We love a space resort vibe. And there's always a layer to the decay in the decadence. Escape Velocity packs so much into the pages. It's a class reunion with flashbacks to what happened. To the secrets that will never lie buried, to the lies we can never outrun. It's also a story of a present murder mystery on a locked room style space resort. What's better than that? Oh a story also critiquing the classism and prejudices in Mars exploration and capitalism.

Escape Velocity is a Sci-fi novel set in the luxurious Altaire hotel, where the elite among the elite congregate, each with their motives and secrets. It's The Menu, but set in space. I found the commentary on privilege and faux inclusivity pretty interesting.
I also liked the articles and the MERIT guide interspersed between the chapters, which grounded the book.
However, most of the characters are bland, except for Cielo and Ava. There were also long, long paragraphs on...nothing really, and led to me skimming several of them just so we could get on the plot. I was also kind of bored at the first part, but the second part really picked up the pace.

Aside from all that, if you liked Parasite, Knives Out, or The Menu, you'll love this one.

I was wanting for sci-fi, but this just happened to take place in space with the mystery front and center - which is okay but it isn't what I wanted or expected. The mystery was okay, but I was also wanting to see more of a current mystery; there is a current mystery going on, but one that's completely separate from the other. It was good, it just wasn't what I wanted.

If you like murder mysteries and support eating the rich, you will like Escape Velocity. In many ways, it's the revenge fantasy we all need right now.

This one wasn’t for me. It’s very wordy, which made it kind of drag, and the far future setting really only served to require a whole bunch of background info (which slowed things down even more). It felt kind of like the last few books of Game of Thrones where only 1 or 2 out of 6 or more POV characters held my interest - and they happened to be the ones who get the shortest page count. Too much “rich people behaving badly” and not enough movement.

ESCAPE VELOCITY is a many-layered story — a murder mystery and a present-day conspiracy set amidst a school reunion. Behind the decadence, maneuvering, and nostalgia runs a delicious seam of rage at a broken, unjust world.

The story follows a group of friends who graduated from a school for the extremely wealthy and powerful who are reuniting again on a brand new luxury orbital resort after many years. Each one has come for a different reason, and each one is hiding secrets from the others. But something is afoot on the space station and for once it may just be more important than them.

Like all great science fiction, ESCAPE VELOCITY holds up a fun house mirror to the present day and warns us what the future might look like if things continue. On this stage, Manibo has crafted a rich cast of characters — each guilty and damaged in their own ways. And — without spoiling too much — the story finishes in an extremely satisfying grand finale that may leave you questioning not just what happens, but yourself.

I am devastated to say that this was a DNF at 40% for me. I kept setting it to the side, hoping that a little distance would help bring me back to the story. But unfortunately, I just can't continue. I love the concept behind the story, but I think the characters killed it for me. Usually I love an unlikeable character, however, the entire cast is abysmal and I found myself not caring about the outcome or any sort of future reveals.

I read this book three months ago, but still haven't gotten my mind around the idea of reviewing it, because it hit me too hard to put into words.

This book is a gut punch. A brilliant examination of the business of survival, the people who own the promise of a future. Chapters alternate following a group of the richest, most powerful people on the planet - once 'just' school kids embroiled in a murder mystery - and the staff of the most magnificent space hotel ever conceived. The intrigue of the murder slowly weaves through the modern-day space station hotel stay, and the staff's plans that are coming together bit by bit, moving forward to an inevitable conclusion. And in all that time, you both despise these characters, but care about what's happening to them, demonstrating how well the author manages to craft complex, real people.

Here's the thing: I've read LOT of space hotel books. But none of them have ever called out class disparity with such poignance. None of them have ever gotten their hooks so deep in my mind that - three months after finishing it - I can't get that final chapter out of my mind. The exploration of the lengths the powerful go to keep their positions and ensure their future... and the staff of the hotel, doing what must be done.

Brilliant. Utterly brilliant. Fantastic Scifi.

Its often said, 'dont judge a book by its cover", but guilty as charged, I sometimes chose to explore a book and a new author because of the promising cover. I am still torn between the rating I want to give this book, this rarely happens with me. I believe author has a potential to create a thought provoking novel while being in mainstream. This is his second book, so my best wishes for the future ones to have a much better execution.

