Blurb
Terminally ill salvage pilot Ash Jackson lost everything in the war with the alien Vai, but she'll be damned if she loses her future. Her plan: to buy, beg, or lie her way out of corporate indenture and find a cure.
When her crew salvages a genocidal weapon from a ravaged starship above a dead colony, Ash uncovers a conspiracy of corporate intrigue and betrayal that threatens to turn her into a living weapon.
The book cover below includes alt-text.
Impressions
This review is going to be short because I didn't finish the book. However, I only had about 1/5 left and the reason I stopped reading wasn't because it was bad. It was just wrong for me at the time, and I think it deserves to be found by the right readers.
The book is gripping and intense, full of action and plot twists. The world is a classical advanced dystopia with corporate states and indentured servitude that just might earn you a citizenship, which is, of course, so unlikely that it's practically impossible.
The characters are pretty interesting, and the idea of aliens quite original. I did have a bit of an issue with how strong Ash's (the main character's) feelings were for those aliens and how a short interaction with them made her single-minded in her new goal, but perhaps it was the nature of the interaction that had such a profound impact on her.
So, why didn't I finish the book? It turned out to be too grim for me. It was getting increasingly hopeless, and it seemed that no matter what Ash did, it was going to end badly for her. Each plot twist brought a new layer of gloom. If you've been following my reviews, you know I've read a lot of solarpunk lately and generally have been drawn to more hopeful narratives. The book is well-written and engaging — it's just me. I needed some hope. Maybe there was another plot twist there that changed everything, but I couldn't stand to find out.
You, however, might enjoy the book if you like dystopian space operas that criticize corporate power, original aliens, gripping and intense narratives and don't mind quite a bit of doom.
You can get Architects of Memory at Kobo, Apple, Barnes&Noble, Amazon and other bookstores.
The author
Karen Osborne is the author of Architects of Memory and Engines of Oblivion, as well as a violinist, videographer and thereminist. Her short fiction appears in Uncanny, Fireside, Escape Pod, Robot Dinosaurs and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. She once won a major event filmmaking award for taping a Klingon wedding.
Karen lives in upstate New York with her family, too many instruments, and a bonkers orange cat.
Check out her website, Patreon, Twitter and Instagram.
Featured image by Frank_Rietsch.