Hot on the heels of writing about why space is awesome, it feels fitting I turn around and consider the downsides of space travel. Well, in this case, it’s more like space labour. Sunward Sky offers a near-future, hard science fiction take on the perils of spending too long away from Earth’s surface. Henry Neilsen weaves social commentary in with mystery, conspiracy, and action. While not entirely successful, in my opinion, this book raises some interesting questions. I received a copy in exchange for a review.

Alyssa joins the crew of the eponymous spaceship for the first time. Ostensibly, she has signed on to a labour contract: the crew of Sunward Sky repairs the various satellite constellations in low and medium Earth orbits. These include familiar systems, like GPS and its various sister networks. Without this labour, the satellites would stop functioning—and in a world devastated by climate change and all manner of other, hinted-at disasters, people need communications and positioning more than ever. However, Alyssa has an ulterior motive: she thinks she has the cure to a chronic condition spacers develop if they spend too long in orbit. Soon, Alyssa discovers she has signed up for more than she bargained: there’s a conspiracy on board, one that threatens not only her own life but the security and stability of everyone on Earth.

One thing you can’t say about this book is that it’s paced too slowly. From the beginning, Neilsen builds consistently towards the book’s explosive climax. Even before she makes it aboard the ship, Alyssa discovers the first hints of the conspiracy that will soon rock Sunward Sky. I really like how Neilsen doesn’t slow-roll things. I expected Alyssa’s investigation and the thriller aspects of the conspiracy to be the bulk of the novel. Instead, things take a disastrous turn pretty quickly.

In the same way, Alyssa proves a decisive, action-oriented protagonist despite lacking much experience in space. After her initial terror at realizing she might be the only one aboard who knows about the conspiracy, she quickly rallies and starts doing something. We love a strong female protagonist written realistically by a male author.

I wish I could say something similar for the rest of the cast. In general, the characterization in Sunward Sky feels hasty and underrealized. Each character exist primarily to fill their role in the plot, and they seldom have much more in the way of personality or depth beyond that. This is especially unfortunate given Neilsen’s proclivity for killing off characters: I just don’t feel sad for them the way I would someone I’ve really had a chance to know and connect with. They’re all redshirts.

Something similar is amiss with the plot. While the pacing, as I noted, is excellent, the story quickly arcs upwards only to plateau more than climax. Dispensing with the slow-burn mystery in favour of the dramatic disaster story does wonders for the dramatic tension—until it doesn’t, because there’s no other mystery. I suppose the tension is supposed to come from the question of “will they survive?”—and having proved he’s willing to kill off any character, Neilsen has demonstrated the answer isn’t necessarily yes. Alas, I just … didn’t care about how the story turned out.

In all of this, the B story about Alyssa’s wonder drug is sidelined. It gets mentioned throughout, and there are awkward flashbacks jammed in here and there. This is a shame, for it’s really the best part of Sunward Sky. Neilsen has extrapolated the current climate of creeping privatization of the aerospace industry, and he’s created a convincing underclass of people essentially doomed to disability. Everything he imagines when it comes to the crew, how they got there, etc., feels super believable.

Indeed, if there is anything that will redeem this book for you, it’s Neilsen’s commitment to the “hard” elements of science fiction here. Orbital mechanics, radio communications blackouts, and fuel burn calculations all play an important role in this story—not that you have to understand these things, of course. In any event, Neilsen is working from the same playbook as Andy Weir, so if you liked, say, Artemis, you might also like Sunward Sky.

I have a soft spot for hardcore scifi that includes space ships. And a story that started out as a popular podcast also gets my attention. With the non-stop action and suspense, I honestly had a hard time finding places to put the book down to do normal life things. Amusingly, with this book, I found myself putting the book down just it would become clear that an intense scene was starting, since otherwise, I knew it would be absolutely impossible to tear myself until this next situation resolved...

My primary (first world problem level) complaint is that the key story arcs were so firmly resolved that it would be hard to write a direct sequel. Though I do have hopes for that we could see other books in the same universe. My second quandary is that I am still losing sleep trying to understand the finer points of the architecture of the spaceship wings during the various usage scenarios.... (Hmmm.... One of my issues could be resolved by mounting the high gravity launch couches in gimbals with 3 degrees of freedom so that they could be used for normal takeoff and landing as well as potential crash-landing or even unusual impacts when in orbit...)

Anyway, I recommend this novel to other fans that enjoy space survival scif (especially of the dystopian variety).

I thank the author and publisher for kindly providing an electronic advanced review copy of this work.



Tip to Netgalley users: For this book, I found the epub formatting was better on an actual Kindle rather than the Kindle app.

A research scientist is deterred from conducting efficacy trials for a drug she developed to protect outer space workers from space palsy. The reason given is that the market for the drug would be limited. Determined, Alyssa boards a satellite repair ship with the intent of using herself as the test subject. She accidently uncovers an onboard conspiracy while preparing for flight and is placed in the position of not knowing who to trust. Eventually, along with other corroborators, she can notify the ship's captain. The perpetrators subsequently kill him, but not before they disable the ship and send it crashing to Earth.

Alyssa, the scientist, dies during the crash, but her bravery is publicized worldwide and leads to the enactment of legislation and support for spacers who have been forced to work in the debilitating conditions that lead to space palsy.

Although a Sci-Fi genre, I think this book is better described as a conspiracy thriller. It’s a stand-alone book that captured my attention and held me until I uncovered each succeeding chapter’s revelation.

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.