This book hit a little too close to home. Set in a post global warming world where the human race is in a race for survival. People have to wear protective masks outside, the sea is kept at bay with huge concrete walls and terrible weather systems affect what little survivable land is left. Valerie Black has long since decided that Earth and the human race cannot survive much longer and found 'Cavendish' a planet in the 'Goldilocks zone' of a Gas giant. Neither too hot nor too cold, the right temperature for water to be liquid and the right atmospheric pressure for life to grow. With her company Hawthorne and NASA working together they were able to build the Alcubierre drive, a literal portal through space, and the Atlanta the ship that would carry Valerie, her adopted daughter Naomi, Hixon, Hart and Lebedeva, 5 women all with their own specialities to Cavendish to see if humans could survive there. A hiccup arises when a new President is elected. One who believes that a woman's place isn't in the workplace and the five women are removed from the mission stating it as too dangerous. Valerie Black is not a woman to be told what to do. She enlists the other women and hours before the men are supposed to depart they launch a rocket from a long ago abandoned Russian space centre. All seems to be going well until Naomi Lovelace, Valeries adopted daughter and resident botanist has to communicate with their only contact on Earth, Evan Valerie's son. After talking with him she realises that Valerie maybe withholding information from the crew, information that could put their lives and the mission at risk. Only Naomi has no idea the true secret Valerie is keeping and how it wont affect just them but the whole human race.

When I saw that the book was described as The Martian meets The Handmaids Tale I wasn't entirely sure what to expect but, honestly, it couldn't have been described better. There are quite a few bits of the book that talk about the Science behind space travel, growing plants in space etc and though I grasped most of it, some definitely went over my head though I was able to grasp the concept thanks to the context of the plot. The present in this book doesn't seem to be that different from where our future is heading, and a big theme of the book is what happens if we don't stop killing the planet now. It didn't paint a pretty picture of the world environmentally, but what really hit me was the attitude towards women. In this future they are gradually being weaned out of the workplace, families are only allowed one child, and if they have more they have to pay a tax that would nearly bankrupt the 'regular' population. Though this is stated as more prevalent in the US we can also see parts of it being implemented all around the world.

I loved that this was a nearly all female cast, in fact the only man we really get any insight from is Evan, Valerie's son but even then it is all told from another perspective. This book is Naomi Lovelace's story. We find out right at the start that she refuses to tell anyone what happened on the Atlanta, and it is only one night when she sneaks into her daughters room and said she'd tell her everything. Naomi was a really intriguing perspective to read the book from. As Valerie's adopted daughter, she has an almost blind spot when it comes to the woman who raised her. However, she is also the only person who knows her tells and can see through her lies. Without Naomi on that ship the mission would have gone completely differently. I found her quite a likeable character and someone I could easily empathise with. The book jumps back and forth to before the mission and during with each chapter which gave you a great insight into how the mission and them inevitably taking over it came about.

A big theme in this book is 'hard decisions.' Who should make them, who has the right to make them, and will our morality let us? We see this play out through Valerie and Naomi's characters and interactions. Valerie is not a likeable character, and I would guess that was intended. She is anti patriarchy almost to the point of anti the human race and though her decision making was horrendous there is a little part of you, teeny tiny part that thinks she may just have a point. She seems to completely lack morality, which is the thing that would stop us from making such a decision. I really enjoyed seeing the crews reactions to her plan, at first resigning themselves to it and then gradually realising the depth of what she has done and their desperation to try and stop it.

This was such a brilliantly written book. I was hooked from the first page, and though I have read some reviews stating it was slow paced, I flew through the pages. I think having the chapters flit between the past and present were a massive help in this, you got some great insight into Naomi and Valerie's past, which helps you understand their current relationship. The themes brought up in the book were on point for today's society, and had me asking myself a lot of question's by the end. I panicked a bit, coming to the end, that the author wouldn't have time to give us a deserved ending but I needn't have worried. The ending was beautifully done, and though I wouldn't class it as happy, it left me with feeling content.

Superficially Goldilocks is about a journey, but ultimately, it's about the fight for human life, freedom and the future of Earth.

"It is horrible, terrible. I am not going to pretend it is not. They had their chances to fix things, and they did not. They knew what was at stake, but they still bought plastic, ate beef, took flights. I did, too. If I had been left behind, I would have died with them. But that is not my fate. It does not have to be yours. Think, Naomi. Valerie is making the hard decision, the impossible choice, so we do not have to."

