Forgotten Suns

This old-fashioned and slightly overlong crowdfunded space opera takes readers from a mysterious planet of ruins to the edges of the universe. Twelve-year-old Aisha was only trying to help her xenoarchaeologist parents when she blasted open an unexplored chamber amid the eons-old ruins on the remote planet Nevermore. But the explosion released Rama, a man who speaks a language no one has used for millennia, and medical testing insists he’s 6,000 years old. Determined to find his long-vanished people and help them return to Nevermore, Rama sets off with Khalida, a military intelligence veteran ordered back to service against her will—and young Aisha, who stows away on their ship. Tarr (Nine White Horses) tosses a bit of everything into the mix: evil government agencies, powerful psionics, tense diplomacy, ancient mysteries, the multiverse, and an intelligent starship. The story takes a little while to get moving, but once it does, there’s no slowing the momentum of the high-stakes adventure. Space opera fans will enjoy this lively story and its homages to the pulp SF era. (May)