I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Goldilocks by Laura Lam Published by Orbit on May 5 2020
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 352
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Lam’s latest is harsh look at what our own future could be, full of thrilling action and interesting morale questions, but the uneven second half made this a mixed bag for me.
Goldilocks has a fantastic premise and uses one of my favorite sci-fi tropes: leaving our dying Earth and striking out to colonize a new planet, in the hopes of saving humankind. And for the first half of the story, it lived up to this promise. But I ended up with mixed feelings, and I felt the first half was way stronger than the second half. Still, I had a lot of fun reading this book, and I’m going to recommend it to readers who love strong female characters and enjoy reading about current social issues. There are some scary events in Goldilocks that really hit close to home (can you say “pandemic”?) which added a lot of tension to the story, but I also felt that Lam made a few missteps with the characters’ choices in some cases.
The story takes place in an unspecified future and involves a group of five women who end up stealing a spaceship right out from under the noses of the all male space crew who were about to launch. In this future, the Earth is in dire straits. Climate change has practically ruined life for everyone except the very rich. With the failure of crops, food is becoming more and more scarce. The rising oceans mean that sea walls have to be built to protect the coastal areas. Refugees crowd the streets and jobs are hard to come by. In short, the earth is dying and it’s become critical to find a new planet to live on. The wealthy Dr. Valerie Black is CEO of a company called Hawthorn, a private corporation dedicated to space exploration and travel. NASA has built a ship called the Atalanta which is set to take a crew of five astronauts to Cavendish, a planet ten and a half light years away which scientists say can sustain human life. Valerie and her crew are slated to be on the ship, but at the last minute, she’s pulled from the roster and all five slots are replaced with men.
Valerie is furious about having her lifelong project stolen from her, but instead of stewing about it, she decides to get even. She gathers together a small group of female scientists and they make plans to steal the ship and go to Cavendish themselves. The crew includes Valerie’s daughter Naomi Lovelace, a space horticulturist who will be responsible for growing food on board; Oksana Lebedeva, the engineer; Jerrie Hixton, the pilot; and Irene Hart, the ship’s doctor.
But once up in space—having successfully executed their plan—things start to go wrong. Some of the ship’s functions start to fail, the government has branded the women “traitors,” and Naomi uncovers a shocking secret. As tension among the crew starts to rise, the success of their mission is in danger.
Lam tells her story in alternating chapters that go back forth between the past and present. I absolutely loved this format, because we get to see the characters in the years leading up to the main event, which allows the reader to better understand their choices. We learn about Naomi’s college years and her desire to work for NASA, only to be crushed by rejection. We come to understand her past relationship with her ex-husband Cole and their struggle to have a baby. We also get lots of insight into the complicated relationship between Naomi and Valerie. In fact, I actually enjoyed these flashbacks more than the chapters that take place in the present. Lam excels at creating emotional moments between characters, and that strength is in full force in this book.
Lam’s vision of the future is grim indeed, and some of her descriptions of life on planet Earth were eerily familiar. For example, in California, wildfires rage unchecked and the skies are constantly full of smoke. Because of that, it’s illegal in that state to go outside without a face mask on. At about the halfway point, Naomi gets word from Earth that a terrible virus is attacking the population, and early estimates show an eighty-percent death rate. I’m quite sure Laura Lam didn’t plan on releasing her book in the middle of a real pandemic, but that’s exactly what happened. But even worse, in Lam’s future, women’s rights have actually taken several steps back, and such things as pregnancy and child-rearing are monitored by the government with strict rules and taxes. The fact that Naomi worked so hard in her career, only to be passed over by less competent male scientists, was extremely hard to swallow.
As engaging as the first half was, however, once I hit the half-way point, the story started to lose some of its charm for me. The whole plot of going to Cavendish to start a new colony became buried under a bunch of other plots, in particular the story line about Naomi’s big secret (which I won’t divulge), and the growing threat of the virus back on Earth. The women on the Atalanta are eventually faced with a big decision, and I can’t say I agreed with the way that played out. My biggest issue, however, was the ridiculous way the virus is resolved. I had a similar reaction to a plot about developing a vaccine for a deadly virus in another book recently, and I was dismayed to have that same experience here. I think if we weren’t going through the experience of COVID-19, I would have been a lot more forgiving of the way the virus was handled in this story, but I just know too much about viruses now and I really struggled with this part. Without spoiling the details, I’ll just say that everything about the ending seemed rushed, and with so much plot crammed into this book, another hundred pages could have smoothed out some of the unbelievable, eye rolling moments.
It’s hard not to compare Goldilocks to Do You Dream of Terra-Two?, another book with a similar plot that was ultimately more successful in many ways. Terra-Two had a driving force that never let up, and I wanted that same feeling of consistency from Goldilocks. It almost felt as if Lam lost control of the reins at some point with too many subplots that needed her attention, and so ultimately the story suffered from lack of cohesion.
But I have to say, that ending was absolutely perfect! And by ending, I mean the last couple of paragraphs. It was the kind of satisfying resolution I was hoping for but wasn’t expecting. Despite my issues with the second half of the story, I did enjoy this book, especially the emotional moments between characters.
Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.
One more book, and I’m reading this next! I was hoping for at least a 4 star from you, but I think it’s great that you were still able to enjoy it so much, especially the ending. I LOVED Terra-Two as well, so thanks for the warning, I’ll keep my expectations in check and try not to compare, lol!
I was waffling between 4 and 3.5 stars, but in the end the parts about the virus UGH!! I just couldn’t give it a full four stars. I’m so curious to see what you think!
It’s really too bad that the first half was stronger than the second. I come across that all the time. But I like the sound of the women stealing a spaceship out rom under the noses of an all male space crew. I don’t know about you but that makes me smile lol
Stephanie @ Bookfever recently posted…Review: Virginia and the Vagabond by Skyler Frey
It really was a great idea, and she mostly pulled it off!
