SPSFC 3 Book Review- Eclipse by Herman Steuernagel
Eclipse was a fun, fast paced, coming of age space opera which was utterly addicting.
Django has spent his entire life on the Eclipse, a space station housing the remainder of Earths population after the climate wars. For years he has helped to maintain the agriculture on the D ring, working on the stations farms in order to send ships of food and livestock back to Earth in hopes that one day, maybe not in their lifetime, people will be able to return to the ruined world. Django’s is content with his life, he has loving parents, a sister about to be married and a good friend Evantide about to step into the world of the B ring. He is happy where he is, or so he thought. System glitches have been happening all too often causing people to be thrown out of air locks. Causes for alarm that were once never heard are now a daily occurrence. When Django and his family see something, they shouldn’t have, their lives are under threat. Maybe they the only space station out there after all.
Mikka is an ex-pirate, desperately trying to stay on the straight and narrow. She doesn’t want anyone else to know where or what she has come from, she only wants to make her credits and get back to her sick mother. When her ship receives a distress call from a wanted criminal, she needs to make a choice, help or run. But the person on the other end of the call knows her, knows all about her and it would be more dangerous to let her run free.
Django and Mikka’s worlds collide as they embark on a journey that will change their world as they know it forever.
Eclipse was a perfect little bit of bookish popcorn. It was very easy to read, fast paced and highly entertaining. My favourite aspect of this tale was the way the two storylines felt separate within the same world but fit together towards the end of the story. The author has done a great job with these two-story elements by having one (Django) being a slower paced aspect and another (Mikka) being the fast, fun space pirate story line to keep us flipping the pages.
I also liked the way the author has allowed his characters the space to work through what each new plot point means for them and how they want to react. Our main protagonist is an 18-year-old boy, turned man. Suddenly he finds himself without a lot of the home comforts he has grown to rely on, and his world is shaken. In an instant he has more responsibilities, more danger and he doesn’t know what is real and what isn’t. We get to experience him fighting through his grief and discomfort while also still being in denial that things need to change. He goes on quite the learning journey in a matter of 300 pages, but it still felt authentic to that character.
The last thing I will mention is how accessible this sci-fi space opera is for readers. Sometimes sci-fi can get bogged down in technical terms big philosophical or military esk ramblings which can make it harder to pick up for mass audiences. The prose and plot of Eclipse is yes, set in space and we have a few of those spacey terms to contend with, but it was done in such a way that even an inexperienced sci-fi reader could pick this up and have a good time. I thought this was a great first entry into a series that promises bigger and better things. I am very much looking forward to continuing sometime soon.
