If The Stars Are Lit by Sara K Ellis
Publisher – Luna Press Publishing
Published – Out Now
Price – £13.57 paperback £4.99 ebook
If the Stars Are Lit is a speculative mystery exploring the implications of AI, memory, and loss.
When the starship ferrying her to Earth is gutted by an explosion, Joss Carsten is left alone and adrift, struggling to reestablish contact with humanity. But her health is fading fast, and her isolation is triggering painful hallucinations of Alice, her long-estranged wife.
In an act of self-preservation, the ship's onboard system generates a gemel - a sentient holographic AI, born from Joss's own psyche. The catch? This one is a ringer for Alice.
Now, trapped with an "Alice" who knows all her secrets, Joss must confront her old ghosts as they race to unravel the mystery behind the ship's destruction.
Who knows you best? We like to say that’s its our loved ones but do they know everything about you? Yes, even that? To be fair do we even fully understand why we act like we do - a subject that the world of psychology has examined much. It is often hard to have perspective to that seemingly simple question ‘Who Am I?’. Science fiction allows for even more interesting ideas on the concept of self and identity, and Sara K Ellis really impressed me with their unique spin in their novel If The Stars Are Lit which combines lots of interesting ideas into a compelling story
Joss Carsten has had a long career as someone who goes across the stars and planets in the unique role of a hostage negotiator. A reputation for finding bonds with the other side and getting the right outcomes. Having completed her latest assignment on Ross 128 H (affectionately named ‘Haitch’) she is travelling via a passenger ship when everything foes hideously wrong. The ship though starts to fall apart after some unexplained event and only due to a colleague’s quick thinking is Joss taken to an escape pod although badly injured. Blasted out into deep space with very little hope of recovery the ship’s computer determines it is appropriate that an artificial lifeform is created to assist Joss in decisions making. These entities known as Gemels help humans in a number of advisory capacities and so Joss awakens to find a persona made not in the traditional form of a younger self but in the form of her ex-wife Alice.
In another universe this sounds more a comedy, but Ellis delivers a really interesting story plunging us into a space disaster and immediately adding a bit of mystery. What is going on? Why is the ship being attacked? We have the classic story framing initially of a science fiction problem to fix how can you rescue yourself marooned in space and then we have artificial intelligent lifeforms thrown in. This all happens in a few pages while also building Joss as a sympathetic and crucially competent and likeable main character. Its engaging and different enough to really pull us into the story. Many times authors can set up a lot of ideas but what pleases me in the story is Ellis delivers on them.
After the exciting opening we then suddenly have the two characters of Joss and Al. Ellis is at pains to note Al is not an entire copy of Alice but more an amalgamation of Joss’ memories of Alice and Joss’ own memories of themselves. The two have often got well through their marriage but Joss was always reluctant to talk about their past and yet professionally has no issues with sharing details with the people she negotiates with had been a huge piece of tension leading to their divorce. Now Joss is confronted with a version of her ex-wife who now actually knows Joss on a much more intimate scale than the real Alice ever knew. It is fascinating idea of someone so aware of who you are they can call you out on stuff and look at you with slightly more perspective than we give ourselves. It opens an intriguing question for us – is Al actually alive based on what we are seeing? More personally this unlocks a key trauma in Joss’ life that has led to her being very cagey over who she can trust.
That on the face of it appears the core plot but then very nimbly Ellis adds a final dimension where we enter a bigger storyline of conspiracy, danger and verging in areas on cosmic horror. Our now two main characters must unpiece this and here their unique skills come into play becoming a really interesting point of tension when they are finally meeting more human characters. Ellis delivers tension, space opera action and an unnerving moment of horror when something strikes out of the darkness. The impressive part of this story is all these elements are neatly coming together and reach an overly satisfying finale albeit one act towards the end felt a little too convenient solution for dilemma Joss would have needed to finally resolve.
If the Stars Are lit is a very impressive science fiction story that uses familiar elements in unusual and character focused ways, It blends ideas on identify, alternative forms of life and understanding ourselves. The nimbleness of the storytelling is really impressive, and I highly recommend this. Ellis is a name to watch.
