The Year Before the End [Book Review]

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The Year Before the End is a Hard Science Fiction Novel and it’s Brilliant.

Okay, it’s time for a moment of real honesty. I don’t typically read a lot of hard science fiction because I don’t come from a technical background. I love science fiction unless it gets waaaay to in the weeds about how it all works. Well, this book is an exception. Hokstad reaches a perfect in between of satisfying the “how/why it works” and the actual plot. The world is built gradually as we navigate the first quarter of the book without excessive info-dumping or taking us back to science class.

The story follows the crew of the Black Rain, a group of rag-tag transport professionals. They take bounties and make deliveries and at the start of the story, they have just come into a very big job that will pay them well. But it’s extremely risky.

As a fan of Firefly, I really loved the dynamic with the crew. The captain, Zo, is trying to navigate her new job title after she is suddenly thrust into the position after the untimely death of the previous captain. She’s confident, quick-thinking, and knows how to drive a hard bargain. Here’s a quote that I like about her:

Zo liked to tell the story of how she became captain to these clients, and show them the long, uneven scar from a plasma burn along her left arm that was given to her as she was escaping, and also to point out to them how the first job of her new crew–the way they proved their worth to her–had been to hunt down those who had ambushed her previous crew and kill them.

Vidar Hokstad, taken from The Year Before the End

So, she is clearly a bad-ass. She’s also great at managing the variety of personalities on her crew. The dialogue between them is often hilarious, sometimes explicit, and never boring.

An important aspect to the world building is that Earth becomes aware of the Centauri, an advanced alien species in 2105. The book takes place sometime after 2145, when most everyone is accustomed to this new world order. There’s a lot of details around this, particularly the Centauri gate which enables space travel. But I won’t go into too much detail on all that here (or this post will get long!)

There is a lot of enjoyable action sequences throughout the book, and it is packed with nail biting moments. There is a scene fairly early in the book where the group purposefully crashed into a space station and manages to make it look like an accident. It’s really clever and it’s also the first taste of the crew interacting in a stressful situation. If you’re not sure about the book, finish these chapters and you will be sold.

Join me on Friday for an interview with Vidar Hokstad himself! If you write or read sci-fi, then it’s going to be a must read for you. A big thank you to the author for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

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