I’m an occasional Sci-Fi’er. Usually there’s got to be some kind of horror element to it, but not always. We shouldn’t just stick to one genre now, should we?

I may not have picked this up if I wasn’t a fan of Steve Stred. The blurb didn’t grab me by the balls or anything (remember, occasional S-F’er) but I know this dude can write, so I was swayed.

Cutting to the chase, this is a great little novella. I didn’t find anything overtly scary about it, but the plight of our protagonist, Lizzie, is pretty horrifying I suppose.

It took me a while to really get what was going on here. Short, snappy chapters (a Stredism), with flashbacks/dream sequences made things a little confusing. But I realise that that was the point (I hope so anyway). I stuck with it and before I knew what was happening, all made sense.

The author’s note at the end told of how this was inspired by a dream, which really makes sense.

The plot revolves around Lizzie preparing to jump from the big space station where society now lives. Everyone has to do this eventually, kind of like a coming of age thing. When jumping into the deepest, blackest space imaginable there is one goal; catch your orb.

The premise sounds crazy, I know, but Steve Stred has this real knack of drawing you in and keeping you immersed in his worlds, not really allowing you to jump out (jump, get it?).

I’m not expert enough to say whether this was breaking new sci-fi ground or anything, but it was a really enjoyable and well executed novella set in space. If that doesn’t sound like your thing, try it anyway, it may just change your mind and before you know it you’ll be dressing in obscure Star Wars character costumes and doing that weird Star Trek fingers thing!!

Categories: book review

Tags: book review, empyrean saga, novella, sci-fi, space, steve stred, the future in the sky