Escape Velocity is tagged under Science fiction mystery thriller. I though found that at its heart, its not belonging to any of those genres. It is an attempt towards a socio political commentary on capitalism and colonization. The backdrop is an Earth which is inhabitable 'after two centuries of rampant capitalism' and the worthy 'built a new haven on a new planet instead of fixing the planet they have'. I would have appreciated the book if it had not "failed to notice that other agendas are afoot" and focused more on 'uprising' OR post apocalyptic migration to Mars than on a murder that happened 25 years ago in an affluent college. The blurb sounds like a Page 3 content with uber privileged adults reliving, "high school all over again", I wonder on the thought behind this marketing strategy. The romantic and sexual relationships have been sprinkled all over to justify the tabloid premise, it is little too much in the face for my taste. There is no clarity on anyone's sexual orientation, everyone seems to be hooking up with every gender, cheating on their spouses and BDSM references.

The last 10 pages left me conflicted about my rating for this book. I was not sure whom to root for and who really did get the 'happy ending', the uber rich characters that I had been engaging with throughout or the planet earth exhausted of its every resource. There is a point based emigration system to move from Earth to Mars which reminds of Australia and Canada PR (permanent resident) applications, a good satire which "reduces the value of each human to a number". Its a powerful sentiment and the realization of the privileges we have. This was the moment the book took a turn for me and in its genre and so did this review. Talking about a beautiful cruise style space-resort, double flashbacks (three timelines), murder mystery felt like irrelevant. By the way, even the murder mystery comments on the class system, where a poor orphan is type casted as a murderer but you still wonder that did the rich bully kid really deserve to be murdered.

A familiar plot (a reunion of people with secrets about a murder years before) set in space sounds like it has potential - and this does to the extent that the mystery part is less interesting than the concept of who deserves to go to Mars. These are unlikable people (all of them). Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A rare pass from me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington/Erewhon Books for the opportunity to read and review Escape Velocity in exchange for my honest review.
Unfortunately, I am DNFing this book at 70% and if I have to choose a star rating it would only get 3 stars.
This is being described as Knives Out in space but at 70% and a missing man (possibly) floating around a space station I have yet to find an actual mystery portion of this book that I cared about.
Four friends from wealthy families who are now wealthy themselves attend a wealthy kids school reunion and they all have secrets. At one point an orgy is involved and a decades long mystery of who unalived the brother of one of the friends. Except the brother was an abusive, drug addict jerk who we never get to meet or grow to hate on our own.
This just ran out of steam and by 70% in I realized I just didn’t want to spend anymore time with this book or the characters.
I will not be reviewing this book on my social media when it releases in May.

Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Books for providing me with this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Part of this book was strong and engaging. I really wanted to know where the two main storylines were going. One of the biggest mistakes the author made, was the timing of the revelations at the end. I don’t think anyone is interested in knowing what happened in the past of a few people, finally solving a small mystery, after a much much bigger adrenaline inducing event just happened. We are not going to care at that point and that’s too bad because if the author timed this better, I would have been really surprised and would have enjoyed reading what actually happened all those years ago.

This story had some great well developed characters and an amazing environment. If the ending was less pro-brainless-terrorism or if what happened to a certain mis fortunate group, would have happened to everyone eventually, the reader would have something to think about instead of having to endure some lame complete failure of an excuse and view, readers are not going to care about at all. Not a good way to end a book, giving readers a bad aftertaste.

Mixed review here. Enjoyed the way the author set the scene and there were some fun elements. But, the characters just did not elicit my empathy at all. I did not finish this one.

"Escape Velocity" by Victor Manibo is part murder mystery, part dystopian sci-fi. At a school reunion on a luxury space station, an old group of friends meets up after many years. They are overshadowed by their past. Ava has discovered some information about her friends that makes her wonder if they were responsible for her abusive twin brother's murder years ago. A side plot about who will be allowed to live on Mars now that Earth is becoming uninhabitable according to "MERIT" points adds more tension, along with crew members plotting revenge. An intriguing sci-fi mystery. Worth purchasing for your library if your sci-fi or dystopian fiction is popular.

What a ride!! So different from what I expected walking into it. Loved the dynamic characters and their relationships. Enjoyed the atmosphere. Pulling a whole star because the story didn't pick up till after 60%-ish and I was starting to get bored before the plottwist happend.

