Author: Lindsay Ellis, 2020
Axiom’s End is a good read for someone wanting a gentle pace, moderate tension, and creative science fiction concepts.
Cora Sabino wants nothing to do with her father, a conspiracy theorist who announces proof that the US government is in contact with extraterrestrial life on Earth. Struggling to handle her family’s instability following her father’s abandonment, Cora drops out of college and can’t hold a job.
However, her minimal communications education suddenly becomes key to handling contact with extraterrestrials.
Lindsay Ellis does a great job of applying communication theory to alien contact (similar to Arrival). Notice how the instability and unreliability of language surfaces, as in: “What’s said is not what’s meant or what’s true.”
Cora’s heritage draws the theme of communication down to an intuitive level by invoking the Latina history of struggling to belong in the USA. This and other themes weave through a fairly normal story structure that meets reader expectations for pacing with swells and lulls. That said, there are about 20% too many words. Even with too much “telling” when Ellis could have been “showing,” this is an enjoyable read.
Conventional for many female protagonists today is Cora’s angry-young-woman type.
Even if told more than shown, Cora’s developing emotions make the story visceral. This reflects a social shift happening today, the recognition of the historically suppressed anger of women. Crises can force growth, shift perspective, and mature anger into something productive; for example, find motivation for action, stand against injustice, etc. Fictional characters, like Cora, can help women recognize what anger looks and feels like, and suggest fruitful solutions.
However, Cora’s anger sometimes happens without explanation. An author needs to make characters relatable by justifying their actions and emotions. Out-of-character outbursts must prove necessary, anticipating and validating the reader’s emotions in response. Because this doesn’t always happen in Axiom’s End, the emotional tension sometimes feels constructed rather than natural.
Readers are pattern-seekers and meaning-makers who crave coherent reasons for character activity.
Another missed opportunity is that most of the major players do not appear in the climax, which diminishes the story’s impact. The resolution after the climax also leaves loose threads unintegrated, where characters refuse to discuss details and a new character suddenly appears. This obviously sets the tone for a series, but a first book needs a powerful climax and resolution to draw readers into the rest of the series.
Critiques aside, Axiom’s End is a good read for someone wanting a gentle pace, moderate tension, and creative science fiction ideas.
Axiom’s End review written by: Jazmine Lawrence, Captain (Retired, RCAF), BSc Honours Physics, MA (Theology) student, future sci-fi author