It's been a while since I found a YA Dystopian book that I really clicked with, but I finally did with Founder's Mercy.

The world building was fantastic from the very beginning, the characters clicked instantly, and the tropes of the genera were there but they weren't lazyily used as I often find they are in recent YA, and the twists and turns were fun enough to keep me on my toes.

The queerness of the book bumps it from four stars to five stars for me, it was refreshing for the genera and I loved every second of it.

I'm glad it's the first of a series, I anxiously await a sequel.

I LOVED this book.

First off let me say, I am not great at writing reviews so don’t expect much for me.

Second, it took me forever to read this books because I am a Junior in college and this semester is stressful. However whenever I got free time I chose to read this books it was that good.


Loved the representation. Love that the representation of LGBTQ characters was normal in this world. Until a character identified themselves as a particular pronoun they were assumed to be they/them.

The world building was impressive. So awesome!
I cannot believe this is a debut author. Their writing skills are top notch.

Overall I highly recommend this book. I am not good at writing reviews so I apologize for that.

This was a fun story with great characters and fantastic world-building. It was hard to put down. The writing was very immersive. The characters were well developed, and their enjoyable dialogue seemed natural and free-flowing. I enjoyed how the winding narrative unfolded, keeping me interested and invested. The author used several familiar YA tropes but always turned or twisted them into something new and unique. I appreciated the author's subtle commentary on how oppressive regimes can easily co-opted identity politics. I can't wait for the next book in the series! Owen Lach is an author to watch.

Founder's Mercy is a debut novel by Owen Lach, and it does in fact read like one. While the characters are entertaining and engaging, the writing style needs a bit of work. There was a lot of exposition and explanation at the beginning of the book that made it very hard to chug through. I think the author would benefit from reading further examples of sci-fi and fantasy to learn about how other authors do world-building.

Orphans Adan Testa and Bo Shen are best friends living under the yoke of the Bolvar Union, a restrictive society that will soon drag them into five years of mandatory military service. To escape, they hatch a plan to get over the wall that surrounds the city and out into the wild landscape of the planet Neska. But things don’t go according to plan…

When they are caught by the authorities, they unexpectedly find themselves rescued by the imposing Commander Sala who drafts them into the military early. It becomes clear that Sala knows more about Adan than she’s revealing. But it’s when Adan accidentally revives some old colony artifacts, advanced technology long thought to be inoperable, that the real mystery starts to take shape. Why is Adan the only person on the planet who can make these ancient machines work?

Owen Lach’s debut YA sci-fi novel, Founder’s Mercy, feels like a well-oiled machine. There are a lot of moving parts here as Lach builds a new world for us. From the political machinations of the Bolvar Union and Motari rebels, Adan and Bo’s plans and their expanding circle of relationships, to the history lessons of the colony’s early days (the ‘founders’ of the title). There are lies and deceits mixed with familial bonds and budding romances. Not to mention the dual mysteries at the heart of the novel. How did a scientifically advanced, space faring group of settlers lose their technology and skills to become an agrarian society? And why is Adan the only one who can turn things around? But each of these pieces moves in harmony in this well-plotted tale.

There are the hallmarks of YA sci-fi, but each is twisted into a more morally complex space. Instead of an “oppressive regime” we have a pseudo-communist society that provides for its citizens that seem like a modern utopian state (Adan is poor but has always been fed, clothed and housed, and his sexuality is never an issue). Even Commander Sala, the book’s ‘villain’ clearly has reasons for her actions beyond being evil. The characters feel well-rounded and, well, messy at times. Allegiances shift, people change their minds or have levels of motivation that at times conflict with each other. Good people do bad things. Bad people do good. There is a level of complexity and humanity here that’s sadly sometimes lacking in queer YA fiction.

Adan reads like a precocious sixteen-year-old, filled with unearned confidence mixed with immature emotional reactions. On the cusp of adulthood, he’s forced into making life or death decisions, trying to be a moral person in horrible situations. It doesn’t hurt that he’s surrounded by a series of slightly older boys who catch his eye, from his aggressive Squad Leader Garun, to the Motari rebel Rune, even his best friend Bo.

