Dark Space

While drifting in space, lost, due to navigational failure, a mineral scout discovers God. When word gets out, academics from the studiums across Orion scramble to gain the Entity's favour. However, not all the sentients of Orion hold this 'god' in awe - some, like the philosophers of Scolar and the Transhuman's of Extropy are deeply suspicious. Onto the grand stage of inter-planetary academic politics, intellectual conceit and dubious theology walks Baronessa Mira Fedor. Her planet has been torn apart by the invasion of a race of giant tardigrades. Only the Orion League of Sentient Species can lend aid, but OLOSS are preoccupied with communicating with god. Mira, together with the larrikin, misogynist Jo-Jo Rasterovich, is left to her own resources to find help. In doing so she unmasks a galaxy-size intrigue.

Ion Newcombe, reviewing the novel for Antipodean SF noted: "Dark Space is well-paced, precisely written (although I did wince at a couple of dangling participles), and I'm now hanging out to read the next two books."^[4]

In The Sunday Age Lucy Sussex found that "De Pierres does good, strong heroines, and also action sequences. Add a mining planet that reads like Pilbara gone feral, and disgusting invading aliens, and we have here the first in a series of novels. It mingles science with Machiavellian intrigue, vivid scene-setting with child care."^[5]