Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsIntelligently crafted stories
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2019
Being an avid sci-fi reader I've come to associate hard sci-fi with bad character development, as opposed to 'soft' sci-fi with good character development. Not so for Peter Cawdron. He (seemingly) effortlessly builds and develops very real characters, blending them with a solid dose of scientific facts and spins it all in compelling plots that tend to challenge the common assumption about a given subject in a very refreshing style.
Reading anything from Peter Cawdron is almost a guarantee, for a very solid, enjoyable read. Cawdron is like the Freddie Mercury of writing, his repertoire is broad and he appears equally at home, whether the subject being space, aliens, zombies, crime, love or humor.
It's clear from reading Cawdron's work, that he genuinely loves science. He seems to suck up new concepts and ideas like a Dyson, and isn't afraid to venture into quite a bit of research to come up with plausible and enjoyable new takes on almost any subject. On top of that the majority of his plots reveals a very reflected approach to all things about being human in different society structures, as well as to the risks/rewards of several technological and behavioral trends we face both as individuals and as a (human) race.
One notable feature of Cawdron's artfully crafted books, is, that there's no common denominator in plot development, or at least none I recognize. Some authors seems to build their plots from a template, that after three or four books, makes you sigh 'here we go again, boriiiing...', right before terminating your reader relationship. The unpredictable plot structure of Cawdron's worth, even after having read about fifteen of his books, deserves high praise.
Cawdron has easily joined the exclusive club of my all time favorite authors, being in good company with people such as Alastair Reynolds, Ramez Naam, Iain Banks, Cixin Liu, Richard Morgan, JRR Tolkien, Neal Stephenson, Ann Leckie, and several others.
