I have previously written positively about Peter Cawdron’s First Contact series, and so had high hopes the “The Simulacrum”, his most recent (June 2024) addition to the series. And what can I say? It was a fast and easy read - and I am glad I can now put the book away. For me, this book is a low point in the series with a weak technothriller story full of clichés.
Long story short: PhD student is sent into the basement to digitize old astronomical photos and notices that differences creep in between the original pictures and the digital copies. Hackers? Is the AI that she keeps talking to involved inthe manipulation or the cover-up? NSA agent is undercover with an online group of astronomers. Something seems to be going on when his home is raided by the police and child porn is found on his computer. And a NASA astronaut on the back-up crew for an asteroid mining mission (who happens to be the brother of our PhD student) is on a publicity tour when the primary crew for the mission is killed and he has to go on relatively short notice.
Cawdron takes his time setting the stage and spinning a large web of conspiracies before we move to first contact. And unfortunately, he misses the mark here. Where the rest of the series shines in thinking through obscure possibilities of first contact scenarios, The Simulacrum reads like a run of the mill technothriller.
Pages of technical descriptions of a rocket launch, long discussions about whether a large language model can really be creative or develop consciousness, descriptions of the astronaut live that are full of clichés and a ridiculous (and relatively predictable) great conspiracy. All of this feels like I have seen it before - there is nothing new here and very little in terms of character development.
Having fought my way through this part of the story, I was hoping for something new when the story finally comes to a head, but it felt like Cawdron has been through so many first contact scenarios, that he has run out of ideas. Again, there is nothing new here - it feels like we’ve been here before.
The Simulacrum was deeply disappointing. If you are looking for a first contact story, go back to one of Cawdron’s earlier books, have a look at Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds, Plutoshine by Lucy Kissick, Generation Ship by Michael Mammay, Alien Clay, the Rama series, or the Uplift trilogy. Similarly, if you are looking for a techno thriller, there are better books out there.
My verdict: I have wasted my time on this book, don’t waste yours.