Braking Day

by Adam Oyebanji, Ariyan Kassam (Narrator)

On a generation ship bound for a distant star, one engineer-in-training must discover the secrets at the heart of the voyage in this new sci-fi novel.

It's been over a century since three generation ships escaped an Earth dominated by artificial intelligence in pursuit of a life on a distant planet orbiting Tau Ceti. Now, it's nearly Braking Day, when the ships will begin their long-awaited descent to their new home.

Born on the lower decks of the Archimedes, Ravi Macleod is an engineer-in-training, set to be the first of his family to become an officer in the stratified hierarchy aboard the ship. While on a routine inspection, Ravi sees the impossible: a young woman floating, helmetless, out in space. And he's the only one who can see her.

As his visions of the girl grow more frequent, Ravi is faced with a choice: secure his family's place among the elite members of Archimedes' crew or risk it all by pursuing the mystery of the floating girl. With the help of his cousin, Boz, and her illegally constructed AI, Ravi must investigate the source of these strange visions and uncovers the truth of the Archimedes' departure from Earth before Braking Day arrives and changes everything about life as they know it.

Genres: Science Fiction, Mystery, Fiction, Young Adult, Space Opera, Audiobook, Space

15 pages, Audiobook

First published April 5, 2022

About the author

Adam Oyebanji is an SF/Crime novelist whose work blends thrilling plots with thought-provoking ideas, often exploring themes of identity, belonging, and the occasional whodunnit. His work has been praised for its originality, rich world-building, and sharp storytelling. Born in the United Kingdom but having spent much of his time in the United States and West Africa, Adam draws on a global perspective shaped by a career in law and a lifelong passion for speculative fiction and murder mysteries. He is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, the British Science Fiction Association, and the Crime Writers’ Association.

When not writing, Adam works as a lawyer specializing in counter-terrorist financing. A profession that has taken him to places significantly stranger than fiction.

Reviews

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprisingly good debut novel.

This is a decently paced story with a thoughtfully constructed setting. The characters and dialogue were equally well done. The story plays out so neatly in part because of how nicely all these constituent parts work together.

I appreciated how competently written this was. There was a lot going on, but it felt effortless to read, allowing me to just immerse myself and enjoy the story Oyebanji was telling.

[Oleksandr Zholud · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a debut novel about a generation ship, which is near its destination and is about to decelerate, hence the title. I read it as a part of monthly reading for June 2022 at SFF Hot from Printers: New Releases group.

There are quite a few stories set in a generation ship, from the seminal Orphans in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein, to more recent like An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon. Newer stories more often than not imagine some kind of heavily stratified society formed during the voyage (and seeds of it are in the older ones too if one thinks of it), and this one follows the trope: the protagonist is a midshipman Ravi MacLeod, a teenage boy from a family that is frown upon in a ‘polite society’, whose father was ‘mulched’ (turned into compost for ship’s biosphere) for crimes against the ruling order. Ravi chose another way and is training to become an engineer, part of the Crew, which over seven generations (the ship, Archimedes is on its way for 130 years already) turned mostly into inherited nobility.

At the start of the novel, Ravi is working alone in an uninhabited part of the ship, when he hears strange tapings from the outside! Assuming a prank from someone, he looks away to only see a blonde girl outside, without a space suit. Quite shocked (she almost instantly disappears) he shares his experiences with his cousin Boz, who, unlike him is more in the ‘family business’ of getting semi-legal goods. She is a genius coder, which counts for a lot in this ship of 30,000 people, linked almost permanently to their version of the Internet called the Hive.

As the story progresses, readers find out about the ship, a version of future history that led to its departure, about the ship’s society, economics and politics. Water serving as money, people interfaced with software, a group opposing the very goal of the mission – it is all very interesting and makes for a nice read. And there are dragons…

I cannot say that the story is great – it is a nice yarn, with unexpected plot turns, showing that the author has potential, so if usually I’d ranked it 3-star, I added 1 star for the debut.

[Luke Burrage · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've not read many generation-ship-based novels, this novel is a great starting point. If you've read a lot of novels based on generation ships, there aren't a whole lot of surprises here, but the novel is fun and well written, so it's still worth the read.

