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The Lunar Cycle #1
Debris Dreams
The year: 2067
The place: Sun-Earth Lagrange Point L1, 1.5 million kilometers above the surface of the Earth.
The objective: Survive.
Sixteen-year-old Drusilla Zhao lives in the Hub, a space station used by the Chinese-American Alliance as a base to exploit Luna’s resources. Desperate to break free of the Alliance, a terrorist group from the Moon destroys the space elevator, space’s highway to Earth. In a flash, Dru’s parents are dead and she is cut off from her girlfriend Sarah on Earth.
The Alliance declares war against the Moon, conscripting Dru and all the youth of the Hub. Dru is forced to become a soldier fighting in the lethal vacuum of space. Can Dru survive lunar terrorist attacks and find her way home to Sarah?
The place: Sun-Earth Lagrange Point L1, 1.5 million kilometers above the surface of the Earth.
The objective: Survive.
Sixteen-year-old Drusilla Zhao lives in the Hub, a space station used by the Chinese-American Alliance as a base to exploit Luna’s resources. Desperate to break free of the Alliance, a terrorist group from the Moon destroys the space elevator, space’s highway to Earth. In a flash, Dru’s parents are dead and she is cut off from her girlfriend Sarah on Earth.
The Alliance declares war against the Moon, conscripting Dru and all the youth of the Hub. Dru is forced to become a soldier fighting in the lethal vacuum of space. Can Dru survive lunar terrorist attacks and find her way home to Sarah?
223 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 11, 2012
About the author
David Colby
4 books9 followersDavid Colby was born and grew up in a household and family so nice and wonderful that his early life was completely and utterly bereft of interesting drama beyond a single incident in high school when he slipped on some grass and damaged a very valuable sousaphone while trying to please his marching band instructor. To correct this, he took up writing and kept writing until he got halfway decent at it.
Currently laboring on works spanning science fiction, fantasy and all the bizarre fusions in between, David is publishing novels and short stories through Thinking Ink Press and Fiction Silicon Valley.
Currently laboring on works spanning science fiction, fantasy and all the bizarre fusions in between, David is publishing novels and short stories through Thinking Ink Press and Fiction Silicon Valley.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
November 23, 2012
So come on now, admit it. You've always felt, deep down inside, that the one thing that science fiction was still missing, egregiously so, was a good and thorough discussion of the pressure differential implications of farting in a spacesuit.
Problem. Solved.
David Colby's debut novel, Debris Dreams has such a discussion, and much, much more to offer the young adult or the supposedly grown-up science fiction aficionado, and plenty to offer the more casual reader as well. Colby has packed a primer in space habitat sociology, a convincing space-borne war story*, a charming coming of age narrative, and a tale of the ultimate in sucky long-distance relationships, into a brisk-reading 284 pages of microgravity adventure.
Our heroine, Drusilla Xao, is a sixteen-year-old conscript into the Chinese-American-Alliance's Space Marines, suddenly called to war when a demented-yet-calculating band of militant Lunan seperatists launch a successful terrorist attack and destroy Earth's one and only space elevator, completely cutting off the post-petroleum society down the gravity well from its colonies, destroying a good chunk of Kenya in the process, and stranding everyone in near-Earth orbit. Drusilla's parents lived and worked on that elevator, as did most of her companions' parents; they now have nothing left to love or fight for but each other -- except for Drusilla, who has an e-girlfriend she has always longed to meet in person and be together as a couple with... down in Ontario.
Drusilla's homosexuality is only a minor plot point, but it tells everything about the society Colby hopes we'll one day achieve. In Drusilla's world, being gay is just a thing like having green eyes or dry ear wax or not liking artichokes (that it also allows our young author/narrator to engage in a bit of wolf-whistling at some of his female characters' physical attributes now and then without being an icky white male ogler-in-prose is merely by the bye**). There are more important things to worry about, like always having breathing equipment handy in case of a hull breach or not stranding yourself unable to move in the middle of a room at zero gee or if that heat signature in that cloud of space debris is maybe another Lunan attack on the way.
A lot of the world-building takes the form of Drusilla's email exchanges with her beloved Earthbound Sarah as she explains her world and her culture smitten teenager to smitten teenager. Since This is War and resources are limited, these exchanges are short and thinly dispersed and so don't intrude overly on the narrative, but are nicely informative all the same -- Dru and her author have given a lot of thought to conveying a lot in just a few words, packing in infodump and heartbreaking longing in a tiny space. The effect of this device is to make Drusilla's world comprehensible without once feeling like the author is talking down to his readers, which is something a lot of novelists with a lot more work under their belts than Colby has could stand to pay attention to.
My only real complaint about the book is a niggling little one. Because the governing alliance includes China, the characters' most intense and passionate moments tend to contain a lot of Chinese vocabulary. In places, the book has actual characters, but most of the words are in pinyin (Chinese syllables rendered into the western alphabet). Somehow, the characters came out fine in my Epub copy, but the pinyin got garbled, and thus is full of question marks in place of letters. Sometimes I could interpolate the letters (I took Mandarin in college mumble mumble years ago) but sometimes a lot of question marks in a row left me questioning, too. Fortunately, context clues let the reader gloss over these bits, but it's a pity nonetheless.
So yes, if you loved the anime series Planetes, or Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, or the TV series Firefly or Brand Gamblin's Tumbler, or Robert A. Heinlein's juvenile fiction (or even some of his more adult fiction with its casual sexual hijinx), or all of the above -- and really, I have a hard time imagining how it could not be all of the above -- Debris Dreams will feel quite familiar to you, but as I've explained, that doesn't mean it's a rehash of any of those, or that it will bore you. Quite the contrary!
Where was this stuff when I was a young adult sci-fi fan? Oh yeah, the author wasn't even born then. Um...
*The best elements of the novel are the combat scenes, many of which feature young Space Marines fighting out in the black in power armor, i.e., not in spaceships of any kind. And fight scenes within space habitats and orbiting factories, featuring the sights and smells of blood spraying in microgravity. These scenes are simply stunning.
**Though this does give Drusilla a slight taint of Mary Sue when coupled with her meteoric rise from civilian apprentice spacer to "Star Corporal" in the Space Marines. But it's only a slight taint.
Problem. Solved.
David Colby's debut novel, Debris Dreams has such a discussion, and much, much more to offer the young adult or the supposedly grown-up science fiction aficionado, and plenty to offer the more casual reader as well. Colby has packed a primer in space habitat sociology, a convincing space-borne war story*, a charming coming of age narrative, and a tale of the ultimate in sucky long-distance relationships, into a brisk-reading 284 pages of microgravity adventure.
Our heroine, Drusilla Xao, is a sixteen-year-old conscript into the Chinese-American-Alliance's Space Marines, suddenly called to war when a demented-yet-calculating band of militant Lunan seperatists launch a successful terrorist attack and destroy Earth's one and only space elevator, completely cutting off the post-petroleum society down the gravity well from its colonies, destroying a good chunk of Kenya in the process, and stranding everyone in near-Earth orbit. Drusilla's parents lived and worked on that elevator, as did most of her companions' parents; they now have nothing left to love or fight for but each other -- except for Drusilla, who has an e-girlfriend she has always longed to meet in person and be together as a couple with... down in Ontario.
Drusilla's homosexuality is only a minor plot point, but it tells everything about the society Colby hopes we'll one day achieve. In Drusilla's world, being gay is just a thing like having green eyes or dry ear wax or not liking artichokes (that it also allows our young author/narrator to engage in a bit of wolf-whistling at some of his female characters' physical attributes now and then without being an icky white male ogler-in-prose is merely by the bye**). There are more important things to worry about, like always having breathing equipment handy in case of a hull breach or not stranding yourself unable to move in the middle of a room at zero gee or if that heat signature in that cloud of space debris is maybe another Lunan attack on the way.
