Beacon 23: The Complete Novel by Hugh Howey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
It isn’t what you expect… which is what you should expect from Hugh Howey.
In the 23rd century…
Interstellar navigation is hazardous, yet commonplace. The grav beacons are put in place and manned by lonely souls who keep watch to prevent disaster.
The ever-present specter of warfare among sentient races in the galaxy still generates heroes and victims… some are one and the same.
The story’s main character, who is never actually named, goes through some tough times on his Beacon outpost, where he’s hiding out from everyone and everything as he suffers through some serious PTSD from the war.
The exploration of emotion, PTSD, responsibility, guilt, love, hope, comedy… all of it… is pretty much in this novel. It was a page turner that I could not stop reading. It took unexpected twists and turns that you cannot possibly guess at when you read it. I love it.
The only negative is that the ending is a bit beyond the pall of what I would deem a likely outcome. I won’t spoil it for anyone, but I will just say the message of the book and it’s final outcome does not fit what I know about human nature. I just don’t think it would work. But I can overlook that bit as a hat tip to the writer making the story what he wants it to be.
I call this an Excellent Read that I can easily recommend to anyone.
Words from the Wampuscat 