Reviewed by Jess
TITLE: Dusk
SERIES: Expedition 63 #1
AUTHOR: T.A. Creech
PUBLISHER: JMS Books
LENGTH: 135 pages
RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2018
BLURB:
When contact is lost with Mission Control, Commander John Dennington isn’t overly concerned. Such hiccups in communication are common. The first inkling of the larger problem occurs when he sees the very shape of the world change before his eyes.
John must ease his crew into a new mission and keep the Station together by any means necessary. The crew jeopardizes their chances by fighting his orders, but Jason Weiss, his mission specialist and the light of his life, makes John’s situation more bearable.
The smallest malfunction to Station or crew would spell the end for six astronauts trapped high above a ruined Earth. It’s their mission to carry on. Random chance of the universe hasn’t operated in their favor so far, but John is determined to see them all safely home.
REVIEW:
Sometimes, sex is not the answer. And when you’re potentially stranded in space for five years due to Earth’s nuclear apocalypse, sex really isn’t the answer. When romance and sci-fi mix, I tend to focus more on the science, so this book felt very off-kilter right from the start.
Since John and Jason start out as a couple, I feel like we’re missing important elements to their relationship right away. We don’t get to see their chemistry or what draws them together before disaster strikes. I find it very hard to believe that kept their romance a secret from their crew, since they’re very obvious around each other, and I also doubt anyone would even care. The secrecy aspect adds a layer of useless drama to the first half of the story.
Despite issues I had with the romance end of things, I like that this book recalls some of the conventions of well-loved modern sci-fi works. As the crew tries to figure out how to sustain a food source for five years, they mention the Watney Protocol—an obvious homage to Mark Watney’s potato farming in Andy Wier’s The Martian. I had my issues with this book, but I really did enjoy the feeling of be immersed in that classic sci-fi environment. And I will admit, all of the peril in the second half did make me more invested in John and Jason’s relationship—and it kept me right on the edge of my seat!
I think the author has the best of intentions, but some of the characters, especially Saito, are drawn very broadly in racial and cultural stereotypes. This kind of well-meaning insensitivity isn’t a new thing in sci-fi works—in fact, way back in 1966, George Takei had to convince the Star Trek writers that his character should use a rapier instead of a samurai sword to avoid Asian stereotypes. If that conversation could take place over 50 years ago, I think we need to work harder to abolish that mindset in science fiction today. The second book in this series, Dark, will focus on Saito and the extremely Irish Turloch, and I’m a little nervous to read it due to those cultural issues. I have faith in the author, but they definitely need a sensitivity reader or two to make more dynamic diverse characters.
There were a lot of missteps with this book, but there were also a lot of things I really enjoyed as both an LGBT lit fan and a sci-fi fan. A decent start to a series.
RATING: 
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