A few weeks ago, James Bow, a science fiction writer that happens to live in the same small Canadian city as me, approached and asked if I would read and review his newest book, The Sun Runners. Since I enjoyed his last book, Icarus Down, quite a bit, I told him I’d be happy to give it a stab.
It’s an easy read, and I was able to start and finish it within a few days despite it being a thick book. There are two stories taking place in overlapping but independent timelines: a princess grappling with a paranoid and increasingly domineering grandmother, and that same grandmother fifty years earlier when she is a young officer dealing with the sudden and cataclysmic isolation from Earth.
Oh, I suppose that’s an important note: the story takes place on Mercury, in one of the massive city-trains that roll across the surface on “Robinson Rails,” huge monorails that both power and move the cities. It’s a neat bit of science, all laid out quickly and concisely at the start of the novel.
The princess, Frieda, is the next-in-line to rule one of the two largest latitude towns, the Messenger, and has a very significant accident (I want everyone to appreciate that I didn’t make the joke that “things go off the rails,” despite how it’s right there). Her grandmother, Adelheid, steps in to take control of the town.
As things spiral out of control, we leap back and forth between the grandmother’s time in command of the Messenger when Earth went silent, fifty years earlier in the aftermath of a limited nuclear war. It’s interesting because it lays the foundation for the paranoid and dominating behaviour of Adelheid when her granddaughter is thrust, unprepared, into the same sort of situation that Adelheid originally had to step up for.
There are a few niggling issues with the story: a bit of repetitive bad luck that strikes the Messenger and her sister city, the Hermes, that seems somewhat implausible, and some technical issues near the climax of the story that don’t quite fit with the narrative, but nothing that really distracts from the light and clever story.
My only real complaint is that there are two crises in the Adelheid storyline that are robbed of their power due to overly aggressive foreshadowing in the Frieda storyline. Because we see the solution to one of these problems clearly laid out, it feels anticlimactic when Adelheid stumbles over it, and the horror of the other is taken away because we already know what’s coming. Again, not a major issue, and maybe I wouldn’t have noticed if I was reading at a slower pace.
Overall, it’s a great bit of writing, and the characters in both stories are well fleshed-out and interesting. There are a few head-scratching decisions from several characters, but then I remember the Frieda isn’t eighteen yet and everyone else is in incredibly tense and fraught situations, and those decisions suddenly made a lot more sense.
Plus, I think this is officially the first sci-fi I’ve ever read that’s set on Mercury! Mars and Venus, sure, but never Mercury before… tip of the hat to Bow for managing that, and for making the setting both a seamless part of the story without devolving into info-dumping every chapter. Damn fine work!
I’m happy to recommend The Sun Runners to anyone who enjoys solid science fiction. I hesitate to use the term “YA,” but only because I don’t think you specifically have to be a fan of YA to enjoy the book. It’s got enough depth and crunch to satisfy most sci-fi readers, but is light and pacey enough for younger audiences. Two thumbs up, 9 out of 10 stars, can’t wait to read the sequel if/when Bow writes one!