The Photonic Effect by Mike Chen

I would like to thank Saga Press for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher - Saga Press

Published - Out Now

Price - US $20.00 paperback Uk - £8.99 paperback £6.49 ebook

The starship Horizon’s crew spent ten years trapped across the expanse of space. Now they’re finally home—only it’s not the home they knew. The Cluster, once a peaceful coalition of planets, has fractured in the wake of civil war.

Captain Demora Kim wants nothing more than to protect her surviving crew. It’s what she owes them after years of instability and terror. But in times of war, no one is allowed neutrality.

After an attack on a mining station leaves thousands dead, Demi’s efforts become almost impossible. Every ship is needed on the frontline. Thrust deeper into a conflict she barely understands, Demi considers a bold choice—one that might keep her promises but tip the galaxy further into chaos.

Science fiction has a way of thinking about the morality of decisions. From Frankenstein showing us the dangers of the great genius who doesn’t stop to think about the consequences of his creation to the very recent and excellent The Salt Oracle by Lorraine Wilson where science without ethics is questioned. There is something about balancing the logics of the maths versus the emotions of the heart that I think draws the reader in. In Mike Chen’s new science fiction novel The Photonic Effect this gets into a crew of a starship debating which orders to follow and for me was ultimately a disappointing read.

In the late 23rd century the Galactic Cluster Fleet’s deep space vessel the Horizon fell into a photonic gravity well. They found themselves not alone but with the crews of other races, ones even from other universes and as ships fell apart the crews mixed eventually after 7 years a test of a new energy method allowed the Horizon to leave but found the Galaxy now on the brink of civil war with a separatist movement attacking a space station. Captain Demora Kim though gets a message for help from the Lumersians who helped her crew years ago but her superiors want her to be used to help the war. A hard decision awaits.

I think there is a great ambitious idea here to have a standalone tale plunging the reader into the middle of the story. Unfortunately I do not feel this story achieves that. Dropping us into the action I usually like as the reader has to make the connections and work out the world and plot. Instead I found myself having to double check that I’d not read a second part of a series. We get told lots of what previously happened to the crew but I ultimately found it all being told narrowly to explain things and very little as I was expecting to go back and find out what happened. If I’m going to have to choose a side I need a reason to choose why their argument is better especially in the first quarter of a novel.

The characters all feel like interesting ideas but rarely fully fleshed out. We have a Captain trying to keep her crew of mixed starship crews and races together but I rarely felt Kim opens up. There is the interesting idea of Tanav the ship’s counsellor who comes from a different universe and specialises in crew dynamics and morale but everything felt flat. For me the drawback was I felt this was relying on the reader’s general knowledge of SF series to bolster the story. If I say to you ‘the barbarian entered the tavern’ I suspect while our mental images will vary we have all read and seen enough fantasy novels to borrow the settings and designs. This story feels like it is taking pieces of other stories to make its own but the critical issue I have is I never feel what makes The Photonic Effect work for itself and stand out in a crowded field. To leave me not caring about the story is a huge weakness for me.

If you want a fast paced and light SF adventure then The Photonic Effect may work for you. But for me I found myself thinking of the shows and books it’s taking influences from and noticing that it never really comes alive in its own right. As such I can’t recommend it.