A World Adrift

by Douglas A. Van Belle

Venus has become a world of Zeppelin cities where merchants fly carbon-fiber airships. Whalers harpoon tin behemoths that rise from the murky depths. And the only woman who can save it all from ruin is being hunted by a man willing to do anything to seize her father's empire. Privilege is a double-edged sword. As a young noblewoman, Willamette Lolofi has an education and the freedom to indulge her curiosities. But the political marriage she faces won't let her stop the looming threat she has discovered. Countless cities, towns, and estates ride the winds of The Drift, a hospitable layer in the Venusian atmosphere, but they will eventually fall to ruin. As the tin behemoths that lift precious minerals from the depths grow scarce, conflicts drive the Commonwealth ever faster toward collapse. Willamette is determined to avoid that tragic fate. She manipulates her parents into arranging a marriage that just might let her take action … but then a bloody coup by Colonel Kofi upends everything. In order to consolidate power, Kofi must eliminate the only person alive who can claim the right to rule the Commonwealth. If Willamette has any chance of saving millions of people in The Drift, she must rally a menagerie of misfits to accomplish the unthinkable.

376 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 10, 2023

Reviews

[Charl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much, much better than I thought it would be from the opening. I almost quit reading from the description of Willamette's plan to betroth herself to Niven, but the story quickly showed that she wasn't the shallow decadent airhead she first seemed.

A delightfully original story, with a well-thought-out method of colonizing Venus, and a satisfyingly wrought overcoming of Kofi's rebellion.

Well worth the time.