Russ Allbery: Review: Full Speed to a Crash Landing

Review: Full Speed to a Crash Landing, by Beth Revis

Full Speed to a Crash Landing is a science fiction novella and the
first of a series. Beth Revis made the New York Times bestseller list for
an earlier series of young adult science fiction novels, but somehow I had
not heard of her before this series.

Ada Lamarr is a salvager. She picks up material from crashed or dead ships
for resale. As the story opens, she has a large hole in the side of her
ship, she’s running out of oxygen, and the other ship nearby is refusing
to answer her distress call. By the time they finally respond, there is
barely enough time to get aboard before she is entirely out of air.

Ada’s first-person narration drops hints that she may not be entirely what
she seems. But then, neither is the Halifax, so it’s only fair.

The captain of the Halifax treats Ada with a great deal of
suspicion and wants her out of the way of their ongoing salvage operation.
However, the captain does not appear to be entirely in charge. Ada is
immediately struck by the mysterious Rian White, who seems to have some
authority over their mission and is more thoughtful and calculating than
the rest of the crew. He’s also handsome, which doesn’t hurt.

I was tempted to keep writing about the plot, but given the short length
of this book, I should stop there and let you enjoy the twists and turns
for yourself. This is a fun science fiction action romp: lots of banter,
lots of tense moments, and a cagey first-person protagonist with an
irrepressible sense of humor and a knack for brazening her way through
conversations. It’s not long on world-building (there isn’t enough room),
but Revis works in enough details to be intriguing and to set up some
interesting motivations.

This is the sort of book that lives and dies by how much you like the
protagonist, something that you will easily figure out by the end of an
ebook sample if you’re the sort of reader who uses those. Ada is
irreverent, talkative, and very adroit at diverting attention
(entertainingly) onto anything other than the critical piece of
information other people are missing. If you want to, I suspect you could
easily figure out most of what Ada is up to before the book reveals it
explicitly. It’s not that complicated, and the book isn’t really trying to
hide, although it doesn’t give you all the necessary information in
advance. Personally, I was happy to sit back and enjoy the ride.

There is no romance in this book beyond frequent comments from Ada that
she would have liked there to be a romance in this book under different
circumstances, but I will be surprised if that romance doesn’t show up
later in the series. Ada and Rian are clearly being set up as a pair. I
didn’t like Rian as much, mostly because he’s less memorable as a
character, but he comes into his own in the appendices after the plot
proper.

I thought those concluding appendices were the best part of the novella
and question the Kindle formatting decision to treat them like
supplemental material. They purport to be a series of government memos,
fill in a lot more of the backstory and world building, and have the best
footnotes. Don’t skip them!

This isn’t the sort of book that I am inspired to immediately push into
everyone’s hands, but it’s a fast, well-paced story that delivered a few
reading sessions of entertainment. I’m not sure the political philosophy
in the background makes a lot of sense, but at least not a standard
stereotype of current politics seen in so much science fiction. It’s going
to set up some interesting character conflict in later books. I’m
certainly intrigued enough to keep reading.

Recommended when you’re in the mood for some fast-paced fun that’s short
and undemanding.

Followed by How to Steal a Galaxy.

Rating: 7 out of 10