7th Sigma

By: Steven Gould

Narrated by: Fred Berman

Welcome to the territory. Leave your metal behind, all of it. The bugs will eat it, and they'll go right through you to get it. Don't carry it, don't wear it, and for God's sake, don't come here if you've got a pacemaker.

The bugs showed up about 50 years ago - self-replicating, solar-powered, metal-eating machines. No one knows where they came from. They don't like water, though, so they've stayed in the desert Southwest. The territory. People still live here, but they do it without metal. Log cabins, ceramics, what plastic they can get that will survive the sun and heat. Technology has adapted, and so have the people.

Kimble Monroe has chosen to live in the territory. He was born here, and he is extraordinarily well adapted to it. He's one in a million. Maybe one in a billion.

In 7th Sigma, Gould builds an extraordinary SF novel of survival and personal triumph against all the odds.

©2011 Steven Gould (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The story is compelling enough that I really did lose sleep to finish the book." ( The San Diego Union-Tribune)

" 7th Sigma offers further proof that good fiction isn’t necessarily about the originality of the tale itself, rather than about how it is told. Gould tells it well." ( Locus)

A Rudyard Kipling-esque SF Western with Aikido

First, let's talk about what 7th Sigma is and is not. Much like Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book was based on the Jungle Book, this is a retelling of another Rudyard Kipling novel - Kim. This is a coming of age adventure story, with SF elements, set against a southwestern backdrop. Yes, there are bugs that eat metal, but this is NOT a Crichton-esque techno thriller or a post-apocalyptic survival story, as it seems to be marketed.

Like Kipling's Kim, this is told as a serial novel, centering around a young boy named Kimble who is growing up - the major SF divergence is that it takes place in The Territory, where bugs eat everything metal. The people who choose to stay here learn to make due without metal - be it the rivets in their jeans, the lead in their rifles, or chips in their computers. But that's really just the setting, and it sounds more gritty than it is. In general, it's a sweet little coming of age story about Kimble finding his place in the world beside his mentor and sensei Ruth, and Col. Bentham, who he occasionally works for.

There's lots about it that's fun - aikido, heliographs, porcelain ammunition, gyrorifles, espionage, and - of course - metal eating bugs. Fred Berman's narration is fine - his reading is crisp, and he read the few Spanish sections impressively.

Unfortunately, since Kimble is such a capable and intelligent aikido student, whenever there is conflict, there's never really any doubt who will come out on top. And one of the few times when Kimble gets in over his head, happens outside the narrative. As a result, the espionage bits that make up the second half of the book drag a bit. Additionally, there's little shades of grey in this half - the bad guys might as well be wearing black hats. There's an honesty to the narrative when it's focusing on Kimble's relationships and interactions to the people he cares about in The Territory, and that's when the book is most rewarding. But when it veers off to him learning to be a spy, it didn't work as well for me.

Not the best, yet not the worst!

I really like this author, most of his books are written well and interesting. On this one, I kinda found my self losing the touch with the story, and having to rewind few times. It got better more towards the end though.

good book but really, not a Sci-Fi book

I like the book; however, I do not see it is a Sci-Fi book. I kept waiting for something to happen but the book just went on and on about the life of this boy. The writing is great, but I felt I was reading a diary.

Worth the Credit!

I just finished listening to this book for the second time since I originally downloaded it several months ago. It's that good! Steven Gould is an excellent writer, and his unusual scenarios set him apart from other sci-fi writers.

Kimball is a street child in The Territory, a place where metal and EM cannot be used because of 'bugs' - metal and EM loving tiny robots, that mindlessly destroy anything in their way if they sense either substance. The idea of no cell phones or cars! Aaaaah! Kim's adventures are riveting. You will enjoy it! Now, if Steven would just write a sequel....

Searched forbthe narrator and found this

The book just has too much going on. It's Karate Kid. It's a spy novel. It's a science fiction with runaway metal eating bugs (why? would't mankind make plastic eaters long before metal eaters?). It's post apocalyptic but not everywhere! Only in the Southwest around New Mexico. So...why would anyone be living there?

Speaking of New Mexico, it's also an encyclopedia of the state's geography and plants. It's as if the author drove around the state and wrote the story as he went, and not very realistically. These places are way too far apart for the donkey trail. Why would the boy travel so much on donkey back? It doesn't make sense. Why would anyone be dumping metals and attracting deadly bugs along the rivers in a desert biome? I think they'd be dumping in the deserts, not the precious water source. Riparian zones would be the first areas cleaned up IF anyone was really going to live in this now deadly region.

It's also a coming of age story.

It was interestimg enough and the narrator does it justice, but it could be better.