Allen Steele
Tor
Published March 1st, 2016
ISBN: 0765382156 (ISBN13: 9780765382153)
Nathan Arkwright, a sci-fi author from the age of Asimov and Clarke, passes away, leaving his amassed fortune to the mysterious Arkwright Foundation. His granddaughter is the first among generations to pursue the writer’s dream of seeing humanity reach the nearest earth-like inhabitable planet.
The book begins like a nostalgic love letter to the space age of science fiction, recalling the writer’s early career, and into the purpose of the foundation. It continues into a generational pursuit of space exploration, with the eventual goal of seeing humanity colonizing far space.
While it has a similar approach to Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves, Arkwright has a much lighter, more optimistic tone. Although Arkwright is also lighter on the science, its focus on people and process makes for a delightful story that evokes the bright-eyed look toward the future that older science fiction had in abundance.
JL Jamieson is a strange book nerd who writes technical documents by day, and book news, reviews, and other assorted opinions for you by night. She is working on her own fiction, and spends time making jewelry to sell at local conventions, as well as stalking the social media accounts of all your favorite writers.