Full review on my podcast, SFBRP episode #488:



https://www.sfbrp.com/archives/1987

[Michael Mammay]

I enjoyed this a lot. Loved the world building, especially, and the well-realized society of the generation fleet. Wherever you think the story is going when you hit the third act, you're probably wrong...it really kept me guessing in a good way.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aboard the Archimedes, one of a fleet of three generation ships heading from Earth to Tau Ceti, a young midshipman finds himself face-to-face with an impossible girl, floating outside the ship without a space-suit. Ravi McLeod needs to understand what he's seen, but he's very low on the ship's strict hierarchy, and in a precarious position because he's one of the rare social climbers who have gone from crew to being trained as an officer.

The mystery consumes him and his cousin Boz, a brilliant hacker, as they navigate fraught politics, class differences, social disputes amongst some of the crew who aren't sure that they want to screw up a whole new planet and the lingering fear of the AIs that the ships left Earth to avoid.

This is an excellent debut science fiction novel with good science for an older YA audience. It reminded me strongly of the more adult Medusa Uploaded which had a similar setup and mystery (although it got really weird in the second book). What's actually going on is very clever and risks exposing the whole house of cards that the ship's society is built on, which is fun in such a closed environment.

Recommended.

[Peter · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ 50%

I just couldn't carry on with this one.
It was too basic and dull, mostly due to the soulless characters. I never really got into the story, so the various mysteries weren't interesting. It was really poorly structured and the YA undertones really put me off. The writing was amateur at best, cringey at worst, and apart from a few decent world-building ideas, there really wasn't much originality to be found.

Unless you really want a YA story aboard a generic generation ship setting, I can't recommend this.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Politics, mystery and a coming of age drama aboard a miles-long generation ship.“
I stole that sentence from the author, it‘s a perfect description.

Ravi trains to become an engineer and officer on a generation ship that is ruled by an officer elite looking down on the likes of him. One day he sees a girl without space suit floating outside of the ship, impossibly alive… pursuing this mystery might mean that he looses his chance of climbing the social ladder of the ship and could have even more dire consequences.

Believable characters, mostly light reading for a YA audience, but with some darker notes about society, prejudices and how badly people can treat others, when they think they are entitled. There might be dragons. And chocolate.

Meet the author: Adam Oyebanji on debut novel Braking Day
https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/adam-oy...

And a fun interview with the author on GrimdarkMagazine: (light spoilers)
https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/an-i...

Excellent audiobook narration.

[Borce · Rating 2 out of 5]

Harsh take:

Pros: the idea of the book
Cons: the book

The details:

I could not connect with almost any character. The writing style could not keep me engaged. I had a real issue with the made of phrases like, “for Archie’s sake” and “sard that.” I get they are substitutes for our current phrases in an attempt to make the setting feel more unique or distinct but it ended up coming off as juvenile. Also, because the author is introducing new slang we have no real idea of how serious anything is. When someone today says “oh fuck” you have a decent idea of the gravity of the situation. But when you read “oh, Archie!” It falls flat (the usage of Archie is based off the ships name and Greek philosopher, mathematician, scientist, Archimedes).

Also, nearly nothing happens for 200 pages (over half the book). The crumbs left in an attempt to keep the reader engaged are so small I was dying for some plot point to push me on. And due to this I started skimming and most assuredly missed things that other reviewers could point out as pivotal plot points! Oh well!

I love the concept of this book but felt the execution was completely lacking. Could I have done better? No, not at all. But I read a lot and a lot of sci-fi and maybe my patience for plot is lower than it should be.

[Feliciana · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up. This was a solid debut novel. Oyebanji has some cool and interesting ideas. He added some common tropes that could've been left out, but I enjoyed the book. I look forward to seeing his future work.

[Clarence Wolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding hard-sf mystery/adventure.
Full RTC

[Quitokommando · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pedestrian YA. Or it should have been labeled as such.