This book is topical, it is about Earth at the point where the prophesies we're discussing here and now in 2020 have come to past. Climate change, displacement, refugees isn’t a topic for discussion or other places, it is affecting everyone directly, it can't be avoided. It is very real.

It raises the question: Whose job is it to change the world, guard and protect it? Is it elected officials, rich people with a vision or scientists with the expertise to make a difference?

Goldilocks starts with a crew of five women who on the face of it steal a spaceship and go off to find the new planet that Earth is banking on to be habitable, so saving the remaining population.

Why appropriate the ship?
Earth is now almost a dystopian nightmare, the environment polluted, landmasses have been altered by climate change and the refugee crisis is overwhelming. Concurrently the freedoms of women have been eroded. Capable, experienced and talented women are being relegated to motherhood and excluded from the workplace and decision making.


"Everyone had grown used to giving orders to the pleasant-voiced feminine robots. Alexa, Siri, Sophia, Sage, do this for me. A perky ‘okay’, and your wish was her command. They’d all been doing it for years before women started realising the men in their lives had been conditioned to do the same to them. And by then it was too late."


The government wouldn't allow the women who built the ship to be the people who received public acknowledgment for their efforts or the accolades of finding the next home planet and saving the human race.

The Journey
We are taken on a journey of quiet intensity as these women are faced with the knowledge of what they have done, why and the catastrophic consequences of their plans not being accomplished. The atmosphere of isolation on the small ship, insular relationships and interactions are exquisitely depicted conveyed. As they travel farther away from Earth, the decisions made there seem ..almost irrelevant.

I don't want to say much more as I came to this blind, having only read the synopsis and no reviews. I would like other readers to experience the awe and freshness of reading Goldilocks. To tease out for themselves the themes of family dynamics, romantic relationships, population control within a gender imbalanced world.


The Aftermath

Goldilocks begins relating the later life of one of the crew and everything that is unsaid makes it clear that something went wrong - not to plan - with the novel as the reveal to what extent. We see through flashbacks at different time periods the dreams, plans, and realities of this mission.

I liked that it made me think about women's rights from another angle and the parallels to environmental concerns. It seems odd to know that this review has little content about the plot itself, I haven't relayed many details about the themes and barring the quotes, the women are nameless. I feel as if I am compounding the 'make women invisible' stance But in truth, this is about all women, all people and acknowledging that their efforts are not in vain, unappreciated if nameless or unattributed.


If it's not been made explicit from this review, then I will state it here: I loved reading Goldilocks, this thought-provoking book packed a Sci-Fi space journey punch. It also made me consider how I could assist with small or big efforts in saving the world from human interference.

Finally, take it from me that the number of quotes indicates the depths that the themes resonated, my enjoyment of the writing and appreciation of the prevailing optimism.

It is comforting to conclude with the following:
"The crew of the Atalanta were only five women out of all of humanity, but they could still found a whole new place for humans to flourish. Sometimes you only need one tiny proportion of the population to enact change".


4 Stars - Loved It

Thank you NetGalley and Headline for a digital ARC in exchange for a candid review.

3.5* Good read. Enjoyable.

https://theworldsofsff.com/2020/goldilocks/

I received and ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Firstly, let me say this is not the typical Sci-fi book I’d normally read. Now I have a blog up and running and have invited others to join me, I am working on expanding my reading horizons and promoting diversity. It is also the first book I have read by Laura Lam. I can safely say I enjoyed this book, having read it over two days.

Goldilocks follows an all-female crew of 5, who steal a spaceship and set out on a journey to Cavendish—an earth-like planet capable of supporting life. The backdrop is that Earth is approaching an apocalypse. Estimations state Earth will only remain habitable for roughly 30 more years; humans must find a new home by then. The political climate is heavily misogynistic: women are being passed over for new jobs and promotions, discouraged from working after giving birth, eliminated from contention for work in space, and myriad of other oppressive actions.

A lot of interesting topics are eluded to in Goldilocks, ones that make you think about where our future, in real life, may lead on our current course: global warming; meat being produced in vats; growing organs; growing babies in wombs outside the body; private police and firefighters; large walls holding back the seas; flooding; mass numbers of refugees; ownership and laws on other planets; vast differences in wealth and its distribution; and even the internet is so expensive it’s a luxury for the few. At one point a statement is made regarding the “ramshackle housing” many live in and how they are not classed as a permanent residence, and therefore, those people cannot vote.

