Escape Velocity is the second novel by Filipino author Victor Manibo whose prior novel The Sleepless was an anti-capitalist sci-fi Noir exploring a world where some people no longer had to sleep. It was a really interesting debut and made me very intrigued to see what Manibo would do for an encore. Escape Velocity is the result: a novel that takes the anti-capitalist themes up a notch, as the novel is centered around an elite prep school reunion for the ultra rich and powerful on a state of the art luxury space station....above an Earth those same rich and powerful have left devastated, such that the average person is barely able to survive a constantly changing for the worse climate.

The book is marketed as a thriller and contains elements of a mystery and yet...isn't really either of those things and yet it's still very interesting and very good. Most of the book is centered around the past and present stories of the 1% main characters, who you will very much wish will get their comeuppance very soon into the book as they are largely assholes, even if they have some sympathetic moments (Ava, the trans girl who was abused by her murdered brother and whose poor lover was blamed for the murder, is the most sympathetic but even still). And then there's the workers on the station whose perspectives show them scheming in some fashion underneath it all, whom you will hope more and more to succeed. The result is really an interesting exploration of class and anti capitalist themes that is also kind of a commentary on other books which center such rich protagonists - I'll try to explain better after the jump.

Plot Summary:
It's the 25th year reunion for the Rochford Institute - the elite high school that teaches the elite of the elite and prepares them to essentially rule the world from the government or corporate positions their families have passed down from generation to generation. These reunions are known for being filled with orgies and scheming, and games of power and sex conducted there have massively changed the world. So what better place to host this reunion than the Space Habitat Altaire, the brand new ultra luxury space station orbiting their dying Earth....especially as just going to the Altaire will give each reunion member extra credit towards their application to leave that Earth and join the new colonies being set up on Mars.

For former teenage friends Ava, Sloane, Henry, and Laz, this reunion comes with its own particular opportunities. For Sloane, that's the ability to supplement his income, reduced by his family's ruin, by serving as in person Dom to one of the richer guests, even as he has a distaste for it all. For Henry, it's the chance to blackmail his way to Mars, in spite of a secret health ailment that should disqualify him. For Laz, it's the possibility of getting another chance to romance Ava, the childhood love who got away. And for Ava, it's the chance to figure out which of the three of the others was responsible for murdering her abusive twin brother Ashwin and who let Ava's poor drug dealing lover take the fall for the crime.

But there are non Rochford people on the Altaire with their own agenda - an agenda to take advantage of the fact that the most powerful people in the world, the ones who have ruined the planet for the rest of them, are all onboard and at their mercy.....

Escape Velocity starts in media res to heighten tension before flashing back to the main plot (and then occasionally flashing back further 25 years to what happened with Ashwin) and following a series of main characters - Rochford grads Ava, Sloane, Henry, and Laz as well as Cielo Mallari, the Head of Guest Relations....and also one of the heads of a plot with the rest of the workers of the Altaire to do...something. Notably, the book does a pretty good job getting you to generaly hate its biggest protagonists Henry, Laz, and Sloane (although Sloane is kind of self hating) and their ilk among their class. Ava, as the trans woman abused by her brother physically and emotionally abused by her family (and whose lover was killed because of it), is treated a bit more sympathetically, as she has faced genuine abuse and trauma....but even there, the book very clearly doesn't want you to really sympathize with its most frequent points of view.

The story takes place in a future Earth where the planet is getting hotter and more wrecked by climate change caused of course by capitalism and the rich. The poorer people have had to desperately scramble to find land that is livable as their older lands became too flooded, too hot, or too otherwise uninhabitable, while the rich have seized the best land for themselves and created luxury space stations to live decadently...and now are planning to leave the dying planet for Mars, where they've managed to set up what seem like self sustaining colonies. And they've limited immigration to Mars via a point-based "MERIT" system which is supposedly meant to ensure only the most useful people can go to Mars but really means only the most rich and connected can go....and said system is biased in other prejudiced ways - for example, Ava's father was so offended by her existence that he imposed a penalty for couples being unable to procreate...and thus a "gay tax" is part of the system. Meanwhile of course, the most useful people to any actual new colony would be those actually used to labor...but those people are of course excluded.

