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Fractal #2
Resilient
AD 2118. Humanity has colonised the Moon, Mars, Ceres and Europa. The partnership of corporations and governments has energized the space programme for one hundred years.
That partnership is shattered when a terrorist attack destroys the world’s biggest solar array in Atacama, Chile, altering the global economic balance.
On Mars, at Phobos Station, Doctor Emerson Drake arrives, responding to an emergency call to assist a shuttle of wounded miners, but when those miners turn out to be insurgents, Drake realises he is trapped and fighting to survive.
In deep space, Captain Ellisa Shann has passed her limits. Now, the last survivors of the Khidr have to choose whether to try to get home on the captured ship, Gallowglass, or stay to observe the strange gravity anomaly that swallowed up the remains of their vessel.
On Earth, in an undisclosed location, Natalie Holder finally has an opportunity to break free from her confinement, where she has been experimented on, multiple times. Her consciousness is transmitted to Phobos Station, just as insurgents take over the facility.
Holder and Drake form an alliance but are separated. Drake is captured and taken to the insurgent leader – Rocher – a clone of the stowaway who caused the munity on Captain Shann’s Khidr.
Allen Stroud's Resilient is a masterpiece of hard sci-fi, a worthy follow up from events of his successful and highly-praised Flame Tree Press debut, Fearless.
That partnership is shattered when a terrorist attack destroys the world’s biggest solar array in Atacama, Chile, altering the global economic balance.
On Mars, at Phobos Station, Doctor Emerson Drake arrives, responding to an emergency call to assist a shuttle of wounded miners, but when those miners turn out to be insurgents, Drake realises he is trapped and fighting to survive.
In deep space, Captain Ellisa Shann has passed her limits. Now, the last survivors of the Khidr have to choose whether to try to get home on the captured ship, Gallowglass, or stay to observe the strange gravity anomaly that swallowed up the remains of their vessel.
On Earth, in an undisclosed location, Natalie Holder finally has an opportunity to break free from her confinement, where she has been experimented on, multiple times. Her consciousness is transmitted to Phobos Station, just as insurgents take over the facility.
Holder and Drake form an alliance but are separated. Drake is captured and taken to the insurgent leader – Rocher – a clone of the stowaway who caused the munity on Captain Shann’s Khidr.
Allen Stroud's Resilient is a masterpiece of hard sci-fi, a worthy follow up from events of his successful and highly-praised Flame Tree Press debut, Fearless.
- GenresScience Fiction
422 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 26, 2022
8 people are currently reading
1679 people want to read
About the author
Allen Stroud
61 books77 followersI am Assistant Professor (Research) Defence and Security Futures in the Centre for Peace and Security at Coventry University.
I was Chair of the British Science Fiction Association between 2019 and 2025.
In 2017, I completed my Ph. D. in "Worldbuilding Techniques and Writing Structures in Science Fiction and Fantasy".
My Official Elite: Dangerous novel, Elite: Lave Revolution was published in May 2014. I am also the official novelist for Julian Gollop's new game 'Chaos Reborn', released in 2016. I also wrote 'The Last Tank Commander', which was first published by Newcon Press and went on to be included in 'The Year's Best Military SF and Adventure Stories 2016' by Baen Books.
In 2017, Luna Press published my novel, 'The Forever Man', a weird fiction/urban fantasy. In 2018, I was featured in the Clarke Award/Newcon Press anthology celebrating 100 years since the birth of Arthur C. Clarke.
I was also the co-lead writer for the computer game, Phoenix Point which was published in 2019. You can find a collection of the short stories here - https://phoenixpoint.info/archives/
In 2020, Flame Tree Press published my Science Fiction novel, Fearless.
“Stroud raises fascinating questions about the politics of space exploration.”- Publisher’s Weekly
“Rigorous hard SF with a powerful but flawed protagonist and a fascinating historical background, Fearless is a treat for just about any Analog reader.” AnalogSF
“Fast-paced, gripping hard SF with death in hard vacuum waiting at every turn.” Adrian Tchaikovsky
After Fearless, we have the sequel, Resilient (2022) then the episodes: Europa (2023), Ceres (2023) Lagrange Point (2023), Terra (2023), Luna (2024) and Jezero (2024). Also, the third novel, Vigilance came out in 2024.
I was Chair of the British Science Fiction Association between 2019 and 2025.
In 2017, I completed my Ph. D. in "Worldbuilding Techniques and Writing Structures in Science Fiction and Fantasy".
My Official Elite: Dangerous novel, Elite: Lave Revolution was published in May 2014. I am also the official novelist for Julian Gollop's new game 'Chaos Reborn', released in 2016. I also wrote 'The Last Tank Commander', which was first published by Newcon Press and went on to be included in 'The Year's Best Military SF and Adventure Stories 2016' by Baen Books.
