Wow! That was a ride!
In a very possible future, women are encouraged to quit their jobs-especially in science fields like space exploration. The world is dying and society also crumbles to extremist leaders. A small crew of five women launch from the Earth to steal a shuttle to a distant planet in another galaxy to live their own lives anew.
The majority of the book is told from the perspective of the Atalanta's botanist, Naomi. She's joins this mission under the command of her adoptive mother.
A virus begins to spread across Earth. At the same time in space, mother and daughter brought a few secrets on board the Atalanta that begin to unravel. The secrets have costs for some individuals and the future of humanity.
Goldilocks is everything I wanted and hoped for. It's a thoughtful look a feminism and choice. The effect of choice on the individual and the whole. Seriously, the theme and the actual execution in this book is unmatched in science fiction.
Laura Lam has a wonderful narrative and writing style that made this book so easy to read. She tells the story in a really mysterious way that leaves the reader questioning intentions an results.
I also really enjoyed the character and world building. I definitely understood the main characters very well by the end of the book. They felt real.
At the end, I was a little confused about some choices. It took a weird turn and introduced some other characters. After a few pages, I get it and it's a beautiful ending.
I loved everything about this book. So grateful to get an advanced reader copy.

*** Post is scheduled to post at 9am on April 21st, and will also be posted to instagram at that time. Review will be updated on the 21st with the instagram link. ***
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I received this book from Orbit through netgalley for my honest opinion. Goldilocks comes out on May 5th!

Laura Lam’s Goldilocks follows a scientific crew of five women on their mission to a recently discovered planet in the goldilocks zone. They are to make sure that the planet it livable and help begin the work of colonizing the planet. Except, with increasing restrictions on women in the workplace, these five women find themselves pushed out of the jobs they were promised. So, they steal the spaceship and take off to do what they are meant to.

Through a series of flashbacks, and through the dialogue and thoughts of the women on board, Lam builds a detailed world where women’s roles in society have regressed. Lam builds on what I would call Turmp-era politics, imagining a future where women’s rights are seemingly revoked: women are taken out of field positions, and pushed back into desk duty; they are passed over for jobs and denied promotions; and they are encouraged to get pregnant and take a baby bonus, an action that bars them from returning to work for five years.

On top of it all, humanity has thirty years or less left on earth. Global warming has gotten worse, no one has truly gotten a handle on industry, and there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of climate change orphans. Pollution is so bad that everyone must wear filter masks when outside.

I could see a version of the world like this, if the current political climate continued unchecked. I like to believe that we wouldn’t let things play out to this degree, at least with regards to the erosion of women’s rights, but I could easily visualize the reality that this book draws from.

Despite the high stakes on earth, and the consequences one would expect to see from stealing a spaceship (spoiler: there are no consequences beyond vague threats), this book was so incredibly slow. I kept checking my location in my e-book wondering when it was going to become a sci-fi thriller like I had been promised. At 50% of the way through, I wondered if it would ever happen.

Goldilocks felt more like an interpersonal drama than a thriller for the majority of the story. Told through scenes set onboard the ship and through flashbacks, Lam put a lot of effort into developing the relationship (and it’s tensions) between the protagonist, Naomi, and her previous legal guardian, Valerie. And I just…never really cared about any of it. The constant flashbacks were disrupting and made the beginning of the book stretch on endlessly.

I feel like the writing style also contributed to the sense of the book having a very slow pace. There was a significant amount of telling rather than showing.

When I finally reached the part of the story I would consider a sci-fi thriller, I was disappointed with how quickly the problem was resolved. Within the space of a few chapters the women went from being divided, to working together to take down the one member of their crew whose anger at the world and hunger for power combined to create a potentially world-ending cataclysm. It doesn’t take them long after that to stop her plan.

This might be the book for someone, but it was not the book for me. To me, Goldilocks did not deliver as the sci-fi thriller I was looking forward to reading. The stakes, while high, were not always realistic and problems were overcome too easily.

I would recommend this book to someone who likes to read books with interpersonal drama, and who enjoys reading books that examine the ways our current culture could evolve if we do not change.

Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books/Headline Publishing Group for sending me an ARC of Goldilocks in exchange for an honest review.

This book is being marketed for fans of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Martian, and there are definitely elements of both books here. As climate change is in the final stages of making Earth uninhabitable for humanity, a group of five women are preparing to voyage to Cavendish, a planet 10 light-years away, to begin a colonization effort. But a group of conservative men win election in America and women are soon driven from the workplace. Leaving our five women with no choice but to steal the Atalanta and make the voyage on their own.

It’s a great premise, but somehow the story never came together for me. Too much of the societal backstory was presented in a huge info dump in the first chapter, when parceling that information out slowly seemed like a better way to build suspense. The plot takes an odd turn because one character becomes so unrealistically monstrous that they sabotage their own plans by forcing others to stop them. And a subplot involving a backup crew that could have been mined for innumerable plot choices was resolved much too quickly and unsatisfactorily. Ironically, for me Goldilocks was not too good, and not too bad, but right in the middle.

Here's what I liked: the plot, the spaceship, lady astronauts doing science, twists within twists.
Here's what was missing that could have helped me like the book more: I felt as if I barely knew any of the characters so it was hard to care when things happened to them. I should have deeply cared about things between Naomi and Valerie and I didn't, not even after all the flashbacks.
Still, I stress, I gave this book 4 stars because I had to know what would happen next and could not put it down.

[I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.]

I hate to compare a book I’ve just finished to another but this is like if The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Martian. A nearly all female cast of characters do their best to change their lot in life. The idea of the Trolley Problem helping me enjoy this book is delightful. It fulfilled my need to have more female astronauts in my reading life. I can’t wait until this movie is released I will see it twenty times. I enjoyed the writing m. It flowed very easily and it never felt like there was too much science. Though I may be biased because I love science.

In the near future, Earth is doomed. Humanity has done nothing to stem global warming, and social changes are ever more regressive and patriarchal. On the horizon is Cavendish: a planet, ten light years away, in the 'Goldilocks zone' of its star, rendering it habitable to human life. Various space agencies have been working toward getting to Cavendish, but after the transfer of the contract from Hawthorn to Lockwood, the five women Hawthorn CEO Valerie Black had been planning to send on the mission hijack the spaceship <i>Atalanta</i>, aiming to be the first to land on the new planet and thus creating a new society that avoids the prejudices of the old.

I loved about 80% of this novel. After some necessary set up, once the crew is on board the <i>Atalanta</i>, the escalating crises and decision-making are thrilling, and the tension great. I was very, very happy that only the backstory the reader needs was filled in through occasional chapters set in the years before the launch of the shuttle, while the main plot follows the narrative of the spaceship theft/space travel. Of the five characters that steal the <i>Atalanta</i>, only Naomi Lovelace and her impressions of Valerie are clear early in the novel, but as things develop the other characters are brought in more. As the story goes on, the setting and the changes that have been wrought on Earth become clearer and more threatening.

The 20% largely comes down to what I felt was over-explaining the setting. As the narrative, particularly the flashbacks, go on, we get a sense of how women are being forced out of the workforce, how they are being punished for being child-bearers, and the justifications the government uses for these measure. We see the effects of global warming, and the presentation of private enterprises exploring space develops in interesting ways. In the first few chapters of the book, I felt that these things were being asserted rather thoughtlessly, as trendy decorative elements to the story that didn't entirely feel necessary. As the story went on, my position on this changed as the setting developed; by the end of the novel all of these complaints seems minor, but they are weighted to the beginning of the book, which might be off putting. So really the point here is that if this is annoying you, too, stick it out. But there remain a few instances that felt too blunt, like references to the trolley problem, that I would have preferred if they were more subtle. I think this is a measure of trusting your audience; at times I felt like I wasn't trusted enough to understand a theme without it being explained.

My final take is that <i>Goldilocks</i> is an excellent novel with some minor, irksome details. Many thanks to Netgalley for the ARC, and I recommend this novel when it comes out if you can cope with some of the aspects that become more relevant as we barrel into a future without a willingness to drastically change the path we're on as a species.

This one is hard for me to review as it really wasn't a story I enjoyed but not because of writing style or anything. It was just way out of my comfort zone, so please take my review w/ a grain of salt.

Climate change has made Earth almost totally uninhabitable, women have somehow lost any gain on equality that the #metoo movement has brought, there's a limit on how many children families are allowed to have without paying steep taxes... all in all we've gone to sh%*. Fortunately though, space travel has made enormous strides in finding it possible to claim a new home on another planet. Five women set out in secret, to be the first ones there, hoping to provide a little hope for humanity.

The first issue I had was just being confused and bored with all the technical language involved in space travel. Again, not the authors fault, just something that isn't all that interesting to me. For me this led to a lot of mind wandering and page skimming. Once the story picks up though, I enjoyed it much more than I expected to but it still was just an ok story with an ok ending.

As climate change ravages the Earth and governments around the world gradually erode women’s rights, a crew of five highly qualified women steal a spaceship and travel to an Earth-like extrasolar planet. Never has a book’s premise so thoroughly appealed to my specific interests: science, space travel, climate change, feminism.

Unfortunately, Goldilocks suffered in its execution, and I couldn’t give it the full five stars I’d hoped I would. Its number one flaw was its cast of characters, especially its protagonist. Of the Atalanta’s five-women crew, Naomi Lovelace was by far the least interesting member. I couldn’t get a strong sense of who she was as a person. She was completely flat. Her four fellow astronauts had glimmers of promise but, aside from Valerie, were disappointingly underdeveloped, and the relationships between them went largely unexplored.

I couldn’t help but compare Goldilocks to other books with similar themes but much better execution: To Be Taught, If Fortunate and Good Morning, Midnight. The blurb mentions The Handmaid’s Tale, but Laura Lam only briefly touches on the treatment of women in this imaginary future. It also mentions The Martian; though Naomi may be a botanist, she is certainly no Mark Watney. Like Andy Weir, Lam wove real science into the story of Goldilocks, but she lacks Weir’s sense of humor.

Although Goldilocks didn’t live up to my high expectations, it was still an enjoyable read. It delivered on all of the things I was excited about. Lam included enough real science to make her premise seem realistic, without going overboard and scaring off readers (like myself) who aren’t scientific experts. Her world building effectively explored Earth’s potential future if humanity doesn’t take immediate, drastic steps to mitigate climate change. Again, I felt that a little more of the world building could have focused on the treatment of women. Lam outlines the misogynistic policies of near-future America, but doesn’t explain how they came to be.

What I enjoyed the most was the space travel, which was no surprise. The plot was engaging throughout and kept me reading. The ending left me with mixed feelings, but it also left me thinking, and that’s exactly what I look for in science fiction. I thought the “Thirty Years After” prologue and epilogue were unnecessary.

I liked this book. It was an engrossing sci fi space book. I liked the characters and the story held my interest.

I also liked the suspense aspect of what would happen throughout the book.

I would recommend this book if you like an engrossing sci fi story.

Book Review-Goldilocks by Laura Lam

I thought this was a fun and exciting sci-fi adventure into space. Naomi is part of an expedition to try to reach a “goldilocks” planet.

This book felt like a quick read, when I was able to sit and read it I flew through it! There was great suspense in this book and some things that happen that I was not expecting.

I enjoyed reading this book and I gave it 3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️.

This book is everything.

Goldilocks takes place in the very near future, where the environment is so irrevocably damaged that humanity is likely to die out and politicians have slowly pushed women out of the workforce and into subservient roles. During this, five brilliant women, all trained astronauts, hijack a foray to a new plane to explore setting up a colony of humans. But there are secrets on board - layers of them. It has a touch of The Handmaid's Tale, and quite a bit of The Martian, but it's also uniquely its own. Lam explores motherhood and choice, climate change, family bonds, love, philosophical issues like the trolley problem, and much more, all while building a vivid world, and ultimately created a book that was nearly impossible to put down. In the current political landscape, and in the wake of a current epidemic, the future Lam imagines feels all too possible.

A solid hard-scifi story. Good science and suspense elements along with interesting characters made this compelling. This is from an experience author, and she knows how to effectively tell a good tale. She has a good imagination and includes what feels like realism into the story. Recommended.

I really appreciate the ARC for review!!

The Goldilocks Zone is what scientists use to describe as the habitable zone that can support life. What is life? It can be humans, animals, bacteria, microbes, or a number of other things. For the novel Goldilocks, the name also refers to the moral dilemmas facing an all-female team of scientists on board a commandeered spaceship as they find their mission, and leader, are not all they seem to be.

Goldilocks grabbed my attention because of all-female astronauts. Once I read the book, I found it was so much more than that.

This book was so cinematic and full and well developed. I could see it playing out in my head as a movie. Can someone make that happen, please?!

While there are twists and turns and jaw-dropping moments that had me hanging on to every page, what got me most about this book were the smaller moments. Moments such as one where words undermined a women’s life’s work. Many moments of women not having control over what happens to themselves in careers or childbirth. Just to name a few.

The science and the ship were super cool. I liked the explanation of the how of the artificial gravity, instead of it just existing. I liked reading about the struggle of getting the project funded. The details really made the story feel grounded. Real. And made it feel like it could happen in the not-to-distant future, for better and for worse.

As a woman, I absolutely loved reading this book and think that even if you don’t like the science fiction genre, more women should read this book. Men should also read it too, to save themselves from the pitfalls of the men in this book, but women will absolutely identify with Goldilocks and the story of these five women astronauts.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read Goldilocks as an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

First off, a big thank you to Netgalley and Orbit Books for an ARC. I was very excited about this book to begin with, and it made my day to receive an ARC.