It's this setting that allows Manibo to contrast our asshole main characters with the help staff on the station who are plotting to upstage them. Adding to this is the flashback mystery of what happened to Ava's abusive brother Ashwin and who murdered him and how what happened back then shows just how selfish the other main characters - Laz, Sloane, and Henry - really are. They may claim to love others or to do things for others, but they really care about themselves, with Laz perfectly being willing to dominate in an orgy, even to the extent of making an actress remove her head covering when she doesn't want to, or Henry being willing to commit desperate actions to hide his illness to get to Mars, or Sloane being absolutely willing to blackmail and to be a hypocrite even as he recognizes how awful they all are. And while Ava is the best of them, she hasn't broken free from the system and remains absolutely a part of it, even as she knows how utterly broken it is and how her father and others like him have caused such tremendous damage. Manibo even throws in a seemingly random incident in which a satellite with ties to an oppressive government ignores calls for rescue from a person overboard to instead fire missiles at a political enemy down on the Earth below, so as to make it clear how hypocritical and awful those who rule the Earth really are.

And so we Manibo shows us everything getting more and more decadent and elite until the plot of the workers on the Altaire, led by Cielo, finally takes center stage in the book's final act. Those who are looking to see a clear and happy final result shouldn't expect one here, but this book does end on a kind of hopeful note with those we hate getting their comeuppance, so it is satisfying in the end. There really isn't a full plot to this novel but that doesn't stop it from being a very interesting second novel.

I enjoyed this. I usually don't love movies as comp titles for books but I totally get it here, this really did feel like Knives Out (possibly Glass Onion?) in space with a Parasite twist. That is the correct vibe.

What I liked: I loved the various plot lines and how they all twisted together. I am a person who is not often surprised at surprise twists but this one definitely got me a few times. I think the multiple parallel mysteries kept things interesting, and I appreciated how every person had their own secret and motivation. I like the backdrop of climate disaster and how they are all kind of dancing around the idea that earth will be unlivable soon even though that's clearly the motivation for a lot of this.

What I didn't like: some of the mustache-twirling evil of the rich in this book was a bit overdone. Like, why are they having business orgies?? Such a weird concept and scene. I also thought some of the discussions of the evils of wealth could have been more subtle, but it didn't particularly bother me.

CW for transphobia (not by the author, by characters who are presented negatively), some homophobia, murder (not overly graphic), violence, & sex (not spice scene sex, more like, wow this is happening?? sex).

The second that I saw "Knives out with a Parasite twist" I knew that I needed this book i m m e d i a t e l y. My favorite genre is anything set on a space-ship, space hotel, etc. I love space horror, generation ships, and I will never say no to a Knives-Out-esque space hotel mystery. I really liked this story. I enjoyed all of the different perspectives, as I found it made the story really fast-paced because you were constantly moving on to new things and new people. I enjoyed getting to explore the world and immediate setting through the characters, and I found the through line of the mystery to be pretty interesting--I definitely wished for it to be a little faster paced in that aspect, with clues and murders and space hotel hijinks, but it was okay.
Ultimately, I really loved the idea and the atmosphere, and the story was fast paced. However, I do wish that the mystery aspect was fleshed out a little more, because I definitely think the one aspect of the story that I didn't like as much as the others was the fact that all the threads were both laid too bare and not woven together in a twisty-turny way.

We love a space resort vibe. And there's always a layer to the decay in the decadence. Escape Velocity packs so much into the pages. It's a class reunion with flashbacks to what happened. To the secrets that will never lie buried, to the lies we can never outrun. It's also a story of a present murder mystery on a locked room style space resort. What's better than that? Oh a story also critiquing the classism and prejudices in Mars exploration and capitalism.

Escape Velocity is a Sci-fi novel set in the luxurious Altaire hotel, where the elite among the elite congregate, each with their motives and secrets. It's The Menu, but set in space. I found the commentary on privilege and faux inclusivity pretty interesting.
I also liked the articles and the MERIT guide interspersed between the chapters, which grounded the book.
However, most of the characters are bland, except for Cielo and Ava. There were also long, long paragraphs on...nothing really, and led to me skimming several of them just so we could get on the plot. I was also kind of bored at the first part, but the second part really picked up the pace.

Aside from all that, if you liked Parasite, Knives Out, or The Menu, you'll love this one.

I was wanting for sci-fi, but this just happened to take place in space with the mystery front and center - which is okay but it isn't what I wanted or expected. The mystery was okay, but I was also wanting to see more of a current mystery; there is a current mystery going on, but one that's completely separate from the other. It was good, it just wasn't what I wanted.

If you like murder mysteries and support eating the rich, you will like Escape Velocity. In many ways, it's the revenge fantasy we all need right now.

This one wasn’t for me. It’s very wordy, which made it kind of drag, and the far future setting really only served to require a whole bunch of background info (which slowed things down even more). It felt kind of like the last few books of Game of Thrones where only 1 or 2 out of 6 or more POV characters held my interest - and they happened to be the ones who get the shortest page count. Too much “rich people behaving badly” and not enough movement.

