Escaping Exodus: A Novel

by Nicky Drayden

Overview

"Don't be alarmed - that dizzy pleasurable sensation you're experiencing is just your brain slowly exploding from all the wild magnificent worldbuilding in Nicky Drayden's Escaping Exodus. I loved these characters and this story, and so will you."

 - Sam J. Miller, Nebula-Award-winning author of The Art of Starving and Blackfish City

The Compton Crook award–winning author of The Prey of Gods and Temper returns with a dazzling stand-alone novel, set in deep space, in which the fate of humanity rests on the slender shoulders of an idealistic and untested young woman—a blend of science fiction, dark humor, and magical realism that will appeal to fans of Charlie Jane Anders, Jeff VanderMeer, and Nnedi Okorafor.

Earth is a distant memory. Habitable extrasolar planets are still out of reach. For generations, humanity has been clinging to survival by establishing colonies within enormous vacuum-breathing space beasts and mining their resources to the point of depletion.

Rash, dreamy, and unconventional, Seske Kaleigh should be preparing for her future role as clan leader, but her people have just culled their latest beast, and she’s eager to find the cause of the violent tremors plaguing their new home. Defying social barriers, Seske teams up with her best friend, a beast worker, and ventures into restricted areas for answers to end the mounting fear and rumors. Instead, they discover grim truths about the price of life in the void.

Then, Seske is unexpectedly thrust into the role of clan matriarch, responsible for thousands of lives in a harsh universe where a single mistake can be fatal. Her claim to the throne is challenged by a rival determined to overthrow her and take control—her intelligent, cunning, and confident sister.

Seske may not be a born leader like her sister, yet her unorthodox outlook and incorruptible idealism may be what the clan needs to save themselves and their world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062867735
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	10/15/2019
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	254,174
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Nicky Drayden’s short fiction has appeared in publications such as Shimmer and Space and Time. She is a systems analyst and resides in Austin, Texas, where being weird is highly encouraged, if not required. Her debut novel, The Prey of Gods, was a best of the year pick by Book Riot, Vulture, and RT Book Reviews.

Editorial Reviews

07/01/2019

The first SF novel from fantasy author Drayden (Temper) has high ambitions but is cramped and confusing. Centuries after humans abandoned the ravaged Earth to create colonies inside enormous starfaring beasts, teenage matriarch-in-training Seske emerges from stasis to discover the beast her people have chosen to inhabit may not be the safe harbor they’d hoped for. As her increasingly frail mother, Matris, pressures Seske to become the leader their imperiled people need, Seske buckles beneath the burdens of expectation and the price of being Matris’s sole legitimate heir. Her cunning sister, left illegitimate and nameless by their society’s draconian kinship rules, challenges Seske’s claim to the throne at every turn, while Adalla, Seske’s forbidden love, faces a cruel, demanding destiny as a beastworker who will toil all her life to keep the beast alive for those living in it. When Matris falls deathly ill, Seske is thrust into the role of matriarch and protector, ready or not. Complicated subplots (monsters, revolution, love triangles) compete with the main characters and their primary relationships; in the end, all are underdeveloped. Inconsistent characterization and confounding worldbuilding significantly limit the appeal of this disappointing novel. Agent: Jennifer Jackson, Donald Maass Literary. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Don’t be alarmed - that dizzy pleasurable sensation you’re experiencing is just your brain slowly exploding from all the wild magnificent worldbuilding in Nicky Drayden’s Escaping Exodus. I loved these characters and this story, and so will you.” — Sam J. Miller, Nebula-Award-winning author of The Art of Starving and Blackfish City

"A sweeping, smart, stunning story that dazzles brighter than a star system [...] making Escaping Exodus a true gem to be treasured."
— Booklist (starred review)

“Drayden’s new novel builds on the amazing strengths she’s shown before. If you can imagine a feminist, Afro-centric, queer Heinlein juvenile, with a strong discussion of class politics, then you might get close to what she’s doing here. I don’t think I could have imagined such a book before reading this one. This is something I’ve been missing.” — Locus Magazine

“Everything about the Afrofuturistic worldbuilding is exquisitely imaginative, and the characters are three-dimensional, occasionally offering flashes of dark humor. The spacefaring beast is a marvel, containing a whole ecosystem with microclimates and other organisms living within it alongside humans. Although the relationship between the two young women is perpetually hampered by circumstance, as most good love stories are, it’s palpable and vibrant.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Escaping Exodus is another fine entry from a clearly talented writer. Read if you ever wondered what it would be like if the Millennium Falcon decided to live inside that asteroid worm.” — Lightspeed Magazine

From the Publisher

Don’t be alarmed - that dizzy pleasurable sensation you’re experiencing is just your brain slowly exploding from all the wild magnificent worldbuilding in Nicky Drayden’s Escaping Exodus. I loved these characters and this story, and so will you.

Sam J. Miller

"A sweeping, smart, stunning story that dazzles brighter than a star system [...] making Escaping Exodus a true gem to be treasured."

Booklist (starred review)

Drayden’s new novel builds on the amazing strengths she’s shown before. If you can imagine a feminist, Afro-centric, queer Heinlein juvenile, with a strong discussion of class politics, then you might get close to what she’s doing here. I don’t think I could have imagined such a book before reading this one. This is something I’ve been missing.

Locus Magazine

Escaping Exodus is another fine entry from a clearly talented writer. Read if you ever wondered what it would be like if the Millennium Falcon decided to live inside that asteroid worm.

Lightspeed Magazine

2019-07-28
An Afrofuturist love story, set inside a giant space-creature, about two women of different castes.

In a far distant future, humans left Earth behind generations ago in a mass exodus. The survivors now travel inside enormous beasts that trek across the vacuum of space; human societies carve out spaces inside the living leviathans that carry them. Seske, the daughter of the clan matriarch, is being groomed for her eventual position of power, but she'd much rather spend her time with Adalla, her best friend since childhood; however, Adalla's a beastworker who toils in the space beast's organs and arteries. The chapters alternate between the first-person perspectives of the two young women, and it quickly becomes clear that Seske and Adalla are very much in love—but a beastworker isn't considered a suitable mate for the heir apparent. When Seske suddenly becomes the clan matriarch, her title is threatened by another claimant—her own sister. Meanwhile, Adalla, heartbroken over losing Seske, is demoted until she's a lowly boneworker. Soon the two women each uncover shocking truths about their society and how it operates—and, more importantly, about the beast that keeps them all alive. The plot twists that follow are surprising but mostly plausible, and it culminates in a gratifying finish. Drayden's prose is neither clunky nor lyrical—it just gets the job done. But it's substance, rather than style, that sets this book apart. Everything about the Afrofuturistic worldbuilding is exquisitely imaginative, and the characters are three-dimensional, occasionally offering flashes of dark humor. The spacefaring beast is a marvel, containing a whole ecosystem with microclimates and other organisms living within it alongside humans. Although the relationship between the two young women is perpetually hampered by circumstance, as most good love stories are, it's palpable and vibrant. One hopes to read more about Seske and Adalla's further adventures.

A straightforwardly written sci-fi tale with top-notch worldbuilding and sharp characterization.

Kirkus Reviews