This is one of the most unique science fiction books I've ever read, and the pacing was entrancing. I sped through this book, and at times really tickled some discomfort (trigger warnings for anyone with phobias of internal organs and fluids).

A very unique sci-fi story with a wonderful cast of characters. I adored all the very specific cultural details that were added to each specific group. Having both a caste system and a matriarchy mixed in with the destruction of the environment they so desperately need to survive made some very clear points. I definitely loved the lgbt rep in the book, and that pretty much almost all the characters were Black. The plot definitely gets very weird in that way only sci-fi can do, but it takes you on such a fantastic adventure too.

It took me a second to get into this one but once I did I couldn't put it down. Something about the imagery threw me off but once I was able to get used to it, I let the story take me where it wanted, and the next thing I knew it was 5 am and I hadn't gone to sleep

I enjoyed my time in this world. Would I have ever chosen this book on my own? No. When I read the description was I overwhelmed and confused? Yes. Am I anxiously awaiting the next book so I know more to the story? Oh hell yes!

They live in a creature, they use it until it's resources are no more, they move on. The vivid imagery and raw appreciation for their world was amazing. I was drawn in to the sights, sounds and, above all, the sensations of their existence. Our female protagonist is spirited but genuine, and lacks all of the cliches that make me cringe. I enjoyed this read a bunch!

Thanks to the author, the publisher and Net Galley for the chance to read it!

A+! Nicky Drayden is honeslty one of my favorite current sci-fi/fantasy writers. I've been gushing about Prey of Gods since it came out, and I loved Temper as well. Escaping Exodus was such a treat, with a unique premise and the same quirky, unforgettable characters that I've come to expect from Drayden. Loved it.

This is a space adventure like no other. Instead of being set in a spaceship or another planet, the action takes place inside of a space creature. The human race had to abandon its home planet in the search for another, but along the way they came up with another plan.

My favorite part of the book is the family drama. Since there is limited space and resources in this world, there is severe population control. Thus, the main tension is between the MC and her sister, which is an anomaly. Each family unit consists of ten people and one child. Needless to say, drama is par for the course.

There is also tension built between the classes. There is in essence, royalty and the working class. The romance between MC and her love interest is riddled with this stigma of furthering the matriline, because this is a female centric culture. MC is set to be the next leader and her love interest is in the working class.

There is even more tension between beasts. Each beasts hosts a group of people, and the beasts are dying out. More importantly, we are introduced to these beasts as soulless creatures without feeling. I immediately bulked at this thought. Are these people killing unicorns for immortality? I couldn't have expected the direction the story would take in regards to humanity.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The storyline kept me reading even through cringing, especially with the setting being so gruesome in some places. I could see this book not being for everyone, but it was definitely for me.

My one quibble with this book is that it reads a little more like YA than adult fiction, but it's an excellent space opera.

Overall Rating: Recommended with Reservations

Personal Rating: Probably will be in Top 10 best books I read this year


Genres: Sci fi, Fantasy, Science Fantasy, Biopunk, Sociological Fiction, LGBT, African Futurism,

I’m starting with a spoiler free review, then I’m moving on into a spoiler-heavy discussion of this book’s characters, themes and the like.

And for the record, I got this book for free from the publisher for the purpose of an honest review.

Here's a link to my video review

SPOILER FREE REVIEW

I personally liked this book. The author was very ambitious, taking on a broad-scoped project and trying to tell a sweeping story on a small scale. This will probably be in my Top 10 best books of the year. However for all the fact that I respected this book’s quirks, this had flaws. Let’s get this review started.

Bear in mind that I’m approaching this review as one author critiquing another author’s work, so I’m going to get a little technical and digging into the weeds. I'll be focusing on the flaws a lot here, so bear in mind that Net Total I liked this book. But for the sake of my honest review I have to be forthright.

IN SUMMARY

All of the tropes which the author used individually used were used well.
The authors's prose seemed effortless (and my complements for making the different POV perspectives from the different characters seem different).
The characters needed some fine tuning. A little more polish would have gone a long way.
The pacing was too slow across the board, but especially at the beginning.
Setting was awesome. Yay gross biopunk spaceship!
I loved that the author wrote a book with little/no violence and combat. Breath of fresh air!
I liked the sociological bent to this book. I liked the weird Matriarchal, poly society... even though the etiquette still makes no sense to me.
Nice use of themes.
There were too many plotlines demanding too much from such a small book. A few of them never got resolution.
Verdict

While I enjoyed this book, I don't think it's for everyone. With all my 'Recommended with Reservations' books I like to tell you what target audience this book is aimed at.

If you're in the mood for a wild and disgusting setting, hunt this book down and read it NOW.
If you're in the mood for Sociological Sci Fi or Science Fantasy, check this book out.
If you want a book with a flawed, Unreliable Narrator protagonist? Check this out.
If you want a book with no violence and combat, make this a priority for your reading queue.
If you want a fast paced book, make this a low priority for your reading queue.
If you want a book with no narrative flaws or plot holes, make this a low-priority in your reading queue.


Concept and Execution

Humanity has fled earth, and now the survivors live inside massive space-faring alien beasts (a la Starcraft Zerg). Human kind enters these beasts and alter their anatomical structure to make them more suitable for human habitation. Cool! This takes the whole ‘bio-spaceship’ to a whole new level. Also really disgusting, when characters take knives to their ships and reorganize the biological anatomy of the animals they live in.
In short, to survive humankind has become invasive parasites inside larger animals, modifying the beasts until the beast dies and they’re forced to move. I thought it was both gristly and cool. Frankly this was one of the best concepts I’ve ever read, and the execution upon that concept was good. Not great, but good.
At times I got a ‘Bloodborne’ vibe from all the body horror and tentacles in this book.
Adalla and Seske are dark-skinned teenagers who have an illicit love affair. Their affair is illicit not because they are of the same sex (woman+woman relationships and poly relationships are considered to be the norm in their civilization) but because they come from two different castes. Seske is the future matriarch of their civilization (aka the Princess-heir), while Adalla is a lowly beastworker (beastworker= laborer who remodels beast anatomy to make it fit for human habitation). The lowest caste are the grisettes, slave labor with a mysterious source (More on the grisettes in the spoiler section).
This book has a heavy caste vs caste theme. This was a sociological novel, where different castes strive for different things. The poor want to make the castes equal, while the rich… well honestly I don’t know what the rich want besides maintaining their power. The author didn’t really do a good job of giving the rich caste a nuanced viewpoint.
Ghosts and spirits haunt the beasts, endangering the lives of people who live there.
This theme wasn’t very well implemented. I could see what the author was going for, but she didn’t quite pull it off. More in the spoiler section.
Wasting Diseases and Death
Well implemented. Humankind are parasites in the beasts they inhabit, causing them to sicken and die by their mere presence. Overtime as Seske’s people inhabit a beast, the beast literally starts to decay around them. The walls leak blood and pus and the like, super gross. Metaphor for modern day mankind’s mistreatment of our earth.
Individuality vs. Community
Massive spoilers, so I’ll talk about this later. But my overall verdict for this is interesting but I was left scratching my head at the themes the author was trying to pull off.
Pacing