Goldilocks is cli-fi novel about a crew of female astronauts flying to Cavendish, a planet identified as habitable outside our solar system. There is definitely a sense of urgency because Earth has 20-30 more years before it becomes ravaged by global warming. While the crew members are all highly trained, there's one snag - they aren't the crew meant to be flying the ship. In fact, they aren't supposed to be on the ship at all.

While I took some time to be acclimated to the characters (in part because the first third of the novel goes back and forth in time), once I did, I was hooked. Naomi, her adoptive mother, Valerie, and the other women on the ship were interesting and believable characters, reacting to the news that their original mission had been sabotaged.

I didn't quite get The Handmaid's Tale reference, and was actually happy that I forgot about this hyped comparison until after finishing the book. If you're looking for The Handmaid's Tale in space, I think you'll be disappointed. If you want a gripping science fiction about environmental disasters, deadly secrets, and female astronauts, however, this is definitely the book for you!

In this novel, five women astronauts steal a rocket and travel far into outer space, hoping to be the first to land on a Goldilocks planet--one that has just the right conditions for human survival. But the manipulations and lies of the team's leader wreak havoc on the ship and endanger everyone's lives. I found the writing melodramatic and the story soap-operaish: life and death decisions daily! couples torn apart! allegiances shifted! misplaced trust! engineered diseases! The whole thing is overdone and there are few reasons given for the decisions some of the crew members make other than that they create more chaos and trust issues.

Lam delivers a fantastic cinematic worthy set-up for this apocalyptic space drama set in the not-too-distant future. The science in the book is highly believable, as is the terrifying look at our potential political, economic, and ecological future, which is where Lam's story shines. I can easily see this being adapted for a limited run TV series, because the tension and action practically jump off the page. My primary criticism is that the ending of the book feels rushed, with an epilogue that doesn't feel wholly earned. Despite the ending, I recommend this book for those who like space dramas, science-based thrillers, or apocalyptic fiction.

Goldilocks is set in the future where women are being forced out of their jobs to stay home and take care of the one child they can have before paying a steep "child tax" on any additional children they may have. The climate is ravaging the earth and scientists best guess is that Earth may have another 30 years before it has been completely exhausted of resources and mankind most likely will not survive.
Naomi is a botanical researcher who specializes in growing plants that can survive on other planets. She is working in Scotland when her estranged mother,Valerie Black, the owner of a prestigious science company that is making a ship to travel to Cavendish. A planet in what is knows as the "Goldilocks" zone. An area that isn't too hot or cold and has potential to be a new home for the human race. Valerie wants to steal the ship Atalanta with 4 other women scientists and travel to Cavendish.
When things start going wrong once they are in space Naomi starts to question Valerie's motives on what she hoped to accomplish on this journey.
Overall I really enjoyed this story. The characters were well developed and the world building was believable and quite scary. The way the world was being run by governments is eerily similar to what is going on in the world today. If you liked The Martian or dystopian books like The Handmaid's Tale will enjoy this cautionary tale about the delicate balance of our planet and the choices we have to make.
Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

I am writing this review in exchange for an advanced copy from NetGalley.
The premise of this book is a 5 woman crew who 'borrows' a spaceship to try and be the first humans to reach a new planet and start the colony to save humanity from a quickly devolving planet Earth. This book is set in the not too distant future and brings home one possible future with the Earth struggling from a overheated climate. The book is excellently written and has some nice twists and turns. I enjoyed the writing as well as the premise and expect this book to do very well. It releases May 5 and I recommend it!

I am writing this review in exchange for an advanced copy from NetGalley. I finished this book today and thought it was phenomenal. Goldilocks is about five women who commit grand theft spaceship as a last resort to escape an Earth suffering from severe climate change and social issues pushing women out of the workplace. Their goal is Cavendish, a 'Goldilocks' planet in which they can begin anew and establish a better society. The main character is Naomi, a biologist who has lived in the shadow of her Elon Musk-esque adoptive mother (who is the mastermind behind the theft), and has a life's dream of setting foot on Cavendish. All is not as it seems within their stolen ship or even their crew.

This book stood out to me in a big way for the way it handled themes of feminism and climate change without coming off as 'preachy'. The female leads are not just the quirky, brazen foils to emotionally blank or angry men, which is overly common in some popular books/shows, especially in the sci-fi/fantasy genre. This is an appropriate book for 2020, and enjoyable to read as well with several surprising twists and turns. The author took care to make sure the science and technology they write about is realistic and believable. Overall a great read!

Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book. I am not a big Sci Fi fan, but decided to give this one a chance. I do not want to give anything away so I am going to use the blurb here. Goldilocks is "The Handmaid's Tale" meets "The Martian" where five women with increasing freedoms on Earth task themselves with ensuring the survival of the human race. Definitely turned me into a Sci Fi fan.