John Walker has published a whole bunch of new books recently or at least they are new to me. This is the first of a new series by the title name, “Old Colony”, and it kind of hit me hard! I really liked this book so much that I’m tempted to start reading the second book right now!
Otis Hale is an older guy, seventy-six years young and not really sure about his future. Well, I’m seventy-six also, but I know what’s in my future and it isn’t as near exciting as what Otis will be facing.
He and a number of like-minded elderly people have gone through a test as a selection criterion to pick the 300 potential colonists going to Epsilon Eridani d., currently named by the United Earth Authority (UEA) as “Old Colony”! Most of the tests were about working together with people you really didn’t know or had the time to get to know. One thing for sure, all of these people didn’t expect to live very long once they got to Epsilon Eridani d! They all had been told that the planet’s environment seemed to cause a high degree of cellular degradation on everything. In other words, everything on Old Colony got old really quick!
Otis made the cut because he’s the kind of guy that gets things done. He has a workman’s knowledge of how to build and fix just about anything. He solves problems long before some people know they have them. Part of the contract these 300 colonists had to sign guaranteed a stipend paid upfront. Since there wasn’t going to be anywhere on Epsilon Eridani d. to spend money, Otis had his sizable stipend sent to his daughter so she and his Grandkids could build something with their lives. All he asked of the Grandkids was that they plant something when their Mom bought a house with a yard. He knew that he’d never come back to see them but maybe a tree or garden would remind them of him.
Epsilon Eridani d was eleven light-years from Earth. The UEA was setting up the entire colony mission with the idea that these 300 elderly people would live long enough to set up some kind of settlement so that a follow-up group wouldn’t have it so hard. What they also thought they knew was that the planet would also accelerate their aging so most of these people would have only five to ten years building whatever they got started on. Still, the stipend was very generous and most of those selected didn’t have any reason for staying on Earth.
They would go on their journey aboard the UEA colony ship *Prevail* captained by Captain Elara Voss. She made the distinction between her thirty-person crew and the three hundred colonist pretty clear on day one. The colonists will make the three-month trip in cryo-sleep. The crew will wake you up once in orbit, get you all in drop ships along with all the prefab habitats and equipment and place you on the planet. What happens after that is strictly up to the colonists. The *Prevail* will hang around for a while to make sure everything is going according to plan, but if it isn’t, there’s nothing they can do but go back to Earth and report the failure.
Otis doesn’t mind the strictness of the ship’s Captain. She has a job to do and can’t be involved in what the colonists will face or won’t face. The planet has been surveyed once but due to atmospheric disturbances some of the readings they had gotten were very strange. Everyone thought they knew what the planet was going to be like, but no one really knew for sure. Otis really didn’t care either since he knew that with his aging body, he wouldn’t last that long anyway, but he would last long enough to fix the problems they met on the planet regardless of the conditions. Most of the other colonists also knew their fate and had reconciled to the job ahead no matter how difficult it would be.
There were also no re-supply ships scheduled to come to Epsilon Eridani d, at least not until they heard word of the colonist survival via the mail drones. Those mail drones were costly and would take a six-month round trip if the priority warranted such an expense. And then there was the message system. These were backups in case the drones got lost, but messages would take about twenty-two years round trip so whatever was said had to wait a long time.
The UEA *Prevail* arrived at Old Colony right on time. The colonists were awoken and prepared to depart to the planet’s surface. That was done with haste, although they only found one of the original landing sites suitable. There should have been three, but conditions on the planet prevented seeing two of them clearly so they were ruled out. Otis and his fellow colonists landed on their new planet and began the work of setting up a survivable colony. They had the tools and equipment they needed in abundance and they believed they had the people to get the work done.
Then something strange started to happen. This is where you’ll have to really get into the story. I liked how Mr. Walker wrote this book and that he kept it interesting all the way through. In fact, it was so interesting that I’m really tempted to just jump right into book 2, “Veranthos Gambit”, right now since it’s available on Amazon.
[Note 1 (12/23/2025): I’m no longer associated with Amazon and will no longer provide any links to books from that website. You can usually find books that you like at your usual source.]
[Note 2: As of 12/03/2023, this will not be posted on Amazon since I have been banned from posting reviews for some unknown reason. ]