While reading Founder’s Mercy I was reminded of Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn and Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking novels. The worldbuilding feels effortlessly complex and real. There is an ever-unfolding mystery in the book that goes deeper and deeper, but it’s clear that Lach has the resolution planned out (*reviewer throws a shady look at the Maze Runner series*). There is confidence in the storytelling. Characters may be working together, but each has their own goals in mind and I can smell some betrayals coming down the line in future sequels. And while the villains may be evil, their goals may not be as cartoonishly bad as we think.

There is a queer sensibility that runs through the book, set in a world that is queer at its core. It was only after I finished Founder’s Mercy that it clicked with me that beyond things like people introducing themselves with their pronouns, or sexuality being a non-issue, most of the people in power are women (on both sides of the political divide), there are men who are compassionate, but firm (on both sides of the fight), even an AI speaks with a non-gendered voice. These weren’t added to drive home any kind of agenda, the book was naturally modeling equality without any judgement.

I’d have happily read a full-bodied queer sci-fi novel twice this length, that’s how engaged I was with Adan’s story and the world Lach has created; give me a Phillip Pullman-sized doorstop of a book! Lach’s prose is smooth, expertly weaving exposition and character through the action. The last chapter serves as a gentle reminder of all the questions left unanswered, driving us forward into the next book. This is an unpretentiously accomplished debut and a cracking, fun read.

I've read some absolutely mind blowing books by debut authors unfortunately this is not one of them.

Founder's Mercy takes place on the planet of Neska in an almost dystopian world ruled by the tyrannical Bolver Union.

Adan Testa is a lowly teenager who works in a laundromat with his best friend Bo. After getting caught trying to escape the Union they're forced into their mandatory military service early. Its there that Adan realizes there's more to him than anyone could ever believe and that he just might be their ticket out.

While the book does have decent world building elements. Like the storms that constantly plague Neska's surface. The Bolver Union, or that technology has regressed since the space ship Jennix crashed.

Unfortunately though the world created here is never truly explored to the depth that's needed to make the book interesting.

We know Neska is an alien planet with electrical storms that humans colonized centuries ago. But nothing else of the planet is ever expounded on.

Or that the Bolver Union is an absolutely oppressive government pretending to help the people and yet they rule with an iron fist. But there's nothing else about them, it's structure, it's leaders or even how it came to power.

At one point the book should have gotten more interesting. But all it became was a Deus Ex Machina making the other cast of characters even more useless to the story than they already were.

The books ending came out of nowhere. I flipped through the ebook a couple of times to make sure nothing was missed. But it just ended. I understand keeping information back for the other books in the series. And yet not enough was given to make this book interesting enough to finish the series.

I did read an ARK however so hopefully some of these problems can be fixed in editing. This book had potential but felt much to rushed to be enjoyable.

Some secrets are worth dying for.

Teenage best friends Adan Testa and Bo Shen have a plan. They’ll pull off an unlikely heist to earn their way over the wall, escaping Bolvar before serving their mandatory five years in the Bolvar Union Defense Force. But Adan has a secret talent that no one has seen in the five centuries since the First Explorers colonized Neska. And when the Union discovers Adan’s gift, they’ll do everything they can to learn his secret even if it kills him.

Great book. Twists and turns. Likeable characters. Sweet romances. Can’t wait for next book.

My thanks for this review go to Owen Lach, Jetspace Studio and NetGalley, for providing me with the pre-release e-book version of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Please support authors and publishers by purchasing Founder's Mercy upon its release on the 22nd of March 2022.