In 2017, Luna Press published my novel, 'The Forever Man', a weird fiction/urban fantasy. In 2018, I was featured in the Clarke Award/Newcon Press anthology celebrating 100 years since the birth of Arthur C. Clarke.
I was also the co-lead writer for the computer game, Phoenix Point which was published in 2019. You can find a collection of the short stories here - https://phoenixpoint.info/archives/
In 2020, Flame Tree Press published my Science Fiction novel, Fearless.
“Stroud raises fascinating questions about the politics of space exploration.”- Publisher’s Weekly
“Rigorous hard SF with a powerful but flawed protagonist and a fascinating historical background, Fearless is a treat for just about any Analog reader.” AnalogSF
“Fast-paced, gripping hard SF with death in hard vacuum waiting at every turn.” Adrian Tchaikovsky
After Fearless, we have the sequel, Resilient (2022) then the episodes: Europa (2023), Ceres (2023) Lagrange Point (2023), Terra (2023), Luna (2024) and Jezero (2024). Also, the third novel, Vigilance came out in 2024.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 7, 2022
Resilient sort of picks up where Fearless ended, though it first introduces two new important character pov's that bring wider world perspectives, in addition to the two remaining pov's from the first book. Starting quite explosively (literally so within a few pages), Resilient doesn't really stop until the (reasonably good stopping points for the pov's) tbc end some few hundred pages later and it is really hard to put down; this time the author gets the pov balance right and even creates quite a lot of suspense occasionally leaving a pov chapter on a cliffhanger, so one is tempted to skip the pages until the next chapter with the same pov and then return to the storyline, while the geographical balance of the pov's also works well and meshes better with the back story, both internal (flashbacks, dreams etc) and external (documents, press releases etc).
The novel keeps one guessing until the end and there are twists, turns, double-crosses, desperate situations, combat, intrigue, and a lot of fascinating new perspectives added to the hints glimpsed in Fearless.
The universe expands, the stakes grow higher and we still have only clues about what all means, or who are really the main parties involved as we see everything through the lenses of our 4 pov's; I also quite liked their character arcs, especially of the two on the Mars orbit station, but also of Captain Shann and while in this book ensign Johansson plays a somewhat more secondary role than in Fearless, she is the same manic problem solver with a less than full regard for authority and chain of command and who saves the day on occasion because of that; in addition, this book has awesome villains who are more fully fleshed out than in Fearless
Overall Resilient fully realizes the potential Fearless presented and even more, as a gripping sf Solar System adventure full of everything one wants in such and the next novel in the series is a huge asap.
Highly recommended and a top 10 of the year for me
The novel keeps one guessing until the end and there are twists, turns, double-crosses, desperate situations, combat, intrigue, and a lot of fascinating new perspectives added to the hints glimpsed in Fearless.
The universe expands, the stakes grow higher and we still have only clues about what all means, or who are really the main parties involved as we see everything through the lenses of our 4 pov's; I also quite liked their character arcs, especially of the two on the Mars orbit station, but also of Captain Shann and while in this book ensign Johansson plays a somewhat more secondary role than in Fearless, she is the same manic problem solver with a less than full regard for authority and chain of command and who saves the day on occasion because of that; in addition, this book has awesome villains who are more fully fleshed out than in Fearless
Overall Resilient fully realizes the potential Fearless presented and even more, as a gripping sf Solar System adventure full of everything one wants in such and the next novel in the series is a huge asap.
Highly recommended and a top 10 of the year for me
Read
January 27, 2022When I reviewed Allen Stroud’s first novel, Fearless, back in July 2020, I had no hesitation in calling it one of the best science-fiction novels I had ever read – and a recent reread of it in preparation for this review has not changed my opinion even slightly. The masterful combination of a tense, atmospheric setting onboard the Search and Rescue spaceship Khidr; superb and multi-faceted characterization for the small but potent cast of characters that populated the novel; and some first-rate worldbuilding that created a vibrant, engaging and above-all original universe that avoided many of the cliches of the increasingly stale trope of ‘corporate-dominated space travel’. I was eager to see what Stroud would do with the setting and characters in the aftermath of Fearless and was therefore incredibly excited to hear that the sequel to the novel – entitled Resilient and now part of the ‘Fractal’ series – would be released in April 2022. I was able to grab an early Advanced Review Copy from NetGalley thanks to the generosity of the publisher, Flame Tree Press, and was eager to see what Allen had in store for me as a reader. The superb cover art from the first novel returns, catching the potential reader’s eye and drawing it in effortlessly, and the back-cover blurb intrigued me with its mentions of space-based revolution and eventual civil war when a devastating terrorist attack shatters the fragile links between the corporations and governments that led to the colonization of much of the solar system by the 22nd Century.
