Lightless

By: C. A. Higgins

Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BUZZFEED AND KIRKUS REVIEWS

With deeply moving human drama, nail-biting suspense—and bold speculation informed by a degree in physics—C. A. Higgins spins a riveting science fiction debut guaranteed to catapult readers beyond their expectations.

Serving aboard the Ananke, an experimental military spacecraft launched by the ruthless organization that rules Earth and its solar system, computer scientist Althea has established an intense emotional bond—not with any of her crewmates, but with the ship’s electronic systems, which speak more deeply to her analytical mind than human feelings do. But when a pair of fugitive terrorists gain access to the Ananke, Althea must draw upon her heart and soul for the strength to defend her beloved ship.

While one of the saboteurs remains at large somewhere on board, his captured partner—the enigmatic Ivan—may prove to be more dangerous. The perversely fascinating criminal whose silver tongue is his most effective weapon has long evaded the authorities’ most relentless surveillance—and kept the truth about his methods and motives well hidden. As the ship’s systems begin to malfunction and the claustrophobic atmosphere is increasingly poisoned by distrust and suspicion, it falls to Althea to penetrate the prisoner’s layers of intrigue and deception before all is lost. But when the true nature of Ivan’s mission is exposed, it will change Althea forever—if it doesn’t kill her first.

©2015 C. A. Higgins (P)2015 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Gripping . . . sci-fi flavored with a hint of thriller.”—New York Daily News

“[A] measured, lovely science-fiction debut [that is] more psychological thriller . . . contained, disciplined, tense . . . The plot is compulsive. . . . Lightless is the first of a planned series, and you can’t help looking forward to learning what’s next.”—The New York Times

“Lightless is full of suspense and fun as hell to read.”—BuzzFeed

On and on and on

Irritated after a few chapters, some interesting spots but not enough to listen to the end

Fantastic narrator she is so great.

she really captures the mood of the story i really enjoyed this book well done.

Excellent!

Really enjoyed how the whole story stayed on the ship. Excellent character development and world building. I wanted more of the world. Couldn't stop listening.

Psychologically Gripping Space Opera

Lightless is a psychologically driven novel that focuses on its characters more than anything else, so if you prefer your space operas fast and furious, this book may prove to be too slow for your speed. The story unfolds layers at a time as readers try to piece together what’s real and what’s not as the characters wage psychological warfare against one another. As the story soldiers on, you begin to see frayed edges of the main characters–their weaknesses, their prejudices, their fatal flaws. Despite their beliefs that they’re good at what they do, they fall apart. The ship’s continuing problems further aggravates this by playing into the familiar theme of man versus machine, which creates a tense backdrop that culminates to a chaotic, explosive end. Higgins employs the laws of thermodynamics to frame this narrative, using it to allude to the environment on the ship and the interactions of the characters with one another, their interactions with the galaxy/power structure at large, and their interactions with the ship itself.

"The amount of work done in one direction is the same as the amount of heat transferred in the other, or, the internal energy of an isolated system is constant. Because of this, a perpetual motion machine cannot exist, and all systems come to an end."

As interesting as this deconstruction of her characters was, and while I certainly understand why she went the direction she did with some characters, it didn’t stop me from feeling as if certain characters were a joke, a really bad joke. There were moments when I just felt these characters were completely incompetent and stupid, but that could go hand-in-hand with the overestimation of their abilities. However, I enjoyed this story, so I can forgive that.

Now, this book does suffer from being a bit too “talk-y.” I would expect a story like this to be more action oriented, to really capitalize on the claustrophobic, isolated feel of the setting, but a large portion of this book revolves around two characters conversing around the sections of the novel that focus on Althea and the ship. There’s nothing wrong with that, but in this case, it made the story feel tedious at times. There had to be better ways to convey the information they exchanged than to have two characters literally sitting in a room together going back and forward for a huge chunk of the novel. While I love a good psychological story, I expected much more to happen in this story than what actually happened. In fact, I feel like the last third of the book is where the pace really picked up and showcased the best of this story.