This is not the first not-so-enthusiastic review I’ve read for this title that attracted my attention thanks to its core concepts that are among my favorite in the genre: what worries me more is your comment about the flashbacks being more interesting than the events of the “present”, which speaks indeed of the unevenness you perceived in the overall story. I will have to keep all this in mind if and when I pick this book up…
And on a different tangent, your reflections on how much we are learning about viruses and pandemics, due to the current situation, set me to thinking about the way we are changing – as people and as readers – due to this word-wide crisis that seems to have come straight out of the pages of a book…
maddalena@spaceandsorcery recently posted…THE WITCHER – Season 1 (spoiler-free review) – Wyrd & Wonder 2020
Yes, we are definitely changing! Not that I’m an expert by any means, but I think all of us have read way too many news stories about coronavirus and how long it’s going to take to develop a cure/vaccine. And when an author takes liberties with that fact it just doesn’t feel right.
Yes… I read Pantomime and while that was an amazing premise, I found the writing was oddly uneven. I’m guessing she is a Marmite author and I certainly came away from that book knowing I wouldn’t want to pick up another from her. Your excellent and very fair-minded review has only reinforced that impression.
I definitely see that. I enjoyed Pantomime quite a bit, actually, and I’ve heard really good things about False Hearts, which I may try someday. But unfortunately, parts of this book were sort of a mess. But then there were parts that were really excellent! What a dilemma!
Definitely looking forward to this one and thanks for such a thoughtful review.
Thanks for stopping by, Robin, hope you enjoy!
I think this one worked for me so well because I really don’t read a lot of science fiction. The more reviews I read, I’m convinced that’s why I loved it so much. I do agree with your review though. I am still having some difficulty with the ending. I feel like Naomi took a character turn at the end (once her kids entered the picture) that wasn’t flushed out very well. I just felt like she was a different person at that point. And I get that a lot had happened and she would definitely be a changed person, but the whole thing didn’t really mesh for me. Does that make sense or did I utterly confuse you? Great review!
I really think this book was too short. There were a lot of things that could have been developed more, especially the end where all of a sudden 30 years have passed and I feel like we missed so much. But hey, I have read a ton of SF and I’m pretty picky!
Great review, Tammy. 🙂 Despite a not-so-strong second half, I’m glad you still enjoyed the book. Since these are works of fiction and authors aren’t scientists, I think we can forgive them for the creative liberties they take to deal with real-life pandemic situations.
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I would normally say that too, but she goes into great detail in her acknowledgments about all the professionals who helped her with all the science details. And I think being exposed to our very own pandemic, we all have a lot more knowledge about viruses and vaccines that we did before, and it’s hard not to notice certain plot points that don’t make sense.
This is near the top of Mount TBR. I really should have been reading it last week, but skipped ahead to Stealing Thunder and then Clive Cussler for a sort of genre palate cleanser. A little bummed that the second half had such issues, but I’m still looking forward to the read.
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I can’t wait to see what you think!
I’ve seen a few reviews so far. Yours is the most helpful! I do think I want to read this, but I”m a little hesitant knowing that the story seems to lose its way in the 2nd half.
I guess I’ve just read better books with the same basic plot, so it’s hard to give it really high marks. But there is a lot to love about it as well:-)
I was torn on whether or not to request this and in the end I decided against it. But after this synopsis and review I’ll definitely have to get around to it! I also really like the colonization-from-a-dying-earth trope, and somehow missed it before. I have been having issues finishing reads lately, after getting into them, so maybe I’ll put this on the backburner for now and get back to it later, because assuming the ending’s as good as you say, I wouldn’t want to leave it midway through!
I hope you get the chance to read it, I’d love to hear some more points of view:-)
It’s interesting getting the take on this book from to points of views, you love sci-fi and read them all the time and then Barbs review from a few days ago is from someone who doesn’t read a lot of sci-fi. I think I am curious about this book so I might put it on my library wishlist for when I think I want to try a sci-fi read. 🙂
I think because I do read a lot of sci-fi, I’m more critical. There is a lot to love about this book, but for me it wasn’t perfect.
I have this on my TBR already just for the premise alone cos I love the ‘leaving a wrecked and ruined Earth for other planets’ thing too. I’m even more intrigued to read it now you mention all the other parts of the story!
I hope you read it, I love hearing other blogger’s opinions:-)
You make an excellent point about how the virus on earth is handled.
Fantastic review!
Thanks Nadine!
This sounds like an interesting story, even if unevenly told. I’m not sure it will make my TBR at this point, trying to be a little more critical (most often unsuccessfully) of what I add to it. But I thought this was a very well-rounded review.
Thanks Todd, it’s worth reading, and I guess my opinions are very different from some other readers, so you might enjoy it a lot:-)
Yeah, I liked this and certainly didn’t struggle to read it, but I didn’t love it. The peripheral characters were very shallow, there was definitely a lack of tension and, yes, too many things going on. I never had a problem reading it though, so clearly the author has a lot of writing chops but this one wasn’t quite what I expected or wanted on this occasion.
Lynn 😀
It was very readable and I could not stop reading, isn’t that weird how that works?
I’m glad to hear this one finished strong even though you had some issues with it along the way.
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It was so good in spots, and frustrating in others, but overall I’m really glad I read it.
That reminds me I can’t believe I still haven’t read Do You Dream of Terra-Two? I forget all about my ebooks. I love that this one has a great ending. That’s always such a plus.
Oooh Do You Dream is seriously one of my all time favorite books!! I hope you read it sometime:-)
Yours is not the only mixed review for this one. I was initially excited but now I think I might hold off for a while, but I’m still kind of interested for some of the points you brought up…