this is the 187th in my series of forgotten or seldom read books

Reunion on Neverend by John E. Stith, Tor 1994 paperback, science fiction – crime

This was a book I bought whilst browsing in a brick-and-mortar bookstore, and the purchase was made based on the cover and blurbs. I had no familiarity with the author. I’m glad I bought it, as I found the main character engaging from the beginning and was quickly absorbed in the story.

Lan’s home is the underground colony on Neverend, and he’s returning there for his school (apparently college) reunion. That’s the reunion in the title, but events quickly move away from seeing old friends when, during reunion events, a “portal” of alien design is discovered. That’s just the start; people die and it’s not clear why.

This is a science fiction novel, but there is a definite crime and crime-solving element in the book, it qualifies as a science fiction-mystery crossover novel, and it’s a good one.

I enjoyed this, there is good world-building, interesting characters, though only the major ones have much dimension, and even some moments of laugh-out-loud humor. Though I found the ending just a little too drawn out, still a good story and very readable book. I’ll pick up other books by Stith when I come upon them:

Novels by John Stith

• Scapescope (1984)
• Memory Blank (1986)
• Death Tolls (1987)
• Deep Quarry (1989)
• Redshift Rendezvous (1990)
• Manhattan Transfer (1993)
• Reunion on Neverend (1994)
• Reckoning Infinity (1997)