Superlative characters fuel this swiftly paced futuristic tale.
Mercenaries embark on a series of missions and misadventures while pursuing a heinous alien species in this SF sequel.
Shirakaya was once a captain of the Order, a religious military faction on the planet Pravura. Now, she’s a freelancer for guilds, tackling such missions as investigating unexplained deaths at a nursing home and rescuing a trancepunk rock star from a cult. She slowly forms a team ultimately called Shadow Mercs, starting with the military crew of a spacecraft she once commanded. While the mercenaries complete missions that Shirakaya’s contact continues to assign, they also earn money in other ways. Two Mercs become tag-team champs in an underground arena while Shirakaya’s team tries joining a competition show to win a brand-new interstellar starship. But their most important goal is stopping Ashkaratoth, who leads koth’vurians in terrorist attacks on Pravura. Most don’t believe that these aliens, exiled eons ago, have even returned. Shirakaya further enhances the Mercs with surprising recruits; she hopes to align with a powerful wraith and embraces a soldier who’s gradually mutating from an alien bite. The team may prove a formidable adversary to Ashkaratoth, especially if Shirakaya can get back the magic she’s lost. Centeno’s second installment, like the first, is a collection of subplots. Each chapter focuses on and often resolves an intriguing story; as one character aptly puts it, “One mission at a time, please.” Still, there’s definite cohesion, particularly with the Mercs’ persistent alien enemy, who, like numerous characters, appeared in the preceding novel. The vibrant cast includes Shirakaya; cynical soldier Dojin; and pilot Narja, who pushes the hardest for the starship grand prize. Sadly, not everyone in this appealing bunch makes it to the end. Meanwhile, brisk action ignites the pages with enchanted swords, plasma guns, and tentacled creatures, though it’s apparent that Centeno is setting the stage for more books to follow.
Superlative characters fuel this swiftly paced futuristic tale. (dedication, maps, glossary, author bio)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-09-227722-8
Page Count: 321
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2021
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
Elegiac and elliptical, this slim novel is a sobering read.
Six astronauts on a space station orbit the planet over the course of a single Earth day.
Two hundred and fifty miles above the Earth, a space station goes round and round. Over the course of 24 hours, the astronauts inside experience sunrise and sunset 16 times. Though they're supposed to keep their schedules in tune with a normal “daily” routine, they exist in a dream-like liminal space, weightless, out of time, captivated and astonished by the “ringing singing lightness” of the globe always in view. “What would it be to lose this?” is the question that spurs Harvey’s nimble swoops and dives into the minds of the six astronauts (as well as a few of the earthbound characters, past and present). There are gentle eddies of plot: The Japanese astronaut, Chie, has just received word that her elderly mother has died; six other astronauts are currently on their way to a moon landing; a “super-typhoon” barrels toward the Philippines; one of the two cosmonauts, Anton, has discovered a lump on his neck. But overall this book is a meditation, zealously lyrical, about the profundity and precarity of our imperiled planet. It’s surely difficult to write a book in which the main character is a giant rock in space—and the book can feel ponderous at times, especially in the middle—but Harvey’s deliberate slowed-down time and repetitions are entirely the point. Like the astronauts, we are forced to meditate on the notion that “not only are we on the sidelines of the universe but that it’s…a universe of sidelines, that there is no centre.” Is this a crisis or an opportunity? Harvey treats this question as both a narrative and an existential dilemma.
Elegiac and elliptical, this slim novel is a sobering read.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780802161543
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Grove
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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