<i>Architects of Memory</i> is solid scifi with awesome character development, deep worldbuilding, and moral complexity. It's escapism that also makes you think.

Ash is an indenture with a big goal: gaining citizenship, and maybe proper medical treatment, before her terminal illness does her in. She already almost died in an attack by mysterious aliens that did kill her fiance. Now, she's working to salvage tech off of space debris caused by those same aliens, the Vai. When she has an odd reaction to some strange tech, she finds herself caught in a vicious tug-of-war between the corporations who run and ruin the worlds.

The dialogue is witty, the action intense. I found this to be an incredibly quick read. It was great to read about a character whose bisexuality is presented and accepted without question. All of the characters are great, though, portrayed with genuine human nuance. The aliens are unique, too. Really, everything about the book takes old tropes and gives them a deft turn. Normally I can predict a lot of upcoming action, but this novel surprised me all the way through.

Ash Jackson is slowly dying of celstitum poisoning, but she’ll do everything she can with the time she has left. She enters into indentured servitude for a shot at better medical care and a better life. However, when a salvage mission accidentally exposes her to ancient alien technology, she discovers that she has been turned into a living weapon. Now she’s caught in a web of corporate intrigue as she holds the key to humanity’s salvation … or its annihilation.

Architects of Memory is a riveting space opera filled with corporate intrigue, greed, and lies backstabbing. Loads of it. It’s a high-octane page turner from start to finish, and I found myself glued to the page as I was reading it. In fact, I actually wish the story had hit the brakes on several occasions. Ultimately, I felt like the story prioritized propelling the action forward at the expense of character development. I wish it would have taken the time to slow down and breathe so I could feel the knife of betrayal cut a little deeper and personal sacrifices would have punched me harder in the gut.

However, two relationships glued the story together for me. At the story’s heart, Ash is haunted by her fiancé’s ghost. She’s also desperately searching for her new lover, Captain Kate Keller, in the midst of the chaos, unsure of if she’s dead or alive. Her love for them is what truly anchored the story and it’s perhaps precisely due to the fact that Ash spends a lot of time hallucinating conversations with them in her head that these are the most well-developed relationships.

Overall, Architects of Memory is a shimmering debut about greedy corporations messing with ancient alien technology that shouldn’t be messing with—perfect for fans of the Alien franchise or The Themis Files.

What’s that? It’s time for another dark horse review? Oh man, well I think I just used up that idea for an intro. Oh well, I got to it first so it’s mine now. I should be talking about a book right? Well, I’ll be honest, the first thing that leapt out to me about this book was the title. The description only sold it more, but that title really got to me. It felt like it could mean so many things, and I think that still remains true after completing the book. If you have somehow missed the title of this review so far, I am going to be talking about Architects of Memory, by Karen Osbourne. It’s a solid debut with a compelling main protagonist, and a dreary future setting that succeeds despite some of its drawbacks.

Architects of Memory follows Ash Jackson, an indenture with the Aurora corporation. Ash and his/her coworkers are corporate scavengers cleaning up the debris from space battlefields in the aftermath of a major war with an alien race known as the Vai. After she and her fellow salvagers soon encounter something they don’t quite understand, they bring the mysterious salvage down to a planet to run studies on it, thinking it’s a zero point battery (a device that would fix the energy supply issues of space travel). While on the planet, another corporation makes its move, and the hunt for Ash and the object begins. The result for the reader is a book where sabotage, espionage, and kidnapping become tools of war for corporations as they compete for ultimate control of weapons that could defeat the ever present threat of Vai.

In general, the story was enjoyable. It had a few slow moments while it transitioned away from a MacGuffin-centered storyline to a more character driven narrative about how to handle the MacGuffin. While I found myself drawn in by the plot in the beginning, Ash became the main reason I continued to read the book. Her journey from ‘corporate can-do’ to becoming her own person was a nice read. Osbourne really captures the sense of trying to do everything you can while greater expectations are piled onto you until you reach a breaking point. Where this arc really succeeds is Ash’s breaking point does not make her a good person, and instead forces her to reckon with all of the bad she did beforehand, while attempting to do the right thing in the future. It was a nice addition that really fit into the universe of the book.

