Oleander: Memories Are Deleted in Space

by Ryan Armstrong

My memories were deleted.
But feelings remain.
I’m traveling space, to study alien life. Hoping feelings stop at the speed of light.

2095: Dr. Emily Bircher is the most brilliant, celebrated research scientist on earth, a botanist, and a medical doctor. Emily loses her husband, Alaric. She dims her memory of him, calculating that is how to move on.

The US government invites her to embark on an interstellar mission to the exoplanet, Proxima b. Earth’s nearest neighbor. The planet has a strong magnetic field allowing it to retain an atmosphere like Earth’s.

Emily refuses to go, she is still grieving. The government deceives her, stealing her memories of Alaric from the chip in her brain. Leaving her with only scarred pain.

With nothing tethering her to earth anymore, she travels at nearly the speed of light to the planet, a five-year journey. Her groundbreaking research there uncovers alien life’s possibilities, while her experience provides evidence of humanity’s depraved, violent limits.

Emily still yearns for the husband she doesn’t know she had. He wasn’t carved out of her brain, the feeling of him is still etched into her heart.

Her greatest discovery on the planet is communication with an alien life form.

Through love.

Love is built from memories.

Emily finds memories create feelings that never truly go away.

To love, Emily must accept the feelings that lost memories create.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

278 pages, Paperback

First published August 21, 2020

About the author

Ryan Armstrong is a USA Today Bestselling author of science fiction and historical fiction. He is the author of three currently published novels and a novella.

His most recent novel is science fiction, "Oleander: Memories Are Deleted in Space."

Ryan holds a B.A. in history and English from the University of Oklahoma. He lives in the Fort Worth, Texas area with his wife and two boys.

Publisher: www.lmvintagepublishers.com

Reviews

[Debra H. Wruble]

Weirdly fascinating

Well written story about a scientist who travels to a distant planet to study alien plants and soil, but it is also a story about timeless love.

[CorgeousBooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised with several turns the book took that I thought would go differently. It was refreshing to read in that regard. Some places felt rushed but the overall plot was not bad. I do have problems with the actions of some of the characters, one most of all. (If you have read the book then you probably know who I mean.) But in the end they got what they disserved. (Yes I am well aware they are not an actual person but they are in the world of this book so they deserved everything they got.) It's a story that makes me think of those whom I love and how our emotions and love for our loved ones will last even if we cannot always remember everything about them.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting idea but lost the plot about half way through, when our heroine a scientist throws science out of the window and becomes a hormonal human being, so many loose ends, Alaric's mother what happened to here? All the people left behind with the despot, the list goes on. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author as I quite like his prose.

[Tessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oleander: Memories are deleted in space was an interesting idea- A Nobel prize winning scientist who came up with a cure for cancer visits an alien planet on a top secret government project, and gets her memory deleted in the process.  

Honestly, the story idea was interesting. The author definitely had done sufficient research on the science for a layman like me to feel that the theories explored were reasonable and sound. Unfortunately the interesting part of the book only took form towards the end. Emily discovering an alien baby growing from the soil on Proxima B, and then subsequently its rapid mutagenesis followed by the introducing of the AI mind chip. These are the parts that I enjoy- and could almost come close to flipping page after page of it. This hits such a similar note to CW’s television series “The 100”, which was also based on a book. Mind chips seem like such a popular topic to explore these days.  

The rest of the book though, I must say, reads like a hormone-filled teenage romance novel- despite the main characters falling in the age range of mid thirties to early forties. The relationships developed between the characters were immature and blatantly unnatural. Everyone sounds like a 24/7 aroused teenager ready to roll around in the hay at the earliest opportunity- even Emily Bircher herself. Characters had little depth to them, and were hard to relate and empathize with.

Last of all, the writing (apart from the sciency part) was mediocre. It felt like the author was just “telling” and not “showing”. For example, I read many times of how Emily was “very attracted” to General Dalton. Instead of just writing “very attracted”, I believe attraction can be put to words in a myriad of ways. The result is an unfeeling declaration of Emily’s attraction to Dalton that sounds boring and very mundane indeed. Moreover, several times the reasons for Emily’s attraction to Dalton was because he was “handsome”. This makes the romance sound incredibly shallow, including Dalton’s feelings for Emily. And because a major part of the story was fueled by romance, the entire story very much sounded flimsy and hardly relatable.  

A side note- The title was not very representative of the story. Perhaps a better title would just be “Oleander”. Emily’s memories being deleted doesn’t really feel like a theme in the book. I felt like the story perhaps lost its original focus. Because after finishing the book, the crux does not seem to be revolving around memories deleted, but rather the exciting discovery of alien life and the potential of a hybrid of AI and alien/human.

If I want to be very honest, this is a 1 star or lower. For the sci-fi idea though I am topping this up to a 2, and this is already the maximum goodwill I am dishing out.  

[Robert Hendershot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unique concept and well executed. It is very violent in certain parts, but I didn't mind that. It's different than most SF I read, but in a good way. The science is sound, and the underlying premise is about how human love goes on - that can never be taken from us in death or through technology. It starts out slow but builds to an exciting climax and end. The prose the author employs are beautifully crafted. I think the main character is the strength as well as Res (and to a lesser extent Alaric) the ancillary characters are less well developed. But it doesn't matter because this is a first person written story about the protagonist Res and Alaric. I'd give it 4 stars because although it's an excellent read, it's a slow burn- however the science is so fascinating - the concept, that it deserves the full 5 stars. It's a good book and I enjoyed it very much.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is mostly told from the viewpoint of Dr. Emily Bircher, a scientist who won the Nobel Prize for finding the cure for cancer. Ironically, the love of her life, her husband, Alaric, was one of the few people on whom the cure did not work, and died of pancreatic cancer. Emily is tricked into taking a top-secret trip into space by government agents, who also erase all the memories of her husband. When she arrives on Proxima Centauri b to begin her research, she is aware that something is missing from her memory, put can't quite pinpoint it. This story explores love, tenacity, and the evil that can explode from the lust for power and sex. This book is fairly clean. There is one somewhat graphic scene of violence, reminiscent of "Lord of the Flies." There are only a couple of sex scenes, and they are not graphic. This book will appeal to you if you like light Science Fiction, and stories where love and perseverance win out in the end. I got this book from Voracious Readers Only.

[Eva B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, just ok. It didn't get interesting until the very end. Thankfully it was a short story.