I dropped this author's first book, <i>Under Fortunate Stars</i>, two whole tiers in my annual recommendation list because of its truly massive overuse of fortunate coincidence to drive the entire plot. But everything else about it was decent to excellent, and (unlike one of the characters in this book) I believe in second chances, so I picked this one up when I saw it on Netgalley.

I'm mostly glad I did.

True, the main characters still don't have a whole lot of agency; events act on them more than vice versa, and their decisions often don't end up mattering, or are "decisions" to go along with the situation because there doesn't seem to be much other option. But I did come to care about their wellbeing, and almost everything else - the copy editing, the characterization, the plot, the twists - is at a high standard.

The worldbuilding, though, is mostly off-the-shelf space opera, including a threat from implacable alien Others who can't be communicated with and are almost impossible to fight (and yet haven't destroyed humanity, and clearly are possible to fight or the alien ship hulls that form an important plot point wouldn't be available). I don't have much time for this trope, not only because it's a piece of xenophobia originating in the Cold War, but because I've read Murray Leinster's story "The Aliens" from 1959 - more than 65 years ago - which points out how much more likely it is that advanced civilizations would want to trade with us rather than make war. (You can read it on <a href='https://www.gutenberg.org/files/24104/24104-h/24104-h.htm'>Project Gutenberg</a>, if you're curious.) But anyway, here the trope is, mostly providing a background existential threat to provoke reflection, but also a couple of important plot points.

The most original part in the worldbuilding is that there's an isolationist planet that claims, and teaches its people to believe, that it was the original home of humankind, despite the presence of clear marks of "seedships" having colonized it ("they're natural formations," according to the propagandists). One of the several narrative threads follows the niece of the leader of this planet, a cynical politician with a direct approach to silencing dissent and a lot of hypocrisy to hide. We follow the niece as she grows up, interleaved with the story of the tribulations of a young woman with no memory of who she is, thanks to having been cryo-revived, who is caught up in a proposed heist. That story is told both from her perspective and the perspective of another participant in the heist who semi-befriends her. There's also a fourth viewpoint, that of an anonymous (until the end) "storyteller" participating in what turns out to be an oral history project, who fills in bits of backstory that are important to the main plot and that the other viewpoint characters don't have access to.

Like the author's previous book, it's well enough written and has enough depth that it would normally get to the Gold tier of my annual recommendation list. However, also like that book, I'm going to demote it, though not by as much. As well as the implacable-aliens trope, which I personally think needs more thought put into it, and the shortage of protagonism among the main characters, there are also spoilerific reasons:









<spoiler>the story of the niece is a bait-and-switch; we're clearly meant to think the niece is the amnesiac, right up to when it's revealed that she's not, just before the end. But that means that the niece's entire viewpoint has very little bearing on the main plot, making this two novels that are interweaved and have a tenuous point of connection through one character who doesn't remember any of the events in the other part of the story - some of which she isn't even present for - rather than one novel in two timelines. Also, we're implicitly promised a heist, and then there is no heist; that, too, was misdirection. And I do love a heist, and was looking forward to it, so I ended up feeling let down.</spoiler>

The quality of the writing is far above average, but the author makes some decisions that turn this into a book that doesn't map well onto my personal preferences, so it only gets to Silver tier on my annual recommendation list. Other people, I'm sure, will like it more than I did, and even I liked it OK.

dnf @ 20%


Unfortunately this one didn't work for me, but for me-related reasons. The story has at least 3 POV's going on, and I really only connected with 1 of them. The writing is good and the story's concept seems INCREDIBLY interesting, so I would still recommend to both friends & patrons who are interested in space operas, particularly those that are interested in doing fun things with alien cultures and world-building!

My impressions of An Unbreakable World are quite similar to those of Ren Hutchings' debut work, Under Fortunate Stars. Overall, this is a gripping read - I liked the incorporation of various media styles (students' essays, communications logs, oral histories, and mythical tales, to name a few), and found Hutchings' writing style to be really engaging. However, certain aspects just didn't mesh well for me - the ending is, to some extent, open-ended, and I felt like parts of the narrative which I was most engaged with were the ones left inconclusive. Likewise, the final quarter of the book held my attention less well than the parts before it - this could be because I am a very character-led reader, and by necessity, this conclusion involves a lot of action and plot. Unlike its predecessor, I did find myself very engaged with the characters here - and in fact, might have liked more of an emphasis on them (particularly in terms of the resolution of the relationship between two particular characters).
All in all, I had a fun time reading An Unbreakable World, and continue to look forward to seeing Ren Hutchings' writing develop - I've enjoyed both of her books so far, and can already see her style developing further.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Great structure, characters, plots, twists, back stories. Man this was a great book for fans of The Culture or These Burning Stars. Highly recommend.

Ren Hutchings has written a quite enjoyable book with An Unbreakable World, second in her interconnected but standalone Union series. As with her prior novel, Under Fortunate Stars, two linked plot lines from different times converge to solve a mystery; in this case the intersection is more traditional and doesn't involve time travel.

Heroine Page is a petty thief on a remote space station, with no memory of who she is or even how she got there, after a time spent in suspended animation. She struggles to learn clues about her identity. She is kidnapped by criminals intent on a complex scam and discovers unanticipated skills, including fluent knowledge of an uncommon language, all suggesting she may have links to the isolated world of Teyr. Those links are integral to the criminals' plan.

Page's journey is fraught with peril, revelations, a burgeoning relationship with a captor, and many twists and turns. Lots of surprises await the reader and the background world building is interesting. The book moves quickly and is highly readable. The climax is worth the read and contains a surprise or two. I look forward to more by Hutchings, who is growing as a writer.