Book Review: Light Chaser
A strange and powerfully imaginative space opera novella from Gareth L. Powell and Peter F. Hamilton.
Light Chaser is the result of a collaboration between two masters of space opera: Gareth L. Powell and Peter F. Hamilton. It’s a new novella that was published back in August, and I’ve been looking forward to reading it ever since I saw the preliminary marketing earlier this year. I have to admit I didn’t initially realise it was a novella! I honestly thought I’d be picking up another Chonky Boi, but at about 175 pages, it’s definitely on the shorter side. I have no problem with that at all; sometimes it’s nice to break up the chonkers with some quicker reads. TL;DR for the review below: I really rather enjoyed this very imaginative space opera.
Blurb
A love that spans the universe can bring down an empire.
Amahle is a Light Chaser: one of a number of explorers who travel the universe alone (except for their onboard AI), trading trinkets for life stories. But when she listens to the stories sent down through the ages she hears the same voice talking directly to her from different times and on different worlds. She comes to understand that something terrible is happening to humanity, and only she is in a position to do anything about it.
And it will cost everything to put it right.
Review
Right from the off, Light Chaser deals with some pretty heavy topics in astrophysics: strange matter, quark stars, relativistic time dilation to name but a few. This isn’t the only subject the book delves deep into either. There’s themes of societal stagnation, inequality, reliance on artificial intelligence and human augmentation, all with a hefty dose of romance, and more esoteric topics such as reincarnation and time travel. As a novella, Light Chaser covers a lot of ground in a very short time, and it achieves this with what is, for the most part, masterful world-building. In fact, the world-building is delivered remarkably well. Through the device of the Memory Collars we get to indulge in the rich variety of cultures in the human interstellar Domain. That being said, there were a couple of times where I did feel expounded to. But as I said, there’s a lot of ground to cover in a short novella, and it’s more than forgivable.
While reading, I was reminded of the ending to the movie Interstellar with its love connection, and that’s because as much as Interstellar was a showcase in how to do that trope poorly, Light Chaser is a prime example of how to do it well.
I enjoyed following the character of Amahle as she goes on her journey from being just another cog in the machine to full realisation of the true nature of her mission, and that of the universe itself. You can really feel the distrust that she begins to have in her ship’s onboard AI, and every word from it has this slightly disconcerting edge.
I think my only issue with the novella is that it felt a bit rushed towards the end and I found it a little lacking in terms of the central conflict, which I can’t really say much more about without getting into spoilers.
Overall, a very enjoyable and captivating read. Fans of space opera wanting a quick blast should definitely check this one out.
