Book Reviews

Book Blurb

Some stories are epic.

 

The Earth is in a state of collapse, with wars breaking out over resources and an environment pushed to the edge by human greed.

 

Three living generation ships have been built with a combination of genetic mastery, artificial intelligence, technology, and raw materials harvested from the asteroid belt. This is the story of one of them—43 Ariadne, or Forever, as her inhabitants call her—a living world that carries the remaining hopes of humanity, and the three generations of scientists, engineers, and explorers working to colonize her.

 

From her humble beginnings as a seedling saved from disaster to the start of her journey across the void of space toward a new home for the human race, The Stark Divide tells the tales of the world, the people who made her, and the few who will become something altogether beyond human.

 

Humankind has just taken its first step toward the stars.

 

 

First edition published by DSP Publications, October 2010.

 

Book Review

Written in three parts – set in 2135, 2145, and 2165 – this novel is a sweeping vision of a future where humankind has no choice but to leave the dying Earth behind and look for a new home among the stars. Self-destruction through climate change, war, and the effects of human greed are the cause of this step, but as this series of three stories shows, humans have learned nothing even over a century from now and end up taking all their problems with them. While scientific advances make the invention of a living, sentient spaceship possible, nothing seems to be able to improve humans to the point where mental and emotional evolution can take place. It makes for a suspenseful, intense analysis of a potential future that did not give me any solutions, but did manage to leave me with some hope that, eventually, we might understand that not only survival at any cost is not the be-all and end-all for us, but also that we cannot do it alone.

2135 – Seedling
Four fascinating characters are at the center of this first story: Colin is the captain of a mission to bring a seedling starship to an asteroid so it can grow using its material. Ana is a doctor and key driver of the project to meld an AI with an organically grown spaceship, making sure her deceased father’s legacy becomes reality. Jackson is an engineer with religious leanings, and somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of an artificially created organic life form. Then there is Lex, and figuring out who she is was half the fun of reading this story.

Each of these characters’ point of view adds to an understanding of what the “future history” of this world is, what the central issues are that humans face, and how an unexpected combination of circumstances ends up creating the first sentient spaceship not in the laboratory or maybe a space dock, but out in the asteroid belt. It is the result of a desperate attempt to save three human and one AI’s lives, and (possibly) because the how and why they get there is not planned, it carries the seeds of what will follow and made me expect more obstacles in the future.

2145 – Colony
43 Ariadne, also known as Forever, is the first generation ship to be created. She has grown significantly in size over the past ten years, and the ship-mind, Lex, has had time to think about her almost-death and the person who caused it. Ana has spent the last ten years in prison for her part in what happened and is determined to play a role in “her” project again. Colin, a former captain who now runs the station built to equip and support the development of Forever, is determined to make the project a success. And then there is Aaron, Jackson’s seventeen-year-old son, who is looking for answers as to what really happened to his dad; Aaron has a secret he intends to use to get the answers he craves.

It’s an explosive mix of people, motivations, and various plans and it puts the interpersonal aspects of the story into the center of events. Some of the revelations I expected, but most of the developments were a nice surprise. There is a lot of technical detail as well, none of it overwhelming, but rather useful background that helped me better understand the whole idea of a sentient spaceship and how its mind relates to humans. Getting to know the inside of the ship, including the people who already live there in  its first colony, felt like exploring a miniplanet – and that is exactly what Forever is.

2165 – Refugees
In the culmination of events that began thirty years earlier, this third story pulls all the threads together and sets the scene for Forever’s future. Humankind’s destiny, or a part of it, becomes clear – and that is really all I can say without spoiling the surprise. What I will reveal is that it is fantastic and impressive and made me very glad that the second book in this series will be released only a week from today.

The three steps into the future described in ‘The Stark Divide’ make the digestion of this world not just understandable but enjoyable. There was no “dumping” of information on my brain because the first stretch, the one to 2135, is small enough that I easily understood how this future works. Much of it consists of the consequences of today’s political, economic, societal, and environmental trends. But, and this is true for the subsequent sections as well, most of it is due to very realistic characters who add their unique perspectives in a way I found spellbinding. Their reactions and thoughts made it perfectly clear what was going on and enabled me to mentally jump right into the story.

If you like imaginative science fiction that is as detailed about the technical aspects as it is about the human interactions of the future, if fascinating characters and intense emotions are your thing, and if you’re looking for a well written story that will entertain you as much as it will make you think, then you will probably love this novel as much as I do. It’s pretty unique, and I can’t wait to read more stories set in this world.

 

 

 

 

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Additional Information

Format	ebook and print
Length	Novel, 290 pages/87500 words
Heat Level
Publication Date	10-July-2020
Price	$4.40 ebook, $14.99 paperback, $16.99 bundle
Buy Link	https://www.amazon.com/Stark-Divide-Liminal-Ariadne-Cycle-ebook/dp/B08C9NJ68V