As the novel begins, a huge explosion tears apart the Atacama Solar Array in Chile, a gigantic facility that provides power to most of the population remaining on Earth. This is bad news for the population of Earth, but potentially fatal for those people living and working in the colonies populating the outer solar system; the corporations and governments sending them supplies will now turn inwards to resolve their own problems, and likely ignore or even abandon the colonists. One such colonist is Emerson Drake, a medical doctor living on Mars and working under a corporate contract; used to living a hardscrabble life on the Red Planet, Drake is surprised to suddenly be assigned to a mission to the moon of Phobos, as part of a team tending to a mining shuttle full of injured miners. As if that wasn’t stressful enough, Drake has just been informed of the fact that his brother, Jonathan, is missing along with the rest of the crew of the Khidr. Worried but unable to find out much about the ship’s status, Drake soon finds himself heading for Phobos and a dangerous assignment he knows too little about. At the same time, the surviving crewmembers of the Khidr are recovering from the chaos and treachery that led to many of them dying, and the need to make use of a new spaceship in the process. Captain Shann has been relieved of her command for her controversial actions in space, and her crew now have to decide whether to try and return to Earth on their new ship Gallowglass or stay and observe the strange anomaly that destroyed the remains of the Khidr. And as if that wasn’t enough, corporate captive Natalie Holder finds herself the subject of mystifying and horrifying experiments involving the transfer of her consciousness between bodies; lacking free will, and even the certainty of whether her memories and her emotions are her own or implants manufactured for the benefit of her captors, Holder’s only hope is a dangerous mission to Phobos and an encounter with the insurgents that have just captured the station. Thrown together in the chaos, Drake and Holder must work together to survive, while the remaining crew of the Khidr discover more about the conspiracies that destroyed their ship and almost killed them all.
Expanding on the worldbuilding he began in Fearless, Stroud presents us with a deeply intriguing look at a solar system that is increasingly under intense social, political and cultural tension from the blended corporate-government exploration and colonization of space, the current tensions smartly expanded upon through the inclusion of regular excerpts from news reports, speeches and reports throughout the late 21st Century that provide much-needed context to just how this public-private partnership developed and began to fray at the edges. We are given a view of a future in which government entities initially cooperated with private companies to launch missions from Earth to colonize Luna, Mars and set up a number of space stations scattered throughout the solar system, only for increasingly divergent and conflicting priorities to cause different sides to form as humanity expanded its reach throughout the void. Corporations chafe at government regulation and restrictions interfering with their attempts to extract profit from their ventures at the expense of their workers and their rights; and governments begin to resort to increasingly conspiratorial and brutal tactics to maintain their control over the solar system. While this sort of thing has been done many times before – The Expanse being one such equivalent – I don’t believe that any author has given such a crystal-clear view of how corporate and government attitudes can clash and diverge, nor cemented it with a fascinating and multi-faceted plot that always comes across as mysterious and intriguing rather than confusing, no matter how many additional elements Stroud adds. It’s an incredibly difficult thing to achieve, with many authors falling at their own versions of these self-imposed hurdles, but Stroud manages it with a smoothness and gravity that belies the huge amount of skill and talent this obviously took.
The fascinating narrative strands that arc throughout the novel – deftly blending together politics, military action, espionage and even such varied topics as the nature of consciousness, the development of Artificial Intelligence, and the difficulties of space travel – would not work anywhere near as well without a compelling and cohesive cast of characters – and fortunately Stroud is once again up to the job. The tensions amongst the surviving crewmembers of the Khidr are only exacerbated by the immense pressures they find themselves under as the interplanetary conspiracy they’re enmeshed in becomes more and more unraveled, and Stroud deftly pivots between multiple viewpoints amongst the crew. Ensign April Johansson makes for a sympathetic protagonist as we see her struggle to understand both how to undertake her duties – now apparently vital to the future of humanity – and also recover from the betrayal of so many of her friends in the crew and the subsequent blurring of the nature of command, when senior crew members are either traitors or so compromised by the things they had to do to survive that it seems impossible to either trust them or follow them. The nature of the chain of command and inherent trust in your seniors in a military setting is one of the most intriguing concepts that runs throughout the narrative, explored by Stroud through the eyes of Johansson and Captain Shann, a returning character from the first novel and someone who must now decide what leadership means to her – and whether further breaking the chain of command is necessary for survival despite its long-term consequences. However, the standout character in the novel must be Natalie Holder – someone who finds themselves turned into a living weapon by mysterious captors, who constantly experiment on her mind and memories in order to shape her into the operative they require for various assassination and commando operations, transferring her consciousness into different bodies for each mission and increasingly shattering her very sense of being. What happens to Holder is genuinely unsettling, an undercurrent of horror running through the spine of the novel – a woman desperately searching for her true self while being forcibly turned into a trained killer with no compulsion around murdering those who getting her way as she tries to find a way to escape her captivity. Stroud really gets into her mindscape and deftly demonstrates the realities of experimentation by corporations without any moral or ethical limits. Holder is a mysterious and multifaceted character I found myself instinctively drawn to – and want to see much more of in the future.