Speaking of, I enjoyed the indirect ways Osbourne introduced the world of Memory to the reader. There aren’t any expanded monologues about how the world became the way it is. Most of the details are revealed through dialogue between different characters and diving into the history of the main character as she talked to herself and the ghosts of her past. I appreciated the slow rolling that let the characters breathe in the world that molds them into who they are without forcing it down the reader’s throat. Their choices highlighted what was important to the society they lived in while setting up crucial character moments for those who do develop. However, if you’re someone who wants more worldbuilding and intricate details, it leaves a little to be desired.

I did have a couple issues with the book. As I mentioned, the first portion of the story revolves around a MacGuffin, which didn’t really compel me personally. However, that became less an issue as the story evolved. The second issue is a little harder to ignore and her name is Kate Keller. Keller is the second POV character, and I did not connect with her or find her interesting until about two-thirds of the way through the book. I think part of it is that her sections were often shorter, infrequent, and felt like they were meant to break up Ash’s chapters to provide narrative tension. Unfortunately, a lot of her characterization was done by her own internal comparisons to Ash, leading to a much more direct style that felt disjointed compared to Ash. It makes sense that this sort of characterization happened through the lens of their romantic tension, but it made Keller feel like an accessory for most of the book instead of a full character in her own right.

Despite forgivable issues, I adored this book. Osbourne’s metaphors were vivid and tactile, providing such a lush picture of place especially when it was important. Her aliens, the Vai, are weird, and wonderfully alien. Finally the ending to this book is as astounding as it is horrifying. Overall, Osbourne’s debut is an enjoyable read. It has a likeable protagonist, the world is interesting, and while not overly detailed, fleshed out enough to feel pervasive and weaved throughout the character’s lives. The issues I had did not push me away, but still feel important enough to point out that could affect your experience. There is still much to enjoy, and since the second half of the book is much tighter than the first, I think there is much more to look forward to from Karen Osbourne.

Rating: Architects of Memory - 7.5/10
-Alex

Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So! The good:

The pacing, a lot of the action, the core concept of the aliens, and the OTT blowout of the end.

The so/so:

The relatively generic space-opera feel with very little to make it stand out from most space-opera setups. Such as corporate indenture. Has no one read Cherryh? Scavenging is also so commonplace as to be a core fixture of these types of SF-lite novels. The originality is centered, but not very developed, on the (no spoiler) abilities of the aliens and how it relates to our MC. That being said, the whole tale feels mostly surfacy and I never got that invested in either the over-plot or the characters.

I don't think this was a bad novel by any stretch. My main complaint is that I've read way too many novels that behave almost exactly like this. It didn't kick my pants in the originality department. At all.

That being said, it does fill a number of checkboxes for those of you looking for it: Disabled. LGBTQ. However, these aspects never really felt core to the story even if we were meant to believe they were. (At least to me.)

I was really eager to read this book. Unfortunately it didn’t match my expectations and turned out to be an incredibly frustrating read. The plot takes forever to unfold and the reader isn’t helped along the way to figure out where it might take them. That it takes them to a really unexpected place is a good thing, but the lack of directions made me feel blindsided by it. Also the title of the book made me expect a completely different story. It took me over a half the book to realise that there will be no architects of memory and that memory manipulation doesn’t play any role in the story. Memories become erased, yes, but nothing new comes out of them. The series title, Memory War, is a more accurate guide for readers’ expectations.

The story is set in a future spacefaring world that is ruled by profitmaking corporations. People are either born as citizens of these corporations or they indenture themselves to them to earn a citizenship. There has been a war with an alien race before the book begins. When an alien weapon is found, all the corporations want it, ostensibly to defeat the aliens. The plot is basically about the corporations fighting over the weapon.