[Kara Babcock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Something about the description of this book made me give it a chance even though I’ve been turned off generation ship stories lately. Perhaps it was the fact that the story is confined to a single generation, rather than attempting to span the multiple generations of the ship’s journey. Adam Oyebanji uses the setting to tell an interesting story of political intrigue and cover-ups, mystery, and some intense action. While there are parts that don’t quite cohere into the whole, overall, it’s a pretty good yarn.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

Braking Day takes place just as the Archimedes and its two sister ships near their destination of Tau Ceti. Ravinder (Ravi) Macleod is training to be an engineering officer, but his family name is already a strike against him. While dealing with this prejudice, Ravi also starts to notice that not all is right with the Archimedes. Certain things don’t add up—but why? Is this sabotage by the BonVoyers—a protest group that doesn’t want the fleet to colonize an alien world, extirpating its indigenous life? Or is there something even more sinister afoot, something that has perhaps been hidden from Ravi and the rest of his generation?

I can’t go into too many details here without immediately getting into spoiler territory. Suffice it to say, I predicted the twist that happens halfway through the novel, and the final reveal was a little disappointing. Nevertheless, I appreciate how Oyebanji takes the time to construct credible, competing belief systems stemming from the history on Earth—namely, how some people embraced implants (hence becoming cyborgs) while rejecting artificial intelligences, and others did the opposite. Everything that happens, and the cold war situation that drives the largest conflict of this story, makes sense from a narrative perspective, and I appreciate that.

I also liked that Oyebanji took the time to discuss the ethics around humanity spreading out among the stars. Do we have the right to displace indigenous life on another world simply so we can colonize it and make our mark? The fact that there are different perspectives on this from characters in the novel allows the reader to grapple with the complexity. While there is a twinge of dystopia here—Ravi is often struggling to afford the water rations to do things like shower, and it’s clear that the closed-loop system of the fleet is nearing its end of life—this novel is ultimately optimistic about the chances of a generation ship succeeding in its journey. I love how Oyebanji portrays the society that has sprung up on these three vessels, along with Ravi’s critiques of it.

Despite my disappointment with some parts of the reveal, I don’t want to be too harsh, because Braking Day kept me reading. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I couldn’t put it down. Nevertheless, I really wanted to find out the solutions to the various mysteries that Ravi had started to unravel.

On that note, without spoiling, let me praise this book for wrapping up those mysteries by the end. This could easily be the start of a series, but if it is not, it works fine as a standalone novel as well. There are enough dangling plot threads to start a new story—either with the same characters or perhaps their descendants—but the questions raised in this book get answered. This is a delicate balance to achieve, and Oyebanji nails it.

Overall, I would characterize this novel as fun, fraught with danger, and fulfilling in its promises to the reader.

Originally posted on Kara.Reviews, where you can easily browse all my reviews and subscribe to my newsletter.

[Bina · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

One of my most anticipated reads this year, and so glad it turned out to be this good! Love mysteries in space and this was a very satisfying one. Enjoyed Ravi and especially his cousin Boz as characters, the wonderful worldbuilding and politics, as well as the kickass finale.
I think my only, small, quibble would be with the length and pacing of the book, cutting a chapter here and there would've tightened the story.
But overall a wonderful read and I hope the author is already working on another book!

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Off to a good start, in this 21st century update of a Heinlein juvenile. A young engineer-in-training has a disturbing vision . . . Well. Start with the publisher's intro, just above. Definitely odd things going on as the starship Archimedes, one of a flotilla of 3, nears the end of its 7 lifetimes-long journey to build Earth's first extrasolar colony. It's a first novel, so don't expect polish. But a very creditable effort! I'm having fun.

The author's life-story is interesting & atypical: " I was born in the West of Scotland, more years ago than I care to remember. Though, now I come to think about it, who actually remembers being born? I moved east to Edinburgh, by way of Birmingham, London, Lagos, Nigeria, Chicago, Pittsburgh and New York . . . [He works] in the field of counter-terrorist financing, which sounds way cooler than it is. . . ."

Finished the book last night. The resolution gets over-complicated and is not entirely satisfactory. The whole Bon Voy subplot was unconvincing, to me anyway. The Newton's Dragons, however, were both convincing and scary. And this sort of book is pretty much required to have a (more or less) Happy Ending. Which is fine with me. Overall, 3.5 stars, a fine debut novel. Recommended reading -- especially for Space Cadets!

