Well written and a vivid, if stark world, but if I had been reading this for simple pleasure, I probably would have stopped after the first few pages. Not because of a deficiency in the writing, but because the characters you see first are individuals I found it difficult to like/empathize/connect with. This improved as the book went on, but I am still left conflicted by this grim, dark world. By the same token, I find it difficult to name a more original take on dystopia, though elements of the experience did remind me subtly of Nine Fox Gambit.

Points for originality but this was a hard sell and then a swift DNF for me. I didn’t connect with the author’s style of writing and as the plot engaged, I knew that it wasn’t the right fit for me. A DNF due to personal preference not any fault of the author or story.

An interesting sci-fi novel set on a deep-space prison. Pretty interesting cast of characters (many of them, well, scum). There's a lot going on in the novel, much of it good. If you're looking for a SF with a bit of a difference, then give this a try - there are a lot of homages to various classic SF movies and stories, but it's put together into something new and distinct.

If you know the term 'grindhouse' - often associated with a style of film - then think of this as grindhouse fiction.

Oubliette is a floating prison colony. It is not just that the worst prisoners are sent there - and they are - but due to massive poverty, parents will sometimes send their children to Oubliette to have one less child to be responsible for. The prison colony is run by gangs of tough, brutal prisoners. There is currently a very tenuous truce among the gangs so that when a shipment of the meager food and supplies arrives the gangs get their cut without fighting. Oubliette is an all-female colony enclosed in a glass-like dome. (Male prisoners and cast-off family members are sent to a military complex.)

One of the gangs on Oubliette is the Daughters of Forgotten Light, led by Lena "Horror" Horowitz. They ride around Oubliette on their motorcycles in some semblance of order, intimidating loners and lesser gangs. Occasionally they'll lose a member in a fight, but there's always new blood being sent to the colony.

In the latest shipment, however, there are two surprises for the gangs. A drone. And a baby.

A Senator has sent the drone, hoping to get enough video evidence of the lawlessness - the violence and the cannibalism - occurring, that she will get approval to destroy the colony and everyone in it. Her problem ... the baby now on Oubliette may be hers.

Despite the dark themes and the grindhouse sense of storytelling, this was a fast and light read. It's not a huge cast of characters with a lot of subplot going on. It's straightforward, and rough, with just enough plot to take you from page to page.

I find it quite interesting that author Sean Grigsby writes a novel of almost entirely female characters. While I am enjoying his "Smoke Eaters" series, the one issue I have with the books I've read there, are: misogyny and male pubescent fantasy toward the female characters. I don't feel a whole lot better about the characters here. Even realizing that these gang members are tough killers, I didn't always feel like their dialog was natural. It sometimes felt he was trying too hard to sound female, but he didn't. And honestly, I'm not sure what the point was to have this group be all female.

This was a fun read, though not necessarily a memorable one. It was a fun way to pass some time. If you like this kind of slaughterhouse fiction, consider this for your next beach read.

Looking for a good book? <em>Daughters of Forgotten Light</em> by Sean Grigsby is the literary equivalent to a grindhouse film - skimpy on plot, heavy on the tough-taking, tough-acting women, with plenty of violence.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Where do you even start with a book like that. If you are looking for classic science fiction, this book got you covered. If you are looking for a story in a dystopian world, this book got you covered. If you are looking for an absolutely crazy story which keeps you guessing at every step of the way, this book will deliver on that too. It's actually a combination of all of those aspects smashed together into one.

The main plot of the story is taking place in some sort of space prison for women. Without any guards or supervision they have formed gangs and established some form of a society. As you can imagine, the population is not overly happy with their current situation and they won't stop for anything to get back. How they do that? Well, I guess it's time for you to step on the roller coaster and start reading the book.