ESCAPE VELOCITY is a many-layered story — a murder mystery and a present-day conspiracy set amidst a school reunion. Behind the decadence, maneuvering, and nostalgia runs a delicious seam of rage at a broken, unjust world.

The story follows a group of friends who graduated from a school for the extremely wealthy and powerful who are reuniting again on a brand new luxury orbital resort after many years. Each one has come for a different reason, and each one is hiding secrets from the others. But something is afoot on the space station and for once it may just be more important than them.

Like all great science fiction, ESCAPE VELOCITY holds up a fun house mirror to the present day and warns us what the future might look like if things continue. On this stage, Manibo has crafted a rich cast of characters — each guilty and damaged in their own ways. And — without spoiling too much — the story finishes in an extremely satisfying grand finale that may leave you questioning not just what happens, but yourself.

I am devastated to say that this was a DNF at 40% for me. I kept setting it to the side, hoping that a little distance would help bring me back to the story. But unfortunately, I just can't continue. I love the concept behind the story, but I think the characters killed it for me. Usually I love an unlikeable character, however, the entire cast is abysmal and I found myself not caring about the outcome or any sort of future reveals.

I read this book three months ago, but still haven't gotten my mind around the idea of reviewing it, because it hit me too hard to put into words.

This book is a gut punch. A brilliant examination of the business of survival, the people who own the promise of a future. Chapters alternate following a group of the richest, most powerful people on the planet - once 'just' school kids embroiled in a murder mystery - and the staff of the most magnificent space hotel ever conceived. The intrigue of the murder slowly weaves through the modern-day space station hotel stay, and the staff's plans that are coming together bit by bit, moving forward to an inevitable conclusion. And in all that time, you both despise these characters, but care about what's happening to them, demonstrating how well the author manages to craft complex, real people.

Here's the thing: I've read LOT of space hotel books. But none of them have ever called out class disparity with such poignance. None of them have ever gotten their hooks so deep in my mind that - three months after finishing it - I can't get that final chapter out of my mind. The exploration of the lengths the powerful go to keep their positions and ensure their future... and the staff of the hotel, doing what must be done.

Brilliant. Utterly brilliant. Fantastic Scifi.

Its often said, 'dont judge a book by its cover", but guilty as charged, I sometimes chose to explore a book and a new author because of the promising cover. I am still torn between the rating I want to give this book, this rarely happens with me. I believe author has a potential to create a thought provoking novel while being in mainstream. This is his second book, so my best wishes for the future ones to have a much better execution.

Escape Velocity is tagged under Science fiction mystery thriller. I though found that at its heart, its not belonging to any of those genres. It is an attempt towards a socio political commentary on capitalism and colonization. The backdrop is an Earth which is inhabitable 'after two centuries of rampant capitalism' and the worthy 'built a new haven on a new planet instead of fixing the planet they have'. I would have appreciated the book if it had not "failed to notice that other agendas are afoot" and focused more on 'uprising' OR post apocalyptic migration to Mars than on a murder that happened 25 years ago in an affluent college. The blurb sounds like a Page 3 content with uber privileged adults reliving, "high school all over again", I wonder on the thought behind this marketing strategy. The romantic and sexual relationships have been sprinkled all over to justify the tabloid premise, it is little too much in the face for my taste. There is no clarity on anyone's sexual orientation, everyone seems to be hooking up with every gender, cheating on their spouses and BDSM references.

The last 10 pages left me conflicted about my rating for this book. I was not sure whom to root for and who really did get the 'happy ending', the uber rich characters that I had been engaging with throughout or the planet earth exhausted of its every resource. There is a point based emigration system to move from Earth to Mars which reminds of Australia and Canada PR (permanent resident) applications, a good satire which "reduces the value of each human to a number". Its a powerful sentiment and the realization of the privileges we have. This was the moment the book took a turn for me and in its genre and so did this review. Talking about a beautiful cruise style space-resort, double flashbacks (three timelines), murder mystery felt like irrelevant. By the way, even the murder mystery comments on the class system, where a poor orphan is type casted as a murderer but you still wonder that did the rich bully kid really deserve to be murdered.