A lot of the world-building takes the form of Drusilla's email exchanges with her beloved Earthbound Sarah as she explains her world and her culture smitten teenager to smitten teenager. Since This is War and resources are limited, these exchanges are short and thinly dispersed and so don't intrude overly on the narrative, but are nicely informative all the same -- Dru and her author have given a lot of thought to conveying a lot in just a few words, packing in infodump and heartbreaking longing in a tiny space. The effect of this device is to make Drusilla's world comprehensible without once feeling like the author is talking down to his readers, which is something a lot of novelists with a lot more work under their belts than Colby has could stand to pay attention to.
My only real complaint about the book is a niggling little one. Because the governing alliance includes China, the characters' most intense and passionate moments tend to contain a lot of Chinese vocabulary. In places, the book has actual characters, but most of the words are in pinyin (Chinese syllables rendered into the western alphabet). Somehow, the characters came out fine in my Epub copy, but the pinyin got garbled, and thus is full of question marks in place of letters. Sometimes I could interpolate the letters (I took Mandarin in college mumble mumble years ago) but sometimes a lot of question marks in a row left me questioning, too. Fortunately, context clues let the reader gloss over these bits, but it's a pity nonetheless.
So yes, if you loved the anime series Planetes, or Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, or the TV series Firefly or Brand Gamblin's Tumbler, or Robert A. Heinlein's juvenile fiction (or even some of his more adult fiction with its casual sexual hijinx), or all of the above -- and really, I have a hard time imagining how it could not be all of the above -- Debris Dreams will feel quite familiar to you, but as I've explained, that doesn't mean it's a rehash of any of those, or that it will bore you. Quite the contrary!
Where was this stuff when I was a young adult sci-fi fan? Oh yeah, the author wasn't even born then. Um...
*The best elements of the novel are the combat scenes, many of which feature young Space Marines fighting out in the black in power armor, i.e., not in spaceships of any kind. And fight scenes within space habitats and orbiting factories, featuring the sights and smells of blood spraying in microgravity. These scenes are simply stunning.
**Though this does give Drusilla a slight taint of Mary Sue when coupled with her meteoric rise from civilian apprentice spacer to "Star Corporal" in the Space Marines. But it's only a slight taint.
November 21, 2012
Full disclosure. My son is the author. I have reviewed multiple drafts and still got caught up in the story when reading the galley proofs. Enjoyable space opera.
Debris Dreams will be published Nov 13, 2012.
You can support the print-run on Kickstarter (and order a paper copy if you prefer that over the eBook version):
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/c...
And now the book is available at the publisher or your favorite eBook vendor. Buy it, you'll like it.
Debris Dreams will be published Nov 13, 2012.
You can support the print-run on Kickstarter (and order a paper copy if you prefer that over the eBook version):
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/c...
And now the book is available at the publisher or your favorite eBook vendor. Buy it, you'll like it.
January 28, 2015
Dude, I can't believe you used sandcasters! No wonder David Colby has been contracted to write Traveller fanfic.
So here is my problem with Debris Dreams. It is everything I like in a SF juvenile. It's got action, hard SF, and a fun-but-serious space-based story in a zippy plot. And it's also got that all-important quality the kids love nowadays, inclusiveness. Which I think is totally cool. Yes, please, show more girls doing stuff, and gay people existing, and reminders that "spacefaring technological civilization" and "white people" are not synonymous.
That said, Debris Dreams is so earnestly look-at-me-do-you-see-how-inclusive-I-am? that it seemed that the inclusiveness often substituted for characterization and worldbuilding.
For example, Drusilla Xao, the main character. After reading this book, I know she's gay, and she's a spacer of mixed Anglo-Chinese ethnicity, like most spacers, and she's gay, and did I mention she's gay? Also, she's really quite lesbian.
Drusilla's desire to meet face-to-face with her long-distance Earthbound honey is supposed to be the hook, the driving force that motivates her, the thing that gives her hope, as she gets drafted into a war against the "Loonies," separatist Lunar rebels who blew up the space elevator, killing Dru's parents and thousands of other people and crippling interplanetary commerce.
However, Drusilla basically goes from scared teenager to war hero in the space of a few months (and a mere handful of battles), and her connection to Sarah (whom she calls "Sarah-bear") consists of chatty emails with emoticons and !!!!!! and flippant teenspeak that sounds very early 21st century, full of cultural references that would be unbelievably dated to think teenagers fifty years from now will be using them. Drusilla never does stop being a scared kid, and yet she winds up being the best soldier, the leader of every team, and often the only one to survive relatively unscathed. I believe the author intended a deliberate contrast, between the "hardened combat veteran" Drusilla appears to be in the media and the scared-shitless teenager who only first picked up a gun a few weeks ago that she is inside, but this isn't really executed convincingly because Drusilla never quite comes to life.
Possibly it's because I am jaded and do not buy "True love and soulmates over the Internet even though we've never met." Almost never happens (especially between teenagers) so I really doubt it's going to work out that way in the late 21st century between a spacer girl and an Earther. The Drusilla/Sarah sequences generally made me think the author was just going for the cheap squee.
Likewise, the Chinese American Alliance. Umm, okay? That's about what we get in the way of politics — the geopolitical axis has shifted, North America has been through some crashes and slumps and such, and now we have a Chinese American Alliance as the dominant hegemony, against the Loonies who have unspecified grievances for which they launch a terrorist attack followed by a war. So Chinese American Alliance is an excuse to make everyone biracial and insert random Chinese into the dialog.
There's a little bit of Starship Troopers in this book and a little bit of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and comparing David Colby's debut novel to Heinlein is probably unfair. I did like and appreciate the science (and the author kept the gushing "ain't this cool!" to a minimum), and the action sequences were pretty good and quite bloody, and there was some sense of the scars the bloodshed was leaving on Drusilla.
A good story and decent addition to the genre. Debris Dreams is very much a debut novel, with some writing weaknesses born of self-consciousness and trying too hard, but I hope David Colby matures as a writer and writes more SF like this. It's only 3 stars, but a solid 3 stars.
So here is my problem with Debris Dreams. It is everything I like in a SF juvenile. It's got action, hard SF, and a fun-but-serious space-based story in a zippy plot. And it's also got that all-important quality the kids love nowadays, inclusiveness. Which I think is totally cool. Yes, please, show more girls doing stuff, and gay people existing, and reminders that "spacefaring technological civilization" and "white people" are not synonymous.
That said, Debris Dreams is so earnestly look-at-me-do-you-see-how-inclusive-I-am? that it seemed that the inclusiveness often substituted for characterization and worldbuilding.
For example, Drusilla Xao, the main character. After reading this book, I know she's gay, and she's a spacer of mixed Anglo-Chinese ethnicity, like most spacers, and she's gay, and did I mention she's gay? Also, she's really quite lesbian.
Drusilla's desire to meet face-to-face with her long-distance Earthbound honey is supposed to be the hook, the driving force that motivates her, the thing that gives her hope, as she gets drafted into a war against the "Loonies," separatist Lunar rebels who blew up the space elevator, killing Dru's parents and thousands of other people and crippling interplanetary commerce.
However, Drusilla basically goes from scared teenager to war hero in the space of a few months (and a mere handful of battles), and her connection to Sarah (whom she calls "Sarah-bear") consists of chatty emails with emoticons and !!!!!! and flippant teenspeak that sounds very early 21st century, full of cultural references that would be unbelievably dated to think teenagers fifty years from now will be using them. Drusilla never does stop being a scared kid, and yet she winds up being the best soldier, the leader of every team, and often the only one to survive relatively unscathed. I believe the author intended a deliberate contrast, between the "hardened combat veteran" Drusilla appears to be in the media and the scared-shitless teenager who only first picked up a gun a few weeks ago that she is inside, but this isn't really executed convincingly because Drusilla never quite comes to life.
