FUTURE’S EDGE by Gareth L. Powell – Review

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.

Future's Edge by Gareth L. Powell
Published by Titan Books on February 25 2025
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 352
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Epic in scope but somehow intimate as well, Future’s Edge is an end-of-the-world tale with heart and hope.

“The fall of Earth was both sudden and protracted. Ships filled with Cutters shimmered into existence above the planet. They looked like flowers fashioned from glass and filigree, with components whose geometries seemed to overlap and intersect in ways that strained the human eye to behold.”

Gareth L. Powell is one of those writers who never disappoints. He’s consistently good at what he does, writing stories with intricate worldbuilding, plenty of humor, well developed characters and thoughtful insights into the human condition. Future’s Edge has all that and more and is a thoroughly entertaining romp through space.

Two years ago, the world nearly ended when a destructive alien species called the Cutters arrived on Earth and decimated most of humanity. Billions died with only a handful of humans and other aliens spared. Those with the resources to hop on a ship and leave the planet have managed to eke out a life in refugee camps, never knowing if and when the Cutters will find them.

Ursula Morrow was lucky enough to have friends in high places, and her military boyfriend Jack made arrangements for her to escape. But Jack decided to keep fighting and left Ursula by herself on a backwoods planet, where’s she’s managed to survive despite the uncertainty of the Cutters’ invasion. Ursula is also dealing with a mistake she made on an archeological dig just before the Cutters arrived. She was infected by an alien artifact after touching it with her bare hand and has acquired superhuman healing powers. Doctors determined that whatever happened to her isn’t contagious, so she’s allowed to live a fairly normal life. But still, she wonders about long term repercussions. 

Ursula hasn’t seen or heard from Jack in two years, but then one day he shows up on her doorstep. Jack has been fighting the Cutters and has a crazy idea: he believes that the alien artifact that infected Ursula might be a weapon they can use against the Cutters, but testing it out means returning to Void’s Edge, the far away planet where Ursula found the artifact, and hooking her up to the device to see if she can activate it.

And so begins a treacherous journey, as Ursula and her companion Siegfried join Jack and his crew aboard Jack’s ship the Crisis Actor. Outrunning the Cutters is just one obstacle on their way to find the artifact and potentially save the world.

Powell begins his story after a few major things have happened—the Cutters’ invasion and Ursula’s infection at the dig site—and I think one of the signs of good writing is knowing when to start your story. He could have easily made the invasion the main focus, but in my opinion it wouldn’t have been nearly as entertaining. In this story, we get to see what happens next, which is a thrilling adventure with plenty of danger and suspense, as the crew of the Crisis Actor dodges the Cutters (who are still around), hoping to make it to the artifact before they are killed.

There’s a lot packed into this story, which is just over three hundred pages. Powell uses every word in service of his story without any unnecessary filler, creating a vast universe with many different kinds of alien beings coexisting (more or less) on different planets. Each planet is linked to the next by a tramline network in the undervoid, a sort of tunnel between star systems that allows fast travel from one to the next. Unfortunately, the Cutters also use this system, so traveling it can be extremely dangerous. There is so much cool worldbuilding in this story, like the huge foam ships used to take survivors to another galaxy, and the Precursors, the ancient race who created the artifact that infected Ursula. Powell has managed to create a highly entertaining and believable story that not only explores the future of space travel, but goes back millions of years to the time of the dinosaurs and makes a fascinating connection between them and the Precursors.

And while all this worldbuilding is going on, Powell’s characters are front and center. Ursula has been hardened by her experience with the Cutters and the artifact and has turned to alcohol for comfort, but she’s also vulnerable, in love with Jack and unable to let him go, even though she understands on some level he’s moved on. I particularly loved Siegfried, her part alien, part android companion who goes along with Ursula to find the artifact, and Mouse, Ursula’s best friend from college who also joins the crew.

Jack and his ship the Crisis Actor, or Cris as he calls her, were one of the strangest couples I’ve ever read about. Yes, I said “couples.” (Cris has a humanoid projection that can walk around and interface with people separate from the actual ship.) Ursula is jealous at first, but later she and Cris bond during a heart-to-heart, which was sweet and emotional. We also get alternating chapters from Cris’s perspective in the form of a ship’s log, which I loved.

And I can’t forget the Cutters, who are one of the weirdest and most lethal aliens I’ve come across in fiction. Ursula describes them as looking like a Kandinsky painting, made up of overlapping glass shards and maybe existing in more than one dimension. I was fascinated by these creatures and terrified as well. Powell doesn’t give them any human qualities at all—they are killers through and through.

Powell infuses his story with lots of emotional moments as well. Ursula and the others are mourning the loss of “Old Earth,” and there’s a feeling of nostalgia as they remember everything they’ve lost. The Cutters are a constant threat and you never know which character is going to be their next victim. He also brings up interesting ideas about the vastness of the universe and how humans are nothing more than blips on the timeline. I felt very small after reading Future’s Edge, and Powell gives readers a lot to ponder, especially at the end when we learn more about where the Cutters came from and why they are killing off civilizations. 

Despite some of the terrible things that happen to the characters, Powell ends his story on a hopeful note and gives readers a happily-ever-after ending. I believe this is a standalone at the moment, but there is certainly room to expand into other books, and frankly, I hate the idea of never seeing these characters again. Future’s Edge promises to be one of the best science fiction books of the year, don’t miss it.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.