Review - Goldilocks by Laura Lam

Goldilocks by Laura Lam

Ravaged by environmental disaster, greed and oppression, our planet is in crisis. The future of humanity hangs in the balance - and one woman can tip it over.

Despite increasing restrictions on the freedoms of women on Earth, Valerie Black is spearheading the first all-female mission to a planet in the Goldilocks Zone, where conditions are just right for human habitation.

It's humanity's last hope for survival, and Naomi, Valerie's surrogate daughter and the ship's botanist, has been waiting her whole life for an opportunity like this - to step out of Valerie's shadow and really make a difference.

But when things start going wrong on the ship, Naomi starts to suspect that someone on board is concealing a terrible secret - and realises time for life on Earth may be running out faster than they feared

What a journey!

With climate catastrophes, pandemics, a populist right wing government and imposed restrictions on women's rights, Goldilocks by Laura Lam is not a comfortable read, especially right now, but it is thrilling, gripping, timely and powerful!

This is hard sci-fi done very well. The scientific details are thorough and complex enough to sound plausible to this layman, but they never get in the way of the emotional storytelling. This is a book about a desperate journey to another world. But it's also a story about human nature, hubris, ambition and pride. It's a story about what we're willing to do to save ourselves and humanity.

It doesn't pull any punches either. It's a fascinating depiction of the privilege wealth brings with it, and how that can affect the people with that privilege, what it's like to grow up with someone else opening (or closing) doors for you, and how that can impact on your life, in ways I haven't really thought about before. Naomi's character is the emotional heart of the story, and with her strengths and vulnerabilities she's an excellent main character.

So much of the background detail to this book feels really quite scarily timely, but there is hope in the darkness, and this is the story I needed right here, right now, to keep that in sight.

Complex, powerful, ambitious. I'm giving Goldilocks five moons. 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕

Goldilocks is published by Headline Publishing Group and is available now. I was given an eProof via Netgalley in return for an honest review.

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