Possibly it's because I am jaded and do not buy "True love and soulmates over the Internet even though we've never met." Almost never happens (especially between teenagers) so I really doubt it's going to work out that way in the late 21st century between a spacer girl and an Earther. The Drusilla/Sarah sequences generally made me think the author was just going for the cheap squee.
Likewise, the Chinese American Alliance. Umm, okay? That's about what we get in the way of politics — the geopolitical axis has shifted, North America has been through some crashes and slumps and such, and now we have a Chinese American Alliance as the dominant hegemony, against the Loonies who have unspecified grievances for which they launch a terrorist attack followed by a war. So Chinese American Alliance is an excuse to make everyone biracial and insert random Chinese into the dialog.
There's a little bit of Starship Troopers in this book and a little bit of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and comparing David Colby's debut novel to Heinlein is probably unfair. I did like and appreciate the science (and the author kept the gushing "ain't this cool!" to a minimum), and the action sequences were pretty good and quite bloody, and there was some sense of the scars the bloodshed was leaving on Drusilla.
A good story and decent addition to the genre. Debris Dreams is very much a debut novel, with some writing weaknesses born of self-consciousness and trying too hard, but I hope David Colby matures as a writer and writes more SF like this. It's only 3 stars, but a solid 3 stars.
October 19, 2012
Remember when I reviewed
Katya's World
and complained that there wasn’t stuff like this when I was growing up? Add David Colby’s Debris Dreams to the list of “WTF, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?” books.
How to describe it? Part Ender’s Game, part Firefly – not the hardest of sf, but no pandering to young readers either. This was one of my Read-a-Thon books, so I kind of zoomed through it, but I knew I would going in. I’ve only been waiting for this book to come out since I first heard about it back before they even had a cover.
AND WHAT A COVER IT IS! No seriously, this cover pretty much perfectly encapsulates what you’ll find inside the book. A quick pulpy YA read that doesn’t want to talk down to its audience.
Our protagonist is gay, but that’s kind of not a big deal. It’s YA so it’s not like there are tons of sexy situations – even when Dru meets up with her back-on-Earth girlfriend in a VR environment. All it means is that she’s not available, and the boys kind of stop hitting on her.
Mostly, this book is about how very much war sucks. Especially war when you’re not really sure what/why you’re fighting, and even if you’re fighting for the right reasons.
I loved it. If I’d had more time to just READ, I’d have had it done in one sitting. I hated putting it down because I just wanted to know what happened next. I was attached to Dru and Jillian and Sarah and David and Jason and even Liam. I was invested in all of these kids and when bad things happened (and bad things DO happen, there’s no sugarcoating the horrors of war in space, here) I felt like I’d lost my friends.
It’s amazing how incredibly close you can grow to fictional characters in less than 300 pages, isn’t it?
Originally posted on my blog
How to describe it? Part Ender’s Game, part Firefly – not the hardest of sf, but no pandering to young readers either. This was one of my Read-a-Thon books, so I kind of zoomed through it, but I knew I would going in. I’ve only been waiting for this book to come out since I first heard about it back before they even had a cover.
AND WHAT A COVER IT IS! No seriously, this cover pretty much perfectly encapsulates what you’ll find inside the book. A quick pulpy YA read that doesn’t want to talk down to its audience.
Our protagonist is gay, but that’s kind of not a big deal. It’s YA so it’s not like there are tons of sexy situations – even when Dru meets up with her back-on-Earth girlfriend in a VR environment. All it means is that she’s not available, and the boys kind of stop hitting on her.
Mostly, this book is about how very much war sucks. Especially war when you’re not really sure what/why you’re fighting, and even if you’re fighting for the right reasons.
I loved it. If I’d had more time to just READ, I’d have had it done in one sitting. I hated putting it down because I just wanted to know what happened next. I was attached to Dru and Jillian and Sarah and David and Jason and even Liam. I was invested in all of these kids and when bad things happened (and bad things DO happen, there’s no sugarcoating the horrors of war in space, here) I felt like I’d lost my friends.
It’s amazing how incredibly close you can grow to fictional characters in less than 300 pages, isn’t it?
Originally posted on my blog
October 8, 2012
3.5 stars.
One of the most attractive sub-genres of science fiction is the plausible, just-over-the-next-hill narrative of extrapolating what we have now into what should/might/will come next, and David Colby's solid Freshman effort positions itself nicely in this orbit.
It's the 2060s – humans have colonised the moon, reached Mars in a perfunctory, Apollo-esque "been there, done that" manner and are slowly building a network of function-specific space habitats. Getting to this point has been tough though – pulling raw materials out of Earth's gravity well to fuel extra-planetary expansion via the brute force of chemical rockets or railguns is the wasteful friction limiting speedy progress. So, the imminent completion of "The Elevator", a 35,000 kilometre-long link between Earth and space is front-and-centre important both for humanity and for Drusilla Xao, our 16 year-old POV narrator.
Drusilla lives on The Hub, the largest of the off-planet habitats, hanging in space a million or so kilometres past the Moon – she's a Spacer child, part of the Chinese-American Alliance largely responsible for the move into space. Forget the nuclear family, Dru and her friends have been raised by a combination of creches, off-duty staff and online learning. Being a Spacer means understanding what's truly vital in your life - as much as she misses them, Dru's parents, working on The Elevator, aren't it. Dru's young lover Sarah, back on Earth, isn't it either. No, what underpins Mazlow In Space is the simple stuff – structural integrity, life support and the knowledge that resources are not infinite – everything else is just detail. In Spacer culture children are forced to process the smell of a dying life support system into sense-memory as the ultimate warning signal; in Spacer culture if you float past someone with an orange tag on their clothing then stay frosty – the colour means they're untrained terrestrials probably one bad decision away from killing you. Overall, Debris Dreams does a great job of orientating us to the detail of its world.
The Elevator then is everything to Dru – with its completion her parents will return home and Dru can at least dream of journeying to Earth to see Sarah. The first couple of pages of the story don't really play along though. It's an understatement to call Debris Dreams pacy – the plot hits escape velocity before the first sentence of the first chapter has time to reach for a full-stop. If Spacers are different from Terrans, then those who chose the Moon as their home are one further step removed too – the Lunar Separatist Movement destroys The Elevator in the novel's first paragraph, killing Dru's parents and cutting the Spacers off from Earth.
The Spacer leadership immediately decide to fight the "Loonies", but all they have for an army are their teenage children. So, Colby takes Dru (and us) down a path well-trodden both in conventional military fiction and sci-fi – from conscription and training, through first combat and loss to cynical experience. He does so well – death and injury have real weight to them and the author makes every effort to keep his tech within direct line of sight of what we have now – "Hall effect" thrusters help position American satellites circling above us today and the same tech is the workhorse of orbital trucks in Debris Dreams. There's well-written humour as well. Shiva, the Hub's snarky but likeable Artificial Intelligence, clearly believes in the spirit rather than the letter of Asimov's Laws, building this into a nice running joke/plot arc with a delicious punchline.
As to the novel's weaknesses, the price we pay for its kinetic plot is that I never truly believed the underlying reasons for why the Luna inhabitants would take such drastic action against Earth – the "big picture" never fully convinced me. And, as solid as the "military sci-fi" structure is, there are few unexpected turns along the way.
I started Debris Dreams without realising that it was a Young Adult novel, and had I been a 12-year old picking this up it would have been a really thrilling and memorable read. As it is, I can admire a lot of what David Colby has done here, though his Drusilla Xao is an elegantly-hewn character perhaps deserving of a slightly more adventurous plotline.
Disclaimer: I was supplied with a review copy of Debris Dreams by the publisher's agents.
One of the most attractive sub-genres of science fiction is the plausible, just-over-the-next-hill narrative of extrapolating what we have now into what should/might/will come next, and David Colby's solid Freshman effort positions itself nicely in this orbit.