Sean Grigsby is a new author on the sci-fi scene, but he's made one hell of a splash over the course of 2018 with a pair of fun, highly readable, wildly different stories issued by Angry Robot Books. He debuted with Smoke Eaters in the spring, a cool bit of urban fantasy science fiction about firefighters versus dragons, and I dug it a lot. By the time Fall 18 rolled around, Grigsby was back on the scene with Daughters of Forgotten Light. And you know, for as much as I enjoyed Smoke Eaters, I liked Daughters of Forgotten Light a hell of a lot more. This book isn't just straight up my alley, it's damn near pulled right from my cerebral cortex.

Here's some reasons I dug this book: Women biker gangs. A prison planet. Cannibals. Political injustice. Issues of bodily autonomy. Diversity and representation.

Hell, just in terms of diversity alone, this book is an A+. The cast is overwhelmingly female, from top to bottom. The president and vice president are both women. The prison warden is a woman. The prisoners are all women. They're straight, gay, transgender, asexual, black, white, Asian, Arabic, etc. They come together in various ways, fight against one another in realistic ways, and rebel together. Each have their differences, and are all very, very human because of it.

The prison world of Daughters of Forgotten Light is very much a women's world, and I dug the sly ways Grigsby changed crass male-default slang to accommodate this Girls Only territory. These ladies don't dick around - literally! At one point, the Daughters' leader, Lena, demands her crew to hurry, telling them "We don't have time for you to vadge around." Instead of "Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen," we get "Clean your gash and get ready to dash." I appreciated the attention Grigsby paid to reinforcing the message of this female society, upending even the gender norms we take for granted in our day to day vulgarities.

Daughters of Forgotten Light is science fiction filtered through a strict grindhouse aesthetic. This is very much a 70s exploitation film set to prose, combining some of that particular stylings more recognizable sub-genres, as outlined above but most notably the Women In Prison genre, which we get on two fronts.

Rampant poverty and perpetual war has prompted the United North American Continent to pass legislation allowing parents to sell their children. Boys are sold to the industrial military complex, while women are shipped off-world to the prison planet Oubliette. Of course, nobody knows how bad life is on Oubliette - the world is controlled by biker gangs, the various rivals constantly at each others throats, sometimes literally thanks to the Amazons, a roving band of cannibals. It's unfettered anarchy and violence, totally absent of law and order aside from the occasional truces established by the gangs. On Earth, Senator Dolfuse begins investigating what happens to the shippers, dragging her into an underworld where women and girls are imprisoned and stockpiled.

Although Oubliette is a glassine city, there's an inescapable griminess throughout the whole of Daughters of Forgotten Light. Between the take-no-prisoners internecine warfare of the gangs on Oubliette and the intonations of inescapable poverty and bred-for-profit children on Earth, and the ways those forces have altered societal norms and expectations, Grigsby has crafted a wonderfully engaging and dirty little book here.

This is very much a novel of the Haves versus the Have Nots, with more than a bit of inspired rage against those forces of control and political policies that view human beings as products rather than people. Considering what the Daughters of Forgotten Light are up against it's hard not to root for them and want to see them succeed. They may be a morally compromised band of violent bikers who'd cut your throat for an extra slice of bre

I was not really into this book. Daughters of Forgotten Light is a NA sci-fi, a fast-paced story with Lena, the leader of her gang, as main character. I didn't like the characters, didn't like the way the world building was made. Also I don't love it when books use cursing so loosely, although it's not something I'd really count against the book. What I did enjoy was the futuristic technology and the plot idea, but not so much its execution. However, I am very thankful to have received a copy to read! I'm glad to have read this.

I thoroughly enjoyed Mr Grigsby's debut novel, Smoke Eaters' so grabbed the chance of getting a review ARC of this from Netgalley. It doesn't disappoint, though it's a very different read.

