Wildcatter

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“As long as there is money to be made, there will be Wildcatters” — Dave DuncanThroughout human history wildcatters, the first great explorers and prospectors to lay claim to newly discovered lands, have marched to the beat of a different drummer — motivated by a deep yearning to be the first to walk on uncharted land and benefit from treasures yet to be discovered.In the future, wildcatters in space will travel to exoplanets, located in The Big Nothing, to search for new chemicals which, when transformed into pharmaceuticals, might bring untold wealth and fame to the individuals and corporations that stake their claim for exclusive exploitation rights.Such is the quest of the crew of the independent starship Golden Hind, whose mission is to travel a year and a half to “Cacafuego”, beat the larger corporations to the exoplanets’ resources, and strike it rich for themselves.But will a yellow warning flag, already planted above the planet, stop them? Or will the Golden Hind’s prospector foray to the planet’s surface, possibly never to return alive?Wildcatter is a raucous tale of mystery, greed and passion, told by master story teller Dave Duncan, once himself a real wildcatter!Review“What an excellent read! This book is fast paced and gripping. It is set in a well thought out world with interesting and complex characters in a challenging situation. It is a feast for the imagination - thoughtful with parallels in modern life on the nature of race and prejudice.”— Wayne Harris“...when you’re looking for a good adventure, Dave Duncan is a sure thing. Mostly in fantasy, but he can certainly do SF as well, & Pock’s World is a good example of his sly & fast paced plotting, his ability to construct intriguingly different worlds, & his knack for quick & entertaining characterization & dialogue. All in all, it’s a fun read, with just a little hidden kick of ethical philosophizing about the future of post-humanity (although he’d never use such a term).”— Eclectic Ruckus“Prolific Canadian author Dave Duncan provides an interesting view of people and landscapes in Pock’s World. Some aspects resemble human adaptations of Paul McAuley’s The Quiet War and Gardens of the Sun. Duncan adds his own touch with super intelligent aliens created from human genomes. Because of one discovered on Pock’s World, the galaxy space agency, STARS, plans to sterilize the planet and kill all the people on it to stop the aliens polluting the galaxy.”— Mel Jacob“Dave Duncan writes rollicking adventure novels filled with subtle characterization and made bitter-sweet by an underlying darkness. Without striving for grand effects or momentous meetings between genres, he has produced one excellent book after another.”— Locus“Dave Duncan has long been one of the great unsung figures of Canadian fantasy and science fiction, graced with a fertile imagination, a prolific output, and keen writerly skills. With this new novel, Duncan again forges a bold new world, populated with varied and complex characters, distinctive cultures, and a complex system of mythology and science.”— Quill and Quire“Duncan writes with unusual flair, drawing upon folklore, myth, and his gift for creating ingenious plots.”— Year’s Best Fantasy and HorrorFrom the AuthorI was a wildcatter once. To say that this book is based on my own experience would be obvious rubbish. Nevertheless, many years ago, I worked for a succession of small "independent" oil companies, which explored for petroleum, competing against "majors," meaning multinationals with vastly greater resources. Strangely, the Goliaths did not always win. There was a lot of luck in wildcatting, which originally meant hunting for oil and gas "out among the wildcats", far from any known fields. I had some modest success, and the money I made then helped support me when I left geology for a writing career. I met a lot of fascinating characters. I saw some of the bare-knuckle gold-rush style towns that grew up near any important discovery. The tie-in to this story is that people do not change. If interstellar travel ever develops along the lines I suggest, then it will surely attract the same sort of gamblers. If there are riches to be found among the stars, then wildcatters will be out there.