Book Review: The Recollection by Gareth L Powell
When arches begin to appear all over the world Ed’s brother falls through one and disappears. Ed and his brother’s wife then set off on an adventure through the arches to track him down. Meanwhile far in the future Katherine is a down on her luck starship captain competing with her former lover and rival trader Victor.
The Recollection is a really great read. Alternating between the two storylines the plot moves along at a really fast pace. The chapters are short often ending on cliff-hangers which gave the book a “just one more chapter” quality and had me finishing it in just a few sittings. We start with a relatively small and personal story but it soon becomes much larger in scope. There are lots of huge ideas explored and I particularly liked how the passage of time was used and the problems this bought up. Gareth L Powell is a very economical writer, he doesn’t waste any time explaining things that aren’t important and he always keeps the plot moving forwards. His writing is accessible and entertaining which makes for a very enjoyable book.
Throughout the book we get flashbacks to earlier points in the character’s lives. They are only brief but very important and really help to flesh out the characters and make us feel for them. In fact by the time I got to the end I was quite surprised how attached I had become to these people in such a small space of time.
I absolutely loved The Recollection, with big ideas, characters I could care about and a real sense of adventure it’s exactly the kind of science fiction story that I like to read.