Sloooow start. The plot started rolling at the 25% mark. The author could have re-ordered chapters so the plot started rolling at the 10% mark or the 15% mark.
Final 75%. It was a slow, but acceptably slow. The plot was happening at a steady pace so I never got disinterested.
This book is a nonviolent, noncombat novel, which is a source of some boredom on my part. This book has very little/no combat/violence so the pacing has to be carried by plot advancements and characterization alone, which can be a heavy lift. A lot of scifi/fantasy books rely on combat to speed up the pacing in what would otherwise be dull novels. At times this worked in this book’s favor, helping this book fit squarely in the ‘Sociological SciFi’ niche, but at times it was dull.
Characterization

This was my second biggest problem with the book. The two protagonists were Adalla and Seske. Their characterization was a bit thin on the ground. I have little clue what their personalities are beyond being in love with one another and trying their best to make their civilization a better place.
Of the two I liked Adalla better. Quite simply she was thrown through the ringer over the course of this book and that made her more likeable. She had some agency, but not enough.
Seske was an interesting character. Major spoilers. Full review later on.
And finally, we have Sisterkin. I liked Sisterkin as a character, moreso than either Adalla or Seske, but I can’t discuss the problem here cause of spoilers. Look below.
Plot

The plot was a bit of a mess, honestly. It was a functional mess- the book was readable and I had fun at moments (about 25% of the book was fun, 60% was satisfyingly readable and the remaining 15% was rough). However if I were the one editing this book this I would have had a heart attack trying to unknot all this book’s issues.
Now perhaps it’s possible my dislike here is because of subjective criticism and not objective criticism, so don’t take my word as gospel here.
The narrative lacked cohesion between the plot arcs. What were the plot arcs? Here they are.
Adalla and Seske’s romance (also their side romances)
Adalla and Seske start the book as two teens in love. Honestly I never really understood why they were in love. They spent the vast majority of the book apart so I (the reader) never got the opportunity to witness any chemistry between them.
Seske and Wheytt’s relationship was better. It inhabited that area of ‘what could have been had these two gotten together?’ They had a little chemistry together, and would have had a lot together if things had the opportunity to take off.
Seske and Doka’s relationship was the best of Seske’s relationships. They had real chemistry and character dev together. But in the end the author decided that Adalla and Seske were the OTP so this angle of the love-pentangle came to nothing. (OTP= Official True Pair)
Adalla and Leisze was Adalla’s ‘I broke up with my sorta toxic ex, go on a drunken bender with a random woman I met in a bar’ romance. And, oddly enough, it worked. Adalla+Leisze had the most healthy, consenting relationship out of all four listed here, and Adalla learned some solid life lessons. It didn’t last, unfortunately, because of the whole OTP thing.
Sisterkin and Matris’s Antics
Matris was the old Matriarch (Seske’s mother) and Sisterkin is Seske’s younger sister. Matris wants Sisterkin to inherit the throne instead of Seske, and Sisterkin is ambitious kill Seske to make it happen.
Together the two of them get into all sorts of hijinks. No spoilers, because these two together are massive motivators of the plot. More later.
Saving the beast and saving Seske’s people
Seske wants to save the beast
Politicing at home and abroad
Again, spoilers.
Saving the Grisettes
Adalla wants to save the grisettes. No spoilers till later.
So what was my problem going on here? Well for starters, a lot of these plot arcs had very little payoff.
The politicing plot arc kinda went nowhere, same with most of the romance sub-plot arcs.
(Spoiler) The sisterkin/matris arc never got any resolution at all beyond 'Sisterkin is arrested offscreen.'
The caste war arc didn't conclude believably.
HERE’S THE MAIN TAKEAWAY: If I were to diagnose a problem I think that there was just too much going on here. The author should have narrowed down the scope of the book to three or four plot arcs at most, or dramatically expanded the novel and given the different plots proper conclusions. As is, a lot of the plot arcs wound up being halfbaked.
Prose and Narrative Structure

The prose was functional. I don’t remember ever being wowed by gloriously beautiful prose. I think this is for the best: the prose’s lucidity helped the grossness of the biopunk setting shine through.
The authors narrative style never quite clicked with me. There were abrupt movement between scenes, skipping important middle scenes in favor of moving on. This book would have been well served either being longer or shorter. As is, it felt like events happened without enough buildup at times.
Setting and Worldbuilding

Bio-punk spaceship, made by colonizing the guts of an alien space-faring cephalopod. With ecological, sociological scifi elements. Also ghosts. Sign me up! One of the most creative settings I’ve read bar none.
I had three problems, though.
The author never gave the ‘beasts’ a species name. It’s super weird just calling them ‘beasts’ all the time. Same goes for Seske and Adalla's people, they needed a civilization name.
The author never explained where gravity in these beasts come from. They surely can’t be large enough that they have their own gravity, so gravity must come from somewhere.
The author never explained where the beasts get their calories from. The author says they eat space rocks and minerals, and last I checked space rocks and minerals don’t exactly have an enormous calorie content. Did they have photosynthetic bio-solar panels? That would be cool.




