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Dec. 7th, 2021 11:32 pmNormally six months in advance is a bit earlier than I'd post about a forthcoming book, but in the case of Under Fortunate Stars a.) I am friends with the author b.) I have friends at the bookstore handling signed preorders so c.) I am extremely biased and d.) I just finished rereading the final version as an ARC so I am at this moment exceptionally hyped!
What I love most about Under Fortunate Stars is that it's an entirely second-world time travel story that fully leans into all the neat and twisty things that time travel stories can do -- predetermination and paradox and contradictions in the historical record -- while wrapping itself around its own, internal history rather than our own, which tbh is not something I think I've ever encountered before. (Though if you have recs, please do tell me!)
Half the cast are engineers and admin personnel on a corporate research vessel, ZeyCorp's Gallion, which has unfortunately run into some mysterious technical trouble on a routine trip through deep space. The only comms signal they can receive is a request for aid from a scrappy little smuggling freighter called the Jonah, which does in fact seem to be the extremely famous Jonah that brokered a miraculous peace between humanity and an alien force after a decades-long devastating war, saving billions of lives. Exciting! Also, distressing and confusing, given that the peace accords happened 152 years ago for the Gallion crew, the Jonah hasn't reached them yet, and everyone onboard the Jonah -- only half of whom appear to be the actual famous individuals associated with the peace treaty-- vigorously denies any connection with any extremely illegal peace project.
Everyone on board the Jonah just wants to escape this weird dead zone and go about their various and dubiously legal business. Everybody on board the Gallion, on the other hand, is now not only stressed about their own survival, but also the survival of humanity in general if the Jonah crew don't do what history says they did. Additional complications:
a.) the current skeleton crew of the Gallion includes several stressed engineers, several even more stressed admin personnel, a deeply pretentious publicity liaison, and an alien diplomat (plus telepathic assistant) who really needs to be kept secret from the Jonah crew at all costs
b.) the current crew of the Jonah includes two ex-criminals with a tangled interpersonal past, one attempted hitchhiker, one attempted hijacker, and an engineer who really, really, really hates aliens
c.) the Gallion is rapidly running out of power
d.) and any decisions to resolve the situation need to be run through all appropriate ZeyCorp bureaucratic procedures
On the other hand, they do have some small advantages!
a.) the Jonah is even worse off than the Gallion and needs their help to go anywhere!
b.) Jereth Keegan, the captain of the Jonah and Sir Not Appearing In the Historical Record, seems perfectly willing to lie to anyone on his crew to get their buy-in so long as the staff of the Gallion can convince him it's worth it
c.) the Gallion's chief engineer is a big old historical nerd who's read every unlicensed biography of the Jonah's crew that she can get her hands on and is more than happy to share any conspiracy theories that could enlighten the rest of the staff ... you're my favorite, please don't turn out to be any more of an asshole than I already knew you were is one of my favorite lines in the book. who amongst us etc.
The book comes out in May of 2022, and, as aforementioned, if you happen to wish to preorder it from my local indie (the Brookline Booksmith) you will get a signed bookplate with it, but however you wish to do so I hope you put it on your radar; I'm very stoked for other people to get to read it and to talk with me about time travel!
What I love most about Under Fortunate Stars is that it's an entirely second-world time travel story that fully leans into all the neat and twisty things that time travel stories can do -- predetermination and paradox and contradictions in the historical record -- while wrapping itself around its own, internal history rather than our own, which tbh is not something I think I've ever encountered before. (Though if you have recs, please do tell me!)
Half the cast are engineers and admin personnel on a corporate research vessel, ZeyCorp's Gallion, which has unfortunately run into some mysterious technical trouble on a routine trip through deep space. The only comms signal they can receive is a request for aid from a scrappy little smuggling freighter called the Jonah, which does in fact seem to be the extremely famous Jonah that brokered a miraculous peace between humanity and an alien force after a decades-long devastating war, saving billions of lives. Exciting! Also, distressing and confusing, given that the peace accords happened 152 years ago for the Gallion crew, the Jonah hasn't reached them yet, and everyone onboard the Jonah -- only half of whom appear to be the actual famous individuals associated with the peace treaty-- vigorously denies any connection with any extremely illegal peace project.
Everyone on board the Jonah just wants to escape this weird dead zone and go about their various and dubiously legal business. Everybody on board the Gallion, on the other hand, is now not only stressed about their own survival, but also the survival of humanity in general if the Jonah crew don't do what history says they did. Additional complications:
a.) the current skeleton crew of the Gallion includes several stressed engineers, several even more stressed admin personnel, a deeply pretentious publicity liaison, and an alien diplomat (plus telepathic assistant) who really needs to be kept secret from the Jonah crew at all costs
b.) the current crew of the Jonah includes two ex-criminals with a tangled interpersonal past, one attempted hitchhiker, one attempted hijacker, and an engineer who really, really, really hates aliens
c.) the Gallion is rapidly running out of power
d.) and any decisions to resolve the situation need to be run through all appropriate ZeyCorp bureaucratic procedures
On the other hand, they do have some small advantages!
a.) the Jonah is even worse off than the Gallion and needs their help to go anywhere!
b.) Jereth Keegan, the captain of the Jonah and Sir Not Appearing In the Historical Record, seems perfectly willing to lie to anyone on his crew to get their buy-in so long as the staff of the Gallion can convince him it's worth it
c.) the Gallion's chief engineer is a big old historical nerd who's read every unlicensed biography of the Jonah's crew that she can get her hands on and is more than happy to share any conspiracy theories that could enlighten the rest of the staff ... you're my favorite, please don't turn out to be any more of an asshole than I already knew you were is one of my favorite lines in the book. who amongst us etc.
The book comes out in May of 2022, and, as aforementioned, if you happen to wish to preorder it from my local indie (the Brookline Booksmith) you will get a signed bookplate with it, but however you wish to do so I hope you put it on your radar; I'm very stoked for other people to get to read it and to talk with me about time travel!
