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The Ardly Effect
01/01/2006 . Source: Phil Jones 
This describes a potted history of two moons that orbit a gas giant known as Jupe. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. Buy The Ardly Effect in the USA - or Buy The Ardly Effect in the UK  This describes a potted history of two moons that orbit a gas giant known as Jupe. One of the moons Edenia is blue, green body with an amiable atmosphere, plenty of life and vegetation just generally easy to live on. Horridoa however is brown, grey body and, well, lumpy. Life on Horridoa is difficult and unpleasant to say the least. Edenia's inhabitants are intelligent but because of the ease of life never got much further than the wooden bucket. The Horridoans, on the other hand, made huge rapid technological advances because...well, it was basic to their survival. It stopped them freezing to death at night for a start. The invention of the telescope was there major turning point. On seeing the inhabitants of Edenia and how easy their life was. All their effort was put into space travel so they could occupy Edenia for themselves. Generations past and finally they landed on Edenia and herded the Edenians onto a transporter and left them on Horridioa with little resistance.
This pushed the Edenians into a rapid technological age going from the wooden bucket age to the space age in just a few hundred years. The whole population worked toward the 'great revenge'. Over time there is a bit of argey bargey between the two moons and as you say tit for tat but no really fighting or war, more a strong disagreement, a consensus to not get along with each other.
Kwait is a scientist on Horridoa striving to help in the 'great revenge'. Most scientific development put toward the space effort. He works with his daughter in the space services R&D Centre. Inventing numerous innovations such as the Gravitronic Wave Motor and the Gravitonic Wave Projector. Bored with the mundane routine being the head of the centre, he requests a group of droids be sent in to an area of space where there is an anomaly (Star Trek anyone!?). Anyway the droid mysteriously disappear and Kwait and his daughter are requested to be scientific advisors on the space vessel Marshia to ascertain what has happened to the droids.
OK, so on the face of it there is nothing really new here. Plenty of similarities to other books, films and TV series (Star Trek anyone?). The one thing I would really like to say though is Mitis Green brings a refreshing, dangerously funny novel to a familiar pitch. Funny it is, I was laughing out loud just reading the first chapter. There are no long set-ups for the jokes and the humour, it just comes thick and fast. The characters are a wealth of humour with out being one-dimensional. Green has managed to produce a book as good as, dare I say it, Douglas Adams and with a really good plot. There is true depth to all aspects of this book and at times it can be quite poignant and thought-provoking. There are similarities to the TV series 'Red Dwarf'. The ships computer is 'intelligent' and becomes sentient and there is a character that is very analogous in many respects to that of Rimmer. I think this familiarity, though, is not so much a distraction as a benefit as Green appends his own style and spin to make it sufficiently different.
Even if you're not a huge fan of Science Fiction, you'll find a lot to enjoy from this book. The characters are a joy to read and that first chapter just has to be read. The book is full of little surprises and some of the reveals are truly entertaining. I don't want to talk too much about the plot because I think it should be saved for when you read this book. When the Mirshia and its crew find out why the droids have disappeared, it explains a lot about the two moons and how things happened.
For a first novel, this is a remarkable debut. Green has plenty of material for the follow on books and could quite happily do a prequel as well. I really hope people will read this book and it provided me with so much enjoyment. One of the best books I've read in a long time.
Phil Jones
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