Lost Solace

Having enjoyed reading Karl Drinkwater's novella, Helene, back in March I was delighted to be offered the opportunity to read two further full length novels of his, set in the same universe. Lost Solace is the first of these and I shall also be reading its sequel, Chasing Solace, in the next few weeks. Lost Solace was published two years before Helene and it shares Drinkwater's effective scenario of a woman alone with only an AI intelligence for company. Opal has stolen a spaceship and is on the run, but initially I didn't know exactly what she had to escape from or the significance of this Lost Ship. Drinkwater doesn't fall into the trap of slowing his stories with unwieldy info dumps, instead he deftly weaves the necessary background information into the narrative by way of characters' brief memories or conversations. I appreciate this prose style because it allowed me to always feel in the moment, discovering this strange environment alongside Opal.

The relationship between Opal and the AI, Clarissa, is well portrayed with both characters feeling like genuine women - not always a given in this kind of science fiction novel! Their dialogue has a good ring of authenticity which enabled me to also easily accept the bizarre scenarios aboard the Lost Ship. I believed in both Opal and Clarissa so was convinced of the truth of what they saw. I loved Drinkwater's lifeform inventions for the ship. Nothing is ever fully explained so I always had an unnerving sense of not knowing what was around the next corner, even while vividly detailed descriptions meant I could clearly envisage each tense scene. I was gripped throughout Lost Solace and read much faster than I had intended to because I couldn't put the book down! The storyline incorporates familiar elements such as one renegade being sought by a military presence, but the themes are cleverly twisted and reinterpreted so Lost Solace felt wonderfully fresh and original. I don't generally read a lot of sscience fiction, but I'm impressed with this series and am eager to continue into the next novel.

There was a lot to love – but also a lot that detracted from its enjoyability.

Opal and her stolen stolen ship, Clarissa, stumble upon a ‘lost’ ship. They board, searching for … I’ll be honest, I’m still not sure what they’re looking for. And then the cavalry show up.

The pros: The story is unique and interesting. The writing is solid. I didn’t catch any distracting typos or grammatical errors. And the cover is fab.

The cons: The story is told largely in dialogue — yet there are almost no dialogue tags or indicators of any kind. I was constantly lost as to who was speaking. Big talking-head syndrome vibes. The other issue was that the story comes to repeated false climaxes. Like, this is it. There’s no way out. There’s literally nothing we can do this time. Oh, hang on, actually we can just do this thing and then it’s all fine.

For me this was 3.5 stars. Rounded up because that’s how it works.