The main point of view character is Ashlan. The book begins with an emotion dump about everything that is wrong with her life. In a couple of pages we learn that she’s dying, but she wants to make into a citizen before that, which makes her take risks. Her fiancé has died of the same illness a year earlier. She’s since fallen in love again with her captain, but she’s dumped her for fairly vague reasons. Then Ash finds the alien weapon and it turns out she’s uniquely connected to it.

Ash is a character with practically no agency over her story. She goes where she’s told to, reacts to events around her, and whines about her fate. It isn’t until the very end that she tries to take matters to her own hand, only to be frustrated time and again. Her solution made me lose what little interest I had in her.

The rest of the characters weren’t any better. Maybe the attempt was to create nuanced characters, but the execution was so clumsy that they came across as sociopaths with zero control over their emotions. At one moment they were friendly, at next they were genocidal killers because of a past trauma, and back to likeable again. It was impossible to tell how any of them might react to any given situation or why they reacted the way they did. It was easier to not become attached to any of them.

A smoother narrative and better descriptions along the way, both the world-building and the characters’ emotions, might have made this a better read. The ending reveals that the book has aspirations. I wish it could have achieved them too.

This was super intense. I sometimes think the word ‘gripping’ can be overused when it comes to books and movies. It’s meant to draw us in but mostly I’m disappointed by its promise. Well, let’s just say that this book needs to have ‘gripping’ tattooed across the whole cover. I haven’t read a book that held my attention like this in a while. One of my Goodreads friends warned me that I would read this in one sitting. That was no joke. I read this in 6 hours straight and could not stop reading until the end. I have a sore neck because I hardly moved I was so engrossed in the story. This book starts and just takes off from there, and the pace is so quick that you almost can’t catch your breath.

I have not gotten to read much sci-fi this year, it’s my one disappointment for a year that has been really good for me book wise. I’m hoping to get some good sci-fi books in before the year ends so I was really happy to get my hands on this one. This looks to be Osborne’s full length debut unless I’m missing something. For me that just makes this book even more impressive. Osborne can write sci-fi and I can see her doing really well in the genre.

There is so much action and excitement in this story that I want to be careful not to spoiler anything. I do want to mention that there is plenty of violence in this book. This is about a world recovering from a war with aliens so things are rough. While there was some grossness and some gory bits, I didn’t feel like anything was overdone. I thought the types of death and violence fit the story if that makes sense.

The reason I gravitated to this book was because it was sci-fi with a WLW relationship. There is a romance and I enjoyed it, but it is a lighter romance. We come into things in the middle so we don’t see them fall in love. Getting to see how their relationship started is just one of multiple reasons why I would like to read a prequel. Anyway, the other issue is that the main characters are apart for most of the book so that also limits things, but what romance is there is sweet and I enjoyed it. I also like that sexuality is not an issue at all. I got the sense that both main characters were bisexual and they just loved who the loved and that was that.

The reason I can’t give this 5 stars is less about the writing quality and more just story choices I wasn’t big on. For instance, I wasn’t crazy about the ending. It was okay but I kept waiting for a certain something to happen for over half the book and when it didn’t happen, I was disappointed. Now that I read the blurb for book 2, I understand why Osborne didn’t do what she made me think she was going to do. As much as I really enjoyed this book, I’m about 50/50 if I will read the next installment. The main problem is I don’t really care for the new main character that will star in that book so I’m unsure. While this is a series, this book feels contained enough that I could stop here if I decide to.

If you are a sci-fi fan I would recommend this one. While it’s not perfect, it is extremely entertaining and completely gripping. This book will grab you and it won’t let go until you finish it. This is a memorable debut for Osborne.

Karen Osborne's Architects of Memory is a debut that is delivered with aplomb. It is seasoned with mature ideas and sci-fi concepts that endear its readers to the genre. The fast-paced space opera that explores worldbuilding by combining aliens and corporate espionage is one of its kind. It had me glued and brought an immense sense of satisfaction to my weekend.