One of the strongest elements in this book is the world building of Neska and the Bolvar Union. In particular, I appreciate the inclusion of short logs from the First Explorers who colonized the planet of Neska five centuries prior. These separate the present day chapters and act as a secondary narrative of sorts, with the readers seeing exactly how the Neskan settlements regressed from having advanced technology to a primitive environment where loyalty to the Union is placed above all else, even one's own hopes and happiness. The dystopian elements of this book are done to great effect, with the Union a truly sinister presence that seems to have eyes all through society - readers will share the paranoia of the protagonists in a world where anyone can turn on them for greater favour with the Union. The high quality of world building also presents great opportunities for future developments to be explored within settlements and groups on Neska, including the Bolvar Union Defense Force, the insurgent Motari and the distant city of Port Abarra. With this being Book One of the Neskan Chronicles, I look forward to seeing how Lach can build on his terrific world building in the sequels.

In the midst of the darkness and dystopia, Lach has created a world that is also idealistic for many people who have been isolated for their natural differences. The majority of the surviving First Explorers and their settled descendants are not White, but this is only mentioned in passing when characters come across an individual with a paler complexion to any they have seen before. Secondly, the characters also provide their pronouns when introducing themselves in a way that suggests this practice has been normalized. Finally, it is also refreshing to see a gay man as a main character in a book that never uses his homosexuality to define the character's personality or drive the narrative forward. As a reader of many YA science-fiction and fantasy books, it is apparent that the relationships the character has, whether platonic or romantic, have been given the same importance as if the character was straight. This Neskan society has moved past the ailments that continue to plague today's world, including racism, homophobia and transphobia. As said above, it is refreshing that the author has normalized these practices in his world, which in itself makes a point on how natural it would be for everyone in today's society to respect differences in genders, sexualities and skin colours.

This book enters a crowded market of Young Adult fiction with aspects of science-fiction and dystopia. It is therefore near impossible for a book in this genre to be 100% different from anything that is already in the market. In spite of this, the book stands out for being extremely accessible to readers, owing to its relatively short chapters and pacing that allows the near 400 page length to fly by. There are peaks and troughs with the narrative, but at no time does it feel like the pacing suffers. The sections of text dedicated to conversations between characters works as, like with the world building of settings and the Neskan society, the way Lach has written the characters allows for all, even the minor ones who may appear in one or two scenes, to feel like they have more than a single facet to them. Regarding the central core group, which include the primary protagonists and allies, the majority are written to be extremely likeable, and with all, including those who may not have had much development in this first book, there is a great deal of potential and development to them that can easily be explored in sequels. This book raises many questions on the heritage, backgrounds and histories of several characters, as well as the how the society the First Explorers founded regressed to the Union. By not answering the majority of the questions in the opening book, Lach has ensured that readers will want to continue with the Neskan Chronicles to discover these answers.

The first book in the Neskan Chronicles series is a success, owing to a great use of world building to create a history and society that allows for many questions to be raised in this opening novel. The central core of characters are also written to have multiple facets to them, whilst providing opportunities for development in the sequels. It was also refreshing to read a book that features characters who are not White or straight but never uses these features as a way to drive forward the plot, or be their only defining feature. In short, this is a very promising first book of the series, and I look forward to reading future books from this author.

Founder’s Mercy is a thrilling, young-adult sci-fi adventure that will keep you turning pages until the very end. I dare you to try putting it down!

Founder’s Mercy tells the story of teenage Adan Testa and his best friend Bo as they navigate life in the Bolvar Union on the colony of Neska. At first, the Union seems like your standard sci-fi dystopia, but Lach’s rich, layered world-building gives the city an accessible, lived-in feel. I can easily imagine settling in for a bowl of Mother Agra’s hearty Marsh Pig stew at a table overlooking the Daralsha River.

Adan’s story centers on the fact that he doesn’t want to perform his upcoming mandatory military service. That’s a goal I can get behind. He and Bo develop an (unlikely) plan for escaping the Bolvar Union. As with even the best plans, it goes awry.

Lach is a gifted storyteller. He sets the scenes well as we move from place to place and act to act, including enough detail for me to picture his highly detailed world without bashing me over the head with it. Like many stories told from the perspective of young adults, the world starts small and focused but grows larger and larger. I felt like I was right there with Adan each step of the way as he discovered just how big the world really is.