Resilient is one of those incredibly rare things – a sequel that actually improves on its predecessor. Stroud presents us with a complex, multifaceted science-fiction experience that offers a deeply compelling narrative, interlaced with rich and complex worldbuilding and three-dimensional characters that help to draw us into the vast and complex conspiracy slowly unfolding across the entire solar system. Resilient avoids all of the bloated padding and pointless subplots that usually plague the middle book in a trilogy, and instead delivers a taut, streamlined and fast-paced political thriller that races across the solar system, effortlessly bouncing between colonies, space stations and the depths of space while deftly exploring some fascinating and complex issues in an engaging and thought-provoking manner. With many narrative threads tied up and many new ones introduced, and existing ones expanded upon in intriguing and fascinating ways, Resilient sets the stage for an explosive set of revelations in the next book in the series, and also demonstrates just why Stroud is such a rapidly-rising star in the science-fiction genre. I genuinely cannot wait to see how things develop in the next novel, and I will be making time for it as soon as it becomes available. I would strongly recommend that you all do the same.
As the novel begins, a huge explosion tears apart the Atacama Solar Array in Chile, a gigantic facility that provides power to most of the population remaining on Earth. This is bad news for the population of Earth, but potentially fatal for those people living and working in the colonies populating the outer solar system; the corporations and governments sending them supplies will now turn inwards to resolve their own problems, and likely ignore or even abandon the colonists. One such colonist is Emerson Drake, a medical doctor living on Mars and working under a corporate contract; used to living a hardscrabble life on the Red Planet, Drake is surprised to suddenly be assigned to a mission to the moon of Phobos, as part of a team tending to a mining shuttle full of injured miners. As if that wasn’t stressful enough, Drake has just been informed of the fact that his brother, Jonathan, is missing along with the rest of the crew of the Khidr. Worried but unable to find out much about the ship’s status, Drake soon finds himself heading for Phobos and a dangerous assignment he knows too little about. At the same time, the surviving crewmembers of the Khidr are recovering from the chaos and treachery that led to many of them dying, and the need to make use of a new spaceship in the process. Captain Shann has been relieved of her command for her controversial actions in space, and her crew now have to decide whether to try and return to Earth on their new ship Gallowglass or stay and observe the strange anomaly that destroyed the remains of the Khidr. And as if that wasn’t enough, corporate captive Natalie Holder finds herself the subject of mystifying and horrifying experiments involving the transfer of her consciousness between bodies; lacking free will, and even the certainty of whether her memories and her emotions are her own or implants manufactured for the benefit of her captors, Holder’s only hope is a dangerous mission to Phobos and an encounter with the insurgents that have just captured the station. Thrown together in the chaos, Drake and Holder must work together to survive, while the remaining crew of the Khidr discover more about the conspiracies that destroyed their ship and almost killed them all.
Expanding on the worldbuilding he began in Fearless, Stroud presents us with a deeply intriguing look at a solar system that is increasingly under intense social, political and cultural tension from the blended corporate-government exploration and colonization of space, the current tensions smartly expanded upon through the inclusion of regular excerpts from news reports, speeches and reports throughout the late 21st Century that provide much-needed context to just how this public-private partnership developed and began to fray at the edges. We are given a view of a future in which government entities initially cooperated with private companies to launch missions from Earth to colonize Luna, Mars and set up a number of space stations scattered throughout the solar system, only for increasingly divergent and conflicting priorities to cause different sides to form as humanity expanded its reach throughout the void. Corporations chafe at government regulation and restrictions interfering with their attempts to extract profit from their ventures at the expense of their workers and their rights; and governments begin to resort to increasingly conspiratorial and brutal tactics to maintain their control over the solar system. While this sort of thing has been done many times before – The Expanse being one such equivalent – I don’t believe that any author has given such a crystal-clear view of how corporate and government attitudes can clash and diverge, nor cemented it with a fascinating and multi-faceted plot that always comes across as mysterious and intriguing rather than confusing, no matter how many additional elements Stroud adds. It’s an incredibly difficult thing to achieve, with many authors falling at their own versions of these self-imposed hurdles, but Stroud manages it with a smoothness and gravity that belies the huge amount of skill and talent this obviously took.
