Scan barcode
A review by kieralesley
Void Black Shadow by Corey J. White
4.0
One of the books I was excited for this year and it didn’t disappoint, delivering a raging follow-up novella to Killing Gravity.
A good sequel retains what made the first one cool without covering the same ground as the first and White delivers.
Void Black Shadow mostly focuses on an inescapable prison world from which Mars is attempting to spring Mookie – captured during the climax of Killing Gravity. The setting is darker in this novella and doesn’t pull the punch on the callousness of the prison or other related aspects such as human and animal experimentation. It’s not gratuitous, but might be a bit confronting for some readers.
The fight scenes remain spectacular, including the few where Mars doesn’t use her powers. They’re dynamic and make really good use of the different environments and circumstances the fights take place in. They feel big and smart.
The worldbuilding is bigger this time, fleshing out places and elements of the wider world Mars inhabits and managing to feel sprawling despite only focusing on a few locations and small core group of characters. New ideas and mash-ups of old concepts combine to make something familiar and original at the same time. A particular favourite were the android prison guards able to be jacked into by operators from a remote location, reminiscent of fighter drone pilots.
One of the most interesting parts of Void Black Shadow for me was seeing Mars’ morality start to slip. Where in Killing Gravity she was a justified ball of vengeful rage, in Void Black Shadow not only do we encounter the full scope of the damage she wrought in Killing Gravity, but the body count rises… and rises. Mars stops occasionally to think, but justifies the actions to herself, while those around her start to question whether she’s actually doing the right thing.
There isn’t much to complain about here and the problems I had were small. For example, I found a later scene where Mars meets up with a group of other psychics a little lightweight and the characterisation generally a little light on and not really building on from Killing Gravity, but these are minor and don’t take away from what is, on the whole, a great sequel.
Importantly, Ocho remains one of the best things about this series. I want a weirdo cat thing snuggle-climbing around in my spacesuit and I challenge anyone to argue differently after reading this.
A good sequel retains what made the first one cool without covering the same ground as the first and White delivers.
Void Black Shadow mostly focuses on an inescapable prison world from which Mars is attempting to spring Mookie – captured during the climax of Killing Gravity. The setting is darker in this novella and doesn’t pull the punch on the callousness of the prison or other related aspects such as human and animal experimentation. It’s not gratuitous, but might be a bit confronting for some readers.
The fight scenes remain spectacular, including the few where Mars doesn’t use her powers. They’re dynamic and make really good use of the different environments and circumstances the fights take place in. They feel big and smart.
The worldbuilding is bigger this time, fleshing out places and elements of the wider world Mars inhabits and managing to feel sprawling despite only focusing on a few locations and small core group of characters. New ideas and mash-ups of old concepts combine to make something familiar and original at the same time. A particular favourite were the android prison guards able to be jacked into by operators from a remote location, reminiscent of fighter drone pilots.
One of the most interesting parts of Void Black Shadow for me was seeing Mars’ morality start to slip. Where in Killing Gravity she was a justified ball of vengeful rage, in Void Black Shadow not only do we encounter the full scope of the damage she wrought in Killing Gravity, but the body count rises… and rises. Mars stops occasionally to think, but justifies the actions to herself, while those around her start to question whether she’s actually doing the right thing.
There isn’t much to complain about here and the problems I had were small. For example, I found a later scene where Mars meets up with a group of other psychics a little lightweight and the characterisation generally a little light on and not really building on from Killing Gravity, but these are minor and don’t take away from what is, on the whole, a great sequel.
Importantly, Ocho remains one of the best things about this series. I want a weirdo cat thing snuggle-climbing around in my spacesuit and I challenge anyone to argue differently after reading this.