An existential sci-fi thriller
Homo Cosmicus 2: Titan, by Todor Bombov, is an existential science fiction thriller with deep threads of technology built into the story. The story surrounds a team of scientists on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons, who, in 2069, are on a mission financed by a corporation to explore its resources, when suddenly, members are mysteriously dying. News of the deaths undulate back to Earth and elsewhere, touching the lives of those affected, and sending one man, the father of one of the surviving team members, into an investigation to find the illusive murderer. While that story plays out, the author has built in a tremendous amount of detail which is interspersed in the storyline; such as the backdrop on how mankind colonized the solar system, how large corporations became the giants of space exploration and have seized the opportunity to harvest resources from planets and asteroids, and how, in just a matter of decades leading up to this story, mankind permitted Earth to become a scarred remnant of its once beautiful self, with most animal and plant life dead, oceans laid waste, and disease and death spread to the point where it became necessary for science to play god with the genetic matrix of humanity, creating new versions of man who could withstand the toxicity and harsh conditions of not only Earth, but the rigors of space life. The story has broad and rapid leaps, and the bridges between one scenario to the next can be abrupt, but as a whole, this book opens up our perspective to a very real future facing us, both in terms of space colonization, and the fate of Earth and our race if we do not halt the destruction of our planet.
About Todor Bombov
Todor Bombov lives in Varna, Bulgaria, the town called the Pearl of the Black Sea.
