An entertaining start to an interplanetary adventure with high stakes and complex science, but little depth.
In Miller’s SF novel, Marda Scorch will do whatever it takes to bring her missing husband and two daughters home—but a trip into the “BETWEEN” may be more than she bargained for.
Marda is a longtime resident of the planet Carpes and the warden of the Eastern Quadrant Stellar Bridge. Marda has spent the last six years searching for her family, ever since they were caught in the BETWEEN—the mysterious space connecting the Stellar Bridge to its secret counterpoint in New York City’s Central Park, where locals don’t even know the bridge exists. When three New Yorkers accidentally pass through it and catch a glimpse of the alien planet, it attracts the attention of the ruling Council and, specifically, council member Spellen, who seems intent on destroying the bridge, despite the fact that people may still be trapped within it. The New Yorkers include workaholic stock trader Ben Hendrick, who struggles to accept his elderly parents’ cross-country move to a rest home; recent college graduate Lily Barker, who dreams of escaping her emotionally abusive parents; and HVAC mechanic Tony Scalzi, who’s reeling from the fact that his mother is hospitalized with pancreatic cancer. The blip in reality that they experience changes their lives forever and eventually causes their paths to cross. Miller’s novel spends time on the complicated science that underpins the Stellar Bridges, made by ancient aliens: “whoever created these bridges supposedly used gravitational fields to sync the movements of Earth and Carpes—and depending on that flux, either the eastern or southern portals activated accordingly.” However, what stands out is the compelling strength of its central character, and the emotional turmoil she faces; Marda’s fight to save her family, despite Car Spellen’s schemes, is often affecting. However, Lily, Tony, and Ben lack convincing character arcs—in part, because Marda receives so much more attention. Similarly, the relationships that eventually form between the characters, while sometimes heartwarming, ultimately feels rushed and shallowly developed. Hopefully, a stronger sequel with remedy this.
An entertaining start to an interplanetary adventure with high stakes and complex science, but little depth.Pub Date: June 10, 2025
ISBN: 9798349275029
Page Count: 298
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ambitious but plodding space odyssey.
Having survived a disastrous deep space mission in 2038, three asteroid miners plan a return to their abandoned ship to save two colleagues who were left behind.
Though bankrolled through a crooked money laundering scheme, their original project promised to put in place a program to reduce the CO2 levels on Earth, ease global warming, and pave the way for the future. The rescue mission, itself unsanctioned, doesn't have a much better chance of succeeding. All manner of technical mishaps, unplanned-for dangers, and cutthroat competition for the precious resources from the asteroid await the three miners. One of them has cancer. The international community opposes the mission, with China, Russia, and the United States sending questionable "observers" to the new space station that gets built north of the moon for the expedition. And then there is Space Titan Jack Macy, a rogue billionaire threatening to grab the riches. (As one character says, "It's a free universe.") Suarez's basic story is a good one, with tense moments, cool robot surrogates, and virtual reality visions. But too much of the novel consists of long, sometimes bloated stretches of technical description, discussions of newfangled financing for "off-world" projects, and at least one unneeded backstory. So little actually happens that fixing the station's faulty plumbing becomes a significant plot point. For those who want to know everything about "silicon photovoltaics" and "orthostatic intolerance," Suarez's latest SF saga will be right up their alley. But for those itching for less talk and more action, the book's many pages of setup become wearing.
An ambitious but plodding space odyssey.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-18363-2
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
Suspenseful and snarky with surprising emotional depths.
This debut novel, the first of a projected trilogy, blends science fiction, fantasy, gothic chiller, and classic house-party mystery.
Gideon Nav, a foundling of mysterious antecedents, was not so much adopted as indentured by the Ninth House, a nearly extinct noble necromantic house. Trained to fight, she wants nothing more than to leave the place where everyone despises her and join the Cohort, the imperial military. But after her most recent escape attempt fails, she finally gets the opportunity to depart the planet. The heir and secret ruler of the Ninth House, the ruthless and prodigiously talented bone adept Harrowhark Nonagesimus, chooses Gideon to serve her as cavalier primary, a sworn bodyguard and aide de camp, when the undying Emperor summons Harrow to compete for a position as a Lyctor, an elite, near-immortal adviser. The decaying Canaan House on the planet of the absent Emperor holds dark secrets and deadly puzzles as well as a cheerfully enigmatic priest who provides only scant details about the nature of the competition...and at least one person dedicated to brutally slaughtering the competitors. Unsure of how to mix with the necromancers and cavaliers from the other Houses, Gideon must decide whom among them she can trust—and her doubts include her own necromancer, Harrow, whom she’s loathed since childhood. This intriguing genre stew works surprisingly well. The limited locations and narrow focus mean that the author doesn’t really have to explain how people not directly attached to a necromantic House or the military actually conduct daily life in the Empire; hopefully future installments will open up the author’s creative universe a bit more. The most interesting aspect of the novel turns out to be the prickly but intimate relationship between Gideon and Harrow, bound together by what appears at first to be simple hatred. But the challenges of Canaan House expose other layers, beginning with a peculiar but compelling mutual loyalty and continuing on to other, more complex feelings, ties, and shared fraught experiences.
Suspenseful and snarky with surprising emotional depths.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31319-5
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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