SPOILER HEAVY DISCUSSION

Concept and Execution

Ghosts and spirits in this setting were a little half-baked. The author was trying to go for a ‘ghosts as psychic visions from the beasts humanity is parasitizing,’ sort of thing, but in the end the spirits just weren’t commonplace enough to have deep plot relevance. Cool in concept, I wanted it more.
The concept of using disease and death as a metaphor was a good one. I liked the symmetry of the old Matriarch falling ill and dying partway through the book, same as the beast grows ill as the story progresses. It was like a Miyazaki Nature-Is-In-Danger-Because-Of-Man sort of story, but with more tentacles.
Individuality vs Community
Hoo boy, here we go. The grisette caste are nameless, disposable slave labor. Grown in vats and used until they have no further purpose, at which point they’re liquefied and turned into fertilizer. They are the dirty secret which allows Seske’s civilization to be so productive. They stand as a metaphor for mistreatment of a laborforce (slave or otherwise). All in all, if you’re going to do Sociological SciFi this is a great inclusion.
HOWEVER we’ve got a problem, and her name is Khasina. Except her name isn’t Khasina, because she’s not allowed to have a name. Everyone calls her Sisterkin, a slur word. Seske’s despised younger sister is in many ways a parallel to the grisette caste, being nameless and forced into servitude.
Sisterkin is the main villain in this novel, and Seske hates her. In a flashback Seske recalls Sisterkin choosing the name Khasina, a name she isn’t allowed to have. And Seske HATES Sisterkin because Sisterkin is expressing her individuality. Deliberately or not, Seske is expressing the same bigotry against Sisterkin which the grisette caste endures.
Sisterkin (Seske’s sister) mirrors Adalla’s grisette sister. One side of the coin are the Grisettes, while the other side is Sisterkin. Seske is a hypocrite for hating the practice of grisette-slaves, while also despising her sister. Maybe in the end Sisterkin couldn't take society (and Seske) looking down on her anymore, and went rogue.
I found this aspect of the novel fascinating. More on this later, when I talk about Seske more. But for now, I’ll say that it creeped me out. I wonder if Sisterkin would have turned out better if Seske accepted her as a sister from a young age instead of viewing her as a threat to her power.
 

Characterization

Seske
I think she was an Unreliable Narrator.
At the beginning of the book the author gave Seske all the trappings of a standard ‘hopeful, nonconforming ideologue who doesn’t fit in with her strict society and wants to reform it’ trope protagonist. At first she followed that trope… but then things got weird.
Seske started doing bad things, behaving like an Unreliable Narrator (Unreliable Narrator= a Point of View Character who colors the narrative of the story in such a way as to skew the perspective of the audience to make the audience believe something which might not be true).
Seske, for example, publicly dumped Adalla in front of all the upper crust of her civilization, breaking Adalla’s heart hardcore.
Seske married a guy, and then on their wedding night instead of making love with him Seske deliberately got him so drunk that he wouldn’t notice that he’s not having sex with her but instead with a doll.
Seske didn't ask for her husband's consent, which makes this really gross.
Seske sold a hundred grisettes into slavery to a bunch of racist bastards.
In the end this trade doesn’t go through, but that doesn't change the fact that Seske made it in the first place. Seske is as brutal as she is pragmatic. She feels bad about this trade, but that doesn’t stop her.
Seske tortured Adalla and twenty other people.
Seske had the choice of either torture or execution for Adalla, so she chose torture. We’re supposed to think Seske’s a good person because she chose the lighter sentence… but it’s still torture.
And the cherry on top was authorizing the culling of vast swaths of her people to prevent overpopulation.
There’s no way you can spin this that this is a good-guy move. I don't think it wound up happening in the end, but... yikes.
Seske goes from being somewhat bumbling at the beginning, to becoming a brutal monarch-dictator who’s nom de guerre is ‘The Cruel.’ As a character arc it was subtle.
I don’t think the author intended Seske to be perceived as being evil. You see, at the same time as all of this evil stuff is going on, Seske is doing her Disney Princess routine, psychically bonding with the beast(s) and trying to save them. Seske realizes that the beasts are sentient and have emotions and culture, and shouldn’t be killed.
In short, Seske was following in her mother Matris’s footsteps, but going double or nothing in terms of her mother's cruelty. I liked her character arc. I'm just not sure the author intended for me to think that Seske is an antihero.
But Seske’s not perfect. For the first 2/3s of the book she’s a bit boring. She’s blown along on the wind, not making her own choices but instead doing what’s expected of her. I wish she had more goals, motives and drives early on.
Additionally I didn’t like how after Seske LITERALLY TORTURED ADALLA, Seske and Adalla got back together at the end of the book. Like WTF. Talk about a toxic relationship. I wish Adalla and Liesze/ Seske and Doka stayed together instead. It would have been good character growth all around had that occurred.
Sisterkin, on the other hand, I liked wholeheartedly. She has a lot of personality traits which make her likable: disciplined, hardworking, motivated, agency, drive, the underdog and a solid goal. I wish more protagonists were like this, let alone antagonists. She reminded me of Rin from 'The Poppy War' a little.
Sure, all of these likable traits were turned towards murdering Seske and becoming the Matriarch, but damn if Sisterkin doesn’t deserve to be matriarch. Sisterkin was given nothing in life, but she almost managed to manipulate and connive her way into power. You go girl.
Seske, by comparison, went through life listlessly, without putting in any real effort into her studies.
As mentioned, I wonder how much of Sisterkin's brutality could have been prevented had Seske just accepted her as a sister from a young age and they were family instead of rivals.
That's the end! This is the third thing by Nicky Drayden I've read, after 'Prey of Gods' and 'Guilds of Ravnica.' I wound up enjoying this novel despite it's flaws, because I respect the author for being ambitious and trying to write such a difficult book. Net total I enjoyed it enough to recommend that you read it if you like sociological sci fi or gross bio-spaceship books. Just don't go into this expecting all the loose ends to be wrapped up.

And if by some happy accident Ms. Drayden winds up reading this review, thank you for writing this book. I like where your career is headed. (Also, was Seske meant to be an unreliable narrator? Or am I reading into this?)

Stay Sunny folks!

I loved this book. It is strikingly original with strong heroines and engaging relationships. The imagery is bold and vibrant. The story follows the heir to the throne in a future space world in which citizens inhabit beings instead of planets. Definitive class differences and strict norms make for restrictive living in this new world but they are less restrictive than our lives now in some surprising ways. Things get turned on their head as this imaginative story progresses. This is a quick and fun read for those who dig spacey, futuristic sci fi.

This book is definitely not going to be everyone’s cup of tea but the characterization and storyline had me consistently riveted. Finished the whole second half within a sitting. Even when imagery got murky, very out there, and almost beyond comprehension- I was always invested in the characters and happenings of this weird world. There is enthusiastic creativity in the telling of it, and astonishing development given the modest 300-some page count.

One disclosure first, and something that may inform my thoughts on certain aspects- I haven’t read much science fiction. Liked much of what I’ve tried, but am still muchly a stranger to those shores. This is a sort of science fiction/speculative fiction/fantasy hybrid with a thrust toward experimental world building rather than space exploration.

First, the writing style. First impression was positive. The narrative is told from two points of view with the main characters just entering adulthood. Though I’ve never seen it shelved as New Adult, I think this title could easily be ushered into that category due to the age of the main characters. This book is filled with terms unique to its world, presented on nearly every page. The writing feels thick due to this attention to detail and demands the reader to learn through context and process sometimes murky and otherworldly imagery. I finished this title in six hours but it felt longer and like it would consume more energy than a more rhythmical and flowy read would. Not a bad writing style by any means, but I could see it being too dense for some. What I do like is how eventful the pages are, to an almost chaotic degree late in the book where the author has so many ideas and pulls them off at a faster pace. The first half of this book is noticeably more orderly than the second half.

