Evolution, by Gerald Kilby

This is the third book in The Belt series, preceded by Entropy.

At the end of chapter 1, we are told that "there isn't another living thing for a radius of a million square kilometres". Talking about a radius and then specifying it as an area just sounds weird.

Wouldn't it be more sensible to say "there isn't another living thing for a radius of 400 kilometres" or else "there isn't another living thing within a million square kilometres"?

In chapter two, a couple of robotic "mules" are being used to transport equipment, and there's a possibility that airborne drones are looking for them. One of the characters states that "those mules give off a lot of EMF - enough possibly for a drone to detect".

I'm assuming that EMF here stands for Electro-Magnetic Field, which is not something this is "given off"; it's just something that things "have". Saying that the mules "have a high EMF" would be plausible.

In chapter 5, there are apparently "slight air droughts coming in from the mine entrance". I think, dear proofreader, that that should be "draughts"…

Chapter 7 contains a sentence: "He started walking, following behind what seem to be a long line of people."

In chapter 10, "Scott wonder how these people got anything done…".

I offer the proofreader a couple of "ed"s to add to these verbs.

Back in chapter 9, a simpler "s" is missing, when The Seven are referred to as "the major corporation that controlled Earth". They are in fact seven separate corporations.

Chapter 12 starts with a paragraph containing "…ever since its current occupants had arrived and began living in these ancient ruins". I'm pretty sure that should be "begun".

In chapter 15, "two bolts of incessant plasma spat out from the darkness". Maybe that should be "incandescent" - such as the two "incandescent plasma bolts [which] streaked out from the darkness" on the next page.

In chapter 22, the child "buried her head in her mother shoulder". A possessive "'s" would go well there.

Evolution is followed by Enigma.

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