Arkhangelsk
Ratings5
Average rating4.2
15
Ratings5
Average rating4.2
Head peace officer Anya Savelova believed her people, living on a hostile planet in the ice-bound city of Novayarkha, were the last of humanity. Until the day she learned they weren't. When a starship from an Earth thought long dead appears in orbit over her world, Anya imagines an explosion of possible futures, offering her people the freedom to transcend the limiting environment of the planet they'd thought was their last refuge. In the starship's crew, Anya finds creativity, diversity, innovation-all things the colony has had to inhibit to survive. Seeing her world through the eyes of the starship crew makes Anya look closer at her city's inconsistencies, oddities she's always been told to ignore. But the harder she pushes at the pieces that don't fit, the more her government perceives the strangers as a threat. There are secrets in Novayarkha, hiding in plain sight, that the strangers can't possibly understand-and Anya's drive to uncover them risks shredding the fragile web holding together everything she's ever known and loved.
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“You think you escaped from Earth? You're fools, every one of you. All you did was bring it with you.”
Novayarkha is a colony on a harsh planet where its residents have carved out a living against all odds. Living in the remains of the dismantled colony ship Arkhangelsk can be tough, with all sorts of health risks and radiation to contend with, but its population is more or less content with their lot in the universe and convinced that the “old world” (Earth) is no more. What they believe is then turned on its head as a starship sent from Earth on an entirely different mission appears in orbit, and Anya, the head peace officer, makes an unlikely friend in space.
There's a lot going on here, as the story is part murder mystery, part sci-fi dystopia, part found family/romance (depending on how deep you read between the lines). I thought it mostly worked out well, actually, with the beginning dovetailing neatly into the conclusion at the end. I thought the relationship between Anya and the captain of the starship was sweet, and I really loved the author's writing style throughout. There's a lot to think about here with themes of gene manipulation, xenophobia, and mob justice prevalent. I particularly liked the old Arkhangelsk logs left throughout the book, as it starts to paint a very different picture from what Anya learned about their origins growing up.
I'm really glad to have given this book a shot, and look forward to trying out more books by this author now that I've discovered them.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
