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A review by billblume
Lightless by C.A. Higgins
5.0
There are few things more fun than finding a new favorite author. I originally added Lightless to my TBR, because I noticed a lot of buzz around it. After I did that, the book lingered in "TBR Purgatory" until I decided to do an unusual reading challenge this year. Part of the Eclectic Readers Podcast Mad Libs Reading Challenge included picking a book based on the title being an adjective. Suddenly, Lightless moved up my TBR list.
Despite selecting this book for the reading challenge, I remained tepid about Lightless. I'm not a big sci-fi reader. Then I started reading the book. C.A. Higgins takes inspiration from the scientific principles of Thermodynamics and turns them into a white-knuckled suspense novel. Lightless revolves around a universe ruled over by the rigid order of the System until it turns into entropy's bitch.
There are so many things that intrigue me about this book. The ENTIRE novel takes place aboard the Ananke, a military science vessel with only a three-member crew on a mysterious mission. Despite such a claustrophobic setting, the implications of the story touch every world inhabited by the human race, and Higgins provides insight into much of how her intergalactic government, the System, works (or doesn't work, in some cases).
Perhaps one of the more subtle touches is that the entire story is only told from the perspective of the female characters, regardless if the scene involves a past event being retold by a male character. She makes this work even when the point-of-view character isn't a direct participant in the action, something not easily accomplished.
Higgins impresses with her writing by revealing very little about the protagonists' histories without making the reader feeling cheated. The story keeps everyone so focused in the moment and reacting to the escalating crisis aboard the Ananke that the reader never feels as if Higgins is holding back anything about the characters. In fact, it forces the reader to question how much to trust anyone in the book, including the protagonists, which heightens the tension. By the end, you can easily argue that most of the initial protagonists transform into antagonists.
I have my share of writer crushes, and I'm happy to add C.A. Higgins to the list. I've already added the next two books in her series, [b:Supernova|32025245|Supernova (Lightless, #2)|C.A. Higgins|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1489577442l/32025245._SX50_.jpg|47452597] and [b:Radiate|31868315|Radiate|C.A. Higgins|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1478702816l/31868315._SX50_.jpg|52839227], to my TBR. They definitely will not languish there nearly as long as the first book.
Despite selecting this book for the reading challenge, I remained tepid about Lightless. I'm not a big sci-fi reader. Then I started reading the book. C.A. Higgins takes inspiration from the scientific principles of Thermodynamics and turns them into a white-knuckled suspense novel. Lightless revolves around a universe ruled over by the rigid order of the System until it turns into entropy's bitch.
There are so many things that intrigue me about this book. The ENTIRE novel takes place aboard the Ananke, a military science vessel with only a three-member crew on a mysterious mission. Despite such a claustrophobic setting, the implications of the story touch every world inhabited by the human race, and Higgins provides insight into much of how her intergalactic government, the System, works (or doesn't work, in some cases).
Perhaps one of the more subtle touches is that the entire story is only told from the perspective of the female characters, regardless if the scene involves a past event being retold by a male character. She makes this work even when the point-of-view character isn't a direct participant in the action, something not easily accomplished.
Higgins impresses with her writing by revealing very little about the protagonists' histories without making the reader feeling cheated. The story keeps everyone so focused in the moment and reacting to the escalating crisis aboard the Ananke that the reader never feels as if Higgins is holding back anything about the characters. In fact, it forces the reader to question how much to trust anyone in the book, including the protagonists, which heightens the tension. By the end, you can easily argue that most of the initial protagonists transform into antagonists.
I have my share of writer crushes, and I'm happy to add C.A. Higgins to the list. I've already added the next two books in her series, [b:Supernova|32025245|Supernova (Lightless, #2)|C.A. Higgins|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1489577442l/32025245._SX50_.jpg|47452597] and [b:Radiate|31868315|Radiate|C.A. Higgins|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1478702816l/31868315._SX50_.jpg|52839227], to my TBR. They definitely will not languish there nearly as long as the first book.