REVIEW: Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis

KaetrinB Reviews / Book Reviewsnovella / part of a trilogy / SFF / space opera3 Comments

As the story begins, Ada is running out of air. Her ship, Glory, has a hole in the hull. She’s sent out a distress signal to a nearby ship, the Halifax, explaining she has no life support or electrics and is on the last available air in her spacesuit. Both Glory and Halifax are in the region because of the crashed ship, the Roundabout, on a nearby planet. The Halifax is suspicious but they cannot ignore a distress signal so eventually (and just in time) they rescue Ada.

In this world there are four “earths”; Sol-Earth (the original, a planet which is largely dead or dying, full of pollution and with small pockets of tourism), Centauri-Earth, Gliese-Earth and Reigel-Earth. One intergalactic government is in charge of all four planets. Largely, the other three planets (if I understood things correctly) provide food and consumer goods to Sol-Earth as there’s not much more than tourism left.

It’s clear that the people on board the Halifax are trying to find something super-secret in the wreckage of the Roundabout. Ada tells them she came across the crash site and did her thing, having found some metal in the cargo hold which she can sell for scrap. It’s very apparent there’s more going on, but exactly what takes the entire novella to be revealed.

On the Halifax, we are introduced to Captain Io, First, Magnusson and Saraswati – the crew and Rian White. Rian is obviously in charge of the mission itself – he’s some kind of unspecified governmental operative-type.

Ada is quick-witted and sassy, provocative and brash. She crash lands into the Halifax’s personnel in many ways and it takes a while before they know exactly what to do with her.

“Hey, I don’t want to get people in trouble.” I hold both my hands up in a show of peace. “If Saraswati can’t talk, let me.”

“You certainly love to do that,” Magnusson grumbles.

I ignore him because I’m the bigger person.

The problem with the mission to retrieve whatever the thing or things is from the crash site, is that the planet is very newly formed – it is basically lava with a thin crust over the top of it. There’s a lot of geothermal activity and chances are all or part of the Roundabout will be sinking into the lava soonish. Unlike Magnusson or Saraswati, Ada has a special jetpack which can withstand extreme heat and means she’s a chance to retrieve a box teetering on the edge of a lava river. The crew don’t quite trust her but she is also their best hope for success.

And there’s the rub. See, before, when the only thing spurring them to action was my distress signal and their paranoia thinking I was laying a trap rather than dying, they thought the biggest threat to retrieving the box’s contents would be someone like me.

What’s in the box? Why is it important? Who wants it? What is Ada really doing? Most of those questions are eventually answered but there are some that are tantalisingly out of reach and for answering in the next or the last of the trilogy. There is clearly a broader story arc but this novella does have its own and I wouldn’t say it ends on a cliffhanger. Not really. There is a romance developing between Rian and Ada – their chemistry builds over the course of this novella but it’s too soon for a HEA.

The dynamic between Rian and Ada is fun to read. They play a kind of cat and mouse game, each testing the other, trying not to give too much away but at the same time, a mutual respect grows in addition to their chemistry.

Initially, I did have a bit of a disconnect with the first description of Rian in the book:

On the captain’s other side is a man with unkempt hair. Average size, average build. Totally forgettable. Except for the sharpest, clearest hazel eyes I’ve ever seen.

and the way he was described afterwards – sexy, hot – not at all forgettable. (In fact, I first thought Ada’s love interest would be the big muscly specimen initially standing behind the Captain but that turned out to be not the case at all. I’m something of a romance-gosling, looking to imprint on the first hero-looking goose I see.) In hindsight, I think the attraction from Ada to Rian was significantly influenced by his brain. She finds him physically attractive but that’s not the first thing she notices about him and, the more he intrigues and entertains her mind, the more handsome and sexy he becomes to her. (Makes sense.)

I have a feeling that a re-read of Full Speed to a Crash Landing would be worthwhile to pick up on the clues along the way and/or to really understand some of Ada’s more cryptic comments. There’s a whole layer to the story the reader can’t know before they get to the end of it.

Apart from Rian’s mission reports at the end, the story is told from Ada’s perspective. Those mission reports were interesting reading and gave me a lot of insight into the broader picture, a sneak peek of what is to come and more information about Rian’s thoughts.

While the novella does tell a story with a beginning, middle and end, the complete trilogy is likely to influence my overall thinking about this book. For now it’s a high B but, if the series develops as it promises to and sticks the landing, then I foresee bumping the grade up.

Grade: B

Regards,

Kaetrin

PS: Readers should note that after the acknowledgements (at least, in my arc that’s where they were) are the mission report footnotes – these are important: don’t skip them!

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