Alana Quick dreams of the sky and working on starships, she is a sky surgeon. She understands machinery much better than people, especially better than she understands her sprit guide sister Nova. One of Alana’s many complications is the rare illness that can be crippling if left unchecked. People come looking for Nova, and when Alana leaves her world and stows away on a ship at the suggestion of a member of the ship’s crew, Alana gets far more than she expected. Her job doesn’t pay well, so she hopes that stowing aboard the star vessel, the Tangled Axon, will allow her to connect the crew with her sister to help Alana get the money she needs to help bring her disability under control. Alana is also not white and prefers women to men, additional characteristics that set her very much apart from the typical Space Opera protagonist, and this is just one standout element in Ascension, Jacqueline Koyangi’s debut novel.
Stowaways are not looked upon very fondly by the crew of the Tangled Axon, especially the captain. Alana finds herself very attracted to the captain, who already has a female lover on board, but Alana is as much in love with the ship itself. She hears its song, feels it through all of her being. Alana learns that the company looking for her sister is of the Big Bad Corporate variety – Transliminal. The crew of the Tangled Axon is not very kind to Alana and treat her like a hostage/prisoner in order to draw out Nova who eventually agrees to help in order to save her little sister. Once Nova is aboard the Tangled Axon, the hostage situation dissolves and over the course of the novel, Alana becomes closer to the crew and closer to the captain in particular. At the end of the tunnel; however, Transliminal still waits and they want Nova. A device is planted on the Tangled Axon which makes the ship and its crew appear responsible for the destruction of a planet, but not just any planet; the planet on which Alana’s and Nova’s parents lived.
As the novel unfolds, many things are more than they seem and not what one might expect. For starters, the other engineer on the Tangled Axon is possibly a werewolf, or at least a being who can shift between human and canine. Nova’s abilities as a spirit guide are more supernatural in nature than one might expect in a science fictional novel set in space. Parallel worlds exist in this milieu and play a central role in the conflict of the narrative. Romantic relationships aboard the Tangled Axon are not monogamous. The pilot has more in common with Pilot from FarScape than the standard starship pilot one would find in a Space Opera. These elements come together fairly well, which is a testament to Koyanagi’s ability to weave varied story elements together into a cohesive novel.
On the other hand, there was much more of a romance element than I expected. A lot of Alana’s frustration came as a result of her pining for the captain; Alana’s doubts about where she stands in the captain’s eyes as both a member of the crew and as a potential romantic partner. This isn’t to say romance is bad in a novel, after all love drives most things, but Alana’s continued pining for the captain felt more forced than necessary. I also felt for a good third of the novel, every character was far too angry and specifically, there was a great deal of vitriol flung in Alana’s direction from the other characters with whom she interacted, both the crew of the Axon and her sister. The crew also played the oft-annoying willful withholding of information from Alana.
So ultimately, what do we have here with Ascension? Well, lots of good things and many of which are what Science Fiction needs. We’ve got a very unique perspective and voice in the main character – a disabled woman of color who finds herself attracted to the same sex. That alone sets the novel apart, and fortunately, the novel is not simply about what makes Alana stand out from a gender/sexuality/disabled perspective. If that were the case, the novel wouldn’t have been so engaging for me. Koyanagi doesn’t use Alana’s uniqueness to be the lone standout element of the novel and tells a good, engaging story, with great character interaction and plot momentum, and sets up a potential foundation for more stories to be told. She populates the novel with (mostly) believable characters caught up in a plot that forced page turning.
We need more books like Ascension in the genre in general, and I for one would like to see more from Jacqueline Koyanigi and Alana Quick in specific.
Recommended
© 2014 Rob H. Bedford
http://www.jkoyanagi.com
Excerpt (scroll down): http://masque-books.com/titles/ascension-a-tangled-axon-novel/
Masque Books, August 2013 (ebook 978-1-60701-400-3)
December 2013 (trade paperback 336 pages 978-1607014010)
Digital review copy courtesy of the publisher