Though these topics are eluded too, they are not explored, and I think an opportunity was missed there. I was asking myself a lot of questions regarding the above, as I do in life anyway, and wanted to know more about the world-state in Goldilocks. It wouldn’t be possible to explore it all, but there were some opportunities, and other opportunities could have been created, to explore these topics. Eluding to these topics brings up an awful lot of question about life on Earth in the book.

As mentioned, the story focuses on five women who steal the spaceship and their journey; it is told from the perspective of Valerie Black—a very rich person who is the mastermind behind the plan and leader of the group—and Naomi Lovelace—a leading botanist who was raised by Valerie after her parents died. The other members of the crew are Oksana Lebedeva (engineer), Irene Hart (doctor) and Nixon (pilot and I can’t remember or find her first name). Hart and Nixon are a married couple. The names of the crew were used inconsistently at times, at least to me. Hart, Nixon and Lebedeva were almost exclusively, referred to by their surname, yet Valarie and Naomi almost exclusively referred to by the forenames. On the ship, there is a command structure and surnames are therefore the norm, understandably, but it wasn’t always the case for Valarie and Naomi. It’s minor but I noticed it.

Regarding the crew, I thought opportunities were missed for more dialogue among crew members. It wasn’t until chapter 13 (possibly 14) that the crew had an important dialogue between them. You learn a lot about Valarie and Naomi, as many chapters are set in the past, painting pictures of events that led us to the present moment. I felt like I really knew both by the end; I understood their motivations. I was invested. I can’t say the same about the other crew members. We know bits about them but not much. Just one small chapter for each would have been enough to satisfy curiosity. Or use conversations and interactions on the ship to bring out their personalities. We learn Lebedeva is effectively not allowed back into Russia, but not much more. At one point, Hart discussed how Hixon didn’t leave a lot behind, how she hadn’t had a relationship with her parents since coming out. In this instance, a chance to explore the situation for members of the LGBTQ+ community in this future Earth was also missed. And in turn. A chance to challenge the prejudice and perspective of some towards the LGBTQ+ community.

Yes, these three are secondary characters, but they are on the ship with Valerie and Naomi and I didn’t think I got to know them enough. The book isn’t long and there was room to have a chapter for each of the other three crew members, which I don’t believe would have detracted from the book or story; I believe it would have enhanced it and made me more invested in Hart, Hixon and Lebedeva.

As I’ve said, I enjoyed Goldilocks. Overall, It’s a well-crafted story. What I was expecting to happen, was obviously not going to about 60% into the book, making me guess again. I saw a few probable scenarios, but I was still guessing towards the end until the story became apparent. The pace of the book increases around the 75% mark and it got me going. It tapers down at the end, with an ending I didn’t expect, after the main story if you like, and it becomes somewhat reflective which I liked.

It's been good for me to expand my horizons and read outside of my very comfortable zone. I'm glad I did! I would happily recommend this book to others. If this is your usual type of read, I suspect this book will be a 4* for you, maybe more.

An all-female team of astronauts are crewing the first mission to the planet Cavendish, having defied NASA's attempts to replace them with a team of men by hijacking the ship. Behind them, Earth is in environmental and social collapse, with women's rights gradually being further and further restricted. Cavendish offers the hope of founding a new society on a healthy planet. But something seems to be going wrong on the ship, and our protagonist and lead botanist, Naomi, determines to find out what it is.

I'm not sure why I felt so profoundly disappointed by Goldilocks, and have rated it higher than I would otherwise have done in recognition of the fact that it does a lot of things well. The worldbuilding is pretty solid for something that sits on the boundary of popular thriller and science fiction, and I became increasingly convinced by the scenario Laura Lam describes as I read on. In particular, I liked the idea of a patriarchal dystopia where birth is restricted rather than promoted; in the context of the climate crisis it makes sense for pressure to be brought to bear on women to have only one child then pour all their resources into it, and this contextualises the many ways in which women's rights have been reduced. The unfolding dilemma for the women on the spaceship also works well, given the situation back home, and there are some realistic questions raised about what trying to start a new society might actually mean in practice. There were a few echoes of the haunting Netflix film I Am Mother here, although the plot takes quite a different turn.

But despite Lam's thoroughly competent handling of this premise, the book still felt clunky and wooden to me. I think the fault might lie in the characterisation. The crew are pretty stereotypical. This is most obvious in the writing of the protagonist, Naomi, and her mentor, Valerie, simply because they get the most screen time. By the end, I was finding Naomi extremely irritating because of her lack of human flaws; there's nothing about her that brings her to life as a person. Meanwhile, *SPOILER* Valerie becomes a ridiculously cartoonish villain, responsible for almost everything bad that has happened on the mission, and in Naomi's life, so far! This book would have been so much more interesting if Lam had been brave enough to write a genuine conflict between Naomi and Valerie, allowing the reader to decide who they sympathise with the most, rather than giving Naomi all the moral cards. *END SPOILER* Despite these issues, I think other readers may get more out of this book than I did. 3.5 stars.