[Nissanmama · Rating 5 out of 5]

Braking Day, thoughtful debut offering by Adam Oyebanji, begins in the sixth generation of a seven-generation trip through space. The seventh generation are currently infants and toddlers. For genealogical purposes, a generation is typically defined as twenty years. That means that it’s been over 120 years since three massive ships left Earth to colonize a planet orbiting the star Tau Ceti, traveling at roughly ten-percent of the speed of light. By necessity, travel time would be extended to include time to accelerate and time to decelerate. The title Braking Day refers to the moment, or “sol” since days aren’t really a thing in deep space, when the ships will start the yearlong deceleration process prior to reaching their destination. The ships will then be broken down into resources to create new cities for their new lives. There is no going back.

The ancestors of the current crew had a dream for their mission, to escape the oppression of “LOKI’s,” an anacronym for Loosely Organized Kinetic Intelligence. As mankind became more and more dependent on technology, artificial intelligence gained more and more power. Somewhere between The Matrix and I, Robot, LOKI’s have become mankind’s babysitters, determining which activities have acceptable levels of risk and which do not. They effectively run the world. First crew wanted to make their own choices and for their children to also have that right.

Main character Ravi McCleod is an engineer in-training. His life is marked by a depth of thought on Oyebanji’s part which surprised me. It would have been easy to make these self-maintaining ships given the level of technology represented on Earth when they were built, but by leaving the LOKI’s behind, they require maintenance, repairs, experience the wear of decades of travel, even some catastrophes that cannot ever be repaired. Resources and water are limited. No one living even remembers Earth or “First Crew.” Their society has evolved to adapt to space living. Not everyone wants to give that up to live a stationary life on a rock and not everyone is productive. All crew members and passengers have a rating. “Dead weight” gets recycled because they cannot afford to waste resources on people who are disruptive or not contributing. Ravi’s father, the descendant of blue-collar workers, was a petty criminal by Earth’s standards, but was a problem to the wrong people. He was recycled and even though Ravi is an excellent student, he carries that stigma.

Despite whatever their intentions were when they left Earth, the first crew brought their prejudice and bad habits with them. Those descended from the revered officers of first crew have advantage, easy access to education, and opportunities. Those descended from blue-collar workers like janitors, warehouse workers, and food service, are barely scraping by. There are days that Ravi has to decide if he can afford to buy water to shower after dirty days crawling around the bowels of the ship. His professors doubt his intelligence and openly call his integrity into question in front of other students. No one even questions this prejudice.

Oyebanji crafts a believable world, not just with classism and environment, but has thought about life on these ships down to swear words, inter-ship sports teams, traditions, holidays, and the things people would organize to protest about six generations into the voyage. This believability makes what happens to Ravi so notable—he sees a girl floating outside the ship in the hard vacuum of space with no suit. A complete and total impossibility. We struggle with him while he evaluates his own sanity and enlists the help of his cousin, brilliant and gifted at coding, someone who should be in the upper echelons of the crew, but who keeps getting her rating knocked down for proudly following the family tradition of misdemeanor crimes.

The adventure that follows in the last third of the book is excellent. The reader does not see it coming even though the clues are there and that’s just fun. I truly hope that Oyebanji will make this a series. Braking Day is a complete book with a solid ending, but there is so much material to be explored that I would definitely be interested to see which way he takes these characters after their experiences.

My Rating: A- Enjoyed A Lot

Read this full review and more at That's What I'm Talking About: https://twimom227.com/2022/04/review-...

[Jukaschar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely well written, interesting novel about life on a generation star ship. I really liked Ravinder, the main character, he is not your usual sci-fi hero with all his personal problems.
It's hard to believe this is a debut novel. Adam Oyebanji has earned a spot on my watchlist for sure!

[Aristotle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A first time author taking me to a distant planet orbiting Tau Ceti

This was good.
A little surprised where the journey finally took me.
I enjoyed Ravi and Boz and look forward to seeing them again.

"To live in a place where the only the only thing protecting him from the ravages of the universe was a thin skin of colorless gas felt deeply unnatural." -Ravi

"You're going to kill the living for the sins of the dead?" -Ravi
A fitting quote in these crazy times we live in.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this debut space opera. I went into this book with no expectations, without reading any reviews. I found that I couldn't put it down, except when real life interfered (which happened way too often). So I won't say to much.

A fleet of spaceships from the homeworld are closing in on their Destination World, and they would have to decelerate very soon, and there was much to be done before Braking Day. Generations have lived on the ships, and not everyone is sure that they want to live on a planet.

I am looking forward to reading more by this author.

[Kate Weber · Rating 3 out of 5]

First-time author develops a fun plot that feels like a clever mash-up remix of all the spacer books that you have ever read, but the world and storyline is weighed down by boring, paper-cut characters. No one learns a lesson, no one evolves, no character arc connects to the story arc. The main character's defining characteristic is that he gets space sick, so the reader is treated to frequent descriptions of his nausea to remind us that he is Special. All other character also have That One Thing that defines them (e,g. "Boz is a rebel, so she smokes all the time!"). Any desire to read another chapter is driven by a will to solve the mystery (which is a fun one!), not because of any attachment to the Clue-like caricatures of people who populate the narrative. Promising debut novel, not a break-out hit.

[E.A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a refreshingly original abs imaginative science fiction read! I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into at the onset but was throughly captivated by the world - a spaceship on the verge of “braking” for their new home world.

I found Ravi (the main character) to be the perfect blend of innocent and ingenuitive and his journey to be worth following.

The scientific details (to a non-scientist like myself) read easily, the plot never left a dull moment, and resolution was satisfying and left me wanting me (as in another book in this world!) in the best way.

I can completely recommend it to lovers of science fiction!

My rating: 4.5*

—-
Thanks to the publisher for this gifted book. All opinions are my own!

[David Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Braking Day is an intelligent and atmospheric SF thriller set aboard a generation ship as it nears the end of its voyage. I enjoyed the scuffed and worn atmosphere of the Archimedes, 132 years into the mission and 6 generations of crew on from the original pioneers. Constructed as a series of habitat wheels mounted on a central core, the ship has lost one segment - "Hungary" - due an asteroid strike and another - "Ghana" is failing as its bearings give out. There is a palpable air of decay and a weariness among the crew of the Archimedes, combined with a fatalism (at least from most) that the mission will, indeed shortly end. Elsewhere in the Fleet, another ship has problems with its hydroponics. They won't be arriving a moment too soon at Tau Ceti, the "destination star".

And yet. Some on board are still wary of the idea of planetfall. It seems weird and unnatural to contemplate living on the outside of a ball of rock, unshielded from the radiation of the star. And others have moral scruples. The faction known as "BonVoys" want to prolong the journey, saving the new world from pollution and exploitation and staying in their safe, familiar vessel.

Ravi MacLeod, a young trainee engineer, shares some doubts with the first group. But relistically, the journey can't go on for ever, and he looks forward to just having more space than his current cramped quarters allow. That's if he ever makes it to the planet - life has been particularly challenging lately. The MacLeods are seen as, basically, thieving scum - Ravi's dad was condemned to the recycler several years before - and he feels at risk of being thrown off his training course at any moment. The division in this story between "officers" and the rest is stark, reinforcing the dystopian atmosphere of the book where anyone over 75 is seen as "Dead Weight" and recycled; where water is scarce, and treated as a unit of value; where despite everyone being "crew" with a single mission, power and prestige seen to inhere in particular families; where those families seem to have their own agendas for the vogage.

Other problems haunting Ravi include headaches, hallucinations, and disturbing dreams which seem to be trying to tell him something about the Fleet. This is not only worrying but it makes it hard to perform his - very strenuous - daytime duties. Desperate for help, he turns to the only person he can think of - his cousin Boz. Boz is, however, a quintessential MacLeod, a bad girl with fingers in many dodgy pies and who has herself come within a whisker of being declared Dead Weight. She, too, may well have her own plans for the future...

