Killing Gravity
The Voidwitch Saga, Book 1
Corey J. White
Tor
Fiction, Sci-Fi
Themes: Altered DNA, Diversity, Girl Power, Mind Powers, Space Stories
****
Description
When she was a child, the evil man Briggs and the technicians of MEPHISTO transformed Marian Xi from an ordinary girl into a weapon capable of destroying whole fleets with a flick of her hand - until she escaped across the galaxy. For years, bounty hunters and agents have pursued her, but none have survived to bring her "home." Chance or poor luck land her with the crew of the battered crusher ship Nova: the cyborg-armed woman Trix, the AWOL soldier Mookie, and the gender-neutral captain Squid. Aside from her pet Seven, another experimental life-form rescued from MEPHISTO's labs, Marian isn't used to having companions, but their fates become entwined as the shadow agency's troops catch up with her - just as Marian discovers that someone she'd thought long-dead may still be alive, and may in fact have been the one who sold her out to Briggs.
Review
This fast-reading space adventure may not be deep or unique, but it certainly moves well and provides plenty of adventure. White creates a setting with most of the usual space opera trappings: a form of faster-than-light travel to enable casual star system travel (wormhole-based, in this universe), space stations and planets ranging from upper-class to scummy back-corridor dive bars, cybernetic implants and digital brain enhancements and commonplace DNA altering, and so forth. The characters are more or less who one would expect to meet in such a milieu, though they all pull their own weight and are decently drawn. Cocky heroine Marian borders on overpowered, her "voidwitch" abilities capable of crumpling starships like tinfoil, though the very ease with which she destroys exacts its own price: she hates being a weapon, even as she finds herself doing just what MEPHISTO remade her to do, if for her own sake and not theirs. Briggs is the typical villain with a Nefarious Plan, willing to throw countless troops and starships at the one weaponized woman who got away. Still, for being composed of such familiar parts, Killing Gravity makes for an enjoyable tale, with some nice, intense battles and the odd touch of whimsy. If it feels more like the pilot episode to a miniseries than a complete story arc, well, I knew it was the first book of a "saga" when I read it. If I can find the next book cheap (or free, as I got this one through a free eBook offer from Tor.com), I'd be willing to read ahead.