With advancing, apocalyptic climate change the government has solved its overpopulation problem by sending unwanted boys to fight in some (probably deliberately orchestrated) war and the girls are shipped into space, to Oublliette. The clue is in the name. Once there they are forgotten. Oubliette is technologically advanced, and potentially a safe haven that some of the politicians back home fancy might be worth taking back from the shippees, but on Oubliette gang violence is the norm. Food is scarce (sent from Earth), and the three main gangs fight for it – though one gang has taken to cannibalism rather than rely on the tasteless 'manna'. Sarah Pao is a new shippee who falls in with Lena 'Horror' Horowitz's gang who call themselves Daughters of Forgotten Light. It's a time when an uneasy truce has been negotiated between gangs, but that's about to crack because along with the girls on the last shipment, there's a baby, something never seen in Oubliette and each gang wants the baby for its own. In the meantime, in parallel with the happenings on Oubliette, Senator Linda Dolfuse (who has recently given up her own baby for adoption) is on earth, trying to discover the truth about what really happens on Oubliette.

This isn't a book for the squeamish. It stares violence unflinchingly in the face. The women and girls (some as young as ten) of Oubliette are a product of the system and they do what they must to survive. It isn't always a comfortable book, but it's gripping. There are one or two things that suffer from a little technical handwaving, in particular how one of the Daughters is able to fly a spaceship, but that's a minor gripe. The ending is bloody, but satisfying.

Oubliette, prison city, population: forgotten. Unwanted. Worthless. The women society doesn’t want. It’s been Lena Horror’s home for the past ten years. A flimsy truce keeps everyone from killing each other. Keeps the gangs mostly in line. At least, until something unexpected arrives in the quarterly supply drop. Back on Earth, Senator Linda Dolfus has been ordered to find an excuse to wipe the prisoners off of Oubliette to allow good, honest citizens of the United Continent of North America a chance at a better future away from the frozen Earth and its endless war. Seems like a smooth enough job until she sees something on the drone footage that shouldn’t be there, the baby she’d given up.

This is one of those books that I started reading ready to love it. The concept of a prison world ruled by motorcycle gangs where unwanted and misbehaving women are sent to be forgotten, that’s something that has a lot of potential. Unfortunately the writing just doesn’t stand up to the concept. Similarly, the Earth side portions, where corrupt politicians live big while their constituents are often forced to sell their children to Oubliette or the massive unending war just to survive, could have been fascinating. That concept could have carried a book on its own if it had been done well. It just doesn’t. And then, of course, we have the mess with the baby.

The baby thing bothers me, in part because it could have been done so much better, but largely because it lands the book with a bunch of hardened prisoners who all want this helpless kid for what feels like no reason. Each gang is only allowed six members and, even with the treaty keeping outright murder from happening, none of them should be willing to give up one of those slots for something that’s such a handicap against the other two gangs. Of course this means that all three gang leaders want the kid, because reasons? I keep coming back to that. I don’t want to say that they all want the baby because women, but it feels an awful lot like that. The cannibals want her, the all black gang wants her, and Horror wants her. Horror wants the kid mind, not the Daughters as a whole. It also isn’t even like the baby was a secret test and the drone was sent to see how the prisoners would react to her, the drone came way later in the book and existed just long enough to force the two stories together.

The time line is super vague. Three months pass between our introductory supply drop and the one the drone shows up on. That’s three months for both Senator Dolfus on Earth and the prisoners on Oubliette, with it being repeatedly mentioned that there is nothing to do on Oubliette except fighting or having sex. Three months where Horror and the Daughters of Forgotten Light seemingly do nothing except get their new member, Sarah, her motorcycle and her weapon. Then it’s like Horror remembers that the cannibals have that baby she wanted and she’d been itching to break the truce her mentor set up anyway, let’s go take the kid despite having not prepared for a fight at all.

The worst of this is, the three month gap was taken up with Senator Dolfus’ adventures in ill defined guilt and getting the drone on the shipment. She’s probably the single character we spend the most time with, but she feels way less important than the others. The Earth bits would have probably served better as shorter segments that attempted less with the world building, as is, they just felt like they dragged on forever without showing anything for it. It could have been great to see Dolfus checking in more actively with the Vice President, or having her interact with characters that are against shipping, showing her growing awareness and how she changes as a result. That could have been aces.