The interaction between model pupil Ravi and near-delinquent - even if she is a brilliant coder - Boz - we a great delight in this book. The light their different attitudes cast on the social structure of Archimedes helps make the story very, very real and those social structures are really the heart and soul of the book. I wasn't completely convinced by the science, especially the pseudo-gravity, but in my view that really doesn't matter so long as it's basically plausible: what counts rather is the credible treatment given both to the evolution of society aboard the ship, its current pathological form, and the impact of that on the fifth and sixth generation crew who never asked to be born into such a strange situation.

Above all, perhaps, the focus this story casts on the why of the trip. Why would you commit to that one way journey, knowing your kids, and their kids, and their kids, will live out their lives aboard the ship, with only distant generations having any chance of arrival? Oyebanji makes out a very plausible case in the future of Earth and it's one that will drive a potential conflict for those descendants, albeit one they don't expect. Things have been hidden form the travellers, and Ravi and Boz may be the first since Launch to understand the full truth - and the nature of the danger that threatens everyone's dreams.

Of course, Ravi's own dreams and hallucinations do prove to be linked to this central mystery. We're not kept on tenterhooks to the very end about it as he and Boz work out what it is, rather enlightenment comes earlier (though some mysteries remain) moving the second half of the book more into thriller and conflict territory as they have to face up to a responsibility for the Fleet and the 30,000 or so humans within it. That position poses particular dilemmas, especially for Ravi whose self-image and life plans have all been about distancing himself from his raffish family and progressing within Fleet society - what will he do if all that respectability is at risk because of the action he needs to take?

Very much about growing up and taking responsibility, but also about learning to question and think for oneself, Braking Day is very effective in matching the external challenge to a protagonist with whom the reader will I think feel a lot of sympathy.

[Bonnie McDaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a debut novel, and a very fine one. The author takes the trope of the generation ship and puts a unique spin on it, exploring the culture of a fleet of generation ships a hundred and thirty-two years into their voyage, when they're coming up on the titular Braking Day. This is a major maneuver wherein they will flip their ships and fire up their drive for the final approach to the Destination Star. But the fleet of three ships has explosive secrets that are about to come to the surface, and in the process the reasons why they left Earth will be exposed and the future of the fleet will be decided.

There's a lot going on here, from the culture of the fleet (water is used as currency instead of money, and the protagonist, engineer Ravi McLeod, spends a lot of his time crawling in the bowels of his ship, the Archimedes, without having sufficient water in his account to clean himself up) and the splintering factions therein, to the inevitable aging of a fleet of hundred-year-old ships and their closed recycling and ecosystems starting to break down. The story proper starts with a riveting first chapter, where Ravi goes one of the engine rooms at the rear of the Archie (the ship is about forty miles long, with habitat wheels rotating around a central spine, protected at the front by a kilometer-wide shield) and starts hearing tapping noises. He looks through a porthole and sees what he thinks must be a hallucination--a young blond woman floating in vacuum without a spacesuit.

But the woman is real, and unraveling her mystery sets Ravi and his cousin, master hacker Roberta "Boz" McLeod, against the hierarchy of the fleet and the secrets it protects. The people aboard the ships are the descendants of the First Crew, who left an Earth taken over and ruled by AIs (here called LOKIs, standing for "Loosely Organized Kinetic Intelligence," which admittedly gave my Asgard-loving heart a bit of a chuckle). The inhabitants firmly reject any kind of artificial intelligence, opting to use cybernetic implants to create a networked hivemind. But as Ravi and Boz discover, there is another ship out there--the Newton--hunting the fleet. The Newton was isolated from the rest decades ago, after an outbreak of plague onboard that the other ships refused to help them with, for fear of the contagion spreading. The Newton survivors have never forgotten. Their society is also structured as a polar opposite--the ship is run by a LOKI, and the inhabitants hate the rest of the fleet's "cyborgs."

