Article contributed by Rosie Smith
Fast forward to a distant, dystopian future. Space travel is possible, the whole solar system has become habitable, and humanity has colonised it all. The entire universe has reached the ultimate goal: immortality. Consciousness is backed up to a computer program, bodies are replaceable, and no-one ever dies for real. Huge trusted corporate companies monopolise the world of re-coiling, growing synthetic bodies and placing the human soul or core within them. Laws dictate the highest level of ethics and transparency. It’s a flawless system, nothing goes wrong and nobody dies… until they do.
Carter Langston, a space salvager, wakes up in a new body or coil in a medical facility with no idea how he got there or where his fellow crew mates are. Despite constantly backing up his memories, there are some missing, his core is damaged and that’s not all. Someone is after him, someone who wants him out the picture and will do anything to make this happen. Carter must embark on a life-changing mission to track down his missing memories and find out what had he seen that was so terrible and damning someone wanted him dead. Strap in for a break-neck ride through space-travel, murder, hacking, corruption, the potential end of humanity and even space-zombies. There’s nothing in the sci-fi genre this book doesn’t cover!
The idea of immortality is an immense topic and Nicholas has cleverly zoomed in on a microcosm of this by focusing on a small skeleton salvage crew as main characters. All of them deal with the practical, ethical, and identity issues of living in a world where death isn’t final and you may be recoiled into a wealth of different bodies over a lifetime. Nicholas focuses mainly on the practical more so than the philosophical, asking the question: if everyone lives forever, where are the new bodies coming from? Nicholas explores this issue through population control (restrictions on procreating) and also casts light on how class/economic issues present today have not changed over time, introducing the idea of tiered coil insurance. The high class and affluent can afford cutting edge synthetic bodies with gender, race, and appearance of their choosing, while those at the bottom of the economic heap receive factory cast offs with a range of problems as well as having no control over the gender or race of their new body. With one gargantuan corporate company controlling all recoiling, Nicholas is able to explore the ethical side of immortality and profit. What happens when there no governing body to oversee the experimentation and innovation of Genetechnic, how far will a company go to stay at the top of the recoiling game making more and more money and what does this mean for the safety of humanity?
Re-Coil touches upon the subject of race, gender, and sexuality, creating a world where homophobia, racism, and gender issues are an eradicated thing of the past due to most humans living multiple bodies of different sex and appearance. By the same token, Nicholas is also able to sensitively tackle the topics of gender/body dysphoria through a minority of characters, including Shay (Carters crew-mate) who find their new bodies difficult to adapt to. After being Re-coiled into a male body of a different racial heritage, Shay experiences deep distress when her new body does not match the way she feels internally and her lack of adjustment is shown through her difficulty in controlling the body physically as well as her low mood relating to her coil. Nicholas also acknowledges that the distress can be different for each person stating that some just feel uncomfortable and prefer a certain gender or coil while other may fall into a deep depression after being re-coiled into the wrong gender. Nicholas has managed to cleverly explore and acknowledge these prevalent issues for many young people, the intended audience of the novel, in a way which is seamlessly enveloped within the overall narrative creating a feeling of acceptance, normalcy, and safety.
We can’t discuss a sci-fi novel without looking at the science, technology, and action behind it. From space crafts and specially modified habitation domes on Mars to computer hacking and AI, Re-Coil has got it all. One of Nicholas’ wonderful attributes as a writer is the level of detail provided about the technology and how it works. Nicholas mixes futuristic fictional tech with real scientific principles, particularly around physics creating a believable dystopian future world. This in-depth explanation is balanced by the crazy, fast paced, action packed space battle scenes. With guns, blasters, knives, nano-particle grenades, and zombies, there is nothing lacking in the action department. Structurally, Nicholas sets the scene wonderfully with the slower burning start and middle filled with exploring awesome tech and world-building as well as creating intriguing mystery. Before the novel explodes into action and intergalactic warfare at the end.
If you are a fan of the hit Netflix show Altered Carbon, this is absolutely the book for you. Although both use the same principle of immortality, it is explored in different but equally engaging and exciting ways making for two fantastic pieces of science fiction. If you love Star Wars or Star Trek, this is again the book for you, offering an alternative look at how humans may navigate living in space.
Overall, a thoroughly exhilarating adventure through space with engaging and interesting characters as well as a deeper dive into the practicalities and ethics of immortality. And let’s not forget the space-zombies!
Re-Coil is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Out on a salvage mission with a skeleton crew, Carter Langston is murdered by animated corpses left behind on this ship. Yet in this future, everyone’s consciousness backup can be safely downloaded into a brand-new body, and all you’d lose are the memories of what happened between your last backup and your death. But when Langston wakes up in his new body, he is immediately attacked in the medbay and has to fight once again for his life—and his immortality. Because this assassin aims to destroy his core forever.
Determined to find his shipmates and solve this evolving mystery, Langston locates their tech whiz Shay Chan, but two members are missing and perhaps permanently killed. Langston and Chan are soon running for their lives with the assassin and the corporation behind him in hot pursuit.
What Langston and Chan ultimately find would signal the end of humanity. What started as a salvage mission just might end up saving the world.
