The Big Empty

by James Luceno

The sole survivor of a failed intelligence mission, cyber-enhanced man Aksum Muse takes refuge on the planet Burst but finds himself to be the unwitting key to a coming stellar war. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345374495
• ISBN13: 9780345374493
• Release Date: November 1993
• Publisher: Del Rey Books
• Length: 291 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Futuristic intrigue

Good story, set in a post-galactic-war future. Muse is a former intelligence operative who was implanted with cybernetics that allow him to communicate directly with machine intelligences/AIs. His wartime experiences have left him all but shattered, and emotionally unable to handle the "noise" of interaction with technology. The peacetime government is beginning to investigate the postwar activities of some of the intelligence services' former ranking officials. When they try to find out about a particularly shady mission, Muse is identified as a possible source of information, and is summoned back to the capitol planet under the guise of a review of his disability benefits.Naturally, the people who were involved in said shady mission would prefer it if Muse never arrived back home.The story, characters and settings are refreshingly original. Luceno doesn't waste time explaining things that any SF veteran should be able to figure out on their own. In this regard, the book reads like the best of Joe Haldeman, though Luceno definitely has a voice of his own.If you like hard SF, look this one up in a used bookstore near you.