GoodReads:
Six months after she left, Dee is struggling to manage her rage toward the people who ordered the nuclear strike that destroyed Earth. She’s trying to find those responsible, but she’s not getting very far alone.
A dedicated gamer, Dee is endeavoring to discover a mersive good enough to enable her to escape her trauma. When she is approached by a designer who asks her to play test his new game, she hopes it will be what she needs—but it isn’t like any mersive she’s played before. When a man suddenly dies in the real world, she realizes that at the same time in the game, she killed a character who bears a striking resemblance to the dead man—a man she discovers was one of those responsible for the death of millions on Earth.
Disturbed, but thinking it must be a coincidence, Dee continues the hunt for information. But when she finds out the plans for the future colony, she realizes that to save what is left of humanity, she might have to do something that risks what remains of her own.
My Review
Let’s not get into trifle things like how long it’s taken me to get to this review compared to when I read it. Let’s just keep moving forward here!
So when I read this, I think I actually just inhaled it instead. Emma Newman did a great job capturing your attention and keeping it, well, for me, she did a great job anyway.
The writing style is very fluid and more than that, it is suspenseful, intense, and engaging.
And.
Set in space.
So, I was already possibly slightly biased to love this. Me and my little sci-fi loving heart.
This is more than a ‘space’ or sci-fi story, it’s a mystery and revenge story as well, all rolled into this one book.
Dee and the remaining humans are on a ship taking them to a colony -which they’re not even sure really exists- and though they’re alive, everyone else died on earth, it was not just a matter of dying out as a species, but mass murder.
Those who engineered this crime? On the ship, leading it possibly.
Dee’s bothered by the fact they’re on a ship with murders, but it’s more than that after she plays a game which a mystery designer invited her to.
One of the suspected murders is dead. He died in the game by Dee’s hand, and then his life ended in the real world.
Dee doesn’t feel this is a coincidence and so she begins to dig around for information. But, you know what they say, curiosity killed the cat. And it’s more than that, Dee stumbles into something perhaps more than she can handle, and with nowhere to turn in her mind, Dee takes matters into her own hands.
The twist in this was amazing so I can’t say more, but, Dee’s path does get very dark, very quickly and there are things set in motion she can have no idea about.
How far does her vengeance go? And how far should it have been allowed?
There’s a look at humanity from different angles, there’s conspiracy and cult-like religions, amazing action scenes, a chilling ending, and again, SPACE.
So, 4/5 cups of coffee for this wonderful book! Thank you to Gollancz for sending a copy in exchange for my honest review.
The Caffeinated Reader 