Riley August

This is a book that seems to have mixed reviews on LT but I loved it.

Scout and her brother Kieran are archivists, wandering the galaxy (together with their cat Pumpkin) for the remains of lost civilisations. And there are a lot of lost civilisations on a lot of planets. But outside their own home worlds, all these worlds are now lifeless. Completely and utterly lifeless: no water, no atmosphere, not even the smallest microbe. Something has destroyed them and the assumption is that sooner or show more later it will come for Scout’s own world. So when they find something on planet 357 that may shred light on just what that ‘something’ was, Scout will go to any lengths to obtain it…

It’s always harrowing, seeing places like this, knowing that our work could be the difference between our own home thriving or becoming … that. But those are the stakes. That’s why we’re here: to find out what happened to not only this civilisation but every dead civilisation we’ve ever found in the universe. Because as far as we know, ours is the last one left.

I can’t help thinking that the last animal I would want to help explore a dead planet would be a cat (and I’m not 100% sure how a cat spacesuit would work) but I did like Pumpkin as a character anyway. And as I say, I really enjoyed the book which ended up being a meditation on love and grief, something I wasn’t expecting.

Recommended. show less

The Last Gifts of the Universe was primarily an exploration of loss and grief strung together by a scavenger hunt across the galaxy. Scout’s connection to Blyreena through the shared experience of loss of a loved one – Scout’s mother and Blyreena’s partner – drove much of the story. Unfortunately, I found it hard to feel deeply or become invested in these characters, particularly during Scout’s side of the story. Blyreena’s life story was simple, but poignant; however, show more Scout’s didn’t really do anything for me except in a few moments near the end.

The supporting characters were shallow and Scout wasn’t much better for the majority of the time. The journey to find the caches was repetitive, and the tone of the “adventure” elements didn’t tend to fit well next to the reflective portions. I didn’t feel much emotional weight from Scout’s mission. They were surrounded by reminders of great tragedy and death, always alone aside from their brother and pet, too distant for even communication with their homeworld. The whole universe was set up in a way that could have amplified the mire of grief, meshing perfectly with Scout’s internal turmoil. But, honestly, the present-day parts of Scout’s story and Scout’s experiences as an archivist lacked the character and atmosphere to bring that home. The story did find its footing over time to create more of a sense of melancholy and deliver some moving moments, but it didn’t change how I felt about it overall.

Beyond just its connection to the story’s themes, the science fiction setting was generally underutilized. Blyreena, her species, her culture, and her world were all pretty much indistinguishable from humanity and Earth; if Blyreena’s partner was “working abroad” instead of off-planet, you could have told me they were in modern-day America and I could have bought it. Scout knew nothing about any of the sci-fi elements, including the technologies they used to do their job, which left the broader setting and the details of what Scout was actually doing as an archeologist vague. The initial focus on the world-ending threat from the stars and the search for a way to survive it petered out, and I just had to accept that that wasn’t a real plotline despite how it was initially framed.

Also, as much as it was not the point, I was distracted by these people constantly dragging their cat into danger. Why would you bring the cat places where you know corporate goons will be shooting at you and unkillable genocide machines are likely to be lurking around any corner? You are going to get that cat killed or he’s going to get you killed – leave him on the ship. Frankly it felt a little gimmicky to always have the cat in the scene, like it was just for the cozy fiction aesthetic, but instead it was just irritating. show less

Here is the high-concept premise of Riley August’s debut novel, The Last Gifts of the Universe: Two young adult sibs and a cat in a small ship explore a universe filled with the ruins of dead civilizations.

The book’s cover art shows Pumpkin the cat looking cute in his bespoke spacesuit. It is an amusing image, but it leads the reader to expect a lighthearted tone. Instead, August aims at the wistful tone of Becky Chambers’s postapocalyptic stories.

On that score, it is a near miss. show more August’s prose has its moments. Here, for example, is an efficient bit of world-building: “Seven hundred years ago, technology gave us the keys to the cosmos, and we flew and teleported and phased out into the stars, arms spread, minds open, ready to meet the neighbors. What we found was a graveyard. Hundreds of once-civilized systems, all absent of life.” But we only get hints of the complexities of the politics of their expedition, the nature of the destroyed cultures, and the motives of the Endri who brought them down. show less

I enjoyed this story and yet I wish there was a little more. It was kind of two stories in one. It was a story about Scout their brother and their cat Pumpkin. While also a story about a person from the past. Ultimately this was about living life even when things aren’t perfect or things could be failing.