By: Beth Revis
Synopsis
Hundreds of years in the future, the spaceship Godspeed travels toward a distant, earth-like planet with 100 cryogenically frozen settlers on board. Seventeen year old Amy, frozen along with her parents, wakes early and only to find herself in the middle of a strange, regimented society made up of those born on the ship over generations. With the help of Elder, the ship’s only teenager and future leader, she must solve a murder mystery, and save the ship. They must hurry before the murderer kills any more people, and before time runs out of life.
My Thoughts
I first came across this author on Twitter. The responses to one of her tweets were talking about her books and they sounded interesting. So I decided to give one a try and borrowed it from the library. I am so glad I did!
The premise was unique (at least to me) and very intriguing. People frozen for 300 years on a generational ship to then be reanimated to help colonize a new planet? The book caught my interest from the first couple of pages and held on tight. I was a little concerned that it was going to lean too much into romance, but it didn’t. Just some thoughts from Elder on how he feels about Amy. Just a little touch of a possible romance.
The characters were engaging and interesting. They were decently fleshed out, though I do wish we could’ve learned a little more about Orion’s motivations. It also would have been interesting to learn a little more about the daily lives of the average people on the ship.
The plot moved along well. There were constantly mysteries popping up which made it hard to put the book down. I figured out early on who Orion was, but I was completely surprised by who had unplugged Amy. One problem I had, though, was in Chapter 8 where Amy is remembering a conversation with her father. He says the International Space Station was built 25 years prior to the Godspeed being built. For me, that was not enough time for technology to have advanced as much as it would need to for the Godspeed’s trip to be possible. I think it would have been better not to give the 25 year time frame. Other than that, I greatly enjoyed the plot.
The writing itself was well done. The descriptions were such that I could see the ship and the people. I liked the alternating POV between Amy and Elder. I found that to be more interesting than a single POV would have been, especially since their lives had been so vastly different. There were many great passages in the book, but I thought one of the best lines was in Chapter 73: “Eldest has calmed to death.” That perfectly encapsulated what Eldest had been doing.
I am so glad I picked this book up. And now that I’ve learned it’s book one of a trilogy, I will definitely see if my library has the other two.
These are just my thoughts. What are yours?