It's the 2060s – humans have colonised the moon, reached Mars in a perfunctory, Apollo-esque "been there, done that" manner and are slowly building a network of function-specific space habitats. Getting to this point has been tough though – pulling raw materials out of Earth's gravity well to fuel extra-planetary expansion via the brute force of chemical rockets or railguns is the wasteful friction limiting speedy progress. So, the imminent completion of "The Elevator", a 35,000 kilometre-long link between Earth and space is front-and-centre important both for humanity and for Drusilla Xao, our 16 year-old POV narrator.
Drusilla lives on The Hub, the largest of the off-planet habitats, hanging in space a million or so kilometres past the Moon – she's a Spacer child, part of the Chinese-American Alliance largely responsible for the move into space. Forget the nuclear family, Dru and her friends have been raised by a combination of creches, off-duty staff and online learning. Being a Spacer means understanding what's truly vital in your life - as much as she misses them, Dru's parents, working on The Elevator, aren't it. Dru's young lover Sarah, back on Earth, isn't it either. No, what underpins Mazlow In Space is the simple stuff – structural integrity, life support and the knowledge that resources are not infinite – everything else is just detail. In Spacer culture children are forced to process the smell of a dying life support system into sense-memory as the ultimate warning signal; in Spacer culture if you float past someone with an orange tag on their clothing then stay frosty – the colour means they're untrained terrestrials probably one bad decision away from killing you. Overall, Debris Dreams does a great job of orientating us to the detail of its world.
The Elevator then is everything to Dru – with its completion her parents will return home and Dru can at least dream of journeying to Earth to see Sarah. The first couple of pages of the story don't really play along though. It's an understatement to call Debris Dreams pacy – the plot hits escape velocity before the first sentence of the first chapter has time to reach for a full-stop. If Spacers are different from Terrans, then those who chose the Moon as their home are one further step removed too – the Lunar Separatist Movement destroys The Elevator in the novel's first paragraph, killing Dru's parents and cutting the Spacers off from Earth.
The Spacer leadership immediately decide to fight the "Loonies", but all they have for an army are their teenage children. So, Colby takes Dru (and us) down a path well-trodden both in conventional military fiction and sci-fi – from conscription and training, through first combat and loss to cynical experience. He does so well – death and injury have real weight to them and the author makes every effort to keep his tech within direct line of sight of what we have now – "Hall effect" thrusters help position American satellites circling above us today and the same tech is the workhorse of orbital trucks in Debris Dreams. There's well-written humour as well. Shiva, the Hub's snarky but likeable Artificial Intelligence, clearly believes in the spirit rather than the letter of Asimov's Laws, building this into a nice running joke/plot arc with a delicious punchline.
As to the novel's weaknesses, the price we pay for its kinetic plot is that I never truly believed the underlying reasons for why the Luna inhabitants would take such drastic action against Earth – the "big picture" never fully convinced me. And, as solid as the "military sci-fi" structure is, there are few unexpected turns along the way.
I started Debris Dreams without realising that it was a Young Adult novel, and had I been a 12-year old picking this up it would have been a really thrilling and memorable read. As it is, I can admire a lot of what David Colby has done here, though his Drusilla Xao is an elegantly-hewn character perhaps deserving of a slightly more adventurous plotline.
Disclaimer: I was supplied with a review copy of Debris Dreams by the publisher's agents.
November 21, 2012
What we expected from Debris Dreams was an action-packed thriller filled with intense combat scenes and a whole lot of emotional trauma, because the setting’s in a warzone and it’s nearly impossible to escape it unscathed without any emotional or psychological repercussions. What we got was a whole lot of information dumps, confusing world building, uninteresting characters, and a rather confusing flow of events.
The story is told in Dru's voice. She's a proclaimed lesbian living in space who has a girlfriend who lives on earth. She's obviously taking the whole long-distance relationship thing to a totally new level. It was hard to get a feel for her character and we initially thought that she was male. We felt that her character was bland and monotonous, that her emotions were unreal and fake. Her character was woefully underdeveloped and the way she adapted to the abrupt change in her lifestyle was unbelievable. Since this is a war, and it's quite sure that Dru will lose friends, where’s the emotional trauma that Dru should have felt with the loss of said friends? The pain? How is it possible that she recovers so easily from the loss of her friends and sometimes seems to forget that she's fighting an actual war and it's not all fun and games now? It was hard to take this character seriously.
Then there's Sarah, Dru's girlfriend, in the summary it is said, and I quote, "...but only Sarah will be able to bring her home." We did not find Sarah's character to be of any significance to this story, we could not understand what she was to Dru, aside from being her girlfriend. What did Sarah do to bring Dru home? Send her e-mails and racy pictures of herself? Sure, Sarah may be the symbolism of Dru's yearning to go to Earth, but we actually expected more from Sarah.
It's hard to get into a story where one cannot connect with the characters. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened to us. We were indifferent towards Dru and her friends and whenever one of them is shot, injured or killed we could not muster up any sympathy for them.
A flaw in the story was that readers were not given an insight as to why Luna and Earth are fighting at all. There were only brief mentions of oppression on the side of Luna, and yeah, that's pretty much it.
We had issues with the characters using Mandarin Chinese along with the English command. (Other languages like Cantonese and Swahili were less often, ergo less annoying.) Being Chinese-Filipinos, we pretty much had a gist of what Colby was referencing to, but other readers may not have the same experience. Even we found it annoying that they would speak in this manner. From the eGalley given to us, we didn't find any English translations that would make it convenient for the reader to at least follow on what Colby was trying to come across. There are words in Chinese that don't make much sense given the context, but this (we guess) could be excused as the copy we have did mention that the 'gramatically inaccurate mix of languages reflect the vernacular'. We still found this weird, because these were people who were early on type-casted as being part of the Chinese-American side. So, the characters can fluently cuss in Mandarin, but are kind of off in using actual Mandarin at times? Fair enough.
Another point against it was the frequent mentions of sex. Bearing in mind that the main protagonist of this book is a lesbian and a self-admitting virgin engaged in an intergalactic war in freaking space where the opponents attack randomly and claim her friends one by one, Dru often thinks about how hot/sexy her seductive captain is, all the while admitting to her girlfriend on Earth that she is feeling hot and bothered - to which Sarah, the all-American saint that she is, has no qualms in giving her the signal to go for it. (Wow, Sarah. Really?) Sometimes, Dru was more of a Drew. Monogamy is depicted as backward and prudish. Sex appears to be as trivial as a handshake, or as a high five. We are confused as well as either to allude this rampant obsession with sex to the fact that Dru is a lesbian - which would then trigger more issues as to how people perceive gay people - or because it is a sign of a life where people are in the middle between life and death, emotionless sex is the only equivalent of fun.
There were scenes in the book where Dru is almost automatically promoted, and these usually happened when she was either unconscious, bleeding and hurt, or when she betrayed the entire system she was working for. (What.)
Sometimes, we think that Dru even forgets that she's in an actual war, especially when she finds out about the 'new' technology that her side of the army will adapt. Will this 'new' tech introduce brutal killing? Yeah. Is it merciless? Sure. Are you or are you not engaged in war? Uhh... Yes, we're pretty sure you are.
This book was actually hard to read, given the weird flow of events and the quick dissemination of info-dump after info-dump was too much for us to handle.
We're sorry, Debris Dreams, but we're giving you a flat-out one.
The story is told in Dru's voice. She's a proclaimed lesbian living in space who has a girlfriend who lives on earth. She's obviously taking the whole long-distance relationship thing to a totally new level. It was hard to get a feel for her character and we initially thought that she was male. We felt that her character was bland and monotonous, that her emotions were unreal and fake. Her character was woefully underdeveloped and the way she adapted to the abrupt change in her lifestyle was unbelievable. Since this is a war, and it's quite sure that Dru will lose friends, where’s the emotional trauma that Dru should have felt with the loss of said friends? The pain? How is it possible that she recovers so easily from the loss of her friends and sometimes seems to forget that she's fighting an actual war and it's not all fun and games now? It was hard to take this character seriously.