The fascinating narrative strands that arc throughout the novel – deftly blending together politics, military action, espionage and even such varied topics as the nature of consciousness, the development of Artificial Intelligence, and the difficulties of space travel – would not work anywhere near as well without a compelling and cohesive cast of characters – and fortunately Stroud is once again up to the job. The tensions amongst the surviving crewmembers of the Khidr are only exacerbated by the immense pressures they find themselves under as the interplanetary conspiracy they’re enmeshed in becomes more and more unraveled, and Stroud deftly pivots between multiple viewpoints amongst the crew. Ensign April Johansson makes for a sympathetic protagonist as we see her struggle to understand both how to undertake her duties – now apparently vital to the future of humanity – and also recover from the betrayal of so many of her friends in the crew and the subsequent blurring of the nature of command, when senior crew members are either traitors or so compromised by the things they had to do to survive that it seems impossible to either trust them or follow them. The nature of the chain of command and inherent trust in your seniors in a military setting is one of the most intriguing concepts that runs throughout the narrative, explored by Stroud through the eyes of Johansson and Captain Shann, a returning character from the first novel and someone who must now decide what leadership means to her – and whether further breaking the chain of command is necessary for survival despite its long-term consequences. However, the standout character in the novel must be Natalie Holder – someone who finds themselves turned into a living weapon by mysterious captors, who constantly experiment on her mind and memories in order to shape her into the operative they require for various assassination and commando operations, transferring her consciousness into different bodies for each mission and increasingly shattering her very sense of being. What happens to Holder is genuinely unsettling, an undercurrent of horror running through the spine of the novel – a woman desperately searching for her true self while being forcibly turned into a trained killer with no compulsion around murdering those who getting her way as she tries to find a way to escape her captivity. Stroud really gets into her mindscape and deftly demonstrates the realities of experimentation by corporations without any moral or ethical limits. Holder is a mysterious and multifaceted character I found myself instinctively drawn to – and want to see much more of in the future.
Resilient is one of those incredibly rare things – a sequel that actually improves on its predecessor. Stroud presents us with a complex, multifaceted science-fiction experience that offers a deeply compelling narrative, interlaced with rich and complex worldbuilding and three-dimensional characters that help to draw us into the vast and complex conspiracy slowly unfolding across the entire solar system. Resilient avoids all of the bloated padding and pointless subplots that usually plague the middle book in a trilogy, and instead delivers a taut, streamlined and fast-paced political thriller that races across the solar system, effortlessly bouncing between colonies, space stations and the depths of space while deftly exploring some fascinating and complex issues in an engaging and thought-provoking manner. With many narrative threads tied up and many new ones introduced, and existing ones expanded upon in intriguing and fascinating ways, Resilient sets the stage for an explosive set of revelations in the next book in the series, and also demonstrates just why Stroud is such a rapidly-rising star in the science-fiction genre. I genuinely cannot wait to see how things develop in the next novel, and I will be making time for it as soon as it becomes available. I would strongly recommend that you all do the same.
April 30, 2022
Really smart slice of space opera that builds on the first story Fearless and really opens up the universe this story is set in and introduces new characters, challenges and questions in surprising ways - great science fiction
Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...
Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...
June 19, 2022
Really enjoyed this. Stroud's writing is crisp, clear and takes you right into the heart of the action. It's lovely to see competent heroes doing their jobs.
There is super representation and a good dose of politics too. Looking forward to the next in the series!
There is super representation and a good dose of politics too. Looking forward to the next in the series!
April 15, 2022
Resilient is a superior space thriller that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat long after you’ve finished reading it.
The pitch for this book is “Die Hard in space,” which makes it sound like it’s going to be awesome. And it is. But to say this book is “Die Hard in space” is wildly underselling it. Yes, it’s high-octane, action packed, and the main events revolve around a space-station taken over by terrorists. But there’s so much more to this book than just an underdog trying to save the day.
This is the second book of a series that belongs to Ellisa Shann, a complex starship captain who was born without legs. Ellisa is struggling to reconcile the actions she took which led to her losing her ship. Those left of her crew have commandeered an enemy vessel, which sets out on a course that’s been pre-selected by their adversaries, raising new mysteries and conundrums to solve. Ellisa must find a way to overcome the aftermath of her decisions. For her, resilience is something that she’s lost, and must learn all over again.
Meanwhile, Doctor Drake travels from Mars to a space-station in orbit. This becomes the station that terrorists hijack, and Drake fills the role of the “everyman” who’ll need some serious John McClane smarts and on-the-fly thinking to stay alive long enough to figure out who’s attacking the station, and why. His resilience is under fire, and his principles as a doctor are tested to the limit in an ever escalating kill-or-be-killed scenario.
But as well as John McClane smarts, for this to be “Die Hard in space,” there needs to be some John McClane muscle. This comes in the form of Natalie Holder, who may just be my favourite invention of the whole book. She’s a person who gets uploaded into different bodies. She’s a chameleon, a killer, and a weapon. With her memory wiped after each kill, she’s battling to free herself from the cycle of assassinations, desperate to hold on to some semblance of identity. She escapes her lab and wakes up in the body of a space-station administrator. The same space-station that’s under a terrorist attack. Cue the fireworks. Natalie must demonstrate resilience like never before if she is to escape from the shackles of her masters, and free her mind from their control.
