LIGHTLESS

A tense psychodrama set on a malfunctioning spaceship.

There should only be three people on the Ananke: Domitian, the captain; Gagnon, the senior scientist; and Althea, the mechanic who monitors every inch of the ship and every line of code to make sure it's in good repair. So when two strangers show up out of the blackness of space, it’s bad news. But Althea, at least, is not as worried about these intruders’ possible terrorist connections as she is about how they tricked the Ananke into letting them board or what one of them might have done to damage her beautiful ship’s code. Even as one of the intruders slips out of the crew’s grasp and a coldhearted intelligence officer named Ida Stays arrives to interrogate the remaining prisoner, a handsome, manipulative charmer named Ivanov who may or may not know the identity of the wanted terrorist known as the Mallt-y-Nos, all Althea can think about is Ananke and what kind of virus might be worming its way toward the ship's heart. Meanwhile, always, everywhere, the all-powerful surveillance state that rules our solar system, and brooks no disobedience, is watching. The stakes in this story are high—life and death, rebellion and betrayal—and debut novelist Higgins continually ratchets up the tension as the handful of people on board the Ananke struggle to uncover one another’s secrets.

A suspenseful, emotional story that asks plenty of big questions about identity and freedom, this is a debut not to be missed.