Celestial

by Bill Lace

Is a mother’s love a match for a devotee’s grit?

Amma runs a mining platform in the sky of Uranus, but after a family tragedy, she reevaluates priorities. Believing her long assignment has contributed to her son’s growing depression, Amma plans a visit home, bucking official instruction. While earthbound, the family redirects to a Mayday from a ship of refugees fleeing a coup, but unbeknownst to Amma, one refugee isn’t whom he appears to be and ruthlessly plots to see his own plans through.

Published March 12, 2019

About the author

Bill Lace wrote the fictional novel TEARS OF ESPERANZA to share stories from Arizonans swept up in the immigration debate. TEARS placed second in the 2013 Arizona Literary Contest published fiction category. It was his first venture into public writing, and he got hooked. An engineer by training and a federal law enforcement agent in employment, Bill is working on a science fiction novel. His favorite T-shirt notes the temperature at which book-paper catches fire, and burns.

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bill Lace imagines a futuristic world in which mining corporations have set up shop in the outer reaches of the solar system. Amma Janko is responsible for such a station on Uranus where she lives with her family. One day, the unthinkable happens and their life forever changes. Amma is forced to evaluate the needs of her family and make the decision to return to earth. As her son's depression worsens, Amma fights against the obstacles placed in the path of their return to earth.

Lace has done a wonderful job of building a world where life-like robots exist and space travel seems almost as normal as visiting a different country. There are numerous examples of future gadgetry and medicine throughout the book. It all tied together to create a believable place that seems like it could exist in the future.

The characters are what ultimately drive the book. I really appreciated Amma as a main character. She is relatable and her love for her family is evident. There's quite a few supporting characters that are also well-written and help the story to flow! It was fun to read a science fiction story about a group of people trying to get home to earth rather than leave it entirely.

However, while I enjoyed the characters, I struggled with the overall flow of the book. The synopsis details Amma's rerouting to help a ship of refugees, but it takes a while to get to that part. There are a few chapters that cut to a different character's POV related to the refugee and coup subplot, but those felt jarring and a little clunky. Ultimately, I never felt that interested in the subplot which left me wanting something more from the story.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read even if I didn't love it. It's an interesting world that is worth a visit!

Thank you to Bill Lace and NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book!

[A Tale of One Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a contemporary sci-fi, with a setting in a sci-fi world but mostly following the story of Amma and her family traveling back to Earth.
Reading this book felt like reading a debut, it was really poorly edited, everything was very basic, and the writing style was very generic.
The first chapter was very confusing and I found it hard to even want to continue because the reader was just thrown into this world without any clear descriptions and motivations. After the first chapter, it seems to resolve some of those issues but I found even with the second plotline I was wondering the point. The science aspect was hard to believe because they are inhabits of Uranus, which is a gaseous planet, not an ice rock. I think that if they were on a different planet, or had a way of surviving on a gaseous planet would be more fitting.
This book also read as if it needed another round of edits. Not just for clarification reasons, but it just had overall issues with the structure of the story.
The overall plot of the story was interesting to follow and I enjoyed reading about a character the had some sort of anxiety disorder, and was, for the most part, a heartwarming story about family.
The audience I think that will enjoy this the most are readers who more often read contemporary but want to begin to branch into sci-fi.

[Henry Lazarus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bill Lace has a taut thriller set in a future in which Uranus is being mined for He3. Amma Janko is the manager of Belvedere station. Her tween son Dag is having psychological problems from being raised in space and Phoebe typical teenage angst. Then her pilot husband is lost in a deep dive into Uranus, and she decides it is time to take a sabbatical to Earth, joining a tanker on its two month journey. Then things start going wrong. The company doesn’t want to authorized funds for the trip. Her son somehow is talked into a bungee jump in space when they join another ship. They have to deal with a hitchhiker, and then things really go crazy when they get a distress call. More than anything else, Celestial (ebook) is a tale of a mother trying to save her children in a well-lived future that feels very real. Excellent. Review printed by Philadelphia Free Press

[Kyra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. It was unique and I really enjoyed finding out what happened next. The author made you really know the characters and I'd love to hear what happens next to them if there's ever a sequel. So glad I was able to meet the characters and follow along with their story.

Book received through NetGalley.

[Anthony Philosophos · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book. Lace has written a believable future. The plot flowed smoothly and the characters were well developed. I look forward to Lace's next novel.

[gifta alvina · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book pace is too slow for me. But I love how Lace construct this fictional world, how he writes Dag anxiety and Amma roles between a mother and proffesional.

But, I find it difficult even to finish this book due to slow pace, especially in the beginning.

Thank you netgalley for providing the arc.

[kayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this book, however, I had two main issues with it that prevented me from giving it a higher rating: the first being something that i encounter with many sci-fi books, which is that there are several terms that are used quite often throughout the course of the book, but are never really explained, and the other issue being that a lot of the dialogue and even some of the descriptive writing felt forced, or a bit unnatural to me.

the only reason i kept reading this book was because of the characters, because they are ultimately what drives the book. not a whole lot happens plot-wise until the last 30% or so of the book, which disappointed me because the synopsis details amma's rerouting to save a ship of refugees on her way to earth, and it took so long to get to that point.

i really loved amma's character, and getting to see her relationship with her kids. i wish we got to see more of her relationship with phoebe, since a lot of the plot focused on amma and dag (however, i liked seeing the representation of dag's anxiety). i really liked getting to know destiny's character, but wish we got to see more of some of the side characters, such as phoebe and pilot hersch.

overall, it was still an enjoyable read even if i didn't love it.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was good, not great. But that's partly due to my lower interest in this kind of story at this time, as well as one that takes a while to get going. Overall the writing is good and the plot is decent. The author should keep writing, as he has talent.

I really appreciate the copy for review!!