This societal clash is one of the most interesting parts of the book. Ravi and Boz are trying to prevent a war--the Newton is a more heavily armored and advanced ship, and has a fleet of protective "dragons," warships constructed from some of the habitat wheels after the plague and its attendant population crash and crewed by fully autonomous LOKIs. (I admit when those were first mentioned I thought, really? We're getting some sort of space-dwelling mythological creatures here? but the dragons were actually pretty cool.) With Braking Day fast approaching, the fleet is locked into its mission--the aging ships cannot continue crossing deep space for much longer, despite another faction onboard, the Bon Voyagers, who insist that space is now their natural home and eschew any human presence on a planet.

All this makes for a fast-paced, fascinating stew. If I had one wish, it would be that the author had explored the ramifications of his societal and hierarchal clashes a bit more deeply. Especially at the climax, the antagonist's motivations, while plausible, are a bit out of left field. But these are minor quibbles. This is a satisfying story and an author to keep an eye on.

[John Loyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fleet is preparing for braking day and Ravi gets assigned to check the engine room. He is cut off from the hive, the constant communication between his implants and the rest of the ship, and sees a girl outside the ship banging on the hull. Nice hook, right? The first half of the book lays the basis of the story with a few more teasers thrown in. Three generation ships left Earth to get away from the LOKIs, Loosely Organized Kinetic Intelligence, had taken control of the solar system. Not in a terrible way, but these people thought their lives were being controlled.

Once Ravi finds out who/what the girl/apparition is things take off. There is a serious threat, not just the Bon Voyages who want to stay in space rather than have humanity ruin another world, to avoid spoilers I'll just say it's another threat. Spoilers also keep me from saying anything about the exciting half of the book.

What would have been a great hook was too enigmatic and distracted from all the tidbits that would play a major role in the resolution (which had some clever twists). The opening was still interesting, it just didn't become a page turner until the halfway point. 4.3 stars.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adam Oyebanji studied at Harvard Law school and works in "counter-terrorist financing". This helps explain the well thought out treatment of surveillance in the hive/web system. This new author comfortably deployed other great tech ideas in here with stylistic ease. The read was almost breezy, despite a very technical "hard sf" convincing world. This was a generation-ship story, which is one of my favorite tropes of SF. Great discussion among the characters about the Destination Planet they will go to after the ship "brakes" from its 132 year journey regarding the pros/cons/possibilities. This provided a point of tension and conflict among the players and factions involved. There were lots of twist and turns and the last third of the book went in a direction I did not see coming. Some nice short passages and lines that gave me the AWE OF SPACE - a factor I yearn for in these books. I recently read Project Hail Mary, which had all the hard sf treatment (problem solving, technology, SCIENCE), but without any Wonder. Although I would have trimmed a few chapters to keep with the pace Braking Day was selling me, overall a great debut of 2022.

[Jes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engineer-in-training Ravi MacLeod has long set his sights on becoming an officer aboard the generation ship Archimedes. It’s been over a century since the Archimedes and it’s two sister ships left an AI dominated earth for a new start on a distant world. The Archimedes is preparing for Braking Day, when the generation ship finally begins to slow down as they approach their destination star. Only Ravi’s started seeing a woman no one else can see, one who can’t possibly exist, and to top it off odd things have started happening around the ship. As his visions become more frequent, Ravi must decide between securing his dream position or pursuing the mystery his visions reveal.

Adam Oyebanji’s Braking Day is a diverse, inventive story which breaths exciting new life into the genre mainstay of the generation ship. With vibrant world-building, well crafted characters, and a twisty mystery driven plot, Braking Day is a stand out novel from a wonderful new voice in science fiction.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a soft spot for stories on generation ships. It's not an amazing book, it treads a little closely to YA and has some pacing problems, but there's clear potential here so I'll need to remember Adam Oyebanji's name.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fun, suspenseful, space opera adventure about an engineer trainee on generation ship who sees a mysterious woman floating outside the ship without a spacesuit. I appreciated how well thought out people's varied reactions towards being born into a mission that was decided on seven generations ago was.

[Anna]

Very enjoyable story. I’ll be watching this author in the future.

[Chip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shockingly good for a debut novel. Somewhat YA-ish or adjacent, but overall a good, fast-paced read. Good enough to seek out more by the author.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun generation ship space opera