It was Lach’s characters that sealed the deal for me. They mainly exist in the liminal space between the teenage years and adulthood. They make good choices and bad ones. They get some things right and others disastrously wrong. One of my pet peeves is YA writers who treat their YA characters like miniature adults, and Lach masterfully avoids this trope. Throw in a healthy heaping of Lach’s queer perspective, and you’ve got a cast you can really sink your teeth into. Characters don’t assume someone’s gender based on their appearance. Everyone is they/them until revealed to be otherwise. Testa’s gayness is a similar non-issue. And the easy intimacy of Adan and Bo’s friendship is a delight. It’s a refreshing perspective I’d love to see more authors take.

The story contains some mild descriptions of violence, and several characters deal with growing up without parents. You’ll find some romance, but nothing racier than kissing and cuddling.

FOUNDER'S MERCY is the debut novel of Owen Lach and, as such, is peppered with debut novel issues. It is worth saying as well that the copy I was given to read was an unedited ARC - so take a lot of this with a grain of salt!

Adan Testa lives in the Bolvar Union, a police state-lite on a colony planet of Neska - wanting to escape and avoid mandatory military service, Adan and his friend Bo hatch a plot. When the plot fails and the two are pushed into military service anyway, Adan discovers that he is the first person in nearly five hundred years capable of activating and using the technology of the first explorers of Neska.

I enjoyed FOUNDER'S MERCY, on the whole - I enjoy lost technology as a concept, and the idea of an advanced society having to regress (though they're still early-20th century level at the lowest) but being <i>aware</i> that they used to have access to technological wonders like Fancy Guns and 3D Printers is cool to me.

The setting also falls into another of my pet niches, 'failed/struggling colony fiction'. Each chapter is headed with a diary entry from the original survey craft trying to figure out what they should do when the colony fleet itself doesn't arrive, and then surviving on the surface of the planet and trying to build a society.

The characters are serviceable for the most part, but nothing outstanding - however, one of the things to carry over from the former colonists is pronoun usage. Almost every character introduces themselves, along with "he" or "she" or "they", which is nice. It's a shame it's so clunky, but like in real life, there's not really a more elegant way of doing it.

The text follows this - it refers to new characters as 'they' until the character themselves confirm whether they go by he/she/other - <i>for the most part</i>. There were several times I noticed the text referring to someone as a she or a he before it was confirmed, but likely to be fixed in editing.

Adan, the protagonist, is gay - which is fine - but tends to take a moment in the middle of things to go "Wow, that man is very hot", which annoys me when it's a heterosexual character ogling pretty girls, so it would be remiss of me not to point it out here as well.

I didn't buy the romance that develops between Adan and another character - the plot takes place over the course of 3-4 weeks, and Adan keeps going on about 'how much (romantic interest) has changed since I first met him', which is true, but that feels more a lampshade for how inconsistently that character behaves and is written.

Adan also gets access to advanced armour which can talk and take control of his body - which all serves to make him a whirling, murdering action hero. 15 year old boy Adan Testa, whose hardest work in life has been doing laundry, immediately adapts to being a killing machine and apparently has no averse reaction to murdering several (dozens? I'm going to go with dozens) of people, some of whom he knows and was relatively friendly with.

The conclusion of the book also kind of just.. exists. It doesn't leave me pumped for a sequel, and it doesn't really end on a big cliffhanger or anything either (not that that's necessarily a bad thing). It just ends with 'Well. What do we do now?' 'I guess we could do this?' 'Oh, okay! Sounds good!'

Anyway. I enjoyed FOUNDER'S MERCY enough to finish it (and it's an decent length for a debut novel), and I may pick up the second when it comes out. Three stars.

Thankyou to NetGalley and Jetspace Studio for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Very interesting beginning to a series! Sociological sci-fi that has a superhero fiction feel to it. (As if Iron Man were trying to escape from the Soviet Union.) Adan at times seems a little overpowered, but that just underscores what the colonists have lost. As a reader, I really want the next volume now!

Lach's detailed worldbuilding, fast-paced story, and relatable characters made this book easily accessible, an intriguing read, and a book that will inevitably get you out of a reading slump. The diversity in the characters made me feel included, and the thrilling plot kept me on my feet and kept me excited to read the next page.