Then there's Sarah, Dru's girlfriend, in the summary it is said, and I quote, "...but only Sarah will be able to bring her home." We did not find Sarah's character to be of any significance to this story, we could not understand what she was to Dru, aside from being her girlfriend. What did Sarah do to bring Dru home? Send her e-mails and racy pictures of herself? Sure, Sarah may be the symbolism of Dru's yearning to go to Earth, but we actually expected more from Sarah.
It's hard to get into a story where one cannot connect with the characters. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened to us. We were indifferent towards Dru and her friends and whenever one of them is shot, injured or killed we could not muster up any sympathy for them.
A flaw in the story was that readers were not given an insight as to why Luna and Earth are fighting at all. There were only brief mentions of oppression on the side of Luna, and yeah, that's pretty much it.
We had issues with the characters using Mandarin Chinese along with the English command. (Other languages like Cantonese and Swahili were less often, ergo less annoying.) Being Chinese-Filipinos, we pretty much had a gist of what Colby was referencing to, but other readers may not have the same experience. Even we found it annoying that they would speak in this manner. From the eGalley given to us, we didn't find any English translations that would make it convenient for the reader to at least follow on what Colby was trying to come across. There are words in Chinese that don't make much sense given the context, but this (we guess) could be excused as the copy we have did mention that the 'gramatically inaccurate mix of languages reflect the vernacular'. We still found this weird, because these were people who were early on type-casted as being part of the Chinese-American side. So, the characters can fluently cuss in Mandarin, but are kind of off in using actual Mandarin at times? Fair enough.
Another point against it was the frequent mentions of sex. Bearing in mind that the main protagonist of this book is a lesbian and a self-admitting virgin engaged in an intergalactic war in freaking space where the opponents attack randomly and claim her friends one by one, Dru often thinks about how hot/sexy her seductive captain is, all the while admitting to her girlfriend on Earth that she is feeling hot and bothered - to which Sarah, the all-American saint that she is, has no qualms in giving her the signal to go for it. (Wow, Sarah. Really?) Sometimes, Dru was more of a Drew. Monogamy is depicted as backward and prudish. Sex appears to be as trivial as a handshake, or as a high five. We are confused as well as either to allude this rampant obsession with sex to the fact that Dru is a lesbian - which would then trigger more issues as to how people perceive gay people - or because it is a sign of a life where people are in the middle between life and death, emotionless sex is the only equivalent of fun.
There were scenes in the book where Dru is almost automatically promoted, and these usually happened when she was either unconscious, bleeding and hurt, or when she betrayed the entire system she was working for. (What.)
Sometimes, we think that Dru even forgets that she's in an actual war, especially when she finds out about the 'new' technology that her side of the army will adapt. Will this 'new' tech introduce brutal killing? Yeah. Is it merciless? Sure. Are you or are you not engaged in war? Uhh... Yes, we're pretty sure you are.
This book was actually hard to read, given the weird flow of events and the quick dissemination of info-dump after info-dump was too much for us to handle.
We're sorry, Debris Dreams, but we're giving you a flat-out one.
June 28, 2012
This book was awesome. The world building was so great, and very believable and interesting. I didn't find myself rolling my eyes at it, which is lovely. I really liked Dru as a character, and though the science was a bit hard, I wasn't bored at all. Can't wait for any follow ups!
December 2, 2012
Although I typically like sci-fi dystopian fiction, I often struggle with things related to space. I often find the plots to involve too much science, the storyline to be too far from anything that could ever happen and the characters to be far from relatable. That was not the case with this one, friends.
Instead, you find a character in her late teens with a spot on voice. Colby is almost at the “John Green Level” where he understands how teens think and talk and can put that onto paper. There is none of the fake “this is how teens talk” garbage that often plagues novels in this genre. Instead, he captures how a teen would actually feel when their parents are murdered and they are forced into a war.
There are also a lot of different slang words. Because Dru comes from Asian culture, the slang is obviously in another language. I don't know if they are the actual words or if they made sense translated, but I found it be a neat addition. It made it feel more real. If you really did put people from different parts of the world into a space station, their slang would all meld together to form their language.
I also liked the fact that the main character is gay. Whereas it feels out of place in some books and hinders the plot more than helps it, so was not the case in this story. The story would not have made sense without it. I thought it was quite well done.
Storyline-wise, I also found it to be quite solid. It is totally likely that the world would fight amongst itself to determine who has the power in space and who is right. And those conflicts would probably end in war. The fact that a lot of that war was fought in space made it that much cooler.
Although there was space jargon in the story, it was explained well and added to the story, rather than hindering it. The science involved helped to move the story along, with the different weapons and techniques creating different levels to the story. And, of course, the gadgets and skinsuits were interesting. Every detail of these battles seemed well thought through and were explained well.
The story moved quickly enough while still making sense. The only thing I was hoping for was a different ending. It could have ended in a much different way to open the book for a sequel, which I would very much enjoy. While that could still be a possibility, it felt more ended than that, which I was disappointed by.
Overall, this is a great read, and one that I would probably recommend.
Instead, you find a character in her late teens with a spot on voice. Colby is almost at the “John Green Level” where he understands how teens think and talk and can put that onto paper. There is none of the fake “this is how teens talk” garbage that often plagues novels in this genre. Instead, he captures how a teen would actually feel when their parents are murdered and they are forced into a war.
There are also a lot of different slang words. Because Dru comes from Asian culture, the slang is obviously in another language. I don't know if they are the actual words or if they made sense translated, but I found it be a neat addition. It made it feel more real. If you really did put people from different parts of the world into a space station, their slang would all meld together to form their language.
I also liked the fact that the main character is gay. Whereas it feels out of place in some books and hinders the plot more than helps it, so was not the case in this story. The story would not have made sense without it. I thought it was quite well done.
Storyline-wise, I also found it to be quite solid. It is totally likely that the world would fight amongst itself to determine who has the power in space and who is right. And those conflicts would probably end in war. The fact that a lot of that war was fought in space made it that much cooler.
Although there was space jargon in the story, it was explained well and added to the story, rather than hindering it. The science involved helped to move the story along, with the different weapons and techniques creating different levels to the story. And, of course, the gadgets and skinsuits were interesting. Every detail of these battles seemed well thought through and were explained well.
The story moved quickly enough while still making sense. The only thing I was hoping for was a different ending. It could have ended in a much different way to open the book for a sequel, which I would very much enjoy. While that could still be a possibility, it felt more ended than that, which I was disappointed by.
Overall, this is a great read, and one that I would probably recommend.
March 7, 2019
This book has everything I look for in a space opera, and more. Too much more. Like too much death. Everybody dies except the narrator. Colby established the characters, then they explode in space battles. In glorious Technicolor.
And there's a sequel. Where did he find enough people left to fill a sequel?
And there's a sequel. Where did he find enough people left to fill a sequel?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 29, 2018
Disclosure: I won a copy of this book through a Goodreads contest.
I wanted to like it. The inclusiveness was good and the plot sounded interesting. But about halfway through, I lost interest. The characters were flat, even with so many opportunities to develop Dru and how she felt about the war and her friends dying. Her relationship with Sarah seemed very superficial. Sometimes I can ignore flat characters if the plot is interesting and fast paced enough, but that wasn't the case here. I couldn't care about the characters, so I stopped reading.
There was a lot of potential in this book, a lot of good ideas. But the book didn't come together. I hope David Colby works on his character development. If I had cared about the characters, if they were more engaging, I probably would have liked the book.
