Friday, January 4, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White




A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe is an odd book to categorize.  It's a space opera story, but magic is a major plot element so there are fantastical elements in there as well.  A number of reviewers, not to mention a blurb on the back, advertise it as being like "Firefly" which is a natural comparison, but the book lacks the humored tone between crew-mates that existed on board that show's Serenity.

However you categorize it, A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe is certainly an interesting book that I liked, but didn't quite love.  The two main characters are a bit rough, but enjoyable in their own ways, and the universe is quite vividly imagined - although it's perhaps maybe a bit too vague on some of the details that become important to the story, leaving me a little confused at times.  Still, with the main cast assembled and the world set up, I am looking forward to book 2, which is already out and I already have borrowed from my e-library.


--------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------
Nilah Brio is a young woman and the best race car driver in the PGRF, using her mechanic's mark magic to win races all across the galaxy.  She just needs a few more wins to lock up the season championship over her fellow teammate, and it's all she has ever wanted.  But when a mysterious old woman going by "Mother" catches her in a spell during a race, something that should be impossible, Nilah's magic finds her lost in parts of the space station she's never been to in her privileged upbringing.

Elizabeth "Boots" Elsworth on the other hand, is a woman who has seen shit and back.  Once on the losing side of a civil war, the Famine War, caused by her planet's loss of magic, she now has attempted to get by, along with her illegal military-grade AI, by selling fake treasure maps to marks.  But when one of those marks - her old war captain who deserted rather than surrender to the enemy - comes back from her, she finds herself forced to reckon with the demons of her past....especially when Mother and her conspirators seem to be after Boots for reasons she doesn't understand.

Boots and Nilah both wind up on the spaceship Capricious on the hunt for a legendary warship, the Harrow, for which Boots has the only lead - a lead that can make them all fabulously rich.  But the crew hates Boots for her false map and hates Nilah for her spoiled girl upbringing, and the two are enormously fish out of water.  But the search for the Harrow will find the entire crew now in the cross-hairs of Mother, whose magic seems unimaginably strong, and a conspiracy that could encompass the entire Galaxy in darkness.....
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A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe is told through the eyes of Nilah and Boots, with the book alternating between their own viewpoints.  Both are very different main characters, and through their eyes we see different aspects of the world as they get forced together with the rest of the crew of the Capricious.  And they both work rather well.

Nilah is a classic character archetype, the spoiled rich girl who gets forced into a situation where she has to see the real costs of society that were hidden to her by privilege, but the book shows her experiences which disavow her of some of these notions....but the book isn't about simply breaking her haughty attitude as the crew has no time for all of that, and she still maintains a certain amount of pride even through it all.  Still, unlike some other characters of this nature, she's never so standoffish to be unbelievable and unlikable to the reader, and her development is done rather nicely, with her getting some pretty fun and badass moments by the end.

Boots is also a bit of a classic archetype, although she's a lot more lovable because of it.  Lacking magic - a rare trait in this galaxy that should have resulted in her death - Boots is haunted by her past in the civil war that destroyed her planet and for the people she lost - and for her choice to surrender rather than desert like the captain of the Capricious.  Bitter and angry, she wants nothing to do with anyone else but to wallow in misery, but unlike the classic archetype, she ISN'T a jerk with a heart of gold.  The result makes her a pain in the ass for the rest of the crew, who has damn good reasons not to like her, but likable to the reader since she seems fresh and true in her rage and misery.

(You can see the Firefly comparisons above of course, with Nilah being Simon and Boots being Mal, but the comparisons aren't quite perfect)

The rest of the cast is also rather interesting, whether its the ship's Captain Cordell, its mechanic Orna who uses her mechanic's mark to sustain an AI built robot companion, or the rest of the team.  And the plot is rather good, taking the heroes from place to place on the run from danger as they attempt to discover the truth behind the conspiracy attacking them and the mystery of the Harrow, all the while staying alive.  Unlike the Firefly comparison above, this is a bit of a darker story - the main characters aren't making witty comments back and forth and characters do die and not make it out of there alive.  But overall it works, and the plot is well done without being too dark like some other books I've read.

Not everything works mind you - the book is vague about some of the histories referenced that become major in the plot, and as someone who reads books relatively quickly and doesn't scour over every word, I was a bit confused over the background that became very relevant near the end.  Similarly, I'm still a bit confused how the magic system works and the full implications of Boots' magical problems.  Several of the lesser members of the crew other than the four most mentioned members are kind of forgettable as well.  And the one romance in the book, between Nilah and another member of the crew, I'm not sure whether it works or not (there's certainly some chemistry between Nilah and her romantic partner, but it's an opposites attract chemistry I guess?  I've seen worse and I've seen better).

Still, I liked A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe even if I didn't love it and look forward to seeing more of these characters now that they've been established.  Worth a shot.
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