We are told the story from the point of view of Ash, a terminally ill pilot, who has become one of my sci-fi favorite characters in 2020. She, along with her crew, stumbles upon an alien technology that has mystified the human race. Quite unsurprisingly, contact with the artifact has triggered some effects unbeknownst to humans and what unfolds is a multi-layered plot that is filled with intrigue and action. Naturalization and acquiring citizenship as an undercurrent in this novel is an important theme. However, it is not a traditional story of an indentured slave on a quest to gain freedom.

Full review coming around Sep 11 2020 (around publication date)!

Ahoy there me mateys!  I received this sci-fi eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  So here be me honest musings . . .

Super awesome title and cover made me pick up this sci-fi.  This ended up being a quick, engaging read where I ultimately ended up being both confused and conflicted.

I did not know this was the first book of a series so that could have contributed but really this book made me feel like either nothing was explained or I just blatantly missed things.  I did very much like the idea of the corporate indenture based society.  I loved the beginning of the book and how the terminally ill main character, Ash, goes into a salvage operation with unexpected consequences.  I absolutely loved the idea of the mysterious alien artifact.  But sadly this book wasn't what I wanted.

I don't normally mind being thrown into the middle of things.  In this book the conflict with the alien Vai has been ongoing for a while.  The action is basically non-stop.  What was missing was any real insight into what the characters were thinking or their relationships with each other.  Ash was a fun person to root for but I didn't really get to see any of the "found family" moments that were hinted at.  Ash and her love interest are in a very nebulous relationship where we are told they are in love but the reader doesn't get to see this either.  All the romances were surface level and felt more like plot-devices.  Even the interactions of the major players and overall world politics of the society did not seem to have nuance.  Unusually, I actually wanted the backstory of both the war and Ash's life.

Then there is the aliens and the technology.  I felt that neither aspect made any sense.  I liked the idea of how the alien society supposedly functioned but the practical aspects of how the aliens and their tech worked felt more like magic without any clear rules.  In fact in many scenes, I felt that the tech contradicted itself in terms of the problems it caused and the circumstances required to make it work.  There is a lot of discussion of how the alien tech distorts or changes memory but I couldn't tell you how or why.  All the memory related problems made no real sense and confused me even more.

And then the ending.  I actually thought the book could have been a standalone based on what happened.  The ending was depressing which I was cool with.  I did not enjoy that I am still not sure exactly what the plot or message of the book was besides corporations are evil and humans suck.  I thought it was weird that while I found reading the book to be enjoyable, the problems and inconsistencies ended up making me like the book a lot less after-the-fact.  So much so that I don't feel like I will read any more of the series.

Strange reading times indeed.  Arrr!

So lastly . . .

Thank you Macmillian-Tor/Forge!

Thank you to Netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.
Okay, this book is excellent. Upon reading just the premise, I was fully 100% ready to just give my soul up to this book, but then I actually started reading it and it JUST GOT BETTER. I love how it takes place over a very short time span. I love the main character of Ash herself. I’ve been reading quite a lot of very good science fiction lately and this definitely takes the cake for one of the better ones of late. I will say, I didn’t feel as deeply connected to some of the side characters as I would have liked, and I’m not quite sure about the ending (it’s listed as a #1 on goodreads, and while I understand the appeal of a series, I think that it’s an excellent standalone and I worry that sequels would ruin it? So I’ve got mixed feelings about that). But at the end of the day it was an excellent and compelling book, and I can’t wait to recommend it to my friends etc!

An incredible read, one of my favourite books in 2020. I felt so engage by the story and the characters. The style is SO good, so well written and so well paced. I am honestly impressed by the work of Karen Osborne. I need to read everything she has written. I am dying to read the sequel for this book.

Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne. Published by Tor.com, this is Karen's debut science fiction novel. Think I'm starting to find my groove with science fiction. For a debut, there are a lot of things to like about this story. A quick summery. Architects is the story of Ash, an indentured who works as a salvage operator. She and the crew she's a part of go around salvaging what they can from giant space battles; old weapons and ammunition, anything they can sell. For in this far future, money makes the world go round.

Wait, how's that different to now.

In Architects, space is now run by mega-corporations, each of which can fund and maintain standing fleets of spaceships. If you work hard, some day you might be able to save up and become a Citizen, giving you freedoms abound.