Not related to the technical good and bad but I feel it’s important to inform about sooner rather than later- this is a weird read. Almost challengingly so, with some gross passages and nearly inexplicable customs. This title takes place far, far in the future- where humanity and ways of life have evolved to an otherworldly degree. Cultural customs, food, ways of showing affection, pets, all sorts of nitty-gritty things are different in this world. Even simple travel involves characters navigating the body and flesh of a giant space creature. However, I loved how the things I didn’t like juxtaposed with what worked for a fascinating effect, encouraging one to empathize more with the world. An example of this, there is a space monster baby that probes one of the main character’s facial orifices as a way of bonding. I was pretty grossed out by the related descriptions but said baby is also an innocent creature whose life is being threatened. It still reaches out the heroine, perhaps not understanding that her species has been hurting it. I grew to feel for the strange little guy and wanted the main characters to successfully protect it.

About the relationships in this book. There is some romance. Not central to the story, but it’s there. Some enemies-to-lovers, friends-to-lovers, friends-to-enemies, starcrossed, basically all the stuff I happen to like was somehow included and a huge surprise to find. The otherworldly quality remains though and makes things like the intimacy between the characters come off in a very odd manner. But somehow I was really out here shipping one of the main characters (Seske) with everybody. Seske falls for two characters (a man and woman) who are treated with shockingly equal care and chemistry. Theirs isn’t a love triangle because the culture of the world here normalizes a sort of bi polyamory. I’ve actually rarely-to-never seen this done in any form of media, adding even more to this title’s uniqueness.

Winding back a bit to characterization and the points-of-view, Seske and Adala are the young heroines of this tale and raised in a matriarchal society. I really enjoyed how different these characters are from one another, harmonizing to provide a fuller view of the world.

Seske is of noble lineage and her chapters deal with revealing the workings of their hierarchial society. She is quite privileged, but also expected to shoulder the great responsibility of directing their world in more harrowing times and perhaps breaking away from tradition. She’s also a flawed character who makes some poor decisions. Adala is a girl of a lower caste and class, considered by many to be amidst the disposable. Through her we grow to understand how the people of the world are suffering and their need for change.

Adala’s chapters are more action and adventure-oriented. Adala and Seske are the main couple of the book and their relationship has major ups and downs due to their differences. I liked both of them. The dual narration encourages an understanding for both sides, even when they can’t fully understand each other.

Why You Should Try It – Bizarre but creative and inventive world-building. Vivid characterization and motivations. Fantastical imagery and space opera drama. The romance is of a surprising variety. Impressively full-scale storyline befitting a 600-page novel, accomplished within the tighter framework of 330 pages. Daringly experimental and unlike any title I’ve read before.

Why You Might Not Like It – Some imagery is a challenge to come to grips with or even mind-boggling and/or gross in nature. While I liked the brisker pace of later chapters, the frenzy can come off as messy. Seske, one of the main characters, makes some poor decisions that can annoy.

Note : Many thanks to Netgalley, HarperCollins Publishers, and Harper Voyager for providing me an e-ARC of this title for review.

This book has a really interesting premise. The world Nicky Drayden has created is so unique and weird and fun. The plot does lean a little too far into body-horror for me to love it, but that is a personal preference so if you do like that then I'd definitely recommend it. As far as the space opera, generation ship elements I am very on board and would love to read more about this world. The cast of characters is incredibly diverse and most are well-developed.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

I thought the first 80% of the book was well done. The biohorror aspect, the setting, the relationships among the characters, the names (Sisterkin)....everything was refreshingly unique. But then suddenly it was like the author realized she needed to wrap up the story FAST. The last 20% of the book was so rushed and weird - weirder than the beginning of the book, and not in a good way. I also felt there were some unresolved parts of the storyline, especially concerning Adalla+Seske's relationship and the whole attempted murder/coup by Sisterkin. Not to mention Whyett's death was VERY sudden and uncerimonious, which I was upset about. Things could've unfolded in a much smoother manner, but alas, the story ended rather abruptly. The writing and originality were really what made this book great.

*Received via NetGalley for review*

Nicky Drayden has created a truly unique and engaging story - a matriarchal colony of mainly women jump from space beast to space beast, re-fitting the insides of the beasts to serve their people. There are beastworkers (who, obvisouly, work on the beast), grisettes (mute slaves), and the upper class. Adalla is a beastworker, and Seske is the next in line to become Matris, the leader of her people. Though in love, their stations keep them apart, until they're drawn back together by an issue going back centuries coming to a head.

I have always loved leviathans and strange space creatures, and the idea of a colony of humans living in one is incredible. Drayden clearly realizes her world and it's challenges: the structure of the beast and the structure of the unique society are portrayed incredibly well without becoming boring.

The characters are all dynamic. Seske and Adalla mature throughout the book, making hard choices and living with the consequences, all revolving around the beast they live in. I love that Adalla and Seske change drastically throughout the book, and are able to love each other as they are, accepting all that's happened. Even Doka, Seske's husband through arranged marriage, has his redeeming qualities and strengths.

This is one of the strangest things I've ever read, and I've read some bizarre stories. This spacegoing race lives inside creatures they harpoon, and literally carve out parts to make their home. They mutilate the inside of a living creature daily; eat, sleep, and walk around in it. It's actually pretty horrifying to think of. That being said, I love horror, and this book is unlike anything else I've ever read. I would definitely buy a sequel, if one were written. The characters were very much alive, and everything was so intensely written. It felt like I was inside the world this author had created. This book was provided to me by Netgalley for review purposes, but all opinions are my own.

Happy book birthday to "Escaping Exodus"!

Here's where I really wish half-star ratings were possible, but I'm erring on the side of going *up* a half-star simply because I think this book is daring and different and doing some uniquely weird and hard-to-accomplish things with the material.

