Far From the Light of Heaven Review

Another cover that I love, another book requested. Nothing new, nothing unexpected.

A tense and thrilling vision of humanity’s future in the chilling emptiness of space from rising giant in science fiction, Arthur C. Clarke Award winner Tade Thompson

The colony ship Ragtime docks in the Lagos system, having traveled light-years to bring one thousand sleeping souls to a new home among the stars. But when first mate Michelle Campion rouses, she discovers some of the sleepers will never wake.

Answering Campion’s distress call, investigator Rasheed Fin is tasked with finding out who is responsible for these deaths. Soon a sinister mystery unfolds aboard the gigantic vessel, one that will have repercussions for the entire system—from the scheming politicians of Lagos station, to the colony planet Bloodroot, to other far-flung systems, and indeed to Earth itself.

General Impressions

The fastest way I have of summarizing this book is First Sister meets Aurora Rising meets Altered Carbon.

This book ended up being nothing liked what I expected it to and I loved it for it. I was expecting a lot of action scenes and futuristic technology and while I got all of that what I liked more about this book was when it refused to be showy and dove into the details and nitty-gritty of what made their characters go from interesting to unforgettably realistic, making the reader care for them, since their safety was constantly under threat.

This was a narrative that knew how to make a reader stay thanks to the anticipation: the scenes in which there was action and fight scenes were as interesting as the ones where nothing was going on and somehow you still found on the edge of the couch.

I enjoyed the story in general but my favourite part was definitely how culturally rich it was and how the author made conscient choices to avoid subscribing to a colonialist discourse, choosing instead to portray everyone as people rather than an example of a belief.

Conclusions

If you are a fan of sci-fi and the diversity that at long last is being portrayed in recent publications backed by big houses trust and money, this will make a fine addition to your shelf.

Thank you to Orbit for sending me this proof.

Rating: 4/5