Wait, this feels familiar...

Anywho, Ash holds a secret illness she can't tell anyone about, or else her hopes for Citizenship and a cure are shot. The issue with that is that the captain of her ship knows. And she has the feeeeels for her. Unrequited love much? Well, not quite, it's clear that it's more than a one way street. The rest of the rag tag crew include a mysterious doctor, an ex solider, and a engineer. They think of themselves as family, and while I liked the idea, it never really felt like they had those sorts of bonds. Maybe good friends, but family? Anyway, I digress. The basic jist, is that this crew has been asked to salvage some alien tech, and then everything starts to come undone.

As a whole, the story is fairly standard, with many of the tropings of sci-fi. Evil corporations, secret societies, mysterious aliens. And I'm not against it, it's fun, it's quick, there's lots of action. It keeps you on your toes, pulling you from one event to another. There's not a huge amount of downtime for the characters to catch their breath. And it does feel this means that there's not a huge amount of character development. There are deaths along the way, and I never really felt connected to anything. Which, overall doesn't detract from much.

As usual, the aliens are what drew me in. Strange entities that no one can understand, with technology that no one understands? Hell, yeah. And when we eventually get a few answers, I really like the twist Osborne gave us. As for the final ending, I'm reserving judgement. While a few things are tied up, there's so much left in flux that I'm curious to see where it goes. Thankfully the next novel is out early next year, apparently.

Wow. There’s so much that I love about this book. Basically, this book looks at a near future where space travel and colonization is ultimately controlled by greedy capitalists, and booy did that hit a little close to home. But yeah, I think it looks the elephant in the room about colonization in space in the face, and says fuck this is bad.

It has an incredible cast of nuanced characters, twists you’ll never see coming and still manages to engage thoughtfully with the first contact trope in science fiction, offering for once, a nuanced and frankly, I think, accurate portrayal of what that might entail if this moment is controlled by capitalists. Over all I really enjoyed both Ash and Kate and their relationship, and I was definitely cheering for them at the end.

I would definitely recommend this one to anyone who loves science fiction, it had me on the edge of my seat and offered a refreshing new voice.

Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne: Don’t Let the Corporations Grind You Down

In Architects of Memory, Karen Osborne’s intriguing debut from Tor, humankind has spread to the stars. Think interstellar ships exploring and colonizing distant solar systems, classical-physics-defying technology, a flawed but noble species boldly going where it has never gone before, contact with an advanced alien civilization—all the tropes you know and love from your favorite incarnation of Star Trek.

Now refract those tropes through the occluding lens of laissez-faire corporate capitalism and buckle up for a wild, unsettling ride. Don’t expect the United Federation of Planets to provide a check on the excesses of concentrated wealth and power. Osborne imagines a darker future, in which sovereign corporations like Manx-Koltar, Wellspring Celestial Holdings, and Aurora Company have replaced nation-states, with great results for shareholders and the wealthy few, and predictably dire consequences for the ninety-nine percent.

And don’t forget about that advanced alien civilization. They’re called the Vai, their technology is the definition of Clarke’s third law, and their take-no-prisoners attacks against human colonies were unstoppable until an alliance between two rival corporations, Aurora Company and Manx-Koltar, unexpectedly turned the tide at the Battle of Tribulation. After Tribulation, the Vai retreated across an interstellar boundary known as the White Line and haven’t been seen since, leaving Aurora Company, Manx-Koltar, and the rest of the mega-conglomerates in a state of uneasy cooperation and constant vigilance.

Ashland Jackson, an ace pilot in Aurora Company’s salvage corps, knows all too well the downside risks of corporate hegemony and intergalactic warfare. Ash is an indenture, trying to earn Auroran citizenship. It might be a pipe dream—the indenture system is rigged so that she accrues debits to her citizenship account faster than she does credits—but she is determined to beat the odds, because her life depends on it.

