Beacon 23
Hugh Howey
John Joseph Adams/Mariner Books
Fiction, Sci-Fi
Themes: Aliens, Diversity, Pirates, Soldier Stories, Space Stories
***+
Description
Once, lighthouses were the beacons that guided seagoing vessels to safety. In the twenty-third century, beacons serve the same function for faster-than-light vessels traversing asteroid belts and other treacherous routes... and every beacon needs an overseer to keep it functional. Not everyone can handle the isolation, but some crave it... such as a one-time war hero, call name "Digger", suffering crippling post-traumatic stress in addition to horrible scars from an encounter with an enemy alien Ryph Lord. At Beacon 23, he hoped to hide away from his undeserved fame, from humanity, from the entire universe - but it's impossible to outrun a war that hasn't ended, just as it's impossible to hide from his own fracturing mind.
Review
Beacon 23 transports the isolation of the lighthouse keeper to deep space in a series of linked
stories that also explore the insanity of war, the price paid by those on the front lines who are forced to
sacrifice their innate humanity in the name of often-nebulous (and often profit- and power-driven) causes, and
how sometimes a mind must be completely broken to begin to heal.
The overseer, never directly named, came to Beacon 23 intending it to be the last stop in a life he can barely
stand living anymore; the only question is whether he'll re-up after his two-year shift in perpetuity, or if
he'll simply take a stroll outside without a suit to end his stint. Howey dances around the core trauma that
left him scarred and broken and not particularly invested in his fellow humans, part of which is the character
struggling to come to grips with his own actions (or inaction) and part of which just feels like an author
playing coy with the reader - not helped by the repetition across the different stories that are stitched
together in this omnibus edition. As the tale opens, he's already convinced he's going insane, plagued by
little noises that NASA claims ignorance of... until the near-impossible happens and his beacon fails, just as
a ship is passing through his region of the asteroid field. With some fast thinking and improvisation
reminiscent of Andy Weir's The Martian, he manages to figure out the problem, but it's just a prelude to
more troubles that exacerbate his ever-increasing mental health issues, presented in a way where the reader is
never quite sure what is real and what is delusion. These episodes start to feel disconnected from each other,
without a solid through-line, not helped by how long the author still keeps dancing about the roots of his
guilt; I have to wonder how far apart the different stories were written, as sometimes it felt like things
didn't quite line up with each other despite the recapping. I'm also not entirely sure the sabotage incident
was where his story really starts, as the tale meanders a bit before hitting on its strongest themes, involving
the Rhyph war, the battle that made him a hero in the eyes of humanity (and a traitor in his own eyes), and
coming to grips with the costs of war and what it will take to end the abomination. The story is at its best
exploring Digger's psychological damage and his journey toward self-forgiveness and healing, while other
elements start feeling extraneous or excessively grandiose and/or coincidental... and it also goes out of its
way to provide him with female companionship in the galactic middle of nowhere. The wrap-up almost feels like
another delusion (I can't get into why without spoilers).
Ultimately, while it has some very solid themes and ideas and a few decent action moments, plus a little humor,
the parts always felt a little too mismatched to stand together as a solid whole.