Radiate

Higgins’s third near-future novel (after Supernova) drifts along with its main characters mostly bereft of agency. The main story follows Mattie Gale and Leontios “Ivan” Ivanov from the moment they escape the Ananke with Ivan gravely wounded. Much of the rest of the book follows the pair of revolutionaries as they seek to reunite with Constance Harper, who’s Mattie’s foster sister and Ivan’s lover. The three of them, led by Constance, planned and carried out the destruction of the Earth-based System, which controlled all of the solar system’s colonies; now, rebel factions fight among themselves. Mattie and Ivan are held prisoner more than once and often don’t even know where to look for Constance in the vastness of the solar system. Intermittent chapters look back, sometimes at revolutionary actions but just as often at more personal moments among Mattie, Ivan, and Constance. Lurking in the background is Ananke, the sentient ship inadvertently created by Mattie, who longs to recapture him. Despite the war setting, this isn’t an action story but one of characters, and it suffers from their lack of control over their fates. Agent: Hannah Bowman, Liza Dawson Associates. (May)