A strange vision of the future in which all of existence is affected by a an expanding calamity known only as “The Pulse,” which degrades technology and sends entire planets back to the stone age while leaving others completely untouched: This is the world of The Stars Now Unclaimed, a new novel from Drew Williams.
Our protagonist, who goes unnamed for the majority of the book, is tasked with ferrying super-human children back to the mysterious organization for whom she works while also dealing with the growing threat of a faction of zealots who are obsessed with uniformity and bent on enslaving all life in pursuit of forced peace and order.
A quick look at some of the other reviews of this book will give you a few basic impressions: exciting action, big space battles, explosions, and lots of fun sci-fi bits. While the book does have all of that, I feel like there is a lot more to discuss. This novel is an epic space romp, with cool ships and interesting alien cultures, but it is also a thought-provoking look at the effects of war on both civilization and the individual, a rumination on the nature of technology and how it affects and defines societies at large, and a look at what it means to be sentient in the face of losing all of the advancements that make us “civilized.” The book is, however, not without humor. The ongoing teenage tropes of the young character Esa, the fed-up sarcasm of the main character, and the witty on-board voice of her spaceship, Scheherazade, keep the story from becoming too serious or heavy.
I’m not ashamed, I geeked out over this book. I love fiction set in big, complex worlds, especially sci-fi and fantasy, and The Stars Now Unclaimed checked every box. With every additional location, alien race, and technological advancement introduced, I found myself updating a little encyclopedia in my head, and coming back to reference it later. There’s something about that quality that lends itself so well to the genres that I love, that perhaps that is why I love them, and this book is a great representation of that.
All that said, I loved this book, and I am certainly looking forward to the rest of the series that seems to be set up by the ending (fair warning to readers, there is a slight cliff-hanger). If you love science fiction, or just want to try something new, pick up a copy, available as of today.
Drew Williams will be at Lemuria on Monday, September 10, at 5:00 p.m. to sign and read from The Stars Now Unclaimed.
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