The planet Nullaqua is a dead planet. The only hospitable and grudgingly life sustaining and inhabitable terrain lies seventy miles straight down inside a crater measuring five hundred miles wide. At the bottom of this immensely disfiguring gouge are a loosely connected series of islands. Dust is a simple fact of life for all concerned. The seas that surround these islands are not driven by water but in fact powered and powdered by the finest dust. When the drug syncophine, more commonly called Flare, is outlawed, an addict by the name of John Newhouse enlists aboard the dustwhaler Lunglance to become its cook along with a man he barely knows called Calorthrick. His motives are transparent and totally selfish; he wishes to use the bodies of the dustwhales to synthesize Flare. It should be a few months of easy if somewhat tedious work which will pay off handsomely. Life onboard the Lunglance is anything but riddled with ennui. This novel has no discernible flaws that I can point to and savage. It has a clean, crisp, flowing storyline with a strong central character backed by a motley and sullen crew. The captain, audaciously named Desperandum is something of an enigma whose motivations for his latest hunting voyage are a closely guarded secret. The love relationship that John was so totally unprepared for has sado-masochistic undertones but is primarily a doomed romance that Sterling nurtures without ever allowing to blossom. It was not mere page filler but a tentative presented aspect on the possible difficulties inter species love and lust clouds and diminishes rational behaviour. The savagery of the life that predates in and around the Lunglance as it crosses the sea is told with a panache that I found illustrated perfectly how both a sea of dust, juxtaposed against swarming life could be possible. It was succinctly believable. It was compelling to read and I for one feel a little richer having finished it in less than two days. This novel is one the most overlooked science reads I have serendipitously stumbled across.

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