If you have read my blog posts before, you know there is usually a format for reviews, certain placements of book and author information, links , etc. Once in a while though, this very set up becomes hard to work with. A book comes along that does not fit this structure and if I really want to write about the book, I have to get out of my comfort zone. While I try to keep reviews focused on the book, my experiences seep into my writing. It is impossible to separate my experience of reading the book from what might have been going on with me outside my reading hours. When I picked up Goodbye to the Sun by Jonathan Nevair (see end of the post for book synopsis and content notes), I did not know it would be a book like that. I did not know that the other book I finished, Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice, would teach me so much that I would look at Goodbye to the Sun in a whole other light. A theme that runs deep in both books is colonialism and I will touch on that connection in this post!
In Goodbye to the Sun, we meet Razor. Mote, native to the planet of Kol 2, Razor has been fighting alongside her people for a long time. The rulers treat them like nothing. The exploit of the planet has turned it into a landscape that her ancestors would never recognize and yet the community continues to survive. Against all odds. When Razor captures Keen, a renowned galactic ambassador, she hopes to broker a deal that would help her people. Reunite families that have been torn apart and give them the recognition and place in society that they deserve. Little does she know that this mission to save home will lead her into the far reaches of the galaxy to the planet of Heroon. The journey to get there is itself fraught with danger but what she finds at Heroon is an eye opening reminder that the state of the world isn’t isolated. Bad things happen everywhere and “community and culture” are not as divided as people think them to be.
Jonathan Nevair writes beautifully and the way he builds the world and the characters is brilliant. There is so much pain and heartache in both the protagonists and yet the extent of that is only revealed slowly, in measured actions and recovered memories. Inspired by the Greek tragedy, Antigone, while I may not have any context of what that is about, I know after finishing this book that it is indeed a tragedy.
“Keen’s story is filled with lies. Both those told by him and those told about him. And also, those I told myself.”
Razor in Chp 23
I loved the way Keen is portrayed by Razor and how in the very first chapter, he is set up as someone who is misunderstood and misunderstands. He is an influential person and while he takes credit in manipulating people, he is also manipulated. That is a tragedy for me. He was a fighter in the Patent War and as an ambassador, he did take advantage of the system, but did he deserve his end? It does not matter because that is the end he got.
“Choices and sacrifices in a line of evolutionary progress culminate in various forms of humans’ victories and defeats. Yet names and faces are washed over by the spectacle of collective history.”
Chp 31
I need to introduce you to Moon of the Crusted Snow at this point, a post-apocalyptic book about an indegenous community in Northern Ontario, Canada. The story centers around the community when they are cut from the South. No power, no communication. Winter is here and while they are prepared in their own way, they are unprepared for the disconnect. Moon of the Crusted Snow is a haunting tale about survival. It says so much about the past, colonialism, culture and values. I read it with a friend and we spent hours discussing it. I still have a lot to digest about that book but in our discussions about colonialism, I did not realize that it would also apply to Goodbye to the Sun as well.
“Isolated in the Sag-Arm, the early eco-surveyors offered a promise of abundant wealth and political connections to the indigenous population if they accepted a trade agreement to allow the planet to be geo-engineered. Kol 2’s unique tilt and orbital cycle, combined with its atmospheric conditions and copious aquifers, held the potential for unheard of geo-engineered wind power. All that was needed was to convert the current ecosystem and increase the temperature by a mere 8 degrees.”
Chp 10
What followed was a divide due to opinions and genocide. The planet was geo-engineered and those who did not support it were decimated. It’s a cycle we have seen play out in our real world, and a cycle that Razor sees play out on Heroon.
“I’d travelled hundreds of light years only to walk into the same oppression I’d left on Kol 2.”
Razor, Chp 23
What does that do to a person? When you realize that what happened at home is happening somewhere else too? That some people’s greed and agenda will destroy an uncountable number of lives and that dogma out there will be used to support these decisions? That people will believe that some bad things have to happen for good things to come out of it, but for whose good is it at the end of the day?
I pondered many of these questions with Razor and felt a camaraderie with her like no other. I was born and raised in India which has its own history of colonialism and yet it dwarfs in front of the horrors witnessed by the indegnous peoples in North America. Now that I am here, I think about what could have been different to make that same history happen in Asia as what happened here. Having read and discussed Moon of the Crusted Snow at length (on the blog in the coming days!) I find my empathy towards Razor increased a lot. I understand her choices and I get her apprehension.
Final Thoughts on Goodbye to the Sun
Sometimes one book leads to another. Sometimes, the themes that one addresses can be found in a different book and when I read such books back to back, I am always grateful for the opportunity to see a bigger picture and spend some time reflecting on it. Goodbye to the Sun by Jonathan Nevair is a space opera set on planets and planet systems, possibly far away from us, yet because it is still about humans, there are threads in our history that are reflected there in a unique way. It gave me a lot to think about and I hope that I did justice to it.
A nonstop thrill ride across an unstable galaxy, combining moral struggle with character-driven adventure…
Tucked away in the blue sands of Kol 2, the Motes are on the brink of cultural collapse. Razor, a bold and daring pilot, leads a last-ditch gambit against their local oppressors, the Targitians. The plan – abduct visiting Ambassador Keen Draden and use him as a bargaining chip to restore her people’s independence in the Sagittarius Arm. But when the operation unravels, Razor is forced to renegotiate terms with the arrogant diplomat.
Light years away on Heroon a radical resistance blossoms. The alluring rainforest planet haunts Keen. All his problems started there during the Patent War, but it’s where Razor’s troubles may find a solution. The moral tide ebbs, exposing an impossible choice that links their futures together more tragically than they ever thought possible.
Goodbye to the Sun: a space opera inspired by the Greek tragedy, Antigone.
Content Notes: Death of child (mentioned) and family, war violence, verbal/emotional abuse, torture, genocide, colonialism, trauma.
Will you pick up this book?
Goodbye to the Sun is available online! This is the first book of Wind Tide series and book 3 is also out now so you can read the full trilogy back to back if you want! In celebration of the third book coming out, I will be hosting author Jonathan Nevair for an interview about the series on the 3rd! So stay tuned! And don’t forget to get this book through your local library so it can reach more readers.
Many thanks to the author for a gifted copy of the book as part of the upcoming book tour hosted by Storytellers on Tour.
About Jonathan Nevair
Jonathan Nevair is a science fiction writer and, as Dr. Jonathan Wallis, an art historian and Professor of Art History at Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia. After two decades of academic teaching and publishing, he finally got up the nerve to write fiction. Jonathan grew up on Long Island, NY but now resides in southeast Pennsylvania with his wife and rambunctious mountain feist, Cricket.
Find Jonathan Nevair at www.jonathannevair.com and on Twitter at @JNevair.
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Cover image: Photo by Keith Hardy on Unsplash
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