• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
FanFiAddict

FanFiAddict

A gaggle of nerds talking about Fantasy, Science Fiction, and everything in-between. They also occasionally write reviews about said books. 2x Stabby Award-Nominated and home to the Stabby Award-Winning TBRCon.

  • Home
  • About
    • Reviewers
    • Review Policy
    • Contact
  • Blog
    • Guest Posts
    • Lists
    • Neurodivergence in Fiction
    • Why You Should Read…
  • Reviews
    • Children’s / Middle Grade Books
    • Comics/Graphic Novels
    • Fantasy
      • Alt History
      • Coming of Age
      • Debut
      • Epic Fantasy
      • Fairy Tales
      • Grimdark
      • Heroic Fantasy
      • LitRPG
      • Paranormal Fantasy
      • Romantic Fantasy
      • Steampunk
      • Superheroes
      • Sword and Sorcery
      • Urban Fantasy
    • Historical Fiction
    • Horror
      • Debut
      • Demons
      • Ghosts
      • Gothic
      • Lovecraftian
      • Monsters
      • Occult
      • Psychological
      • Vampires
      • Werewolves
      • Witches
      • Zombies
    • Science Fiction
      • Aliens
      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Alt History
      • Cyberpunk
      • Debut
      • Dystopian
      • Hard SciFi
      • Mechs/Robots
      • Military SF
      • Space Opera
      • Steampunk
      • Time Travel
    • Thriller
  • Interviews
    • Book Tube
    • Authorly Writing Advice
  • SFF Addicts Podcast
    • SFF Addicts Clips
    • SFF Addicts (Episode Archive)
  • TBRCon
    • TBRCon2022
    • TBRCon2023

Review: Far from the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson

December 17, 2021 by Traveling Cloak (Jason) Leave a Comment

Rating: 5.5/10

Synopsis

The colony ship Ragtime docks in the Lagos system, having traveled light-years to bring one thousand sleeping souls to a new home among the stars. But when first mate Michelle Campion rouses, she discovers some of the sleepers will never wake.

Answering Campion’s distress call, investigator Rasheed Fin is tasked with finding out who is responsible for these deaths. Soon a sinister mystery unfolds aboard the gigantic vessel, one that will have repercussions for the entire system—from the scheming politicians of Lagos station, to the colony planet Bloodroot, to other far-flung systems, and indeed to Earth itself.

Review

Far from the Light of Heaven is the latest release for noted SciFi author Tade Thompson (also known for The Wormwood Trilogy and the Molly Southborne series, among many others). This book is about a space mission gone awry. It is very murdery and includes rogue AI plus aliens. I was not the biggest fan of how everything was put together, but read on: this may be the very kind of book you connect with.

I have to say that I really liked the idea of this book. In the prologue the author mentions wanting to write an escape-room type of book, but on a spaceship. Because so much can go wrong in space, and one really has to be resourceful and adept at solving problems. There were definitely some successful elements in this story that come through. Campion really defines that role, as the captain of a spaceship who is able to work through conflict in an attempt to find a solution. Really valuable in an emergency. There is a bit of found family in the story, too, as Fin, Joke, and Salvo (among others) also bring various skills and come through in a pinch.

That set of characters is pretty diverse, also, as Campion and Fin are humans (though, Fin is from another planet), Joke is an alien being, and Salvo is a robot. The story is told from all of their perspectives, and the varying points of view is interesting.

The other aspect of this book I liked are the themes of colonialism, capitalism, and exploitation. These themes are not subtle and are a big part of the narrative. When stories that are told address these issues, in my opinion it makes them even more relevant to our current state of affairs and institutions. The more we think about social concepts in any form, the more they come to the forefront of our minds. This may result in action on our part or the parts of others or even just changing the way we think about a subject.

With that being said, I honestly had a lot of trouble getting into this book. I did not feel as though the author gave me much reason to care about what happened to the characters. The connection just was not there. I also thought, for a relatively short book, it tried to be too much. There was not enough of one identity for it to seem coherent in structure or story, and I was not always sure where to put my focus. I thought much of the background stories and planetary events could have been cut out, as well. This would have made a really good 150-page novella. The characters and events felt random at times to me, and I felt like I was watching an episode of American Dad set in space. I have never been a fan of that show.

In the end, I came to the conclusion that, even though there were things I liked about it, this book on the whole was not for me. But, honestly, if you are a fan of American Dad or that style of show (something akin to The Orville, at least in tone), you might want to give Far from the Light of Heaven a shot.

Filed Under: Aliens, Artificial Intelligence, Reviews, Science Fiction Tagged With: Orbit, Tade Thompson

About Traveling Cloak (Jason)

Traveling Cloak (Jason) is an accountant and lives in the Chicago area. He is an aspiring bookseller and just wants to read and review books without all the nonsense. Traveling Cloak reviews fantasy, science fiction, space opera, horror, and every once in a while literary fiction. He does not read e-books.

Other Reviews You Might Like

Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse

Review: Blindspace (Book #2 of The Common) by Jeremy Szal

Review: New Yesterday by Frasier Armitage

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Sponsored By

Use Discount Code FANFI For 5% Off!

Follow FanFi!

Sign up for updates and get FREE stories from Michael R. Fletcher and Richard Ford!

What Would You Like To See?(Required)
Please select the type of content you want to receive from FanFi Addict. You can even mix and match if you want!

FFA Recommends

Get This Book
Get This Book
Get This Book
Get This Book

Recent Reviews

Recent Comments

  1. Adrian M. Gibson on Author Roundtable: Indie Marketing (with Kian N. Ardalan, Ryan Cahill, Aparna Verma & Gourav Mohanty)March 23, 2023
  2. zidane on Review: A Fractured Infinity by Nathan TavaresMarch 14, 2023
  3. Gary Weston on Bender’s Top 10 Fights in Fantasy BooksMarch 14, 2023
  4. David S on My Top 15 Favorite Male Anime Protagonists (So Far)March 13, 2023
  5. Komikinime on My Top 15 Favorite Male Anime Protagonists (So Far)March 11, 2023

Archive

Copyright © 2023 · Powered by ModFarm Sites · Log In