Before Ash joined Aurora, she and her fiancé Christopher were indentured to a different company, Wellspring Celestial Holdings, at a colony that mined celestium, the dangerous but invaluable substance that fuels spacecraft engines. Wellspring wasn’t known for its indenture-friendly policies, but it was the couple’s only shot at citizenship, so they embraced it.

Then the Vai attacked. The Wellspring colony was destroyed, leaving Christopher dead and Ash trapped in the rubble of a collapsed mine shaft. Wellspring Celestial Holdings collapsed, too, and Ash and the few other survivors would have been left for dead if Aurora Company hadn’t come to the rescue. With help from Captain Kate Keller and Doctor Reva Sharma, the Auroran citizens who rescued her, Ash is able to join Aurora Company with a more viable (but still difficult) path to citizenship. She even finds a bit of emotional solace in a blossoming love affair with Captain Keller. From ashes, hope.

The problem: Ash has celestium poisoning from the mine collapse. The debilitating disease is slow to develop but ultimately fatal without treatment. Worse, the cure is expensive—and only available to corporate citizens. Ash needs to keep her illness a secret so she can earn Auroran citizenship before she becomes symptomatic. If Dr. Sharma and the company find out she is sick, her indenture contract will be terminated and she will become a permanent uncitizen living in poverty on a space station until the disease kills her. (Or she’ll be sent back Earth, which is implied to be exactly as bleak as you’d expect from extrapolating 2020’s worst trends two or three centuries into the future.) It’s a bitter dilemma: she can lie to her employer and co-workers and friends to save herself, thereby putting everyone on the salvage crew at risk; or she can give up and die.

Things get more complicated when Ash and her crew recover a mysterious Vai artifact from the wreckage of the Tribulation battlefield. The artifact might be a weapon, or it might be a zero-point-energy battery, or it might be something else entirely. The one thing Ash and her friends know for sure: the Vai artifact is extremely valuable. The corporation that unlocks the artifact’s secrets won’t just win more market share—it will control everything. That’s an asset worth breaking a few rules—and sacrificing countless lives—to own.

If you think you know where this is going, you’re probably half right. Osborne’s sharp critique of the excesses (read: rapacious immorality) of unfettered corporate capitalism is relentless and nuanced. This isn’t a story of heroes and villains; it’s a story of perverse incentives and mistaken beliefs. If people behave immorally in a system that gives them no other choices, the problem isn’t the people—it’s the system.

Don’t assume the story will play out exactly as you expect, however. The novel is full of surprises, which I won’t spoil except to say that Star Trek’s post-scarcity utopian optimism isn’t the only sci-fi trope that gets reimagined as Ash and Captain Keller fight the good fight against a corrupt worldview that values power and profit over life. It’s not the kind of fight you win in a single battle, or a single book. Fittingly, Architects of Memory is the first volume in a duology. The second volume, Engines of Oblivion, will be published in 2021. Until then, don’t let the corporations grind you down.

I’m not quite sure how to describe my experience of reading Architects of Memory. I started to say it was “a delight” to read, but that’s not even close to accurate, because this is an incredibly heavy book. That being said, it was well written and engaging, so much so that I binged most of it in one day, which I generally avoid doing with books that are heavy or likely to leave me emotionally exhausted.

I won’t go into much detail about the plot so as to avoid spoilers, but I did want to note that both of our main characters are sapphic women! Ash is canonically bisexual with relationships with both men and women referenced in the story, and our second POV character, Kate, is also into women. The two of them are - surprise - in love with each other, but feel as though they cannot or should not act on their impulses for the time being. This conflict added an extra layer of tension onto an already stressful plot, but in the best way.

Architects of Memory's pacing is relentless from the very start, and you will likely not want to put it down for anything. I was initially disappointed in how abrupt the ending felt, but then I realized this is the first in a series, so knowing there will be more negated any of those issues. I can’t wait to read Engines of Oblivion (Book 2), and if the Goodreads release date of Feb 2021 is accurate, we won’t have to wait too long to find out what’s next for Kate & Ash!

TL;DR: Y’all know I love a good sapphic sci-fi novel, and Architects of Memory knocks it out of the park!

