Deep space is getting shallower by the light-year.
Interstellar Vehicle Archimedes has been hurtling through space for more than five generations. But now the aging starship is preparing to brake, to fall into the gravity well of Tau Ceti, the Destination Star: a new home for the space-born descendants of the First Crew.
For trainee engineer Ravinder MacLeod, the world he has known is coming to an end. Once Archimedes succumbs to the gravitational pull of the Destination Star and its (hopefully) habitable planet, there will be no going back. As Braking Day approaches, Ravi finds himself caught between the rigid requirements of the officer class to which he aspires and the unwritten rules of his blue-collar, ne’er-do-well family. A position that Ravi’s brilliant ex-con cousin, Boz, seems determined to make as uncomfortable as possible. She has begun experimenting with forbidden technology, technology that the First Crew intentionally left behind on Earth.
With Tau Ceti burning brighter each day, Ravi is assigned a routine maintenance mission deep in the massive engines of the Archimedes. Alone and out of contact, he comes face to face with something impossible. Mind-breakingly impossible.
Plagued by nightmares and visions, and worried that his grip on reality is slipping, Ravi turns to Boz for help. Their search for answers takes them to the jagged place where the ship’s future intersects with its long past. Because on ISV Archimedes, not everyone is excited to be reaching journey’s end, and the ghosts of the First Crew may not have been fully laid to rest.
Innovative worldbuilding, a plot packed with surprises, and Oyebanji’s nuanced exploration of social and cultural shifts make this a must-read for space opera fans.
Publishers Weekly starred review
All I can say is this is the best SF novel I’ve read in decades and it may be the best I’ve ever read.
Julie E. Czerneda Aurora Award-winning author of In the Company of Others
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