This story opens with a trope that I’ve been told you should never do… the POV character wakes up in a sleep/med pod and struggles to survive. I suppose that the lesson here is that “never” means that it needs to be done well. I have a story where my main POV character also wakes up in a sleep/med pod, but as I’ve thought about that story over the years, I realize it isn’t essential to the plot, and so I’ve changed it. In this story, too, it isn’t essential to the plot, but these medipods keep showing up at important points in the story, so having it play a role early maybe makes some sense. All rules are there for a reason, and all rules can be broken. I just wish I could look under the hood on this one… why is it ok here? I don’t know.
The story is about a brother and a sister… and a third party who we don’t really ever figure out who it is even at the end. The brother, Biran, lives in “the present,” although it is in the future, while the sister, Sanda, has awakened several hundred years in the future after a weapon destroyed the whole system. The other story is clearly a side story, though an important character is revealed in that story towards the end of the book. I feel like the side story will gain in importance in the sequel. Biran is trying to save his sister from a battle that took place “in the present,” While Sanda has decided to jet off into the black because the system is now dead.
Much of the first half of the book is spent in these 3 respective spaces, and since you know how it ended up, you just are left wondering how exactly the weapon will be used to decimate the system. Sanda is a hard working and smart person who runs a salvage operation to try to save her own skin for the long (hundred year) flight to the the next nearest system. There is tension, but it is also uneasy.
No spoilers here, but things change in the second half. And the pace picks up quickly. I noted some craft things that I liked. First, there are several “interludes,” where we get to meet a newscaster and see her from behind the camera; she plays a role in the story later. We also get to meet the original woman who discovered the “gates” that allow for space travel in this universe. We get to see her pushing the tech and then setting the gate up out by Charon. It is a long ago flashback and it sets the stage for the Protectorate, the “ruling class” that controls the gates.
There is a lot of depth to this world, even though we see it from the lens of the ruling class. There is intrigue, there is some spy craft, and not everything is what it seems. I enjoyed this book and will read the sequel, but it didn’t “grab” me like some other things I’ve read recently. I can’t put my finger on why… Biran felt a bit whiny at times; Sanda felt a little bossy… I’m not really sure. the characters didn’t ever feel as real to me as I would have liked. But, it was definitely an enjoyable read!