Book Review: Raising Solace, Lost Solace Book 4, Karl Drinkwater
Science Fiction: Raising Solace, Lost Solace Book 4, Karl Drinkwater
This is book four of a series that I am enjoying more and more. That being said, if you have not read books 1-3 (or any of the four companion novellas “Lost Tales of Solace”) you will enjoy this book much more if you go back and catch up with the story.
Opal, the protagonist of the series, is a young woman who was searching for her missing sister with the help of a sentient AI named Athene, who is embedded in a starship. Opal finally found her sister Clarissa, but they were almost immediately captured by agents of the NFS, the vast conglomerate that runs the known galaxy with seemingly unlimited economic, military, and governing power. They are delivered to an NFS agent named Aseides who has taken a particular interest in Opal and Clarissa.
Opal has managed to escape and is in communication with Athene, but Aseides has his own sentient AI, Dulcetta, who is almost as advanced as Athene and has the advantage of being embedded in the ship holding Opal and Clarissa. The Leviathan was a starship but it is now hidden beneath the ocean. Somehow, Opal must rescue Clarissa, escape the Leviathan, get to the surface, get to land, then get off the surface to rejoin Athene who is hiding on one of the planet’s moons.
Just another day at the office for Opal and Athene.
Throughout this series, Karl Drinkwater has played with ideas of race, economic disparity, personhood, and other profound issues. Those are present in this book, but more than the others this is a good old-fashioned escape book. Get out of prison, rescue your sister, run away. Those types of books can be very good or very bad depending on how they are written. This one was, in my opinion, very good. I have this mental image of the author having covered his wall with a massive architectural drawing of the Leviathan with various rooms labeled and Opal’s circuitous path following a series of dots from level to level. That journey through the Leviathan in pursuit of Aseides and in search of Clarissa takes Opal on a journey into her own past and revelations about herself that completely change what she believes to be true.
The question becomes, does knowing who you truly are change who you think yourself to be?
Our thanks to the author for our copy of Raising Solace, provided with only a request for an honest review.
Book Review: Raising Solace, Lost Solace Book 4, Karl Drinkwater
Wonderful review, thank you! 🙂