Picture by Den of Geeks
A mostly spoiler-free review of Daniel Suarez’s “Delta-V”
“Delta-V” hit a lot of the right notes for me. A story of a bitcoin billionaire turned space company founder trying to jumpstart the asteroid mining business…..
……hh wait that’s only partly right….
The techno-thriller story of the harsh selection and training process of the crew of humanity’ first asteroid mining ship….
….wait that’s not quite it either…
A story of adventure in the near future as a close-knit group of friends and like-minded daredevils take on a corporate job to mine an asteroid.
“Delta-V” is all of these things and more. This is a novel that hits a lot of compelling notes and does it well. There is little “space exploration for space exploration sake” here, especially at the beginning. It’s about moving humanity into the void of space for sake of mining resources from an asteroid because we need them. This book portrays a lot of firsts in this department. The first human “gravity” ship (the same kind of gravity as spinning something in a circle). The farthest mankind has sent people into the void of space.
“Delta-V” does touch on the more common subjects spacefaring topics like colonizing Mars, but quickly dismisses them in favor of what it considers more practical answers to the question of what mankind should do in space next. I have to admit, the book made a compelling argument to dismiss a lot of the preconceptions I had about going back to the Moon or humans going to Mars. It did a decent job explaining why asteroid mining should be humanity’s next spacefaring pursuit. On top of that it lays a decent roadmap of how you’d achieve such a thing.
The title is a reference to the cost of transporting anything through the void of space. The cost of fuel for example. The concept of Delta-V is a large part of what this story is about. Lifting materials into space on rockets is incredibly expensive. Why not get those materials from space instead and drop them into low Earth orbit. Why not form a commodity exchange in orbit around the Earth? These are the corporate-minded choices that are central to the story.
But these high finance/commodity pieces are only part of the story. This novel has a lot of heart. Rather than choosing a bunch our best and brightest young adults to go into space, the story takes a different direction. This is a job for the world’s proven daredevils. The people who fly in wingsuits, work with explosives or engage in cave diving. The people with a proven track record of overcoming fear in the worst possible circumstances. I have to give the author a lot of credit for prioritizing real life experiences over brains or the best education. There’s a lot of interesting pragmatic (yet unconventional to a Sci-Fi fiction reader) choices in how this mission will work and who gets chosen to participate and why.
These characters are both interesting and flawed. Often they are the black sheep of their families. The people who could just never settle down into the traditional lifestyle or career path. Some of the most interesting characters are true thrill-seeking oddballs, their black sheep nature is part of what makes them the perfect choice for such a hazardous mission where the planners know things will go wrong.
Along the way you fall in love with this strange collection of characters. The strong bonds of friendship and comradery they develop with each other are something to envy. You take that shared human connection into space and it becomes something unique and almost magical. The star lust they experience as they see the Milky Way together touches the soul and makes you envious of their experience.
If I have any complaints at all about this novel it is in some of the pacing. I was halfway through the book and realized that this voyage hadn’t even begun yet. But once it had, time passed quickly. Sometimes whole months went by in a single chapter. That unsteady flow of time was a little hard to keep track of. But the brilliantly described mental and emotional toll the journey is taking on the crew became a better measuring stick for the duration of the voyage anyway. That emotional component is explained very vividly. I'm not a very empathetic or emotional reader but I became emotionally invested in the characters and this story.
But I really didn’t foresee where this book was going or what would happen. Some well-developed characters don’t make the cut or quit and their part in the story abruptly ends. The mission itself proves to be a riddle of secrets hidden from all of planet Earth, and that brings some shockingly unexpected twists. Some characters so lovable you are sure they are going to survive…don’t. But nearly all of these choices make sense in retrospect.
“Delta-V” was more than worth my time. If you enjoy studying the near future, especially in regard to humanity’s next steps into space, you will enjoy this book. But if you enjoy futuristic science fiction with pseudo-science this may not be for you. As far as I can tell this book is largely grounded in hard science of a very near future. It also intertwines everything from legal to financial aspects into the equation. This book is probably better enjoyed by a 30-something (or older) as opposed to a 17-year-old teenager looking for some space drama fun. Everything from the writing to the characters just lends itself to a very adult mindset.
I started reading for the technology and the intellectual and technical concepts that the book was presenting. But I stayed for the characters and their story of spaceflight adventure. If that appeals to you then I strongly recommend "Delta-V."