4 Stars, Save the World

SUNWARD SKY
by Henry Neilsen

In the near future, Alyssa, a medical research scientist in Ontario decides to hop onto a spacecraft and see if she can help the Spacers combat the degenerating Space Palsy which is caused by spending any amount of time in space.

Earth is no longer a nice place to live, poor people are shipped off world to perform maintenance on satellites that keep Earth's more well to do citizen's lives rolling merrily along.

Alyssa did not count on the treachery she encounters before she even boards the ship. Secrets are uncovered on the ship, there's no place for any of the passengers to go to get away from the evil plot unfolding on the ship.

I liked Alyssa, she came across as a nice lady, who genuinely wanted to help those less fortunate in life.

The book has an unexpected ending.

I received a complimentary copy of #SunwardSky from #HenryNeilsen #NetGalley I was under no obligation to post a review.

#sciencefiction #diverse

We meet our main character Alyssa who, illegally, tries to find a solution for the sickness that prevents Terrans/dirtsiders/earthlings to stay in space for a prolonged period. Within a few months their bodies begin to show irreversible damage. That’s why we never ventured out to the stars, never made any progress in space travel. It’s now 2081 and Alysse is trying to find a cure. After all, everybody on Earth is fully dependent on the satellites circling high above them and those satellites need to be maintained. But who would be willing to go up there while knowing that it is a one-way trip? Nobody. During her stay in the Sunward Sky Alyssa learns the gruelling truth about how exactly people are lured in doing this horrible job. It makes her even more determined to find the cure.
Little did she know she would play an important role in what follows. From the first chapter on the tension is building up and together with Alyssa we discover the ugly truth about her fellow space farers.
What I liked about this book is the idea behind it all. It is absolutely not unthinkable. There is a nice balance between the tech and the human side of the story and it is nicely paced. I just have two small comments: the parts where Alyssa thinks back to her research could have been more clearly distinguished from the main story – now it was somewhat confusing. And, but this is of course very personal, why have a main character with the name Alysse and another character with the name Ellyse? It me be me but sometimes – because I read very fast – I was confused a little bit when reading about Ellyse.

Anyway, an enjoyable read and kudos to the author for turning a podcast into this self-published book.
Thanks to Netgalley for this review copy too!

I waffled between 3 and 4 stars and, in the end, decided on a 3. The story is interesting (the people in space are the poor, that was interesting, the fact of an an major conspiracy was mostly compelling), but the writing (with the "power" verbs that has become popular as of late) was a bit overdone in some areas and the plot (SPOILER ALERT) where the protagonist dies in the end, just was a bit of a letdown for me, as it would have been fine where she lives and another "white hat" doesn't make it. All in all, it was a fine story, but not quite great.

Sunward Sky belongs to the subsection of fiction that has an intriguing title, which turns out just to be the name of something in the novel. Here Sunward Sky is a spaceship, or at least the space version of an Earth orbital maintenance van, zipping around fixing and upgrading satellites. It is the grimy near future where Earth is pretty shitty, and space isn't really the answer, enough long-term missions have been sent that show that human bodies degrade too quickly in space, here the malaise is named Spacer's Palsy. As such very few people sign up to go to space, which is a bit of a problem because all those satellites and other things need fixing. So they get volunteers, desperate people, and perhaps even press-gang people. Our protagonist Alyssa has volunteered but has an ulterior motive.

Spacers Sky splits into two distinct generic halves. The first part contains a mystery, a murder mystery even which Alyssa witnesses. Being new to space, and having her own secret, she is loathe to report it until she knows who is connected. The problem is, as a murder mystery we are not really presented with any red herrings or suspects, which is a pity because the unusual location and Alyssa's outside perspective could have been quite interesting. Instead, once the culprit is identified, the book moves to action mode before the second half turns up which is a disaster movie.

Sunward Sky is a pretty breathless read, its themes and slim collection of characters are well-drawn. However, there are a few narrative inconsistencies that niggle quickly. The conspiracy's machinations seem far too complex for the outcome they are pursuing. The science of "Spacer's Palsy" never seems to mention radiation or cosmic rays, and since this is quite an important point, the science of medicating against it seems a little like magic. The situation with the conglomerates and multinationals who have created this bargain basement space race is always left a little out of reach, it would have been nice to have that fleshed out a bit. As mentioned, I would have liked a bigger cast and a few more red herrings for the mystery. I enjoyed Sunward Sky, I read it in one sitting, but it felt like a snack rather than the full meal it might have been.