These three strands are woven together masterfully and artfully. Twists abound as the plot moves through the gears of survival to civil war. Claustrophobic tension aboard the station is juxtaposed beautifully with the crew’s journey aboard the enemy’s spaceship. The pacing is flawless and the prose is clean. There’s an unputdownable quality to the writing, and it makes for compulsive reading.
One feature of the book which really elevated its scope was how it weaved world-building into the narrative. Most chapters end with a brief and ingenious insight into the world, be it a recording or a transcript, which thematically relates to the journey of that particular character. These snippets of information act as soundbites to help the reader piece together how the characters relate to the world of 2118. Backstory and context is given without ever straying into the realm of exposition. The narrative remains tight, and yet, the puzzle of this world is intriguing and vast. It’s a really beautiful way of building a universe without ever straying from the characters or plot.
There’s so much to admire about this book. It tackles such a wide array of issues, from corporate greed to living with a disability, and yet, these threads are fused with the story so seamlessly that it’s only after you finish reading that you realise how deep the story goes. There’s no time to ponder the impact of the book while you’re immersed in the relentless suspense of the novel, but once it’s done, the book reveals itself to you in new ways, and this makes for a very rewarding experience. If the story were a meal, then the aftertaste is magical, adding flavour to a rich, delicious, and meaty dish.
Resilient perfectly balances memorable characters, an engaging plot, and immense world-building. It’s a supreme piece of intelligent science fiction, as well as an absolute blast to read. The ingredients that make up this story are entertaining in themselves, but the book is so much more than the sum of its parts. Resilient is an outstanding achievement, a sequel that works just as well as a standalone, and I cannot wait to see what’s coming next.
The pitch for this book is “Die Hard in space,” which makes it sound like it’s going to be awesome. And it is. But to say this book is “Die Hard in space” is wildly underselling it. Yes, it’s high-octane, action packed, and the main events revolve around a space-station taken over by terrorists. But there’s so much more to this book than just an underdog trying to save the day.
This is the second book of a series that belongs to Ellisa Shann, a complex starship captain who was born without legs. Ellisa is struggling to reconcile the actions she took which led to her losing her ship. Those left of her crew have commandeered an enemy vessel, which sets out on a course that’s been pre-selected by their adversaries, raising new mysteries and conundrums to solve. Ellisa must find a way to overcome the aftermath of her decisions. For her, resilience is something that she’s lost, and must learn all over again.
Meanwhile, Doctor Drake travels from Mars to a space-station in orbit. This becomes the station that terrorists hijack, and Drake fills the role of the “everyman” who’ll need some serious John McClane smarts and on-the-fly thinking to stay alive long enough to figure out who’s attacking the station, and why. His resilience is under fire, and his principles as a doctor are tested to the limit in an ever escalating kill-or-be-killed scenario.
But as well as John McClane smarts, for this to be “Die Hard in space,” there needs to be some John McClane muscle. This comes in the form of Natalie Holder, who may just be my favourite invention of the whole book. She’s a person who gets uploaded into different bodies. She’s a chameleon, a killer, and a weapon. With her memory wiped after each kill, she’s battling to free herself from the cycle of assassinations, desperate to hold on to some semblance of identity. She escapes her lab and wakes up in the body of a space-station administrator. The same space-station that’s under a terrorist attack. Cue the fireworks. Natalie must demonstrate resilience like never before if she is to escape from the shackles of her masters, and free her mind from their control.
These three strands are woven together masterfully and artfully. Twists abound as the plot moves through the gears of survival to civil war. Claustrophobic tension aboard the station is juxtaposed beautifully with the crew’s journey aboard the enemy’s spaceship. The pacing is flawless and the prose is clean. There’s an unputdownable quality to the writing, and it makes for compulsive reading.
One feature of the book which really elevated its scope was how it weaved world-building into the narrative. Most chapters end with a brief and ingenious insight into the world, be it a recording or a transcript, which thematically relates to the journey of that particular character. These snippets of information act as soundbites to help the reader piece together how the characters relate to the world of 2118. Backstory and context is given without ever straying into the realm of exposition. The narrative remains tight, and yet, the puzzle of this world is intriguing and vast. It’s a really beautiful way of building a universe without ever straying from the characters or plot.
There’s so much to admire about this book. It tackles such a wide array of issues, from corporate greed to living with a disability, and yet, these threads are fused with the story so seamlessly that it’s only after you finish reading that you realise how deep the story goes. There’s no time to ponder the impact of the book while you’re immersed in the relentless suspense of the novel, but once it’s done, the book reveals itself to you in new ways, and this makes for a very rewarding experience. If the story were a meal, then the aftertaste is magical, adding flavour to a rich, delicious, and meaty dish.