Regarding the inclusiveness- that was a bit in-your-face, a bit of look-at-me! I prefer LGBTQ characters to be folded into the narrative rather than a show. In a world like the one in this book, where such things were supposed to be accepted and ordinary, the emphasis on Dru's lesbianism was too much- that was her defining characteristic and her only defining characteristic. Like a cut-out of a lesbian and not a full character. Her relationship with Sarah seemed to be more about how both of them were female than that they were two people in love who couldn't touch or be with one another.
Unless the lack of acceptance is part of the world or the plot, I prefer when LGBTQ characters are just people like all the other characters. Where it is so natural that the characters are who they are, you don't even think about it. It's just the normal reality. Because really, that's the way it should be in our world too. Seanan MgGuire does a fantastic job with this. Her characters' sexuality and gender are just one aspect of who they are and don't play an out-sized role in the plot unless that particular character has had other people giving them shit about it, unless it really is part of the plot. So Mr. Colbey, take note. Go read some Seanan McGuire and some Beck Chambers. They do a great job being both inclusive and developing great rounded characters. You could learn a lot from them and your books would benefit greatly.
I wanted to like it. The inclusiveness was good and the plot sounded interesting. But about halfway through, I lost interest. The characters were flat, even with so many opportunities to develop Dru and how she felt about the war and her friends dying. Her relationship with Sarah seemed very superficial. Sometimes I can ignore flat characters if the plot is interesting and fast paced enough, but that wasn't the case here. I couldn't care about the characters, so I stopped reading.
There was a lot of potential in this book, a lot of good ideas. But the book didn't come together. I hope David Colby works on his character development. If I had cared about the characters, if they were more engaging, I probably would have liked the book.
Regarding the inclusiveness- that was a bit in-your-face, a bit of look-at-me! I prefer LGBTQ characters to be folded into the narrative rather than a show. In a world like the one in this book, where such things were supposed to be accepted and ordinary, the emphasis on Dru's lesbianism was too much- that was her defining characteristic and her only defining characteristic. Like a cut-out of a lesbian and not a full character. Her relationship with Sarah seemed to be more about how both of them were female than that they were two people in love who couldn't touch or be with one another.
Unless the lack of acceptance is part of the world or the plot, I prefer when LGBTQ characters are just people like all the other characters. Where it is so natural that the characters are who they are, you don't even think about it. It's just the normal reality. Because really, that's the way it should be in our world too. Seanan MgGuire does a fantastic job with this. Her characters' sexuality and gender are just one aspect of who they are and don't play an out-sized role in the plot unless that particular character has had other people giving them shit about it, unless it really is part of the plot. So Mr. Colbey, take note. Go read some Seanan McGuire and some Beck Chambers. They do a great job being both inclusive and developing great rounded characters. You could learn a lot from them and your books would benefit greatly.
June 3, 2026
Debris Dreams is a tense and emotionally charged young adult science fiction novel set in a vividly imagined near future space environment. David Colby constructs a high stakes narrative centered around survival, loss, and forced transformation, all unfolding in the harsh and isolated setting of a space station at the Sun Earth Lagrange Point.
At the heart of the story is Drusilla Zhao, a sixteen year old suddenly thrust into a collapsing world after a terrorist strike destroys the space elevator and severs the connection between Earth and lunar infrastructure. The opening premise immediately establishes urgency and emotional weight, particularly through Dru’s personal losses and separation from her girlfriend on Earth, which adds a strong human anchor to the larger geopolitical conflict.
What stands out most is the escalation from personal tragedy to forced military conscription. Dru’s transition from civilian life into a reluctant soldier fighting in space warfare is handled as both a physical and psychological transformation. The novel effectively uses this shift to explore themes of autonomy, trauma, and survival under authoritarian pressure.
The setting itself is a key strength of the book. The depiction of life aboard the Hub and the broader Earth–Moon conflict gives the story a cinematic scope, blending hard sci-fi elements with accessible character-driven storytelling. The vacuum of space becomes more than a backdrop, it functions as a constant reminder of vulnerability and isolation.
Emotionally, the story leans heavily on separation, loyalty, and endurance. Dru’s connection to Sarah provides an important emotional thread that keeps the narrative grounded even as the political and military stakes expand. This balance between intimate relationships and large scale conflict helps the story maintain both tension and relatability.
Overall, Debris Dreams is a compelling blend of YA science fiction and space warfare drama, offering readers a mix of action, emotional stakes, and futuristic world building that will appeal to fans of survival-driven space narratives and character focused sci-fi.
At the heart of the story is Drusilla Zhao, a sixteen year old suddenly thrust into a collapsing world after a terrorist strike destroys the space elevator and severs the connection between Earth and lunar infrastructure. The opening premise immediately establishes urgency and emotional weight, particularly through Dru’s personal losses and separation from her girlfriend on Earth, which adds a strong human anchor to the larger geopolitical conflict.
What stands out most is the escalation from personal tragedy to forced military conscription. Dru’s transition from civilian life into a reluctant soldier fighting in space warfare is handled as both a physical and psychological transformation. The novel effectively uses this shift to explore themes of autonomy, trauma, and survival under authoritarian pressure.
The setting itself is a key strength of the book. The depiction of life aboard the Hub and the broader Earth–Moon conflict gives the story a cinematic scope, blending hard sci-fi elements with accessible character-driven storytelling. The vacuum of space becomes more than a backdrop, it functions as a constant reminder of vulnerability and isolation.
Emotionally, the story leans heavily on separation, loyalty, and endurance. Dru’s connection to Sarah provides an important emotional thread that keeps the narrative grounded even as the political and military stakes expand. This balance between intimate relationships and large scale conflict helps the story maintain both tension and relatability.
Overall, Debris Dreams is a compelling blend of YA science fiction and space warfare drama, offering readers a mix of action, emotional stakes, and futuristic world building that will appeal to fans of survival-driven space narratives and character focused sci-fi.
November 18, 2018
You're in the Army now!
A female draftee comes of age. Nice mix of plot and character development. Decent descriptions of space infantry combat. Juxtaposition of loose structure of orbital society with tight control of earthbound government.
A female draftee comes of age. Nice mix of plot and character development. Decent descriptions of space infantry combat. Juxtaposition of loose structure of orbital society with tight control of earthbound government.
Did Not Finish
August 27, 2019Unfortunately, could not get through this book. The character building is just sub par and I cannot enjoy books where I don't care about the characters. Sorry to say, DNFing this one.
January 18, 2017
Debris Dreams by David Colby starts in a place where I don’t often find myself: the future world of space. The story begins with Drusilla Zhao (Dru), a girl living over one million kilometers above the surface of Earth, video-chatting with her Earther girlfriend, Sarah. While they are talking, a disaster occurs that shatters the lives of people in both space and on Earth. Both Dru and readers quickly learn that the disaster was caused by a radical group of settlers on the moon, using violence to break free from the Alliance, politicians who have taken control of both space and land. Before she can even properly mourn the deaths of her parents, Dru is drafted into the army of the Alliance, where she soon realizes that any moment on the battlefield of space could be her last. As friends and fellow soldiers fall around her, she wonders if she will ever make it back to Earth and Sarah.
The action of Debris Dreams starts on the first page, when the colossal Elevator is destroyed and doesn’t stop until the end. Readers are dragged from place to place with Dru as she undergoes her military training, her first battle and all the way until her last. The tension keeps you reading and, despite all the space gore, you care enough about Dru to want to know if she will survive. You feel for her as she struggles to become someone that she doesn’t want to be or recognize, experiencing death in all it’s violent, gory glory.
The world of the novel is real. Life in space for Dru, while made easier with technology, comes across just as difficult as one would expect it to be and the politics are complicated and chaotic. Perhaps the only thing that doesn’t feel entirely real are some of the relationships between cadets. However, once the battles start the closeness between them has more heart and less a general attraction or lust for one another.