A familiar plot (a reunion of people with secrets about a murder years before) set in space sounds like it has potential - and this does to the extent that the mystery part is less interesting than the concept of who deserves to go to Mars. These are unlikable people (all of them). Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A rare pass from me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington/Erewhon Books for the opportunity to read and review Escape Velocity in exchange for my honest review.
Unfortunately, I am DNFing this book at 70% and if I have to choose a star rating it would only get 3 stars.
This is being described as Knives Out in space but at 70% and a missing man (possibly) floating around a space station I have yet to find an actual mystery portion of this book that I cared about.
Four friends from wealthy families who are now wealthy themselves attend a wealthy kids school reunion and they all have secrets. At one point an orgy is involved and a decades long mystery of who unalived the brother of one of the friends. Except the brother was an abusive, drug addict jerk who we never get to meet or grow to hate on our own.
This just ran out of steam and by 70% in I realized I just didn’t want to spend anymore time with this book or the characters.
I will not be reviewing this book on my social media when it releases in May.

Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Books for providing me with this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Part of this book was strong and engaging. I really wanted to know where the two main storylines were going. One of the biggest mistakes the author made, was the timing of the revelations at the end. I don’t think anyone is interested in knowing what happened in the past of a few people, finally solving a small mystery, after a much much bigger adrenaline inducing event just happened. We are not going to care at that point and that’s too bad because if the author timed this better, I would have been really surprised and would have enjoyed reading what actually happened all those years ago.

This story had some great well developed characters and an amazing environment. If the ending was less pro-brainless-terrorism or if what happened to a certain mis fortunate group, would have happened to everyone eventually, the reader would have something to think about instead of having to endure some lame complete failure of an excuse and view, readers are not going to care about at all. Not a good way to end a book, giving readers a bad aftertaste.

Mixed review here. Enjoyed the way the author set the scene and there were some fun elements. But, the characters just did not elicit my empathy at all. I did not finish this one.

"Escape Velocity" by Victor Manibo is part murder mystery, part dystopian sci-fi. At a school reunion on a luxury space station, an old group of friends meets up after many years. They are overshadowed by their past. Ava has discovered some information about her friends that makes her wonder if they were responsible for her abusive twin brother's murder years ago. A side plot about who will be allowed to live on Mars now that Earth is becoming uninhabitable according to "MERIT" points adds more tension, along with crew members plotting revenge. An intriguing sci-fi mystery. Worth purchasing for your library if your sci-fi or dystopian fiction is popular.

What a ride!! So different from what I expected walking into it. Loved the dynamic characters and their relationships. Enjoyed the atmosphere. Pulling a whole star because the story didn't pick up till after 60%-ish and I was starting to get bored before the plottwist happend.

The world-building in this book is so accomplished, that it could have been a wonderful escapist sci-fi novel. Knives Out in space sounded just like the type of fun I love. The problem is that it had to have a “Message” (with a capital M), and that drained all my enjoyment of the story. The passages describing the Space Habitat Altaire in all its decadent glory, the future world in which it’s set, with its culture and society, were fascinating. The points system that allows humans to move to Mars and the technology that makes everything possible, were very creative and well thought out. The characters, though, were all unlikable. There wasn’t a single one of them that I could root for, neither the ultra-rich spoiled jerks nor “the help” who caters to them. This made the resolution of a cold murder not very interesting, as I was not invested in the victim, the suspects or the culprit. Then, there was the second part of the story, which had to be a grandstanding political statement that made me lose all interest. The author goes out of his way to make the cast as woke as possible and there isn’t a single box he doesn’t tick, which feels forced. Then, that ending just let me down. Maybe readers who enjoy progressive political engagement with their fiction will like it better, but as someone who just wants to be entertained, it didn’t work for me.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Kensington Books | Erewhon Books.

3.5 stars.... We're getting to the end of the 21st century, and as predicted, humans have made Earth almost inhabitable, with the brunt of the impact felt by poorer (mostly Equatorial) nations. The 1% hang out in luxury space station resorts while being waited on hand and foot by the working class. Long story short: capitalism is evil (not arguing that fact). BUT!! Capitalists are also our saviors because they've built a new colony on Mars! The caveat: you have to earn MERIT points to get to go to Mars. What gives you MERIT points? You guessed it - being rich, smart, educated, straight (gotta populate the new world), having the right job and experiences, etc. So capitalists have created the problem and are fixing it, but only for themselves. This is not a thinly veiled allegory here, folks.

So what's not to like? Well, there is a second plot that seems superfluous other than to provide some (but enough) backstory for the main characters. I'm not sure who we are supposed to root for, which perhaps is the author's intention. I think there was an attempt to humanize the MCs (all 1%ers), but it didn't work. So I guess overall, love the theme, not crazy about (but didn't NOT like) the execution.