I enjoyed this one quite a lot; it was fun envisioning the space program(s) as initiated and encouraged by aliens. As one who remembers the impact of the launch of Sputnik, cried about Laika, and watched a man walk on the moon, it was all personal to me. ( )

I thought I knew most of the Canadian science fiction writers but Sylvain Neuvel is a new discovery for me but one that I will read from now on.

The Kibsu are a small but impactful group of women who have made it their life's work to get humans into space. There have been ninety-nine identical women born by the time World War II rolls around. Mia is number ninety-nine and she has an important job to do in 1945. Her mother, Sara, has realized that only the Germans have the necessary expertise to help the Americans build rockets that can reach space. So she has arranged for Mia to infiltrate Peenemunde, the facility where Wernher von Braun has been designing missiles for the Nazi, and get von Braun to a place where he can be rescued by the Americans when the war ends. Compounding the danger of this mission is the fact that The Tracker, a person or persons who have been trying to find and kill the Kibsu for generations, is close on their trail. As history now knows von Braun did come to work in the American space race so it is no spoiler to say Mia succeeded. But the story doesn't end there; once von Braun was safely secured Sara and Mia left the USA and went to the USSR. Sara needed to have them disappear from The Tracker but she also wanted to step up the Russian space effort so there would be a space race. One of the rules by which the Kibsu function is that there can never be three of them alive for very long. It's high time that Mia had a baby but that would mean losing her mother. Also, in Moscow Mia realizes she is attracted to a black female which complicates the issue. At the book's end it is obvious that there is more to come in this story. I look forward to reading the sequel. ( )

Overall interesting, good writing, great concept. The action sequences broke up the flow and were really tedious. ( )

It was a new experience with this book starting with a music playlist made for the book.
In more than one time I feel the presence of the autor expressing is thoughts and feelings inside the story.
At the end comes a special episode called “Further Reading”. In here Sylvain goes even further and share’s part of his research with us in a very personal way. It like a coffee shop talk, he is right in front of us telling fantastic things… laughing, smiling and sometimes sneaking a “naaaaa”.
Got to love the explanation of “Carbon dating in a nutshell” where we all now have a new imaginary friend, “Steve”, lol
Lots of links to explain the various events in the book’s history.
This his definitely another great book from Sylvain ( )

Meh. Had a lot of promise but dwelled primarily in the mid 1900s which a pleasant or enjoyable period of history, filled with unsavory characters.

The concept is kind of fun, an alien has been abandoned on earth (details how and why they landed not revealed) and in order to return home they have to increase humanity's abilities in spaceflight. They through generations of direct lineal descent look exactly like human women, and give birth normally, but there's only ever a mother and her daughter, by the time the daughter becomes pregnant the mother dies. This means that occasional acts of rebellion lose the history and purpose of their race, and now only a few precepts are left. ( )