The world-building in this book is so accomplished, that it could have been a wonderful escapist sci-fi novel. Knives Out in space sounded just like the type of fun I love. The problem is that it had to have a “Message” (with a capital M), and that drained all my enjoyment of the story. The passages describing the Space Habitat Altaire in all its decadent glory, the future world in which it’s set, with its culture and society, were fascinating. The points system that allows humans to move to Mars and the technology that makes everything possible, were very creative and well thought out. The characters, though, were all unlikable. There wasn’t a single one of them that I could root for, neither the ultra-rich spoiled jerks nor “the help” who caters to them. This made the resolution of a cold murder not very interesting, as I was not invested in the victim, the suspects or the culprit. Then, there was the second part of the story, which had to be a grandstanding political statement that made me lose all interest. The author goes out of his way to make the cast as woke as possible and there isn’t a single box he doesn’t tick, which feels forced. Then, that ending just let me down. Maybe readers who enjoy progressive political engagement with their fiction will like it better, but as someone who just wants to be entertained, it didn’t work for me.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Kensington Books | Erewhon Books.

3.5 stars.... We're getting to the end of the 21st century, and as predicted, humans have made Earth almost inhabitable, with the brunt of the impact felt by poorer (mostly Equatorial) nations. The 1% hang out in luxury space station resorts while being waited on hand and foot by the working class. Long story short: capitalism is evil (not arguing that fact). BUT!! Capitalists are also our saviors because they've built a new colony on Mars! The caveat: you have to earn MERIT points to get to go to Mars. What gives you MERIT points? You guessed it - being rich, smart, educated, straight (gotta populate the new world), having the right job and experiences, etc. So capitalists have created the problem and are fixing it, but only for themselves. This is not a thinly veiled allegory here, folks.

So what's not to like? Well, there is a second plot that seems superfluous other than to provide some (but enough) backstory for the main characters. I'm not sure who we are supposed to root for, which perhaps is the author's intention. I think there was an attempt to humanize the MCs (all 1%ers), but it didn't work. So I guess overall, love the theme, not crazy about (but didn't NOT like) the execution.

I am a little obsessed with space novels right now. Manibo spices his speculative fiction with a mystery, class war, and several other social justice issues. I’ve read that this book is being compared to the Titanic’s tragic tale— very upstairs vs downstairs groups of people with the “indigent servants” from all over the world staff manning the luxury space ship versus the elite high school class reunion.

The murder mystery from their senior year and the mystery of the man floating around space in the first chapter sort of collide by the end of the novel in about abrupt way. I feel like that could have been finessed a little better.

Additionally, besides the crew members trying to get back to their families… why would they want to go back to the burn planet of Earth? I wish Manibo would have explained or written more about the “uprising” on Earth as a carrot to get back to and fight to the death to defend. Shrug. Just a thought!

I enjoyed the action and enjoyed it to the end. I can totally see this being turned into a movie!

Hitting shelves May 21st!
Thank you NetGalley and Erewhon Books for this #arc

A twist on rich people behaving badly, this is set during a high-brow school reunion on….a suborbital resort in space. The elite alumni meet to wheel and deal, indulge in their many vices, and dig up dirt on each other. This started out a solid four stars but about half way through it seemed to somewhat dissolve and the characters and story feel apart. Thanks to NetGalley for a chance to read and review this book!

This was an interesting one- not something I’ve read anything like before! A bit like Glass onion/The Menu but in space and even more morally ambiguous.
- I did enjoy the fact that all of the characters just got more and more terrible the further it continued. But they were never caricatures and everyone had their own motivation, which I liked even if it was a little hard to engage with the story sometimes because they were all *that* terrible.
- the future world presented is very bleak, but feels frighteningly possible! I felt that the worldbuilding was well done.
- I did struggle to connect to the story throughout most of the first half in particular. A lot of it was set up and it felt a little bit directionless at times- perhaps some of the reveals could have been done a bit earlier so there was a bit more substance rather than saving it all for an avalanche at the end? I did enjoy the ambiguity of the ending, but it was a little bit rushed. The author tried to do a lot here and it was generally handled well, but not all of it landed.
- I don’t really like rating books, but I’ll give it 3.5/5 stars and round it up. I’m certainly glad I picked it up as it was a nice change of pace from what I normally read, but I think the tagline of knives out/parasite in space was a bit misleading as this was not that! It had its flaws but I’ll look out for whatever else Manibo does in the future!