Katorga — Steven Wilson

A dark and often hilarious science fiction novel drawn from a vein adjacent to Heinlein and Vonnegut, Katorga harshly reflects a reality reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's best fiction. Doug Bradley is an entirely average veterinarian hanging his shingle in the suburbs of the near future when he and thousands of other innocents are torn from their homes, branded as terrorists, and thrown through a doorway onto a barren and frozen world called Ceti Prime. The Warden of the colony issues simple orders to the prisoners at gunpoint: find a way to survive, or don't. Brimming with the maniacal humor of the hopelessly damned, Katorga sees Doug and his quite mad friends face the perils of an alien wasteland, the dangers of bored and sociopathic guards and the delicacies of purple cactus. Along the way, secrets of this new world lead Doug to the chance for both freedom and redemption.