This was a great idea for a scifi novella, it had that element that I was looking for and thought the overall concept worked in the plot. It had that scifi element that I wanted with being trapped in a child’s body. The concept worked well and I enjoyed getting to know the characters and the danger of their situation. Mary Thompson wrote this well and left me wanting to read more in this world and from Mary Thompson.

Interesting concept that is very well executed in this novella. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for this free eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

There was a time in my life during which I did not want to read new authors. I was very happy reading works by those writers whose work I was not only familiar with, but comfortable with. And why not? At that period of my life, when I was discovering science fiction, discovering who I was as a reader, there was plenty of material written by the authors I loved. I was just discovering them, and there were worlds to be explored. Of course, I grew older, my tastes expanded, and to be honest, those favorite authors of mine were either not writing books any more or were slowing down considerably. So I had to expand and adapt. And new writers become the lifeblood of the field. They become the authors that newer generations of readers cut their science fiction teeth on. The circle of life, I guess.

There are new authors, and then there are new authors to me. Mary G. Thompson is one of those new authors to me, and my understanding is that "One Level Down" is Thompson's debut novel for adults. She has primarily been a writer of science fiction and fantasy for children and young adults. "One Level Down" is a terrific novella, and a heck of a way to kick off her adult writing career, should she decide to continue to do so.

Ella is a 58 year old woman living in a 5 year old's body. She lives in a simulated world on a planet to which some of the inhabitants of Earth have traveled to in order to start a new life away from the decaying Earth they grew up on. I suppose I ought to back that up a bit. They came to this planet, but there was a plague of sorts killing the colonists. They came here originally to live a life on a planet where they could live out an ideal existence. Because of the plague, Ella's father Phil - known as Daddy to her - and the leader of the colony struck a deal with the company that makes pocket alternate universes to create a simulation of the town that he wanted every one to live in. Every 60 years a technician from that company comes to the town to make sure everything is working correctly and fix things that aren't.

Well, things aren't working okay. Sure, there are the usual things. Socks have gone missing (no mention of Tupperware(r) or any other household item familiar to us), birds have disappeared, things like that. The technician can easily fix those elements (the software folks reading this can and should interpret the word elements as you would expect - objects created by code that somehow got deleted). But there is something going wrong that is much more serious. Phil wants to keep the town the way he remembers things from the past. People who cross Phil get killed, deleted from the simulation. Phil is the only one in the town that has the power to do that, and he uses that power to keep people in line. The one other thing he wants to stay as it was in his memory is his daughter Ella. He wants her to be five years old because that's how he remembers her in his memory of perfection.

But as previously stated, Ella is 58 years old. She has the intellect of a 58 year old and the experiences of a 58 year old, but she always has to act 5 years old around Daddy. Ella is afraid of what Daddy will do not only to her but to her adult friends that are helping her, letting her read books to educate her, providing her with adult experiences. Phil has ultimate power, and she and everyone else is afraid of him.

The clue, of course, is that Ella is 58. A technician is due shortly to come and iron out the issues in the town. Ella knows that, and sees the technician as her way out of the nightmare Daddy has created for her. And the arrival of the technician is the place at which the story's true meaning and intent kick into high gear. "One Level Down" is not just a story of a despotic leader using fear to hold his subjects in line. It's a story that explores the possibilities of life in simulated universes - and whether the real world really is a "real world".

"One Level Down" is, as I said previously, a terrific novella, one which I would highly recommend to readers. It's well written, the characters are well developed, and it does make readers think about the nature of existence. I'm eagerly awaiting the next adult science fiction story from Thompson. I guess I might want to explore her YA work as well.

What a wonderful novella! Excellent on every level. I may be rating this particularly highly because I’ve read some real stinkers recently, but man, it’s so nice to read something by an author that has a good grasp of basic concepts like “pacing” and “dialogue that doesn’t read like it was written by an alien who doesn’t quite get what humans speak like”.

The concept and worldbuilding are strong (even more so with the twist halfway through). I loved Ella as a character. The way she reacts to the horror of her situation was just chilling, and I’ll have to pass this along to a friend who is very interested in children’s rights, because Ella’s experiences line up with things I’ve heard from her. The supporting cast is well done; they obviously aren’t as fleshed out as characters in a novel would be, but they work for what this is. I particularly like the ambiguity of Phil’s character, which I won’t get into deeply here for spoiler reasons, but she does a really admirable job of making a character who objectively sucks but has a reason for why he sucks. The story is perfectly paced and works great as a novella (though to be clear, I would absolutely read a novel about Ella and/or this world). It can be a bit explicit with its theming at times, but I found that forgivable. I hope Thompson writes more in this setting, or at the very least writes more for adult readers.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for the opportunity to read an eARC for Mary Thompson's novella "One Level Down".

In the not-too-distant future, humankind has developed the technology not only to travel between the stars, but also to download the human consciousness into designer simulations. On one far flung planet, a homesteading colony chooses to have all the surviving members of a deadly planetary epidemic downloaded into a virtual copy of their colony. In return for mining rights on the homesteaded planet, the corporation will design the virtual universe and maintain the servers perpetually, sending a technician to visit inside the simulation once every sixty years to ensure a continuous, smooth operation. Five-year-old Ella eagerly awaits the arrival of a technician since she has been forced by her "Daddy", the colony founder, to continue acting like a five-year-old for more than fifty years. The time for the technician to visit is nigh, and Ella needs to be prepared to see if there was any way she can escape.

Thompson's novella was incredibly enjoyable and thought provoking. Really excellent philosophical questions wrapped in the trappings of science fiction. I look forward to finding and reading some of her other works and any future works going forward.