ARC Note: Thank you to NetGalley & Tor Books for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Content Warnings: Graphic violence, death of a loved one, nonconsensual medical procedures, gore/body horror type stuff. I'm probably forgetting a lot of things. Read, but read with care!

This starts one way and near the ends becomes something else. Look for danger and tension as the book begins. A salvage crew bites off more than they can chew and have to work very hard to survive. then the story changes to saving humanity from weapons of really mass destruction plus changing how humans and aliens interact. Interesting but different. It kept me reading but the change left me feeling a little lost.

I received a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was fairly action-packed from the get-go, the story and events always moving forward, something always happening to the characters or in response to events and decisions made. I can see this being a tv show, actually, it's got enough action and intrigue to keep the audience guessing, and indeed I was glued to my eReader eager to find out what was next. There's some corporate conspiracies and meddling happening in the backdrop which was pretty intriguing, and the presence of aliens in this story and world felt realistic and present enough

At the heart of what I loved about the book was the characters. While we got to know Ash as she is the main character in this book we also got to know her colleagues fairly well. I grew to care for the characters and worried for their fates. I especially felt for Ash because as the above book blurb mentioned she's terminally ill and working to gain citizenship but her backstory is pretty heartbreaking in a way; maybe I was in a rather sentimental mood when I was reading the book but I really just wanted everything happy and peaceful for her.

<i>Architects of Memory</i> is an excellent debut novel and first book in a series. It's reminiscent of favourite sci-fi/space opera series such as James S.A. Corey's <i>Expanse</i> and Rachel Bach's <i>Paradox</i> and I'd be curious to read further in the series and follow the characters onward and delve more into the corporate shenanigans. Highly recommended!

Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne is a stellar debut that explores the corruption in capitalism and what we will go through to protect the ones we love.

Salvage pilot, Ashland Jackson, just wants to finish her company indenture and get the citizenship she desperately needs to gain access to the treatment for the celestium sickness that is quickly killing her. When Ash and the crew of the Twenty-Five stumbled upon a mysterious weapon while on a salvage op, they are thrown into a world of corporate espionage and betrayals. As buried secrets and alliances become revealed, Ash and the crew must figure out who to trust and how to keep the weapon out of the wrong hands.

On the surface, Architects of Memory seems like a story we’ve seen before in the science fiction world. Humans have gone to space, corporations take capitalism to the extreme, first contact does not go well, and our hero uncovers a conspiracy. All good stuff, but nothing specifically new. And then you meet the characters…

Architects of Memory is a novel that is driven by plot, but made all the better by the characters. There is representation for PTSD, chronic illness, LGBTQ+, and more. However, what really makes it stand out is the casual nature of how the representation is brought into the story. Everyone in the story is just living their life, being who they are, without big neon signs over their heads flashing “I’m bisexual, ask me how!” The characters are just themselves and seeing these parts of who they are expressed in such a natural way brings a sense of connection and authenticity to the story that is sometimes lacking in science fiction.

Where Architects of Memory falters is the pacing. We flip flop between action-packed moments and clunky info dumps throughout most of the story. And while everything that is happening is intriguing, it’s hard to stay fully engaged when the action dies down. Stories have to have their slower moments in between the action scenes, but the transition between the two were not smooth here.

There were some good plot twists that were dropped at just the right times to keep you wanting to read more. The story is told between the points of view of Ash and the captain of the Twenty Five (and Ash’s love interest), Kate Keller, so there are more than a few chapter cliffhangers as we bounce between the two POVs. But because of the dual POVs, keeping track of the corporate espionage part of the plot can be a bit tricky.

At the end of the day, Architects of Memory is a good debut that leads me to believe Karen Osborne will definitely be taking up space on my favourites of science fiction bookcase. Her subtle way of building up characters brings them to life in ways that few authors can achieve. If you are looking for a science fiction story with authentic characters, twisty plots, a stuffed unicorn toy, and plenty of action and feels, then this is the one for you!

