Summary:
Four generations ago a generation ship crashed into the sands of Savene. Since then, its survivors have eked out an existence in the planet’s hostile desert. Yet, the tech is failing, the sands are encroaching, and people are dying.
Rescue is still generations away—if it comes at all.
But Marsa is a survivor.
And an outcast.
Infected with the Chrysalis—a disease that grants its carriers uncanny abilities—she keeps her distance from her dwindling community.
Until an old friend’s dying wish sends her and a young boy across Savene’s inhospitable sands in search of something Marsa had thought she’d long forgotten.
Hope.
Review:
*I read this novella as part the judging group The Secret Scribes for the Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship (SFINCS) finals phase. The following review is strictly my personal thoughts as each novella will be reviewed by multiple judges to be as objective as possible.*
Once We Flew was an interesting science fiction novella that had a bit of fantasy baked into it. One that grounded the reader in an uninhabitable planet but still gave us hope for the future.
On a desert-like planet, the last remnants of a failed space mission that crashed landed generations prior are struggling to survive. Their technology has either broken or in dire straits. The people are dwindling, mostly due to a crystal-like disease that ravages them, body and mind (while also giving some interesting magic-esque powers). A hermit, Marsa, gets a knock on her door by her old friend’s son, Koby. There at her friend’s deathbed, Marsa gets a premonition for their future, so she and Koby take off to find it.
Marsa is our protagonist and point-of-view character (told via first person) and she is being consumed by the chrysalis (the disease), her leg basically a giant crystal. She’s older, so that something you don’t always see. But she’s also stayed away from the community of people due to her ability the chrysalis has granted her (which is connected to controlling storms, specifically sandstorms). She’s kinda grumpy, but also determined. A very fun protagonist for sure. The other character of any note is Koby, and he is great. Young, brash, brave, intelligent. He was a great foil to Marsa. I also really liked how he deferred to Marsa but pushed back when necessary. His wind-powered ride was also very neat.
I will say the plot was very interesting. I quite like sci-fi where colonizers/missions failed and people need to survive. It’s a tale as old as time but a personal fave of mine. This was right up my alley. I thought the addition of the chrysalis brought a fun level of time (aka countdown) as Marsa’s limitations drove the tension, but especially after she uses her gift to fend off some beasties (and what awesome beasties these were! Vicious and dangerous, loved them!). There was so much tension, so much danger in such a little novella. And then the relationship between Marsa and Koby really lifted up the plot. They grew to trust each other in their own ways, so there was plenty of growth to go along with the engaging plot.
The prose of the novella was excellent. The pace was very steady and didn’t take long to read at only 106ish pages. The dialogue was spot on for the ages of the characters, and the worldbuilding was solid, not info dumpy at all.
For me, Once We Flew was a great sci-fi novella, one I enjoyed quite a bit. The ending was slightly open-ended but that was a perfect ending for what this tale intended. Highly recommend.
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