Killing Gravity
By: Corey J. White
Release Date: May 9, 2017
Publisher: Tor.com
Series: Voidwitch Saga #1
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:

You know what I like? Space adventures. You know what I also like? All powerful magical type characters. So, obviously, when a surprise copy Killing Gravity fell into my lap I made sure to read it immediately. Killing Gravity by Corey J. White is a fast paced, fun story about an all-powerful voidwitch.

Killings Gravity is the story of Mariam Xi, a woman who escaped the organization known as MEPHISTO after being subjected to years of experimentation which turned into a super-soldier, a voidwitch. Now they’re closing in on her, and a reliable source has evidence that someone from her past has sold her out. With her experimental probably-a-cat named Seven she must find the traitor and outrun the people who will stop and nothing to get her back.

The story is told from Mars’s point of view as she travels the cosmos, running from the people who turned her into a super-soldier. I liked Mars, and I liked hearing the story in her voice. She is a rather unreliable narrator, at least in certain sections. While Mars successfully escaped MEPHISTO, the group which experimented on her resulting in the witch-like abilities she has, she doesn’t necessarily know what her powers are, how exactly she taps into them, or what MEPHISTO wants with her. There are also sections where Mars finally remembers long forgotten parts of her childhood, but the circumstances under which she does the remembering are suspect. Did she remember correctly, or was what she saw simply a drug induced vision? Mars seems certain, but there’s still an element of uncertainty.

There are a number of side characters who weave in and out of story, all of whom were fascinating in their own right. Glimpses into some of their pasts are given, and I found myself wanting to know more about them. I would gladly read stories about the crew of the Nova and their past exploits.

This novella is quite fast paced. There is very little downtime in the story. Mars is always moving, dead set on reaching her goal and staying out of the hands of MEPHISTO. There are no dull slow sections. A rather broad range of locations are visited, and while the majority of those locations are ships and space stations, we do visit a very interesting swamp planet. Boring is definitely not a word I would use to describe this story.

Yet for all of its fast pacing and action sequences not everything was explained. I didn’t expect answers to everything, especially considering this is a series. But I would have appreciated a little more information about certain things. For example, the voidwitches are susceptible to mental conditioning, but nearly none of Mars’s would be captors use or even seem to know about this. Still, I look forward to the next book in the series and discovering more possible answers.

I absolutely devoured Killing Gravity by Corey J. White. It was fun, fast paced, and blended together some of my favorite speculative fiction elements. I am definitely looking forward to picking up a copy of sequel, Void Black Shadow, which has recently released.