The marvellous and mysterious first book in J. Dianne Dotson’s Questrison Saga.

As with all the books on my TBR, I’ve been meaning to read the Questrison Saga for a good long while now, ever since I first saw J. Dianne Dotson pop up in the Twitter writing community, and now here we are: Heliopause, the first book in the four-part space opera series. In many ways I’ve felt like Dianne’s passion to create this universe that’s sat with her for a long time has parallels with my own approach to the Augment Saga. And that’s intriguing.

Blurb

Flashes of light. An unseen menace. Messages from the void. Secrets at the edge of the solar system that threaten to destroy the future.

Mandira Research Station beckons at the heliopause--the brink of interstellar space. After Forster sees flashes outside that no one else can, the captain of an incoming ship is attacked by an invisible foe. Forster and his enigmatic coworker Efron search for a missing daughter who might be the cause of it all. Can the team stop the force from taking over Mandira, and the entire solar system?

Review

Heliopause was overall a fantastic read. I love me some space opera, and there was a lot to love about this book. First of all, the location: Mandira Research Station, a large conch-shaped space station situated out at the edge of the solar system. A great alternative to the more typical starships, Mandira provided not only a great sense of isolation similar to what you get aboard the Gilgamesh in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time, but also the camaraderie and community in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, with an aesthetic that kind of reminded me of the Enterprise D in The Next Generation. Despite the isolation of this far-out location, the worldbuilding is great: you get a good idea of the kind of technological level humans are at just through the different areas of the station and the interactions with the crew.

Plot-wise, there’s a lot of mysterious goings-on, some of which is deliberately left vague even to the end of the book, making clear room for the second book to expand upon it all. In fact, I have already started reading Ephemeris at the time of writing this review, and the expansion of the worldbuilding is immense, but I’ll leave that for when I review that book. In Heliopause there’s a Big Reveal that gave me goosebumps because it was so awesome - don’t worry, I won’t spoil it here. The plot was well-paced and the short chapters made it incredibly snappy to read. That being said, there were some occasions where I felt the book could have done with dwelling a bit more on what was going on, but it moved along quite quickly.

The characters were fun generally. Forster spent much of his time confused and feeling out of the loop. As much of the book is centered around a lot of mysterious and unusual happenings, Forster’s was a good perspective to inhabit. The other characters around him are also vibrant and dynamic. Efron was a fun enigmatic character, and other crewmembers all had distinct, interesting and believable personalities.

All-in-all, I’m looking forward to continuing my journey through the Questrison Saga. Very much recommended.