Plot:
The protagonists live in a world called the Bolvar Union, which can be paralleled to the Soviet Union's type of regime. Essentials are provided, but there is no room for diversion or independence. It's authoritarian at its core: any criticism leads to punishment and brutality.

The Union forces it's entire population to complete a five-year mandatory military service, and the protagonist Adan Testa has no intention to complete the assigment. With his best friend Bo Shen, they plan an escape of Bolver Union right before their mandatory service begins.

Of course, the plan goes haywire, and the reader will be taken through a journey of betrayal, secrecy, enemies, lovers, and pain. Adan is essential to Bolvar, and Bolvar can't afford to lose him.

Conclusion:
The worldbuilding, characters, and plot kept me intrigued throughout this entire story, and I loved it! I'd say the only critique would be the small amount of depth of the characters - I'd love to hear more about their turmoil and pain, especially while in a dystopian world. That's the only reason I haven't given a five star - this could easily become a year favorite with a few small changes!

Founder's Mercy hit every mark for what I look for in a YA novel, but the author elevated the story to the next level with his genuinely wholesome main characters and excellent pacing. The story starts out by setting the scene of political unrest in the bleak Union dystopia where Adan and his ride-or-die BFF Bo live, both having grown up in the system and living in a group home together for several years. They have a heist planned that will get them smuggled out of the Union to avoid mandatory military service, and the roller coaster they set in motion changes both of their lives forever. The pacing of the story is exciting without being too stressful, and although the plot gets slightly complicated towards the end of the book, everything is tied up nicely and explained in a way that clearly sets up the adventure planned for the next installment (can't wait for that, by the way!).

What sets this book apart from the traditional dystopian YA sci-fi formula that we all know and love is that the characters have an emotional intelligence that is absolutely refreshing to see, and leads me to encourage school librarians to get this on their shelves. Instead of tension between characters based on miscommunication, poor boundaries, and confusion, we get to see guys sharing their feelings, talking things out, comforting one another, and figuring out trust and romance in an honest way. On top of that, the book features easy use of they/them pronouns, POC representation, and normalized queer romance. I love that it doesn't fall into the "bury your gays" trope. This book was a delight to read, from start to finish, and I'm eagerly anticipating the next installment. Fantastic debut from Owen Lach!

Lach's captivating blend of thoughtful world-building, gripping adventure, and witty dialogue make this sci-fi thriller a definite page-turner. But it's all the thoughtful, diverse, well-rounded characters that make this story. With each twist and turn of the thrilling plot, it's easy to care about what happens to them. Lach's queer sensibility tops it all off, making Founder's Mercy one of my favorite reads of the year.

An exciting debut from Owen Lach!

Founder's Mercy takes place in the planet Neska, colonized by the First Explorers five centuries ago. They live under the iron fist of an authoritarian regime, the Bolvar Union, which reminded me a lot of the Soviet Union and its Eastern Block puppet states. It provides food, shelter and a job to its subjects, and brutally cracks down any hint of critisicm or deviation from the norm and the narrow path in life it has designed for everyone.

Bolvar demands from all its subject a five-year mandatory military service, and Adan Testa and his best friend, Bo Shen have no intention of following through with it. They have a plan to escape the walls of Bolvar before their time to serve the Defence Forces comes.

No plan survives first contact with the enemy though, and Adan and Bo find themselves thrown in a maelstrom of secrets, betrayals, hidden agendas, new friends and foes. Adan has a unique ability and Bolvar would do anything to use it for their profit.

If there's one thing that stands out in Founder's Mercy, it's the worldbuilding. The layers of the society, the complexity of it, the propaganda and brainwashing, is written in a consice and enthralling way to keep the reader hooked up. Parts of the planet's history and the technological devolvement are also revealed to the reader at the right moments.

I'd like the characters to have their emotions roll in the pages in a bit more depth and angst/fear/relief/kinship etc., and that's what's the only thing missing for me to give it a five-star.

I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel !