An Unbreakable World by Ren Hutchings
This is a review of an ARC from Netgalley and publisher Rebellion.
Set in the same universe as the author’s previous book, Under Fortunate Stars (which I have not read), this is an engaging science fiction space opera heist story with some intriguing world building.
Page Found, whose name is a mordant joke, was revived eight years ago from frozen sleep or stasis with no memory of who she was before. She has been working as a petty thief for a gangmaster on a remote station in order to pay off her medical debt. It’s a form of slavery. In attempting to steal a valuable comms device from a target, she finds the tables turned on her, and she is kidnapped.
What do the kidnappers want with a penniless thief with no past? It turns out that Page is uniquely qualified for their planned heist. She speaks an ancient language known to few in this fictional space union.
The language is one of the old ones, from one of the first settled planets, one which has since isolated itself from the Union. When this detail came up, I immediately thought, Brexit, and then had a look to check on the nationality of the author. Sure enough, they’re British.
There are a number of narrative viewpoints, and what one has to do with the others is one of the mysteries you’ll be keen to solve as you read. There are some “non-fiction” interstitial elements as well: recordings, encyclopaedia entries, catalogue entries, comms recordings. I didn’t find this particular element as successful as the rest. These short sections acted as info-dumps, filling in back story and world building that I thought was already adequately covered by the main narrative. Personally, I think you could lose most of these interstitial chapters and the book wouldn’t suffer.
Still, it was an enjoyable read and I might look out for the earlier book.
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