Review of Sunward Sky by Henry Neilsen

Hot on the heels of writing about why space is awesome, it feels fitting I turn around and consider the downsides of space travel. Well, in this case, it’s more like space labour. Sunward Sky offers a near-future, hard science fiction take on the perils of spending too long away from Earth’s surface. Henry Neilsen weaves social commentary in with mystery, conspiracy, and action. While not entirely successful, in my opinion, this book raises some interesting questions. I received a copy in exchange for a review.

Alyssa joins the crew of the eponymous spaceship for the first time. Ostensibly, she has signed on to a labour contract: the crew of Sunward Sky repairs the various satellite constellations in low and medium Earth orbits. These include familiar systems, like GPS and its various sister networks. Without this labour, the satellites would stop functioning—and in a world devastated by climate change and all manner of other, hinted-at disasters, people need communications and positioning more than ever. However, Alyssa has an ulterior motive: she thinks she has the cure to a chronic condition spacers develop if they spend too long in orbit. Soon, Alyssa discovers she has signed up for more than she bargained: there’s a conspiracy on board, one that threatens not only her own life but the security and stability of everyone on Earth.

One thing you can’t say about this book is that it’s paced too slowly. From the beginning, Neilsen builds consistently towards the book’s explosive climax. Even before she makes it aboard the ship, Alyssa discovers the first hints of the conspiracy that will soon rock Sunward Sky. I really like how Neilsen doesn’t slow-roll things. I expected Alyssa’s investigation and the thriller aspects of the conspiracy to be the bulk of the novel. Instead, things take a disastrous turn pretty quickly.

In the same way, Alyssa proves a decisive, action-oriented protagonist despite lacking much experience in space. After her initial terror at realizing she might be the only one aboard who knows about the conspiracy, she quickly rallies and starts doing something. We love a strong female protagonist written realistically by a male author.

I wish I could say something similar for the rest of the cast. In general, the characterization in Sunward Sky feels hasty and underrealized. Each character exist primarily to fill their role in the plot, and they seldom have much more in the way of personality or depth beyond that. This is especially unfortunate given Neilsen’s proclivity for killing off characters: I just don’t feel sad for them the way I would someone I’ve really had a chance to know and connect with. They’re all redshirts.

Something similar is amiss with the plot. While the pacing, as I noted, is excellent, the story quickly arcs upwards only to plateau more than climax. Dispensing with the slow-burn mystery in favour of the dramatic disaster story does wonders for the dramatic tension—until it doesn’t, because there’s no other mystery. I suppose the tension is supposed to come from the question of “will they survive?”—and having proved he’s willing to kill off any character, Neilsen has demonstrated the answer isn’t necessarily yes. Alas, I just … didn’t care about how the story turned out.

In all of this, the B story about Alyssa’s wonder drug is sidelined. It gets mentioned throughout, and there are awkward flashbacks jammed in here and there. This is a shame, for it’s really the best part of Sunward Sky. Neilsen has extrapolated the current climate of creeping privatization of the aerospace industry, and he’s created a convincing underclass of people essentially doomed to disability. Everything he imagines when it comes to the crew, how they got there, etc., feels super believable.

Indeed, if there is anything that will redeem this book for you, it’s Neilsen’s commitment to the “hard” elements of science fiction here. Orbital mechanics, radio communications blackouts, and fuel burn calculations all play an important role in this story—not that you have to understand these things, of course. In any event, Neilsen is working from the same playbook as Andy Weir, so if you liked, say, Artemis, you might also like Sunward Sky.