Reading the back-cover copy for Loneliness, it’s not hard to see why I was intrigued.
A collision with space debris has left a gigantic hole in Inez Stanton’s ship, nearly crippling it. Inez is a cargoist, that rare breed of adventurer who takes to deep space solo, ferrying valuable cargo for the Tenth Great and Glorious Browns Company. Now she’s in a race against her own rig’s spaceworthiness, and that might not be the worst part.
The totalitarian Free Earth government has also lost a ship on this lane, and is intent on finding out why. The Company wants their cargo delivered and can make Inez’s life very difficult if she doesn’t succeed. With the nearest waystation three days away, death in the cold vacuum of space is a distinct possibility as well.
The clock is ticking for her to deliver her cargo. But will she want to when she finds out what she’s actually carrying?
Loneliness was a tough book to review. It has all the ingredients for a great story: a tough, capable heroine faced with high stakes and the vast, unforgiving emptiness of deep space. With her rough background and dark sense of humor, Inez is a highly relatable character.
Via Inez’s internal monolog, we’re filled in on her traumatic childhood, the deaths of her parents, her escape from slavery, and the friends and lovers she found and lost along the way. These events are such a driving factor in her choices and state of mind that it feels like they should have had their own story.
Unfortunately, Inez’s tragic past leans heavily on domestic abuse and sexual assault. While this isn’t unsurprising in a culture where slavery is accepted, it’s a less than pleasant headspace to live in.
Loneliness feels like more of an episode of a serial than a stand-alone story. Although Inez’s most immediate life-threatening predicament is resolved, the larger, more pressing questions aren’t. This choice leaves Loneliness feeling unfinished, as if I’d only read the first quarter or third of a novel.
If I’d been more gripped by the story, this might have led me to buy the next novella in the series. As it stands, Loneliness spent too much of its roughly 150 pages reminiscing about people Inez used to know for me to get really invested in her as a protagonist, or in the present-timeline mysteries she uncovers.
I give Loneliness 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. If you’re interested in bite-sized serials at almost-full-book prices (beyond the first novella,) this series may appeal to you.