Resilient perfectly balances memorable characters, an engaging plot, and immense world-building. It’s a supreme piece of intelligent science fiction, as well as an absolute blast to read. The ingredients that make up this story are entertaining in themselves, but the book is so much more than the sum of its parts. Resilient is an outstanding achievement, a sequel that works just as well as a standalone, and I cannot wait to see what’s coming next.
August 27, 2022
I do like near future science fiction. This one includes AI, clones and mind transfers during a period of early colonization of the inner solar system. Many interesting ideas, just one or two ideas that are highly unlikely.
December 16, 2024
Already liked the first novel in the series, but I felt this is where Allen Stroud's writing all falls together in place very well (so far, as I've yet to read the concluding third novel of the series). Really enjoyed the ambiguous notions at the end of the novel and how the story gradually grew to depict the different factions ending up in a civil war.
May 14, 2022
I enjoyed Fearless the previous book in this sequence a lot, and found its breathless run through a space battle gone wrong to work well as an adventure but with decent commitment to its character's psychology. Resilient is much the same as a follow-up, though as a second book it relies heavily on the first, not least because it picks up exactly where the previous book left off. Infact if I have an issue with this series as its panning out, I am a little concerned about the physical pacing in its real world. All told this book takes place in about 24 hours, what's left of the crew from Fearless are limping back to port while a completely different attack on a space station is taking place. The two parts of the story inform each other but don't really cross over, and the space station plot throws in an espionage plot with a core idea akin to that in Altered Carbon. Luckily the quality is maintained in the secondary plot so there isn't a sense that something new is being bolted on.
Second book syndrome is real however and that secondary plot is important here as it has much more of a resolution that the continuation of the Fearless storyline. Whilst that has its own peril it is much more of an examination of the mindset of the crew, broken down at the end of the first novel and having also broken a number of rules, there is a power shift and an interesting examination of military rank, discipline and pragmatism. The stretch from the previous novel to start toying with more mysterious sci-fi concepts is also still just hinted at,.
Resilient is a solid continuation of Fearless, with my only real concern in trying to get a sense of how long and detailed this series is going to get. One of my favourite things about Fearless was that it felt self contained enough, the opposite is the case in Resilient. Not only does it lean heavily on the previous book, it also sets up a conflict which I can't see easily concluded in even one or two books. That's fine, I am happy to keep reading, but it is a shift from the satisfied feeling I got from the first.
Second book syndrome is real however and that secondary plot is important here as it has much more of a resolution that the continuation of the Fearless storyline. Whilst that has its own peril it is much more of an examination of the mindset of the crew, broken down at the end of the first novel and having also broken a number of rules, there is a power shift and an interesting examination of military rank, discipline and pragmatism. The stretch from the previous novel to start toying with more mysterious sci-fi concepts is also still just hinted at,.
Resilient is a solid continuation of Fearless, with my only real concern in trying to get a sense of how long and detailed this series is going to get. One of my favourite things about Fearless was that it felt self contained enough, the opposite is the case in Resilient. Not only does it lean heavily on the previous book, it also sets up a conflict which I can't see easily concluded in even one or two books. That's fine, I am happy to keep reading, but it is a shift from the satisfied feeling I got from the first.
June 23, 2022
I like this book a lot, though probably not as much as Fearless. Book one was a very tight military science fiction, with some mystery thrown in. Here, we get a much expanded perspective on this world via the Phobos plot line, and we get a deepening on the mystery surrounding the anomalies and Rocher.
Of the two new POV characters, I like Holder and found Drake kind of "meh". Her story is both chilling and trilling, while the good doctor is just kind of... there, for some reason.
What I was mostly invested in, however, was the crew of the Gallowglass, nee the Khidr. I like both Captain Shann and Ensign Johansson as POVs. I particularly like that Stroud doesn't shy away from exploring the psychological ramifications of the events of Fearless. While Holder and Drake get most of the action, Shann and Johansson get most of the mystery, and that is, by far, the better part of the story.
And while I like this book, like with Fearless, I'm frustrated with the Stroud's inability to properly end an installment in a series. Again, we finish on a cliffhanger and, again, this leaves me as the reader unsatisfied and with metaphorical blue balls.
If there were another book in the series available, I would have picked it up right away. As it stands, with ca. 2 years between installment, I guess I'll see where I stand if and when book 3 comes out.
Of the two new POV characters, I like Holder and found Drake kind of "meh". Her story is both chilling and trilling, while the good doctor is just kind of... there, for some reason.
What I was mostly invested in, however, was the crew of the Gallowglass, nee the Khidr. I like both Captain Shann and Ensign Johansson as POVs. I particularly like that Stroud doesn't shy away from exploring the psychological ramifications of the events of Fearless. While Holder and Drake get most of the action, Shann and Johansson get most of the mystery, and that is, by far, the better part of the story.