To be frank, I'm not really sure how and where to start my review, other than to offer some comparisons. While I was reading this book, I was reminded often of Octavia Butler's "Xenogenesis" series, which truthfully is not my favorite of Butler's works, but which has given me the most food for thought. Sometimes the books that we grapple with the most are ultimately the most important to us, you know? But I also found resonances with Kameron Hurley's "The Stars Are Legion," and not just because we're talking about lesbians in space on squishy ships, although ... okay, so maybe that's exactly the resonance. I think there's some Rivers Solomon DNA in here too, with echoes of "An Unkindness of Ghosts" and the intersection of racial and class divisions so adroitly tackled in both books. And let's face it, I was thinking of Nnedi Okorafor's "Binti" frequently, too, in that Drayden's voice is at its most whimsical here of in any of her books, even while tackling issues of genocide and the Other, as does Okorafor. And while there are commonalities between "Escaping Exodus" and these other works, that's not to say that they're at all alike. In the end, Drayden has delivered a book with an utterly unique voice. (But whoa, do I want to be a fly on the wall when any of these authors end up talking books together.)

Boxes ticked: Lesbians! In space! Also an interrogation of rigid class boundaries and gender expectations, flip-flopped in the way that Tom Miller flip-flops things in "The Philosopher's Flight." Squishy spaceships! A growing awareness of one's relationship to the Other! Space whales! Tentacle sex! (OK, I have to admit that that last one was pretty weird. But, well. Yeah, no. It was weird.) And critically for a book that touches on how complicated it can be to fall in love with someone you're not supposed to (ahem, speaking as a queer person myself), this book has a happy ending! Or at least, it has an emotionally rewarding and satisfying ending, even though there's a lot of tragedy along the way. We don't bury all of our gays here, in part because, well, by our standards everyone is gay in this book. (It's great.)

So why do I wish for half-star review capabilities? In part, because there are some ... potentially problematic things going on with trans representation in this book. I'd keep my eyes peeled for reviews by trans readers, because while my queerdar is sending up a couple of red flags, I myself am not trans. I am, however, nonbinary--specifically, agender. And I find it ... difficult to accept that a toxic gender binary would be so rigidly enforced, even while other aspects of the queer community are wholeheartedly embraced. It doesn't seem to me that Drayden was even thinking of nonbinary identities (apart from trans identities, which sometimes overlap with nonbinary ones) at all in writing this book, which ... well, it makes me sad. I loved pretty much everything going on in this book, but it felt like a blind spot of the social structure itself, given how many folks are moving away from today's gender binary already. ANYWAY. These kinds of questions did pop up in my mind from time to time while reading, and I hope Drayden addresses them in future works. I feel as though she's really evolving as an author, and growing more playful than ever. I can't wait to see what comes next!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for sending me a free advanced reader copy of this book for an honest review. Escaping Exodus debuts October 15th.

The seemingly acid trip-inspired cover of Escaping Exodus does the words inside justice: this book is unabashedly weird. Drayden chronicles a matriarchal society that has made the innards of a gargantuan, living space beast their home; when one space beast is on the way out health-wise, they literally jump ship (har har) to the next one in the herd. It’s mad, it’s trippy, it’s body horror at times, and it’s the kind of book you really need to experience for yourself.

I inch closer to the pond of cool, debris-ridden slime that rims the sphincter. It pulses, back and forth, back and forth, a putrid-looking pucker of flesh. Adalla sticks both of her hands in the hole and pulls hard, her muscles rippling and bulging. The rim tries to hold tight, even looks like it’s tugging against her, but eventually it gives, and the hole widens just enough for a person to slip through.

And is the book YA? The main characters are certainly the proper age, but I’d say not really; it doesn’t have the tone you’d expect, which I chalk up to the MCs living in such an alien society and feeling so young and brash that they’re completely unrelatable. There were times I had a really hard time buying the decisions of the MCs; for people living in a society that faces the constant threat of extinction, they have no issues throwing caution to the wind at every opportunity.

The pacing of the book was also strange, to say the least. From start to finish action is stuffed together in a kind of madcap jumble, but then threads of story seem to wither away into nothingness, never to be picked up again. I think the blurb for the book is kind of telling: one big infodump followed by the most blah of final hooks:

And of course there wouldn’t be much of a story if things didn’t go terribly, terribly wrong.

Notice how unspecific that is? There’s too much going on in this book to condense the plot into “If X character doesn’t do Y near-impossible thing, then Z terrible consequence will happen!” We’ve got a lesbian princess and subject forbidden love affair, an underclass uprising, people communicating in code by making out, sex with baby space beasts, an obtuse matriarchal and polyamorous family system with like eight moms and a couple dads per child, court intrigue, clone rights, inter-space beast communications, forgotten histories… I could continue if needed. As per usual, the social justice themes were a turn-off for me, but even that kind of got drowned out by all the crazy, constant details. And yet, for a book with so much detailed worldbuilding, I somehow found it hard to picture exactly what was going on in a lot of scenes, I think because the whole book takes an “everything but the kitchen sink” approach.

Basically, Escaping Exodus felt far too ambitious; I would have liked to see more nuance. Nevertheless, many scenes were absolutely riveting, and some bits have really stuck with me. (I read this book back in July.) It’s obvious that this author has tons of potential, so I’m definitely up for reading more of her work.

I love weird, squishy, biological scifi, and I was impressed by how perfectly Escaping Exodus delivered on this front. When I originally read the premise on Goodreads – “a city-size starship carved up from the insides of a space-faring beast” – I knew I had to get my hands on this book. I’ll admit that I came in feeling a hint of trepidation: what if the beast is relegated to being in the background? What if it’s a normal spaceship that’s only “alive” when it’s plot convenient? Etc., etc. Fortunately, we were wading through ichor and entrails from the very first page. My worries were utterly baseless. Nicky Drayden embraced every bit of icky organic goodness right from the start.

The novel opens on one of our protagonists, Seske, cutting herself free from a cocoon filled with stasis fluid, and we only get squishier and more organic from there. Seske is the daughter of the Matris – the matriarch and leader of her culture and nation aboard the space beast. Her love interest and our other point of view character, Adala, comes from a long line of heart workers – literally, the families in charge of maintaining the beast’s heart by cutting away sores, lesions, and pests from the beast’s flesh to keep it healthy for its inhabitants. Adala has been trained from birth for this position, and her family’s legacy is braided into her hair to show the generations that came before her. However, she’s not guaranteed a position in the heart; the standards are both high and harsh, due to the great dangers involved in working in that particular organ. Every time the heart beats, the beast’s vein flood with ichor… washing away anyone who did not properly count the time between beats and who didn’t manage to cut a slit into the sides of the beast’s innards to anchor themselves against the flow.

‘Instinctually, I hold my breath, as we had done so many times during practice, though from the gasping all around me, not everyone has been so thoughtful. The oily flow grips at me, bids me to get washed away. I hug that little strip of flesh like it’s my closest friend, hoping my cut holds just a few seconds longer. But in all my fear, all my dread, something springs forth in my heart… a feeling that I’m in a place I’ve belonged all my life.’