This is the story of Ash, who is an indentured salvage pilot. In this world, companies rule everything, and those who are indentured to one of the companies can work their way into citizenship… eventually. Ash is in somewhat a hurry to find her way to citizenship, because she’s got a terminal illness and only citizens can afford the cure. When Ash and her crew find what could be a very powerful alien weapon on a salvage job, suddenly everyone from every company is very interested in both it… and Ash.

This was a well written and fast paced space opera in a world of corporations. Humanity is still rocking from a recent war with the alien Vai, an enemy that is as brutal as they are mysterious, because despite the body count they left in their wake, nobody has ever seen one.

I really liked the world that this book described. This isn’t the first time that I’ve read a space opera that took place in a future world of corporations and not countries, but this one was well described, and the idea of these indentured servants (or un-citizens as they are also known) was an addition to the setting that was totally plausible, and thus easy to imagine.

I liked Ash, though I have to admit that I never really latched onto her as I suppose I was meant to. She is terminally ill, and while I did want her to get citizenship and find her cure, I don’t think I would have lost sleep if it had gone a different way. Ash’s relationship with Kate was quite sweet at times, and I liked how Ash’s previous relationship was included here as well. Kate is very important to Ash, but Christopher, the fiance that she lost in a Vai attack, is also still very important to Ash, and his memory sticks with her as much as Kate does. That was a nice detail.

All told, this was a fast-paced space opera with an interesting premise that was well presented. I’m interested to see where it’ll go in the next volume.

Architects of Memory is a very strong debut from Karen Osborne in which a plucky crew of salvage tug misfits gets caught up in a corporate struggle for an alien artifact. The premise may sound familiar, but Osborne brings rich characterization and excellent plotting to the tale.

Architects of Memory (The Memory War Book 1) by Karen Osborne | 08/25/2020 | Tor Books

Ash was born on a company mining planet, and turned over to the welfare center because her mother couldn’t keep her. The mines are gone now, destroyed by aliens in an event that left her one of the few survivors, and she’s trying to make a life aboard the corporate salvage vessel that plucked her out of the ruins. She’s also an indentured person, which is a normal thing here, hoping to work long enough to gain citizenship in the Aurora Corp, one of the better options in this dog eat dog universe. Oh, and she’s dying of celestium poisoning from her time in the mines, but she really doesn’t want anyone else to know because it would kill her chance at full citizenship.

Unfortunately, the universe doesn’t care what she wants.

The story’s setup is classic misfit crew caught int eh crossfire between big events, but the crew of the corporate salvage ship “Twenty-Five” has way more than you usual number of secrets they’re keeping from each other, some poorly, like Ash’s feelings for the captain, some better, like what a top-notch doctor is doing running their med bay. The setting is a deep space battlefield with a massive dreadnaught hulk the object of their salvage, or at least the alien thing that the crew of the London had taken aboard before being crippled in the last moments of the battle against the Vai.

Now corporations are scrambling for an advantage over leftover Vai war tech and not looking too closely at why the Vai retreated when our ships were clearly no match for them. You may see echos of Card’s Ender’s Game and Haldeman’s Forever War here.

Architects of Memory is book 1 of The Memory War, but so much of the setup was don’t before the book starts that it felt much more like book 2, with a wrapup promised in the next book. I’m sure nobody will listen to me, but I’d like the author to write book 2 and finish the story, then go back and write book 0 to start it. Unlike many stories that refer to previous events (“You fought in the Clone Wars?”) it’s clear that Karen Osborne has given a lot of thought to the previous events, which she reveals in bits as the book goes on. Regardless, this is a terrific debut with equal parts action and character and we can look forward to whatever comes next.

What I really loved about Architects of Memory was the way it balancing being this action packed SF with social commentary. It's one of those books that has a fantastic premise, and then once you figure that out, it keeps delivering shocks that will leave you gasping. But what I loved was how it brought privilege into the realm of SF because not only does Ash have a terminal illness which is incredibly expensive, but she comes from a very poor mining company. Amidst the corporations, which are these giant mega corps which fight over property AND aliens, there are layers of privilege which Ash keeps coming up against.