"Freeze-Frame Revolution" by Peter Watt

A brilliant concept, masterfully executed. I thoroughly enjoyed this. A summary from the blurb:

"How do you stage a mutiny when you're only awake one day in a million? How do you conspire when your tiny handful of potential allies changes with each job shift? How do you engage an enemy that never sleeps, that sees through your eyes and hears through your ears"

Where the ‘enemy’ in question is Chimp, the resident AI on a ship that is travelling sedately around the galaxy, building interconnected interstellar gates - portals through which the remnants of humanity that they left behind may ultimately emerge. Small subsets, ‘tribes’, of the thirty-thousand strong crew are woken from suspended animation for a short while every few millennia every time there is a problem that the resident AI can’t handle on its own.

An AI that is wired into everything, and everyone, on the ship.

An AI that not everybody completely trusts.

For me there was an excellent balance of character and plot - with the mystery of Chimp’s actions and motivations being perfectly set against the pace of the action, and the intrigue of the brewing unrest.

The story is told from the first person perspective of the main character, Sunday Ahzmundin. This worked really well for me, as we only find out piecemeal what is going on with the rest of the crew - and at times it’s even ambiguous whether Sunday is a reliable narrator.

There is also a sense of unseen things that runs through the story - from the partially explained pseudo-religious behaviours of some of the various ‘tribes’ aboard the ship, to the disturbing things, ‘gremlins’, that sometimes emerge from the interstellar gates once the have been built and activated. The combination of first-person perspective, piecemeal information, and the sense of unseen things, gave the story a slight sense of claustrophobia, which I really enjoyed.

I also loved the writing style - not only were the characters well drawn, and the plot nicely paced, but the writing was lyrical and poetic in places. This is a story of people whose lifetimes have lasted for millennia, and whose mission spans the galaxy - and the writing gives it a sense of wonder and grandeur that that deserves.

So… wonder, grandeur, claustrophobia, and an AI called Chimp. What’s not to like?

My rating: ★★★★★