Following Dru throughout her trial is painful and you can feel yourself cringe at some of her most difficult moments both physical and mental. There is one event that stands out to me as perhaps the worst and most honest. While on a mission outside their vehicle, one of Dru’s squad is killed by the power of a small piece of space debris; a screw moving at the speed of orbit. The sadness affects you because it happens so quickly and not even when you expect it to occur. It’s honest because space trash like this is something you learn can be prevented and is the result of humans not following rules and acting before thinking. This one quick moment sets the tone of the novel later and proves to be one of the main reasons why Dru acts the way she does.
While I was quickly drawn in by Dru’s story and enjoyed her inner monologue, there were a few things that would take my mind out of the story. Avid readers of space-travel may thoroughly enjoy the technological descriptions. Of course, it wasn’t until I reached the end that I noticed there was a glossary. Another round with the novel with the glossary bookmarked may help so I won’t lose myself in all the technology. The other distraction is the bits of what I understand to be Mandarin that are sprinkled throughout the conversations. The concept that the future is more diverse is great but my nosy self would have liked to have known exactly what was said. Although, I assumed most of it was general cursing because it occurred usually when bad things would happen or when another character was acting like a complete jack-wagon.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed going somewhere I normally don’t go. The novel has a character that is likeable and you can easily relate to her. She lives in a future that I could see and people act in ways that are believable and keep you interested until the end.
The action of Debris Dreams starts on the first page, when the colossal Elevator is destroyed and doesn’t stop until the end. Readers are dragged from place to place with Dru as she undergoes her military training, her first battle and all the way until her last. The tension keeps you reading and, despite all the space gore, you care enough about Dru to want to know if she will survive. You feel for her as she struggles to become someone that she doesn’t want to be or recognize, experiencing death in all it’s violent, gory glory.
The world of the novel is real. Life in space for Dru, while made easier with technology, comes across just as difficult as one would expect it to be and the politics are complicated and chaotic. Perhaps the only thing that doesn’t feel entirely real are some of the relationships between cadets. However, once the battles start the closeness between them has more heart and less a general attraction or lust for one another.
Following Dru throughout her trial is painful and you can feel yourself cringe at some of her most difficult moments both physical and mental. There is one event that stands out to me as perhaps the worst and most honest. While on a mission outside their vehicle, one of Dru’s squad is killed by the power of a small piece of space debris; a screw moving at the speed of orbit. The sadness affects you because it happens so quickly and not even when you expect it to occur. It’s honest because space trash like this is something you learn can be prevented and is the result of humans not following rules and acting before thinking. This one quick moment sets the tone of the novel later and proves to be one of the main reasons why Dru acts the way she does.
While I was quickly drawn in by Dru’s story and enjoyed her inner monologue, there were a few things that would take my mind out of the story. Avid readers of space-travel may thoroughly enjoy the technological descriptions. Of course, it wasn’t until I reached the end that I noticed there was a glossary. Another round with the novel with the glossary bookmarked may help so I won’t lose myself in all the technology. The other distraction is the bits of what I understand to be Mandarin that are sprinkled throughout the conversations. The concept that the future is more diverse is great but my nosy self would have liked to have known exactly what was said. Although, I assumed most of it was general cursing because it occurred usually when bad things would happen or when another character was acting like a complete jack-wagon.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed going somewhere I normally don’t go. The novel has a character that is likeable and you can easily relate to her. She lives in a future that I could see and people act in ways that are believable and keep you interested until the end.
December 28, 2012
Drusilla Xao has lived her entire life in space. Her parents have told her all about Earth and she's yearned to see it with her very eyes some day. That desire has not been dampened, yet she wonders if she'll ever get to know what it's like to live on the planet itself. Granted, she knows it's wishful thinking, but she can't help but to fantasize what life down there is like.
An unexpected attack on the colony by a rogue faction cuts off her only chance to make it to Earth. They've also taken her parents lives and the right for her to see her beloved girlfriend, Sarah. She has no means to get out of space now, a fact she frets about more than she lets on. Drusilla does her best not to let things worry her, but she knows any attempts she makes in doing so only make the situation much more dire.
Now that war has been declared, the Chinese-American Alliance are drafting anyone available to fight at their side. Drusilla has been pulled into the fray, much to her chagrin. She has no desire to fight in the war, however. She'd rather try to figure out if there's a possibility whether her parents are still alive. She's also looking for ways in getting to Earth rather than stand and fight for something that wasn't of her making.
The Alliance, however, will have none of it. Their only goal is to cut down the radical group before they can cause any further trouble. Forced to confront her current dilemma, Drusilla has no other option but to stand and learn how to be a soldier. If she's to succeed in reaching Sarah, and Earth, once for and for all, she'll need to do anything and everything to ensure her own survival. That, unfortunately, is easier said than done. Never-the-less, she'll give it all she's got in the hopes that she'll see Sarah sooner rather later.
This was a very unique book. Although it has a little of a slow start, don't let that fool you. The story soon picks up and takes for you a ride as you learn more about Drusilla's life in space, the elevator her parents were building, the war that has pulled her into its uncanny path, and Sarah, the girl who keeps giving her hope when she least expects it.
I confess at the beginning, I thought Dru was a boy. Until I took a look at the book's description and that clarified it for me on what the character's true gender was. A suspenseful and thrilling ride, it's also a little thought-provoking. Definitely worth checking it out and giving it a read.
An unexpected attack on the colony by a rogue faction cuts off her only chance to make it to Earth. They've also taken her parents lives and the right for her to see her beloved girlfriend, Sarah. She has no means to get out of space now, a fact she frets about more than she lets on. Drusilla does her best not to let things worry her, but she knows any attempts she makes in doing so only make the situation much more dire.
Now that war has been declared, the Chinese-American Alliance are drafting anyone available to fight at their side. Drusilla has been pulled into the fray, much to her chagrin. She has no desire to fight in the war, however. She'd rather try to figure out if there's a possibility whether her parents are still alive. She's also looking for ways in getting to Earth rather than stand and fight for something that wasn't of her making.
The Alliance, however, will have none of it. Their only goal is to cut down the radical group before they can cause any further trouble. Forced to confront her current dilemma, Drusilla has no other option but to stand and learn how to be a soldier. If she's to succeed in reaching Sarah, and Earth, once for and for all, she'll need to do anything and everything to ensure her own survival. That, unfortunately, is easier said than done. Never-the-less, she'll give it all she's got in the hopes that she'll see Sarah sooner rather later.
This was a very unique book. Although it has a little of a slow start, don't let that fool you. The story soon picks up and takes for you a ride as you learn more about Drusilla's life in space, the elevator her parents were building, the war that has pulled her into its uncanny path, and Sarah, the girl who keeps giving her hope when she least expects it.
I confess at the beginning, I thought Dru was a boy. Until I took a look at the book's description and that clarified it for me on what the character's true gender was. A suspenseful and thrilling ride, it's also a little thought-provoking. Definitely worth checking it out and giving it a read.
February 23, 2013
Debris Dreams is a traditional scifi story set far in the future, when the USA and China have basically joined forces to be one country. Other state entities have gotten together to make other national powers, but The Chinese-American Alliance is by far the most powerful. Our hero, Drusilla "Dru" Xao is a teenager, born on a space station, to engineer parents whom she has not seen in person for 10 years because they work someplace else. A terrorist attack kills a lot of folks, including her parents, and she is immediately drafted into the military. Fighting hopelessness and depression, Dru is sustained by her long distance (and I mean loooong distance) relationship with Sarah. We never really learn much about Sarah. She lives on Earth. They met through online gaming chats, and they have never met in person. Hmmmmm. But apparently she writes one hell of an email, and the video-sex makes Dru blush (that's it, that's all the info you get as a reader). When it comes to the scifi aspect of the story, the author rocks. Maybe a little gory, but very suspenseful, and very innovative in its interpretation of a future melange of languages, particularly asian and English mixed together, and a post heteronormative take on sexuality. However, once again I am left a two dimensional take on my hero. Actually, let me rephrase that. When it comes to a more gender neutral reflection on the horrors of war, Dru is riveting. When it comes to her relationships, she is a bit lackluster.
