cover image 10,000 Bones

10,000 Bones

Joe Ollinger. Diversion, $15.99 trade paper (240p) ISBN 978-1-63576-056-9

Hollywood script reader Ollinger turns to writing with a gut-punching debut about a planet, Brink, where thousands of people are sick from calcium deficiencies. On Brink, calcium is so scarce it has become the planet’s currency, and there, collections agent Taryn Dare tracks down black market calcium. When she finds a dying girl suffering form a strange calcium-related illness, she uncovers a conspiracy that upends her life and could cause the same upheaval planetwide. Taryn and Brink are both perfectly matched and foils for each other: Brink is just past its frontier stage and coming under extensive corporate control, strong-spirited Taryn is disciplining herself to eventually leave for good. Her spirit emerges in layers, with Taryn rising to each fast-paced challenge. Some of the seemingly impossible situations feel a little overdone, but her escapes come from teeth-gritting guts. Other characters who are quietly strong in their own right, and a well-wrought landscape poised between rising and ruin, round out this bleak but energized story that will satisfy fans of darker SF. Agent: Rachel Ekstrom, Folio Literary. (Feb.)