The majority of the book is set during the late 40s, when the space race is really starting to take off. Throughout the novel, we follow two main characters, Sara, and her daughter Mia. They are the 99th generation, in a line of mothers and daughters who call themselves the Kibsu. The Kibsu are not quite human, and because of this they have to make sure they never draw attention to themselves. They have four rules, which they follow like gospel in order to achieve their goal of protecting humanity, “Before evil comes and kills them all”.

1. Always Run, Never Fight
2. Preserve the knowledge
3. Survive at all costs
4. Take them to the stars

Many generations ago the Kibsu lost their knowledge and understanding of who they really are and what this evil is. The only thing they know is that their rules and goal must be followed no matter what, or who gets in their way. They also know that they are being hunted by a mysterious group of men, called The Trackers. If a Tracker finds them, they know that only pain and death awaits them, despite this nobody has seen a Tracker for hundreds of years, and as a result they have become a boogeyman to the Kibsu, to always keep them on their toes.

The story is often brutal. There is quite a bit of gore and sexual harassment, the author does not shy away from the realities of the time it is set. The POV of the villain is quite disturbing, basically like looking into the head of a sociopathic serial killer. But the narratives of the women are also very harsh. They do not have much empathy for those around them, too focused on their rules. They also have no problem sacrificing themselves, as another rule that the Kibsu follow is that there can never be more than three Kibsu at any one time, and there cannot be three for long. When the time comes, the grandmother knows she must sacrifice herself for the cause, and the story is peppered with the histories of past Kibsi women who broke the rules and the disastrous and deadly consequences that this brought about.

I do enjoy science fiction as a genre, but I do not often go for stories that focus on the scientific and technological side of things, rather than the emotional connection. Despite this, I did not feel like the story was too bogged down by it, and although I did not always follow the science, I could understand the essence behind it and why it was important to the plot. I also did struggle to form an emotional connection with the characters, but I think that this was an intentional decision by the author. For generations, the Kibsu have been taught to keep themselves separate from everybody else and not form emotional attachments with people, and this outlook not only determined their relationships with other characters, but with us the readers as well.

One gripe I did have is that Mia and her mother manage quite a lot of criminal behaviour, without discussing any of the logistics behind this. How did they acquire the dead bodies that allowed them to fake their own deaths, or how did they manage to get the paperwork they used to change their identities as they moved from place to place? How did they manage to place themselves so easily in key positions that would help them manipulate people, without drawing any attention to themselves? It would have made the novel a lot longer, and perhaps affected the flow and pace of the story, but I felt it would have made it a more interesting read, rather than just glossing over it completely.


Overall, I found this really absorbing. We have all heard of stories of women throughout history that spied and manipulated their way into positions of power, using societal prejudices of women being weak and non-threatening to better achieve their goals. There have been a lot of alternative history fantasy novels, but what sets this one apart, is that the author does not change history, only retelling the ‘off-screen’ manipulations that helped bring key events about. It was a very creative and original storyline. I loved the narration, I have always much preferred multicast narration, and it definitely worked here. Each narrator perfectly captured their character. At the end of the book, the author’s note contains a lot of information about the history of the space race, and really makes a fascinating read. The ending did feel a little abrupt, and there are a lot of unanswered questions, but hopefully they will be addressed in book two.

I really enjoy an alternative history / timeline story and this book kept me very happy indeed, a story that intrigued and infuriated me almost simultaneously, I have listened to waking gods and almost human and can see how the authors storytelling is maturing and creativity is expanding, I really like this book, thank you Netgalley for allowing me to listen early, and the narration is class, pure class