I get the feeling that this male author makes every attempt to sincerely care about his character. He makes her smart and capable, motivated by feelings of love without being controlled by them, and a protagonist in interesting story worth reading. What the story lacks, or at least what I miss, is the heart thinking of this young women. She is on her journey, facing incredible obstacles, and I can barely get a paragraph in a chapter that gives me some insight into why she feels the way she does. She forges ahead at every turn, but rarely is she allowed to be tender, rarely is she allowed to display characteristics that might be too easily attributed to women. Dru is a rock for everyone. We are made to believe she is so strong because of her girlfriend's long distance love, but without getting the details as to why that is true. And while I enjoyed reading this book, it did not satisfy my need to read stories where I can identify with the main character, especially as a lesbian.
I get the feeling that this male author makes every attempt to sincerely care about his character. He makes her smart and capable, motivated by feelings of love without being controlled by them, and a protagonist in interesting story worth reading. What the story lacks, or at least what I miss, is the heart thinking of this young women. She is on her journey, facing incredible obstacles, and I can barely get a paragraph in a chapter that gives me some insight into why she feels the way she does. She forges ahead at every turn, but rarely is she allowed to be tender, rarely is she allowed to display characteristics that might be too easily attributed to women. Dru is a rock for everyone. We are made to believe she is so strong because of her girlfriend's long distance love, but without getting the details as to why that is true. And while I enjoyed reading this book, it did not satisfy my need to read stories where I can identify with the main character, especially as a lesbian.
January 8, 2014
I always feel weird when someone I highly respect loans me a book that they really enjoyed and I...didn't so much.
Regardless.
I didn't like this book because I didn't feel like I knew any of the characters or what was going on at any point. Disclaimer: that could have been my fault. I suspect that I may have read too many books of the same-ish genre in a row and by the time I got to this book I just wasn't feeling it anymore. But I don't think that's the whole story here.
The action starts on page one. Sometimes that's fine and dandy. But in this case I felt like I could never get my footing in the story. I have no attachment to any of the characters because I never got to know them, I felt like. I have a hard time with space/sci fi sometimes because of all the lingo that gets introduce and thrown around with wild abandon but usually I can keep up. I kept up enough with this book that I recognized what characters were referring to but I never felt involved in the story. That detachment ultimately doomed this book for a low rating on my shelf.
That being said.
What I immensely appreciate about this book is that it integrated alternative sexual orientations and gender identities without making a big deal of it. I found that refreshing. I have a hard time with some (a lot) of queer lit because it's so important to the story that it's basically getting screamed off the page at you - and this happens in hetero-romance books as well, which I also avoid like the plague.
Here's the long and short of it: this book is on the right path to making queer characters the norm in books. It was just a characteristic of the players in this story; it wasn't something that was a central focus of the book. I very much appreciated that.
On the flip side, though.
There seemed to be some negative connotations toward mental health, which I didn't appreciate. The main character had a couple strongly negative reflections on the "Heaven/Angels" construct that is introduced. I took it as a parallel on people in society who have "abnormal" (society's words - NOT mine) mental health and as result are rejected from the mainstream. With this interpretation, for me this was the final nail in the 2-star coffin.
Overall, there were some awesome and really poor qualities for this book. The plot was a cool concept, but it just missed the mark for me.
Regardless.
I didn't like this book because I didn't feel like I knew any of the characters or what was going on at any point. Disclaimer: that could have been my fault. I suspect that I may have read too many books of the same-ish genre in a row and by the time I got to this book I just wasn't feeling it anymore. But I don't think that's the whole story here.
The action starts on page one. Sometimes that's fine and dandy. But in this case I felt like I could never get my footing in the story. I have no attachment to any of the characters because I never got to know them, I felt like. I have a hard time with space/sci fi sometimes because of all the lingo that gets introduce and thrown around with wild abandon but usually I can keep up. I kept up enough with this book that I recognized what characters were referring to but I never felt involved in the story. That detachment ultimately doomed this book for a low rating on my shelf.
That being said.
What I immensely appreciate about this book is that it integrated alternative sexual orientations and gender identities without making a big deal of it. I found that refreshing. I have a hard time with some (a lot) of queer lit because it's so important to the story that it's basically getting screamed off the page at you - and this happens in hetero-romance books as well, which I also avoid like the plague.
Here's the long and short of it: this book is on the right path to making queer characters the norm in books. It was just a characteristic of the players in this story; it wasn't something that was a central focus of the book. I very much appreciated that.
On the flip side, though.
There seemed to be some negative connotations toward mental health, which I didn't appreciate. The main character had a couple strongly negative reflections on the "Heaven/Angels" construct that is introduced. I took it as a parallel on people in society who have "abnormal" (society's words - NOT mine) mental health and as result are rejected from the mainstream. With this interpretation, for me this was the final nail in the 2-star coffin.
Overall, there were some awesome and really poor qualities for this book. The plot was a cool concept, but it just missed the mark for me.
December 6, 2012
There was something wonderful about this book. It rang true with a possible future- one that I don't think I'd want to be a part of. I loved how David developed his characters.
Dru is an amazing girl with a whole crap-load of the universe dumping on her. But she handles it great! She doesn't break and end up in Heaven - which, by the way, is an awesome name for such a place. This girl rolls with the punches, and isn't afraid to give some back. Her relationship with Sarah is her anchor which seems to be the case with a lot of youths in the military.
This was a good read. I loved how things were explained and how the reality of being in space wasn't glamorized. It was simply a place to live with some very deadly possibilities. I could totally imagine someone being called an "orange peel."
I recommend this book for that love space adventures, soldiers with rebellious streaks, and a love for things in constant motion. It's a good read.
Dru is an amazing girl with a whole crap-load of the universe dumping on her. But she handles it great! She doesn't break and end up in Heaven - which, by the way, is an awesome name for such a place. This girl rolls with the punches, and isn't afraid to give some back. Her relationship with Sarah is her anchor which seems to be the case with a lot of youths in the military.
This was a good read. I loved how things were explained and how the reality of being in space wasn't glamorized. It was simply a place to live with some very deadly possibilities. I could totally imagine someone being called an "orange peel."
I recommend this book for that love space adventures, soldiers with rebellious streaks, and a love for things in constant motion. It's a good read.
March 31, 2014
Debris Dreams is an enjoyable early work which manages to avoid many of the pitfalls commonly found in both science fiction and books aimed at young adults. It is not perfect, with some underdeveloped interactions and inconsistency in event density, but it is a highly recommendable book with good ideas and better heart.
Drusilla Xao is just a Spacer in orbit, pressed into military service following the destruction of the space elevator by Lunar Separatists. One girl, her form in space, far from her lady love and separated by war more than the immense distance. That is all you need to know, really.
Drusilla Xao is just a Spacer in orbit, pressed into military service following the destruction of the space elevator by Lunar Separatists. One girl, her form in space, far from her lady love and separated by war more than the immense distance. That is all you need to know, really.
December 13, 2012
The most remarkable thing about Debris Dreams is its realism. Dru, the main character, is a teen girl trapped on the Hub between Earth and the Moon and forced to join the military and defend both from a violent separatist group. Author David Colby manages a difficult balance between detailed near-future aeronautic science and believable emotional nuances in his characters. It's a tricky and rare feat, and all the while Colby offers a high-impact tale of adventure, terror, and even humor. Highly recommended for teen and adult sci-fi fans.
February 23, 2013
I really kind of hated the CAA, for conscripting teenagers, they really shouldn't have had any right to do that. And from what I read, the Loonies had a point, they just went about it in the worst way possible. Really enjoyed this book!
June 4, 2013
In Which I Lament Badly-Used Chinese
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