is funded by their companies and trade. A person can buy into this upper class and obtain the right to vote and other benefits. The characters claim that their system is "democratic-socialism" and that it is someway superior to our current political/economic environment that the characters describe as the Chaos times.

But in reality, their system isn't too much different from our own. There is a thriving free-market trade in goods and services. The "socialism" is limited to health care and basic income allowances. The companies are regulated and taxed to the point where they cannot/will not perform basic research. Essentially, their world exists because of the "Chaos times" where freer markets allowed greater innovation.

The polity is in turn deluded about their level of "socialism" and blind to the effect of excessive regulation and taxes. At one point one of the characters points out that she didn't think her ancestors would have understood their version of "socialism".

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