November 16, 2024

Review: The Last Gifts of the Universe

The Last Gifts of the Universe The Last Gifts of the Universe by Riley August
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book was self-published before it was picked up by a traditional publisher, and I almost wish they had left well enough alone. Apparently it has its fans, but I wasn't overly impressed with it. It falls into the recent "cozy" trend, in this case science fiction/space opera that's very inward-looking and personal, with a focus more on emotional stakes rather than physical ones. There is an extinction-level threat to humanity in this book, but by the end the problem remains unsolved and the threat remains. The protagonist comes to terms with grief and loss, specifically the death of their mother. Obviously this is a legitimate storyline, but I wish the author had just made her book a contemporary tale and left the SF out of it.

That's because the worldbuilding, one of the main reasons I read science fiction, is sorely lacking in this book, and what little there is feels shallow and not well thought out. The sibling protagonists, Kieran and Scout, are planet-hopping archaeologists and archivists, investigating the dead civilizations and planets found in abundance in this corner of the galaxy, bringing back artifacts and searching for information about the enemy that destroyed said civilizations. They go up agains the requisite cliched eeeevilllll corporation in the hunt for the caches of information left by those vanished peoples (Verity Co). Sometimes those dead planets are inhabited by Remnants of whatever did the original deed, which are so scantily described I couldn't get a clear picture in my head of what they even were. Are they eldritch Lovecraftian interdimensional horrors that hate life? Couldn't prove it by me, which grew more irritating as the book went on. And in the end, not only are they not defeated, there is not even a plan to defeat them. Scout just makes up their mind to honor the memories of both the billions who died and their mother by carrying on the work, and Kieran decides this isn't the life for him--he wants to stay planetside from now on. Again, these sentiments are just fine, but as part of a science fiction story, they feel like a cheat.

(There's also a cat, an orange tom named Pumpkin who has his own little spacesuit and booties, and who can apparently pick up scents through his helmet. No, the science in this book isn't great either.)

Unfortunately, I've read far better space operas than this. But if you like your stories low-key and on the cozy side, this might suit you, I guess.

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