Intergalactic travel, a rescue mission, and mystery? Count me in! I love space opera tales, and this book didn't disappoint. "Refractions" by M V Melcer is a page-turning space opera and one of the best novels I've read in a long time.
The book follows Nathalie Hart, a Canadian space pilot who lives in Kenya. When all communication with Bethesda, humanity's first extra-solar colony, stops, an interstellar rescue expedition is set. Nathalie volunteers to join the mission to escape a painful past and a guilty conscience. A few years into the voyage, she’s rudely woken out of cryo-sleep to find smoke and chaos. She finds out that, as the second in command, she is now in charge of the ship and crew, who consist of different nationalities. She isn't over-enthusiastic about it, but she is the only one the different factions will accept.
The plot thickens when she finds a message on her cryo-pod with one word: "sabotage." She doesn't know who she can trust, but she must buckle down and face the music. It appears someone will go to great lengths to keep Bethesda’s secrets, and it's up to her to unravel the mystery. If she fails, many innocent lives will be lost.
Thus starts an exciting adventure chock-full of commentary on climate change, politics, and corruption. With themes of friendship, trust, community, fallible human nature, environmental concerns, deceit, and moral conflicts, the author has woven a tale that I enjoyed reading.
The setup was interesting, and it was a fascinating way of seeing the way human nature does or doesn’t change. There’s a large cast in "Refractions," and the author did a great job of fleshing them all out. The characters are amazingly written, coming across as very genuine and fallible.
I didn't find the technical jargon too technical and found it an easy read. It wasn't preachy despite the references to the human impact on the environment and potentially scary scenarios. The narrative jumps smoothly around from the present to the past and has excellent backstories and interesting world-building. I enjoyed the present sections more than the past sections, but I still found the book to be a highly engaging read
Overall, I was very impressed with the story. It's complex, multifaceted, and thought-provoking. As with most really good science fiction novels, the true point of the story is the exploration of human nature by showing how different people act when faced with difficult choices and moral dilemmas. It certainly deserved full stars! I look forward to reading more from this author in the future. It's epic science fiction and engaging character-driven storytelling, which will appeal to devotees of the genre or just fans of excellent story-telling. Highly recommended!
* Thank you NetGalley and (publisher) for the opportunity to read this arc. All opinions are my own.
* For more info about the book: "Refractions" by M V Melcer
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