Move over Imperator Furiosa, there’s a new gal in town.
Daughters of Forgotten Light does not pander, it runs away with you. You accept things even though you know it’s not quite right, because you too are along for the ride. Daughters of Forgotten Light isn’t light-hearted, but it is gripping. It isn’t set in a sympathetic or politically correct world, in Oubliette that mind-set is insta-death.
What drew me to this book? The cover by John Coulthart it’s outstanding. If you see this book taking pride of place on someone’s coffee table, you’ll know being ‘twee’ is low on their priority list.
The Blurb:
Deep space penal colony Oubliette, population: scum.
Lena “Horror” Horowitz leads the Daughters of Forgotten Light, one of three vicious gangs fighting for survival on Oubliette. Their fragile truce is shaken when a new shipment arrives from Earth carrying a fresh batch of prisoners and supplies to squabble over. But the delivery includes two new surprises: a drone, and a baby. Earth Senator Linda Dolfuse wants evidence of the bloodthirsty gangs to justify the government finally eradicating the wasters dumped on Oubliette. There’s only one problem: the baby in the drone’s video may be hers.
Once, criminals and unsavoury sorts were shipped to Australia. That’s awfully close these days. In the future setting of Daughters of Forgotten Light, criminals and those that ‘don’t belong’ are sent away, far far away. However, you only get to the space prison, Oubliette if you’re female.
Originally designed as a retreat from the dying Earth for the super elite, it’s now reserved for female miscreants. Oubliette in time became Prisoner: Cell Block H on steroids. So, problematic teenagers mind your manners! The military’s reserved for the unruly males. But don’t worry parents, you’ll get cash for your brats.
With all the mania exhibited in Thunderdome less the diesel fumes, Grigsby nails the brutal survival mentality needed as supplies are reduced shipment after shipment. Only a fragile truce keeps things ticking along between three gangs, the cannibalising Amazons, the Onyx Coalition and our unapologetic champions, the Daughters of Forgotten Light – a truce and the resourceful use of their combined skills. As you can imagine, tampons have a high trade value in a place like this.
That’s a lot to communicate in the first few chapters, the intensity doesn’t ease off after.
When the baby appears in a shipment, yes, there are some considering how to cook it. No, the world doesn’t suddenly turn pink (as I feared it might), baby showers are not planned en masse. Little hearts don’t appear in every woman’s eyes. Poster girls for cyberpunk they might be, but these lasses are not going to cook your dinner for you. It’s survival of the most ruthless. These gangs make the rules, proving women can be just as vicious, violent and carnivorous as the next person. True to the live-or-die scenario no-one bar Lena “Horror” Horowitz, the head of the Daughters of Forgotten Light, is safe from a mangled end.
Meanwhile, Earth itself is a climate-melted mess. Real food is a luxury. Keeping deadbeats alive on another planet is just dragging dodgy life expectancy figures at home further into the pit of doom. Those suits in shielded offices think it’s time to abandon Oubliette.
It’s almost as if Grigsby has melted down the best parts of Mad Max: Fury Road, and Escape From New York and reformed them in words.
Every type of kickass, head-strong, feisty female character turns up on Grigsby’s roll call. The calculating leader, the level-headed trans, the empowered disabled, and the repressed grease monkeys. Each and every one of the characters carries the mental and emotional costs of a past that sent them to Oubliette. They all have one other thing in common. They are abandoned daughters.
The cream of Earth’s unwanted degenerates have developed cyclones, motorcycles made from re-purposed ruins and abandoned tech. From there, they naturally developed weapons as well. The awesome ‘rangs.
All this while Earth carries on like before. Out of sight, out of mind.
Grigsby brings his fractured off planet prison to life as these biker-babes blaze through town and tear pieces out of one another in a battle for control. There are plenty of memorable scenes, some more gruesome than others. The vision of light-cycles cyclones reflected through a glass-based city is one which will live with me.
Grigsby keeps his promise to readers who pick up his books looking for action. This isn’t the place to question plausibilities, turn the page already! Suspension of disbelief is taken for granted through the gore and visceral grunge. It works. Daughters of Forgotten Light left me with a book hangover thick with “What was that I just read?” and “Where do I get more?”
Daughters of Forgotten Light is available to pre-order now. If you like your books fast paced and packed with chaos, this high energy novel is the book you’ve been waiting for.
© Shellie Horst – SFFWorld.com August 2018
Author Site: http://www.seangrigsby.com/
Twitter: @SeanGrigsby
Publisher: https://www.angryrobotbooks.com
Available: Sept 04, 2018
Availability: Paperback, Kindle, Kobo
Review copy courtesy of the author.
Cover looks a lot like Cara Delevingne, doesn’t it? Definitely grabs the attention, which I guess is the point!
M.
Yes it does! I didn’t see it until you mentioned it 😀