Review of 'Born in Space'

Born in Space by Jeremy Clift
1st book in the 'Unlocking Destiny' series

Set in orbit between the earth and the moon, a young Teagan Ward has her eggs harvested under duress by the dubious Dr. César who uses them to create seven “test tube” babies. She is denied access to the children and spends most of her life attempting to gain access, at one point being held prisoner on a remote moon outpost. When rescued by the Chinese she has an encounter with a group of aliens who treat her as a prophet. Her brother Hunter We meet the millionaire Howie Rich (yes, really) who seeks to exploit the riches of space and will let no one get in his way, a law unto himself with blood on his hands as he seeks to control the asteroid mining business.

I found this book quite disjointed and hard to really get into with short chapters (2-3 pages) flipping around between narratives. The characters are fairly one dimensional particularly “Howie Rich” which has no redeeming qualities whatsoever and for whom no attempt is made to explain his behaviour. The story is reasonably interesting as we have to buy into the idea that a young woman would do anything to see the children her eggs were used to create. I say “buy into” as it seems the maternal bond seems slightly over the top here, ramped up for the sake of the action. Indeed, most of the book Teagan spends in situations where she is quite separated from her off-spring so no prizes given for guessing what happens at the end of the novel.

The action proceeds apace despite the middle section somewhat stalling as Teagan spends a great deal of time with the aliens and the baddie gets more bad. Annoyingly, there are several “lose ends” here including the “magic alien crystal” which promised to be such a big thing, never really turns out to be anything and ends up being a paper weight on a desk. Even the aliens sort of disappear with not much of a trace. Perhaps these plot points will play a role in the future instalments in the series as we are told this is book 1 of the “Unlocking Desiny” series.

This is the first novel by Jeremy Clift and it shows a bit of promise though I think tries perhaps a bit too hard with every SF-trope you can think of: Space piracy, moon colonies, space mining, and, of course, aliens.

Rating: “A bit better than average”

Review Date: 2024-10-20

Genre: Science Fiction

Publisher: ElleWon Press

Publication Date: 2024

ISBN: 9798990010734