3 out of 5 stars
On Amazon (universal link) - available on Sept 30.
On Goodreads
How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.
In a Nutshell: Saving humanity by moving it 500 light years away - what could possibly go wrong?
At the start of this book, the story reminded me of Raised by Wolves, an HBO series I thought was inspired, in which androids are sent to a far away planet to raise children from protected embryos, after Earth is all but destroyed. Great concept! In the case of USS Primis, it's a team of astronauts with human and animal embryos, and the planet to which they travel in hypersleep is 500 light years away. I loved the author's idea for how the sun is destroyed - that in a peace treaty, all nations agree to fire their nuclear weapons into space, with disastrous consequences. No idea if this is what would happen, but it works here!
In a way this was like two novels The setting up of the story was, I felt, far too long. The first half is mostly told in captain David's 1st person, in the form of a captain's log/diary, etc. He gives a description of each crew member, outlining various intricacies of their personality; I think this works on the screen but not in a novel, where it feels like an unnecessary 'information dump'. In a film you see the face, which makes them more likely to stick in your head. I prefer to discover a character by their thoughts, words and actions rather than being given an outline of their character traits. Though the writing certainly flows and is most accessible, David's 'banter' mode of narrative in the first half of the book didn't really work for me.
After the character descriptions was a long section about their two months quarantine before lift-off day, which I found neither necessary nor convincing, as the crew seemed more like a group of students than mature, experienced astronauts, aware of the gravity of their mission. I felt I was waiting for the story to start, all the way through the first half.
Then, book two. So much better, and not what I expected at all. Another great twist in the tale, this time told by an omniscient narrator. No more details because *spoilers* - you should be as surprised as I was. I am most interested in the short stories in which the plot moves in a different direction; I'd love to read about life on Nova.
To sum up - I think it needs a good, thorough developmental/copy edit by someone who really knows their stuff, to get rid of errors, and also to think through some of the content - the novel must surely be set far into the future, but the lifestyle and cultural references about the world they've left behind made it sound like they set off in 2024, or earlier. I was also unconvinced by David not knowing (and being surprised) that the AI could track the exact whereabouts on the ship of any of the astronauts. Wouldn't that be a most basic facility? And one of them clearly has extremely dark psychological problems - would she have been chosen for a mission such as this?
However, it's a fabulous basic story with masses of potential, and the writing itself has a great deal of promise. With input from an experienced editor who really knows their stuff, the best of both could be brought out.
Thank you Terry.
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