A review by sweetcuppincakes
Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden

3.0

It's an interesting concept, the whole living-in-a-space-squid, or whatever these "beasts" resemble. I just found the author didn't do enough world-building to give a sense of how it's all possible. Hard sci-fi this is not, and that's fine, of course. Plenty of other strengths in this genre-bending tale whose themes reflect on our current world - and as this is about humanity far in our future, we get a sense of the eternal recurrence we're doomed to (likely) repeat. Finite resources; environmental degredation; class divisions; coming of age - there actually is a good amount of world-building on the sociocultural side of things, though it can feel like it's glossed over quickly and there's not enough depth to it, which might be chalked up to the quick pacing of events and the first-person present tense narrative of the two main characters. Overall, it has its moments, and I'm glad I took a chance with a "weird fiction" book by a young female black author (I'm a middle-aged white male). But I don't feel invested enough to read the next book.