Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Penumbra
AUTHOR: Dan Ackerman
PUBLISHER: Supposed Crimes
LENGTH: 376 Pages
RELEASE DATE: April 1st, 2021
BLURB:
Arden inherited Eden, a space station floating over a dying planet. He also inherited an oppressive class system, worker shortages, and an entitled ruling class that refuses to make concessions. Rhys, a worker who’s earned Arden’s trust, helps him make unpopular changes to keep Eden alive.
Arden’s reputation as a shallow and formula-addled leader leaves his friends and foes skeptical of his leadership. Rhys gains power and is met with resistance from the ruling class. But without intervention, Eden’s labor shortages may lead to the end of the station, and Terra One, within Arden’s lifetime.
REVIEW:
I’m not a huge reader of science fiction, but I’ve come to realise that if Dan Ackerman writes something, I should give it a shot.
Although Ackerman has once again taken a completely different route in relation to the plot and the world the story is set in, true to form this story has the blatant political and societal commentary which is an earmark of the author’s work. Which is why I love their work so much.
Penumbra is the story of Arden, who is basically the undisputed ruler of Eden space station. Arden might be a hard character for some readers to like. He’s not a bad person, but he has lived his life to this point wilfully ignorant of the conditions experienced by the working-class aboard Eden. These people are basically slaves, but the ruling class are happy, and have all the power, so why bother changing anything? Because the broken society is slowly destroying Eden, and Arden is no longer able to stick his head in the sand and pretend everything is awesome.
This is a long story, and I’ve read other reviews that thought some of the day-to-day goings on could have been cut to tighten the story. However, I’m of the opposite opinion. This story is about enacting social change, and we all know that that’s something that takes time a serious plotting and planning. Those with power are never happy to start sharing that power with those who are oppressed, and I appreciated that the author took the time to really develop that part of the plot. I also enjoyed the scenes of random daily interactions because it lightened what could have easily been an overly heavy plot. The relationships between the characters were strong and pivotal to the plot, but most importantly they were just interesting to experience. And because it’s an Ackerman book, the characters are dealing with such problems as drug addiction, trauma from past sexual assault and mental health issues. Cause, you know, this author loves their imperfectly ‘real’ characters.
And so do I.
RATING:
BUY LINK: