Rivers Solomon

*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Aster, a surgeon, is assistant to Theo, the Surgeon General on board the spaceship Matilda. The ship is heavily segregated with darker-skinned poor people consigned to the lower decks and forced to toil in the service of the upper decks. It is only Aster’s medical talent and connection to Theo that allows her a level of freedom to grow her own plants and discover the mystery behind her mother’s disappearance when she was a baby via a journal she left behind.

While highly creative and interesting, I think this is another book that would have benefitted from being only in the third person to give me more of the world around our characters. Don’t get me wrong, the world-building is great but I found myself getting confused too often in this book.

However, I did enjoy this book. We have some great realistic characters, a dystopian future starship, an intriguing mystery to solve, and great integration of LGBTQI characters. It’s like Titan A.E. only with even more social commentary. I came to enjoy Aster’s attitude but I really wondered as to the fate of the Matilda. Mostly Theo since I enjoyed him as well. Maybe there will be more in this universe in the future? I sure hope so. 4.6 out of 5.

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Yetu is the historian for her people, the wajinru. For this mermaid-like species, historian means she holds all the memories of her people right from the very first of them so the other’s don’t have to deal with the pain of the past. But the memories frequently overwhelm Yetu, leaving her sickly and tired so when the time comes to share the memories with her people in a grand ceremony, she takes the chance to flee so she can finally be alone in her own mind. But in the throws of their history, the wajinru create a terrible storm that threatens to destroy land and sea.

This is a great concept and it’s written beautifully. There is a lag in the middle where it just sort of meanders about until Yetu finally makes her decision but I like how the book turned out. It’s an interesting take on memory, history, and shared pain. 4 out of 5.

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