Escape Velocity

What to say about this book? There's a horror-movie quality to it, as we see the creeping doom coming for people who kind of have it coming. But there's also some interesting worldbuilding around exactly how the future rich and powerful continue to rig things in their favor while pretending everything is fair and "merit-based". By the time the mutiny happens and the rich people die, it's a little sad, because we've had enough time to empathize a bit with our various POV characters. And then there's the mystery of what exactly happened 25 years ago. A few details are dropped here and there, but we only actually get the full story at the very end, when there's no one left to hear it or react to it. There are no easy answers and no clean show more triumphs -- even for Cielo, it's a victory at great cost, and it's not at all clear that it will change anything in the long term. show less

Perhaps it's just because I found the genre novels I chose for July 2024 a little underwhelming on the whole, I come away from this "modest proposal" of a book rather impressed; this is having not engaged with Manibo's writing before. Yes, the deck is stacked to demonstrate that the characters who are going to find themselves up against the wall probably deserve what's coming to them, but that's the best part of the book. The folks who find this novel perhaps not long enough for Manibo to achieve all his ends probably have a point. Still, at a certain level this is a thriller, and economy is usually a virtue in such books. As for the argument that this is a little too far-fetched, well, when a "libertarian" tech executive, who has show more declared that he's prepared to sacrifice "democracy" for "freedom," manages to parachute his chosen instrument into a major American presidential campaign, well, I'll argue that you should approach this book as serious food for thought. show less

At an elite reunion in space, where the attendees will get valuable points towards emigration to Mars, one woman seeks to solve the mystery of who killed her twin—she knows it wasn’t the convicted woman who died in prison. Meanwhile, the employees of the space resort, who in a cruel and sadly realistic twist don’t earn points from space travel because they got their practice on behalf of an employer, are planning some kind of takeover. Perhaps the condescension and worse that the mostly white, all-rich folks inflict on the mostly brown crew will be repaid. As both narratives head towards their climaxes, how will they intersect? The answer might annoy you; I didn’t like it although I think I see and respect what Maribo was trying show more to do. For guillotine fans. show less

I liked both major parts of this novel (the interpersonal drama of a high-school reunion that is also a murder mystery, and the action suspensey anti-capitalist revolt), however, I didn't think they worked very well together at all. Neither was given the space needed to really get into the tale, in depth, or to get a fully fleshed out ending.

Pros: compelling, fast paced, interesting characters

Cons: abusive dom/sub scene

The Rochford Institute is hosting their class of 2064 reunion on Space Habitat Altaire. As an added bonus, attending will net each participant at least 5 MERIT points, necessary to gain coveted spaces in the new Mars colony. Unlike her classmates, Ava Khan isn’t there to schmooze. She wants to know who really killed her abusive twin brother their last year of school, and she thinks her three oldest friends have the answer. Meanwhile, the station crew have a plan for how to make the world a better place.

The story is told from the alternating perspectives of the four friends and Cielo, chief housekeeper on the Altaire. You learn more about each one, how show more things went in school, what they’ve been up, and why they’re really on the station. They’ve all got compelling stories, even if - despite what they think - they’re not particularly good people.

The book delves into the kinds of backroom deals that allow the super rich to influence the world and come out on top.

There’s an orgy scene (mildly graphic) and one character acts as Dom to another, in which a lot of minimizing language and swear words are used. The second scene with that pair went past words, and though it wasn’t graphic, it still left me feeling uncomfortable.

The ending hits hard and wasn’t what I was expecting. It’s a fast paced, compelling read. show less

The Altaire is a suborbital resort that caters to the richest of the rich. Every year they host reunions for the alumni of the Rochford, a boarding school that is also reserved only for the scions of the most elite families on Earth. A group of these alumni gather for their 25th class reunion, but overshadowing the gathering is the memory of a student that was found murdered senior year. His sister Ava is determined to use this opportunity to discover what happened, and who really killed him. The other guests are all obsessed with racking up points so they can be approved for Mars resettlement, and meanwhile the staff of the hotel have their own plans.

I expected to love this story, and it has all the elements I love – scifi floating show more hotel, super diverse cast, class tensions. Sadly it didn’t deliver. I can tell the author has some great ideas and put a lot of work into this, but it needed a lot more polish. In several places the writing itself was clunky and switched between tenses in a way that pulled me out of the story in confusion. For instance, “the reason that the arrangement worked, and will continue to work, was because Sloane knew Julian.”
Despite the very big stakes, I didn’t feel much tension. We’re clearly supposed to sympathize with the staff, and yet we spend much more story time with the guests and seeing their backstories. I felt like I didn’t really know the staff; their sole personality traits were that they were poor, overworked, and resentful. We only really got a tiny bit of story on one of them, and if we’re supposed to root for them, we need more.

The ending was also really unsatisfying. I completely understand the motivations, but… what happens next? There’s no way that kind of thing would be successful on a global scale. You’d need way more. Also, the idea that this was organized and pulled off in five places, so easily with almost no hiccups is unbelievable. Also there was a moment we saw a defense satellite shoot missiles… but where? Why? There are several plot threads that are just dropped, no explanation.

At the end of the book, it feels like there was zero character development. Even the ostensibly good guys did bad things, with no resolution or payoff. We saw no outcomes, no change, no consequences.

I agree with the message I think the book is trying to convey, and I think the author has potential. I think they just need more polish or better editing to pull it all together, to show this story off to its very best.

Escape Velocity releases on May 21, and thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for an advance digital copy in exchange for my honest review! show less

I had a hard time feeling any empathy for any of the characters and was pretty happy they did all end up dying in the end which made it difficult to keep picking up this book and feel invested in them. I think that was kind of the point, however!