Despite these careful ministrations, acting as a host to a full civilization is incredibly stressful on the beast’s internal systems. Typically, the beasts begin to die after around 7-10 years, at which point they must move to a new one. The beast herds do not reproduce quickly enough to keep up with the demand for Seske’s ship and the other nations inhabiting them, which results in strife amongst the various space-beast-faring civilizations.

The political and familial structures on the beast are fascinating, and the reader is shoved into them with little explanation. The social order is structured as a matriarchy, with Seske’s mother, the Matris, being in charge… with Seske in line to inherit, but at odds with her illegitimate and nameless sister, who has her own goals and plans to capture the throne. Sisterkin is not allowed to be a part of the family, but she’s Matris’ own biological child. Matris favors her given this blood connection, even if Seske is her heir by law. Sisterkin, as she is called, plots and schemes to take what she views as her rightful place within the ship’s hierarchy.

‘Sisterkin steps between us. “I can guide you, Seske. I know all the ways of the Matriarchy, all the Lines.” She smiles, though the gesture is more like the baring of teeth, the too-white teeth that haunt children’s dreams. Though she was born of Matris’s blood, she is not a part of our family and has no claim to our lines. As per the tenets of our ancestors, she cannot partake of our family teas, so she sips hot water from her dainty cups instead. Our head-father is not permitted to teach her, so Matris hires private tutors. Sisterkin is not allowed at our table, so Mother had an archipelago built where Sisterkin can dine with us without dining with us. Her hair grows freely upon her head, like a boundless sunburst, not the carefully braided knots of our line. Sisterkin has been given nothing, not even a true name. Sisterkin was Matris’s first abomination, and now there’s this surly beast she’s chosen.’

Due to population concerns, the family units are large; each child has ten people considered their parents/family unit. Many terms, often left unexplained, are thrown at the reader. Even after finishing, I’m not entirely clear on what constitutes a heart mother, a will mother, or a tin uncle. It’s a little too opaque at times and the roles are not fully explained, though it certainly adds great flavor to the story. Science fiction and fantasy provide so many opportunities for authors to play with social structure, and far too few authors take advantage of that flexibility; it’s not an idea that can be explored to nearly the same degree in contemporary or historical fiction. It’s unique to SFF, and it brings me joy every time I see it.

Given the matriarchal structure of the society, the narrative surrounding feminism is flipped. It is the men in this society who lack for power and political clout. They are expected to paint their faces, stay quiet, be seen but not heard. They cannot appear to have any power over the women in their lives, who are expected to know better and be the dominant personality. At one point, Seske is performing a bit of political espionage dressed up as a man; she notes how she’s culturally invisible, isn’t allowed into the same spaces as a woman, and discovers constraints on male behavior she didn’t even know existed.

‘I blink. My eyelids are so heavy, holding up to a dozen tiny gemstones each. My whole body feels like I’ve been dunked in slime, but my, how I glisten. I’ve never felt so bold, so beautiful. Doka made me practice my walk while mimicking his gestures. He spoke of calling upon the honor of my patriline, and now I am enjoying the fruits of my toil, no longer Seske Kaleigh, but Sesken Pmalamar, son of fathers.’

There are many small touches in the prose that created a distinct voice for each of the different castes aboard the ship. The prose is neither purple nor workmanlike, but instead focuses on reflecting the social order of each character. The vernacular of the boneworkers is separate from the jargon of the heartworkers, and the speech of the Contour Class citizens at the top is refined and somewhat archaic-sounding in comparison. These details pull in the reader and highlight the differences between each social echelon – at the lowest level, the disposable grisette workers aren’t even allowed to speak with individuals outside their own class. As Adala is forced between these different groups, she encounters not only these linguistic differences, but also differences in how touch, privacy, and personal space are viewed.

‘I’m pulled into their rough huddle, laughing, joking, trying to seem like I’m relaxing, while studying their body cues and posture so I can learn to speak and act and think like they do.’

The primary issue in this book is not that any plot line or cultural aspect was uninteresting, but rather that I felt none of them quite got the attention they deserved. A few key plot points felt a little half-baked, requiring some convoluted and out of character decisions to bring them about. Oftentimes, the situations Seske or Adala found themselves in or the decisions they made didn’t make much sense to me – it seemed like their decisions were driven by the plot rather than the plot being driven by their decisions. The precise point of the book was ambiguous, with too many aspects competing for attention. Was this a book about diminishing resources for generation ships? Was this a book about sexism? Was this a book about conservation? Or perhaps this was a book about political machinations? It was hard to tell what the author cared about most. If each aspect had been fully fleshed out, the novel would have felt significantly more cohesive and engaging. Many plot threads were left dangling or were hand-waved away as “solved!” in the conclusion without adequate supporting narrative. That said, the overall setting and structure of the book was more than enough to compensate for these issues, and the book as a whole was incredibly enjoyable and touched on many great ideas I haven’t seen presented in quite this way before.

This book is an excellent choice for anyone hankering for a thoughtful look at discrimination in our own society wrapped up in a wonderfully biological package. Fans of Kameron Hurley’s Bel Dame Apocrypha or Wildbow’s Twig web serial will find much to love in this exciting new afrofuturism addition to the biopunk genre.

Escaping Exodus is the third novel from author Nicky Drayden - after 2017's The Prey of Gods (Reviewed Here) and 2018's Temper (Reviewed Here). Both books were incredibly ambitious, filled with tons of ideas, and I really enjoyed The Prey of Gods even if I didn't quite love Temper nearly as much. I've said before on this blog and I'll say it again - I much prefer books that take chances to ones that are conservative, so when I saw Drayden's third novel available for request on Netgalley, I requested it pretty quickly, knowing it was unlikely to be anything like conservative. And unsurprisingly, Escaping Exodus is another book filled to the brim with ideas and concepts that it tries to explore throughout.

More surprisingly is the fact that Escaping Exodus is significantly shorter than Drayden's prior novels, which already had issues fitting in enough room to explore their ideas - and that problem rears its head again here. The book features a far our scifi setting, with themes of discrimination based upon gender and class, about identity and personhood, about coexistence and leadership, not to mention themes of love across all these things....and there just isn't enough room to either fit it all or really explore much of it in satisfying ways. Drayden's first two books were also somewhat kinds of a mess, but there was at least one or more threads and character arcs that managed to work despite it all - with Escaping Exodus, it all feels way too truncated, with the book ending just as it becomes clear where some of the events were all going. I really hope that the next Drayden book goes up in page count rather than down, because it's a problem for Escaping Exodus, which often feels like its relying too much on cut material to work.