Thank you to netgalley for this advanced copy to review.

The structure of the book is that each chapter is told in a different time period. I enjoyed much more the chapters that were set after the shuttles launch.

An all women team on a shuttle are trying to heal combat climate change. Men’s Rights activists are against them. Plus things keep going wrong but is it for nefarious reasons?

If Sci-Fi is your thing give this a try.

Goldilocks is set in the near future, Planet Earth has been ravaged by climate change, and in the US women are slowly being barred from the workplace. There is hope, in that faster than light space travel is now a reality, man has a base on Mars, and a suitable planet for human habitation called Cavendish has been identified.

Much of the book is set on board the spacecraft Atalanta, which is "manned" by an all female crew, including Naomi Lovelace and her adoptive mother, Valerie Black who funded much of the research and development of the spacecraft and the science behind it. The book also has flashback sequences where we learn more about Naomi and Valerie's relationship.

This novel includes a lot of my favourite themes, as a dystopian feminist novel with an unlikeable female protagonist. The book addresses how power can corrupt even the most well intentioned people.

There is a lot of science in the book, but I felt this was accessible and well written, so you don't need an astrophysics degree to understand what is happening.

I don't want to say too much more about the book itself as it would give too much away, but I felt it was pacey and exciting. Would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in feminist dystopian fiction.

I received this as an ARC from netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The book comes out in April.

I've been really excited about this book since I heard about it because I liked the concept so much - the Martian by way of handmaid's tale. This was that, but not quite - or at least the elements I was expecting from that crossover weren't the ones I got. The crew scenes from the Martian yes, patriarchal politics yes. Lots of science, and afaik pretty accurate too. (I like space stuff. I try to keep on top of it.) it had an Interstellar vibe too it as well.

(Actually it was just everything I love about humans in space kind of movies but in book form.)

This is: five women go to space to steal a planet.
It is also: fraught foster-mother/daughter relationship on a spaceship.
and it's also: political commentary on climate change and US politics that is not even remotely subtle about it.

It's kind of a quiet thriller. That doesn't make sense, maybe, but it wasn't the kind of thriller that had me at the edge of my seat with my heart pounding, but that's not to say it wasn't a tense book - it just also had its quiet moments to balance out the tension. The non-linear narrative helped to both balance it out and intensify it, and I really liked that structure. It was like a slow unfolding of layers that revealed more about both Naomi and Valerie, giving you a deeper understanding of who they both are as people, and I enjoyed how that structure also allowed for a lot of mystery. Even though I'd figured it out off the bat, I didn't feel that the fact I'd worked it out diminished the mystery.

Anyway, I really enjoyed it. I came to really sympathise with Naomi and I loved how her relationships with the other characters unfolded (which is about the most non-spoilery way I can put it. I don't want to write a spoilery review right now. Maybe I'll amend it later). Valerie struck me very much like a female version of Elon Musk, which was very interesting, not least because they generated their wealth through different types of science but ultimately both spend it on Go Live In Space projects, and the gendered difference (if gendered? discuss) could be pretty interesting to get into.

Climate change, the erosion of women's rights, women's reproductive rights especially, global pandemics, climate change denial and far right politics, this book feels politically poignant and thought provoking in the present day. All pulled together in the back drop of a sci-fi novel, I haven't enjoyed a new book or new (to me) author this much in a long time.

I was really quickly drawn into the book after the first few pages, it wasn't a slow burn, the world described for me was intriguing from the start and I wanted to know where the story was headed. I am admittedly a lover of the sci-fi genre, but it wasn't just this theme that made me want to keep reading, I wanted to know where the relationships were going and i cared about the characters. I think one of the books major strengths is the pace of the characters story lines developing and the explanations of the relationships. I never felt like i was waiting for something to inevitably happen and it didn't fail to surprise.

The only very minor criticism of the book is, i would have liked to know more of the history in building up to time the book was set in, more detail on how things were changing and how they had changed so radically for women. But this is only a minor fault and the creeping erosion of women's rights is easy enough to imagine if you just look around the current political climate.

Overall a really unique and thought provoking sci-fi thriller that i thoroughly enjoyed and finished in less than 48 hours, i found myself not wanting to put the book down for long.