The House of Styx

Venus Ascendant, #1

by Derek Künsken

hardcover, 500 pages

Published April 12, 2021 by Solaris.

ISBN:: 978-1-78108-805-0

View on OpenLibrary

(10 reviews)

The first in a ground breaking new science fiction series from the best-selling author of The Quantum Magician.

Life can exist anywhere. And anywhere there is life, there is home.

In the swirling clouds of Venus, the families of la colonie live on floating plant-like trawlers, salvaging what they can in the fierce acid rain and crackling storms. Outside is dangerous, but humankind’s hold on the planet is fragile and they spend most of their days simply surviving.

But Venus carries its own secrets, too. In the depths, there is a wind that shouldn’t exist.

And the House of Styx wants to harness it.

1 edition

Will reviewed The House of Styx by Derek Künsken (Venus Ascendant, #1)

Unexpected and Wonderful

5 stars

I tend not to like prequels, so even though I enjoyed Künsken's Quantum Evolution series, I put off reading this for too long. As I mentioned in a previous comment, I went into this confident that I knew the book I would be getting, but ended up being completely wrong. The book explored several concepts I wasn't expecting from this writer, most notably a gender identity story, and did it so deftly that it appeared effortless. The pacing of the book was deliberate and slow, but Künsken painted such a wonderful picture of the society and the people in it that it was nice to linger for a while. There are many pages devoted to the the physics of Venus, both in the clouds and on the surface, and I imagine that some readers may get impatient, but I found them creative and interesting. This is one of my two …

Zivan reviewed The House of Styx by Derek Künsken (Venus Ascendant, #1)

Review of 'The House of Styx' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This is the first in a new prequal series to the Quantum Evolution trilogy.

Going back to the beginning, on Venus with it's struggling population, barely eking out a living in the planet's extremely hostile environment, a new discovery could change their fortune.

This is a slower book, exploring the adaptations to life in the Venusian atmosphere and the tensions between the banks, government and family homesteads.

There is a very well told transition story for one of the characters.

Disaffected youth form a proto religion, trying to come to terms with the world they were born into.

ah, and don't worry it does all eventually lead up to a heist.