Set about 100 years in the future, Charles E. Gannon’s debut novel Fire with Fire is many things: first contact novel, military/conspiracy thriller, and political thriller. All of what the novel is falls on the shoulders of the protagonist Caine Riordan. He is an intelligence analyst/political operative sent to a human colony world to investigate potential wrong-doings. Problem is, Caine cannot remember what he learned on the moon because he was put into cryo-sleep after the discovery and those memories have disappeared by the time he is woken a dozen years later. The wrong-doings he is investigating involve a potential sentient species on the colony world, to determine if human industry is encroaching on them, and to determine if that civilization has regressed from an earlier space-faring civilization. In the process of his investigations, Riordan is given a somewhat autonomous level of authority which allows him to make his presence known and that, coupled with his innate ability to be something of a monkey-wrench in the plans of other people, makes him a target. Despite those road-bumps, Caine takes his investigation to a point where he communicates with that sentient species.

First contact is made and Gannon plays the scenario out between Riordan and the alien quite well. Riordan comes across in the pursuit of a what appears to be a member of alien an species and subsequent communications exchange in a reasoned and plausible fashion. But just as soon as contact is made, Caine is brought back to Earth to discuss the ramifications. During the discussions of the political ramifications of his discovery, humanity is contacted by yet another alien civilization and invited to join a multi-civilization interstellar collective.

Earth is given little time to put together a delegation to represent itself in the proceedings and even that time has constraints as described by the alien collective: Riordan must be part of the delegation as well as other proscribed individuals. During this deliberation, Riordan and his fellow delegates are introduced to the other alien civilizations comprising the collective, as well as another civilization which received the same invitation for candidacy examination as humankind.

Gannon parses out the novel in three section, each with a fairly distinctive flavor: thriller/mystery with Caine at its center; political intrigue with Caine viewed more at a distance; and the final third back to the SFnal theme of first contact. The first third was exciting and completely pulled me into Caine’s plight and the future history Gannon is mapping. While the middle section moved at a slower pace, it was a good intake of breath between the bookend sections which were more exciting. That middle section set up some of the bureaucracy which sets the stage for humanity a century henceforth as well as the machinations operating behind-the-scenes of the bureaucracy which helps to propel humanity forward. That final third shows that regardless of the civilization, bureaucracy can be both an impediment for progress and a reason for conflict.

Gannon portrays the Accords – the democratic council that governs the interstellar Membership – and enforces what amounts to a Prime Directive not to interfere with pre-space faring civilizations – as a bit of rigid and quite old governance. This shows that humanity’s bureaucracy has nothing on the interstellar bureaucracy. Luckily, Caine is familiar enough with dodgy situation such as the one into which humanity is thrust. While humanity’s potential membership in the interstellar community serving as a lynchpin moment in history is a familiar element in such stories, Gannon plays out the scenario extremely smartly and in a very engaging manner. There’s a great deal of logic and foundation in the interstellar community Gannon has built and the interaction between the various alien civilizations as well as humanity with those civilizations. This foundation allows for a greatly enjoyable tinkering with the rules which dictate scenario in which humanity finds itself.

In both the middle section of the novel and final section of the novel, it came across to me that Gannon very deliberately calculated many of the facets that might arise in a first contact scenario. Though he may have glossed over some of the finer details, the story posits one of the more plausible scenarios of humanity entering into an affable and superficially accepting interstellar civilization.

Much of the novel, as I’ve intimated earlier in this review, rests on the shoulders of Caine. Gannon gives him the veneer of a typical golden age SF hero: smart (he’s a polymath so he is quite adept in many disciplines), forward thinking, proactive, desired by multiple women. As Caine’s story progresses with humanity’s entry into the interstellar community, he is indeed these things, but not to a degree that makes his motivations, interactions with other characters, and thoughts unbelievable. After all, capable people like Caine exist throughout history and are many times the reason why changes occur to propel history forward.

It is very evident to me why this was short-listed for the 2014 Nebula Award for Best Novel. Having been given a copy of the sequel Trial by Fire at New York Comic Con in October 2014, I’m pleased I have it on hand to read. Charles Gannon has been writing Science Fiction for a few years, despite Fire with Fire being his debut novel. He’s contributed to Larry Niven’s popular Man-Kzin milieu, Eric Flint’s popular 1632 setting, the Starfire shared world of David Weber and Steve White and David Weber’s mega-popular Honorverse. That all these milieus find their publishing home at Baen Books is no mistake in the fact that Fire with Fire is published by Baen. In other words, the publisher has done a great job of cultivating authors and Gannon is no exception considering both Fire with Fire and its sequel Trial by Fire have found themselves on the final Nebula ballot in back to back years.

Fire with Fire is one of those backbone novels of Science Fiction which exhibits, revels in and toys with tropes of the genre, most specifically SF novels of the First Contact variety. One of the best ways I can sum up my thoughts on this engaging, supremely readable and ultimately fun novel is this: if someone were to ask me to recommend a novel that exemplifies what I enjoy most in SF novels and stands as a novel both long-time readers of the genre and new readers to the genre should read, I’d eagerly put Fire with Fire into that person’s hands.

Highly Recommended.

© 2015 Rob H. Bedford

Mass Market Paperback, February 2014

606 pages | 978-1-4516-3858-5

Review copy purchased

Sample: http://www.baenebooks.com/chapters/9781451638837/9781451638837.htm

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