Fiona Hardingham narrated the story with the kind of straightforwardness you’d expect from a novel in this vein. While most of her men sounded largely the same, she did an excellent job with the female characters’ voices, especially a cold, calculated character named Ida Stays.

If you don’t enjoy “hard” science fiction, don’t fret. Aside from these brief passages about the laws of thermodynamics, the science in this novel is easy to grasp. The science is almost secondary to the conflict. Higgins has created an absorbing and thoughtful read with Lightless. Sabotage, intrigue, and terrorism meets loyalty, freedom, and even a hint of humor in this story. I’m definitely looking forward to visiting this universe again in Supernova, especially to see if we’ll be diving into the larger conflict now that we’ve established the characters.

Loved the characters and reading

Loved the characters and reading. Some major plot holes, but if you ignore those than it's a gripping tale of intrigue.

Intense

Exquisite interpersonal drama. One of the best character-focused novels I've ever read. There are echoes of how AI has been handled elsewhere, but the relationship dynamics and character portrayal are the heart of the story.

Had its moments

Would you try another book from C. A. Higgins and/or Fiona Hardingham?

I am waiting for a follow up to this, so yes I would try the next one.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

It was slow going and needlessly so.

Did Fiona Hardingham do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Fiona did a very good job, she was what made the slowness more bearable

Do you think Lightless needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

I hope there is one, as it is incomplete without it.

Any additional comments?

Good work, could have used improvements in pacing, but that shouldn't put off the avid reader. A good story.

slow start

the book was good but it took almost the entire book for something to happen

deus ex deus ex machine (excuse my poor latin)

I don't mind the verbiage that some reviewers complain about; the setup of this book as a gruelling prisoner interview is 100% promising.

However the story doesn't click for me; the main POV character Althea is a fairly limp sort, reactive and frustratingly recalcitrant, and viewing the tale through her eyes is like viewing a Sherlock Holmes mystery through the eyes of a Watson who attempts to shoot Sherlock or run away every time he attempts to reveal the perp. It might be natural for the character, but but it left me feeling constantly vexed by unnecessary plot delays introduced purely by people being irritating. If this were a film it would be in the cross hairs of the "How it should have ended" parody team.

Are the vexations worth it? The plot twists are present but not exactly powerful. Chekov's pistol principle violations abound. The subplots are full of arbitrary weirdness- the AI, the deus ex machina, seems less driven by comprehensible origin in the plot and more by the need to unfold in ways that will happen to produce very particular action set-pieces later on.

I dunno, there were lots of ingredients that I liked in here - amazing setting, interesting characters, nice framing. But I was just too vexed by how these characters collided with the exposition to enjoy this book.

Engrossing and Intelligent

Any additional comments?

Absolutely loved this book, though I am having a hard time figuring out exactly why. It grabbed me from the beginning and is something of a psychological thriller and character study. However, for all its tense anticipation, the tenseness is ratcheted by narrative and talk 90% of the time, with only about 10% action. Despite this, it does not feel dull, it somehow moves forward and brings you with it. In a nutshell, the story is about a cutting edge, military space ship called the Ananke, its three crew members, two intruders, and a governmental intelligence agent determined to uncover a larger sedition plot. The world is a future one where humanity has spread to various bodies in the solar systems (both planets and moons), and a central government based on earth (called The System) relies on intrusive and nearly complete surveillance to keep order. The book bounces its points of view to various characters, though mostly concentrates on Althea (one of the three crew members, who feels more strongly about the Ananke's computer system than she does about people) and Ida Stays (the intelligence agent who hides her sociopathy well and is single-mindedly focused on bringing down an arch terrorist). The book is largely told through Althea's attempts to fix the malfunctioning computer (which went awry when one of the two intruders put a virus in it), and the interrogation of the second intruder by Ida Stays. The first of a planned trilogy and highly recommended.