--------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------
In a future where humanity has fled the planet and no new planet has been found, humanity now exists in a continuous state of flux. In order to survive, the remaining human spaceships have found a colony of gigantic beasts in Space, whose insides they colonize, until the human presence there causes the Beast to die, necessitating a jump to a new one.

Seske and Adalla were childhood girlfriends on their last beast, but emerge onto their latest one knowing that womanhood will force each into choices that take them away from each other. For Seske is the daughter of the Matris, the ruler of their colony, while Adalla is from the beastworker class - a highly respected one sure, but still a member of the class whose job it is to maintain the organs and health of the beast for the others to enjoy. Moreover, as this new beast is the first one they've seen since childhood, they're soon going to have extra responsibilities that will make being with each other impossible.

But as Seske and Adalla learn more about how the Beasts work and their new responsibilities, they find themselves each horrified with different aspects of their society and how the Beasts truly are maintained. And as each of them are challenged by family and supposed friends who seek to take over their own responsibilities, they find themselves struggling to stay afloat and alive. And Seske and Adalla will thus be forced to make choices to do what they think is right, choices that may very well tear them apart, but which may be unavoidable to saving their own society from a cycle heading towards extinction....
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Whereas Nicky Drayden's prior two novels had settings that were spins off of our own world - even if pretty big spins - Escaping Exodus features a setting that is incredibly far out, to a really wild degree. Our story takes place mostly within a giant "Beast" who lives in space, after humans have moved to it from a space ship and tried to colonize its insides. The workers within have to excavate the organs and ensure the beast's health to a certain extent to ensure that it will last long enough for the colony to settle peacefully, and the natural organic processes of the Beast can kill if the workers aren't careful - for example, workers in the Beast's heart must maintain a precise count at all times for when the heart will beat to avoid getting overwhelmed by bodily fluids and ichor pumped through the chamber. And as the Beast is an organic creature, its other bodily concerns can have major ramifications for the colony.

Moreover, this state of the world creates a setting that features multiple class and gender distinctions. Sexual Orientations aren't a concern to the colony (whether one loves women or men isn't treated as a concern worth having), but reproduction must be limited to one child per family - and families involve more than pairs: six women, three men, and one child shared between them, with different roles ("will-mother," "Heart-mother" etc.) for the members of the family between them. Women are treated as superior to the men due to how much more needed they are and are considered the only ones appropriate for leadership, with ones "Matriline" being of high importance for status. And then there are the different classes, with the upper classes relying upon the beastworkers who rely upon the waifs who must remain silent and do work as directed.

It's a hell of a setting, with lots of interesting aspects to explore - even more than I've gone into above - but with a lot of this setting already familiar to our two protagonists, Adalla and Seske, whose first person perspectives tell the story, the book never really stops to explain much of it. The result is that good parts of this setting are pretty unclear to me even after finishing the book, to the book's detriment given how important some of these aspects are to the plot and characters.

Speaking of those characters, every chapter is told again from the first person perspective of either Adalla or Seske, with the book usually (but not always) alternating between chapters told by one with chapters told from the perspective of the other. Both Adalla and Seske want to do good and both have decent moral hearts....but those hearts find themselves in conflict quite frequently with the world they live in, a world they're only now beginning to understand as they take adult roles in a Beast for the first times in their lives. This concept works really well with Adalla, whose life as a beastworker takes her straight through this class conflict, through heartbreak and making new allies/friends, as she discovers that the real world is far harsher and crueler than she knew and tries to take a stand against that.

It works a bit less for Seske, who feels more than a little bit like a spoiled brat for a large part of the time - entitled to the position as the next Matris (ruler) of her people, even though she shows very little interest at times in doing things for the good of all as opposed to her own personal self. Now some of that is not her fault - the Matris, who is supposed to be her mother and teacher to Seske would clearly rather be teaching Matris' own daughter of her own body, Seske's unnamed sister Sisterkin (although we see this from Seske's perspective, so its skewed and Seske may very well have caused this attitude herself). But it makes Seske hard to root for, especially as she does some things that have terrible effects on others who clearly do have the people's interests at heart. Moreover, Seske's main antagonist, Sisterkin, is pretty easy to be sympathetic for, given that Sisterkin is shunned by her society simply for being allowed to be born (as a second child in the family unit, she was supposed to be aborted) and is supposed to watch Seske take over her mother's position despite Seske's aloofness and not caring. It's a bit of a problem because so much of the book depends upon Seske and Adalla's lives and relationships, and it's kind of hard to really like Seske too much.

Alas, Seske's character isn't the only issue with this book - as I mentioned above the jump, the book has some serious issues in bringing up ideas and plot points only to either never do anything with them or to never really develop them in satisfying ways. A major character conflict for Seske highlights much of her troubles, culminating in a major problem...and then is never mentioned again for the final act, despite it never being resolved. Character relationships grow and break apart at incredible speeds and then come back without enough actually occurring to really justify the changes in the relationships. Class and Gender conflicts that are brought up early are just sort of resolved at the end without issue despite everything else that's gone on. And the book takes it sweet time setting up all of these issues/conflicts, leaving the reader wondering where we're going for much of the book, making how it all plays out all the more unsatisfying.

Spoilers in ROT13: V'z ersreevat gb gjb fcrpvsvp punenpgre eryngvbafuvcf/pbasyvpgf va gur nobir cnentencu znvayl nygubhtu gurl'er abg gur bayl bar. Svefg, fb zhpu bs gur obbx vf n pbasyvpg orgjrra Frfxr naq Fvfgrexva, jvgu Fvfgrexva gelvat gb xvyy bss Frfxr fb gung Fvfgrexva pna or urve zhygvcyr gvzrf. Naq ng gur raq bs gur guveq npg, jvgu Frfxr ba nabgure Ornfg gelvat gb jbex fbzrguvat bhg sbe gurve shgher, Fvfgrexva fnobgntrf gur wbhearl gb gel naq unir Frfxr xvyyrq ba gur bgure Ornfg fb gung Fvfgrexva pna gnxr bire. Frfxr naq Nqnyyn znxr vg onpx gb gurve Ornfg naq Frfxr nfxf Jurlgg gb unir Fvfgrexva neerfgrq, qrfcvgr Jurlgg orvat n thl jub jvyy unir gebhoyr znvagnvavat nhgubevgl gb chyy guvf bss, fb gung Frfxr pna gnxr onpx pbageby gb fnir gur qnl......naq gura FVFGREXVA VF YVGRENYYL ARIRE ZRAGVBARQ NTNVA, NF VS FUR ARIRE RKVFGRQ. Qrfcvgr Fvfgrexva pyrneyl univat nyyvrf jub'q cersre ure gb Frfxr. Frfxr whfg gnxrf pbageby jvgubhg rira n gubhtug be vffhr rira gubhtu abg bayl jnf Fvfgrexva n ceboyrz rneyvre, ohg vg jnf pbafgnagyl zragvbarq nobhg ubj gur Zngevf zvtug ybfr pbageby vs Frfxr pbagvahrq gb rzoneenff gur yvar, fhttrfgvat gurve tevc ba cbjre jnf grahbhf ng orfg. Vg'f yvxr gurer jnf n jubyr svany nep gb guvf fgbel gung jnf whfg phg naq gur nofrapr fubjf.