And while I like this book, like with Fearless, I'm frustrated with the Stroud's inability to properly end an installment in a series. Again, we finish on a cliffhanger and, again, this leaves me as the reader unsatisfied and with metaphorical blue balls.
If there were another book in the series available, I would have picked it up right away. As it stands, with ca. 2 years between installment, I guess I'll see where I stand if and when book 3 comes out.
September 14, 2024
If you’re craving a hard sci-fi adventure with high-stakes drama and complex characters, Resilient by Allen Stroud delivers in spades!
Set in AD 2118, humanity’s presence has spread across the Moon, Mars, and beyond, but a terrorist attack on Earth shakes the fragile peace.
What I loved:
* Action-packed plot: From Mars to deep space to Earth, Stroud weaves together three gripping storylines that keep you on the edge of your seat.
* Complex characters: Whether it’s the resilient Dr. Drake, the unbreakable Captain Shann, or the mysterious Natalie Holder, these characters all have depth and motivation that pull you right into the action.
* Smart sci-fi world-building: The futuristic setting feels grounded and realistic, thanks to Stroud’s detailed exploration of corporate space colonisation and the tech that keeps it running.
At times, the story juggles so many moving parts that it can feel a bit rushed, and yI wished for more time with certain characters or subplots but it was a fun read.
Resilient is a thrilling continuation of Stroud's Fearless. It's packed with danger, intrigue, and tough moral decisions, making it a must-read for sci-fi fans who love a well-built universe and strong, determined heroes. If you loved Fearless, this follow-up will leave you eagerly awaiting what comes next!
October 20, 2024
Reading Fearless, the first novel in the Fractal series, I was impressed with the world-building but had some reservations about its structure. The same is true for Resilient, but the structural problems differ. The novel is clearly influenced by James S. A. Corey’s Expanse series—we have action in habitats and spacecraft across the solar system, a collection of somewhat dysfunctional work families, and some troubling AI and biotechnology. I love “digital Duggins,” however fractured his mind may be.
Here is the problem I had with the structure. The first-person narrative point of view switches from chapter to chapter, and sometimes within chapters. It would be OK if each of the narrators had an identifiable voice. Unfortunately, they all sound pretty much alike. This is especially troubling if you are reading the book with a screen reader, but maybe audiobook narrators make the switches more apparent.
On the whole, I don’t think Stroud gets much from the multiple POVs. A shifting limited third-person POV, a la C. J. Cherryh, might have been better.
Here is the problem I had with the structure. The first-person narrative point of view switches from chapter to chapter, and sometimes within chapters. It would be OK if each of the narrators had an identifiable voice. Unfortunately, they all sound pretty much alike. This is especially troubling if you are reading the book with a screen reader, but maybe audiobook narrators make the switches more apparent.
On the whole, I don’t think Stroud gets much from the multiple POVs. A shifting limited third-person POV, a la C. J. Cherryh, might have been better.
May 6, 2025
4.5/5 I loved this almost as much as the first book. I think Fearless took me more off guard, surprised me with more elements. But I’m not even sure that’s entirely true because there are new characters and new human experiences in this one that perfectly build off of the first book. It’s a great continuation of the story, and it starts off with a major new addition that I did not see coming.
This book gave me a lot to think about. It tackles human consciousness and how we perceive it (or have yet to perceive it, the value of species survival vs individual human lives, and the value of the individual vs others. This book lives in that delicious sci-fi middle grey that truly makes you both excited and terrified for the future. Can’t wait for book 3!
This book gave me a lot to think about. It tackles human consciousness and how we perceive it (or have yet to perceive it, the value of species survival vs individual human lives, and the value of the individual vs others. This book lives in that delicious sci-fi middle grey that truly makes you both excited and terrified for the future. Can’t wait for book 3!
February 25, 2024
This was interesting, but took a long time -- like the first -- to really get to the heart of the plot, a political betrayal of sorts, and still a ton of questions were left unanswered at the end. I got the feeling maybe the author thought there would be a third book to wrap things up? In any case, I never did quite get the "the fate of the species" as the stakes; clone or non-clone, we're all human, right? There were no aliens in this, and it really needed them, if these were the stakes.
March 25, 2022
Resilient by Allen Stroud-Starts off with a bang, literally! Fast paced, tense space opera like the first book, but (there's always a "but"), the introduction of 1st person POVs along with the normal narrative really turned me off. Still well done, I'm sure a lot of people will find this entertaining, just not for me.
May 10, 2022
Excellent
Great second book. Fast paced, sci-fi with lots of action and characters cared about. I really hope there is a book 3 in the future.
Great second book. Fast paced, sci-fi with lots of action and characters cared about. I really hope there is a book 3 in the future.
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November 23, 2024Libby library book. Read Kindle book using Alexa audio asset. Mental transfers and mind control are epic in the future. Politics also reins powerfully on lives and losses.
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