A compelling and exciting tale with an admirably resourceful hero; a fine SF series starter.
A spaceship captain defies revolutionaries who have seized crucial fuel in this debut SF novel.
The interplanetary spacecraft Ulysses is on an exploration mission, “the scientific journey of a lifetime,” when everything goes sideways. The ship must be resupplied by tankers based on Ceres, the largest object in an asteroid belt, which possesses abundant ice as well as very low gravity, essential for cost-effective resource transfers. It’s a long-planned rendezvous, but now, Ceres Control is inexplicably denying the Ulysses access to refueling tankers, leaving Mission Cmdr. Calvin Scott with a stark dilemma. The ship has enough fuel to extend its elliptical orbit and let Jupiter’s gravity catapult it back to Earth, a long, slow, resource-taxing journey that would end the voyage. Or, if the ship changes course to orbit Ceres, Cal could risk using the fuel they have to reconnoiter and somehow get refueled. As for why Ceres has taken this step, it could be making the first move in declaring independence from the consortium of companies that owns the base, making the inhabitants “among the wealthiest and most powerful individuals in the solar system.” Cal can’t bear the thought of abandoning the mission, so he ignores Ceres’ warning to stay away and conceives a bold plan to grab the colony’s orbiting automated taxi, reach the base, and figure things out from there. His arrival throws the rebels into a tizzy; they had been sure of foiling the Ulysses and making a strong statement to Earth. Helen Donovan, chief of psychology for the base, is familiar with Cal and adamant that the group’s best course is to kill him, but the renegades dither. Meanwhile, Cal is living up to his ship’s namesake by crafting twists, opportunities, and on-the-fly decisions that—with skill and luck—could get the Ulysses under way.
In this first volume of the Wine Dark Deep trilogy, Keith draws on his work creating museum exhibits that simulate space flight for NASA to convincing effect. Fans of hard SF dramas like the TV series The Expanse will enjoy how the crisp, vivid renditions of technology, procedures, and settings are well thought through, providing a lived-in, utterly real world. The smallest maneuvers are brought home with sensory details, as when Cal can feel the Ulysses and the taxi locking together, “the muffled vibration and clunk of the two vehicles’ union transmitted down the long axis of the ship.” Action scenes, too, have cinematic punch, such as a daring maneuver that requires Cal to employ the landscape as a ramp to gain altitude for his escape vehicle. At the same time, Keith also beautifully evokes wonders, from Ceres’ ice volcanoes to space itself: “A perfect bowl of night. Stars in incalculable number shining through luminous sheets of galactic material. A trillion stars. Maybe a trillion upon a trillion other lives out there. Or none.” Characterization, on the other hand, tends to be sketchy, with little or no backstory. For example, Donovan knows Cal from the past, but readers don’t really learn much about this connection except that she considers him dangerous.
A compelling and exciting tale with an admirably resourceful hero; a fine SF series starter.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73510-950-3
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Uphill Downhill Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Equal parts biting social commentary and page-turning thriller, a disturbing glimpse into humankind’s possible future.
The first installment of Liu’s Julia Z saga is an SF thriller set in a near-future “post-truth age” where the use of AI and the inundation of digital disinformation and data pollution have blurred the lines between delusion and reality.
Julia—whose immigrant mother, a divisive political activist, was murdered during a border protest—has lived on her own since she was 14. A brilliant hacker now 23, she’s been trying to live in online anonymity, acutely aware of the multitude of ways she can be identified and tracked. Living in a Boston suburb and struggling to make ends meet, she inadvertently becomes entangled with a lawyer named Piers Neri and his search for his artist wife, Elli Krantz—famous for her experimental work in vivid dreaming—who may or may not have been kidnapped. A prime suspect in his wife’s disappearance, Piers goes on the run with the help of Julia—and together, they begin putting together pieces of a mind-bogglingly intricate puzzle that links Elli to a powerful criminal with a global reach. As Julia digs deeper into the appeal of vivid dreaming and the criminal’s ruthless endeavors, she discovers the sham that is the American Dream: “America was corrupt and steeped in sin. The powerful had rigged the game for themselves and turned the country into a panopticon to imprison the rest of us. Anytime one of the powerless—it didn’t matter the color of your skin, the language you spoke, the place you were born in—was on the verge of climbing out, they would be ruthlessly tossed back into the pit.” And amid the backdrop of dealing with unresolved childhood trauma and the need to find her place in the world, she finds something unexpected—herself.
Equal parts biting social commentary and page-turning thriller, a disturbing glimpse into humankind’s possible future.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781668083178
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Saga/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
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
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