Rira jbefr vf ubj Frfxr naq Nqnyyn'f eryngvbafuvc vf zraqrq va gur svany npg. Frfxr unf Nqnyyn juvccrq orpnhfr Frfxr'f nggrzcg gb fubj yrnqrefuvc vanqiregragyl yrnqf gb Frfxr - abg haqrefgnaqvat be gelvat gb ernyyl haqrefgnaq orsber fur npgf jung Nqnyyn'f cebgrfgref ner qbvat - univat gb qvfpvcyvar Nqnyyn'f tebhc, naq Frfxr znavchyngr gur Zngevf gb abg trg Nqnyyn xvyyrq....ol juvccvat Nqnyyn urefrys. Vg vf ubeevslvat naq oehgny naq oernxf Nqnyyn'f urneg, nf lbh zvtug vzntvar - naq Nqnyyn ol guvf cbvag unf nyernql sbhaq bguref jub pner sbe ure naq fur ybirf. Naq Nqnyyn'f pyrne ybire fnpevsvprf urefrys gb fnir Frfxr ng gur raq bs gur guveq Npg, naq Nqnyyn ungrf urefrys sbe abg orvat jvyyvat gb pbaqrza Frfxr sbe vg.....naq gurernsgre, Nqnyyn naq Frfxr ner ba gur fnzr fvqr nsgrejneqf naq onpx va ybir nf vs yvggyr unf unccrarq? Vg'f yvxr gurer jrer 30-50 cntrf bs erpbapvyvngvba gung jrer oyngnagyl bzvggrq, naq gur obbx srryf ubeevoyl vapbzcyrgr naq qvfwbvagrq jvgubhg vg.

The end result of it all is that I have a hard time recommending Escaping Exodus. It just feels like a book that was failed by the editing process, which should've recommended either cuts to some ideas or more importantly expansion of others and other plot points so that the character arcs, ideas, and concepts could be resolved in a satisfying fashion. But as it is, it just feels horribly disjointed and incomplete, which is such a shame.

Complex world building
Unlikable characters
Likable characters
Lack of character growth
Interesting and creative story arc
Pacing of the story is fast to slow
I was completely bored with Part 3
I liked Adalla way more that I liked Sekse.

Escaping Exodus has the remnants of a space opera with a tinge of horror. I was most interested in her idea of female to male hierarchy as I myself love stories as such and I'm also interested to see where authors go when they decide to take on this trope.

The story is told from two different POVs, Seske future leader of the people on this ship or "beast" and Adalla, I guess what you would call a worker on the "beast". Basically Earth is no more and now humans travel through space on Beasts, they live within these beast.

There is a romantical element in EE as well as Seske and Adalla develop a relationship outside of them being best friends but keep in mind that hierarchy word I used earlier. Since Seske is tasked to be leader one day, a romance with Adalla is out of the question because she is what would be consider in today's term low class. As Seske struggles with her family issues AND secrets so does Adalla. There are aspects of the story outside of the romance that the girls must deal with, like keeping their new home and its habitants safe.

I like the idea of what Ms. Drayden did with Escaping Exodus, its quite imaginative... and there us enough drama: secrets, betrayal, etc...etc. She did however loose me in some parts of the story especially the 3rd part which took a total 360 degree turn. There are unfinished plot holes as well.

At the end of it all. I like Escaping Exodus but something felt like it was missing and I can't explain what that something is.

Thank you to the publisher/author for the opportunity to read/review.

Seske Kaleigh’s people live within the bodies of space creatures utilizing all the parts of the creature—bones, flesh, organs, etc.—until the beast is used up and then they must find another creature and repeat the process. This is how they’ve survived for centuries, but from the start something is different about this new excavation.

It’s an issue that Seske, part of the Contour class and next in line as Matriarch of her people, will have to face head on. As Seske begins to question their way of life, she’ll have to work quickly in order to keep her people safe from Exodus, all while learning what it means to lead.

Escaping Exodus features one of the best-realized future worlds I’ve read in sci-fi. The way Nicky Drayden presents it is so interesting in that we’re just thrust into this society without knowledge of how things came to be, but we’re put into the beginning of an excavation—kind of like the beginning of a new cycle—and we learn as it goes. Only later do we get a fuller picture of why things have become the way they currently are.

I was so taken in with the matriarchal society with family units consisting of six women, three men, and one child and they all fill some role (head, heart, will etc) that is their area of expertise, so to speak, for the family. Then there’s also the clear divide between the classes which we get through the viewpoints of Seske—of the Contour class—and her best friend Adalla—of the Beastworker class. Drayden does such of great job of making the story futuristic, yet still able to be comprehended within today’s timeframe. Meaning, it’s not so far out there that I can’t completely dismiss aspects of the story from one day coming to fruition.

Therein also lies the problem for me with Escaping Exodus in that there was just too much in this story for the page count which meant that there were some things that didn’t get the proper development. I would have gladly read another 200 pages on this book if it meant that certain conflicts or story threads could have been worked out. As it stands, especially toward the end, there were definite moments where I felt whiplash due to the change of course between one occurrence and the next. Like the beginning so eloquently spells out the constructs of the society, then suddenly we’re close to the end and things have to actually move somewhere.

The main relationship in the story is between Seske and Adalla. It’s a coming-of-age relationship that repeatedly gets waylaid by class structures and Seske’s future role as Matriarch. There is much more time focused on Seske and Adalla figuring out who they are as individuals when their society says they cannot conceivably be together. I would have liked a little more exploration to this relationship, but I think it’s an interesting notion that—even within a supposed future—lineage is still so prevalent. You can be with whomever you want, however you want, but they need to have a good family name behind them and have a good position in society.

Overall, though, the biggest message for me was the idea that sustainability is not just caring for and working with your environment, but it’s caring for and working with each other. We are part of nature so it goes to say that we can’t just hold some people to a higher standard, we all have to step up and not at the expense of others.