If we had seen any character development, that would have been great. Most of the women on Oubliette are terribly static, which isn’t helped by the vague timeline because there isn’t really anything for them to grow from. Horror we see being aggressive and murdery, but it feels empty because she’s just like that, either ready for violence or ignoring everything because baby. The new girl goes from being afraid of everything, including the other Daughters, to being jaded and nearly as violent as Horror in the space of something like three paragraphs. She gets what feels like way too much page space talking about how Oubliette has taught her not to trust anyone when we don’t see Oubliette teaching her not to trust. It doesn’t work, especially given that early on Sarah feels like she’s meant to be the reader’s view point into the workings of Oubliette, and we never really get that either.

Even leaving aside the character issues, the world building really isn’t there for me on this one either. There are so many things that feel like they need explanations that just get breezed by. Why are only men sent to the army? Why wasn’t an eye already being kept on Oubliette to make sure that they weren’t just dropping prisoners into an airless void? Why not provide something for the women on Oubliette to do with their lifetime of being stuck in the middle of nowhere? How can the UCNA afford to ship these women to space and fight this massive war, but then food is horribly scarce and the average citizen is in real trouble of needing to sell one of their kids to survive? It’s all very forced feeling, things need to happen so that the plot can exist, but they can’t be gone into deeply enough to feel solid because reasons. I really feels like the author was trying to fit two or three books worth of information and ideas into half a plot.

Daughters of Forgotten Light is a book that I really, really wanted to like. I was excited to start it despite the baby thing in the blurb. I mean, really, space motorcycle gangs and a plot from Earth to wipe them out, that falls right in my wheel house. It just didn’t have nearly enough substance to it, everything felt half done and under baked with a rush to the end that leaves neither a satisfying conclusion nor the possibility of a next time. There were a lot of cool ideas. But then they felt wasted when nothing came of them. I finished the book not caring if anything changed for the better, if anything changed at all. I feel like Sean Grigsby could be a really decent author with a couple more books under his belt and a better feel for character and flow. After this, I’m not likely to be there for it though. Daughters of Forgotten Light gets a one out of five.

Extremely Poignant Cyberpunk Sci-Fi


out of 5 stars
I've had this one since I requested it as an ARC - unfortunately life got in the way and I wasn't able to finish it in time (or even near pre-release).  But, I'm glad that I checked this one out.  It was a well thought out adventure.

I honestly picked this up synopsis-unread because of Sean's first book Smoke Eaters.  I loved that book so much that I knew I needed to read whatever else he put up.  Plus, check out that sweet cover.  It's awesome, isn't it?

Daughters of Forgotten Light tells a story of a space colony where girls are sent by mothers and families who don't want them anymore. They are sent up to pay debts.  They are sent up because the girls are considered broken or other incredibly messed up reasons.  

Grigsby throws in a lot of the political turmoil that our country is currently going through into Daughters.  He talks a lot about "a mothers right to choose" and then about the regrets (or not) associated with making a life-altering decision. I won't get into the major pros and cons of this approach but know that this book was needed.  And reading it around the time of the whole Kavanaugh debacle - made it even more poignant. 

Daughters is part thriller, part political, part sci-fi, and a big part cyberpunk.  The characters in it were real and memorable.  The stories they told were unique and needed.  The book itself was a blast to read - I finished it in a couple days and I'm glad I picked it up on audio.

Honestly, I can't really talk about any of the plot because it'll give away too much. Just know you're in for Tron-like bike riding, girls/women who know exactly what they want, cannibals, and a corrupted political system.

As the environment on Earth began to collapse, a sanctuary was built in deep space. But that sanctuary has yet to serve its purpose because it has become the Oubliette, where the unwanted are sent to get them out of the way permanently. It is a place without mercy ruled by gangs all barely held in check by a fragile truce. When a new shipment arrives with a baby the equilibrium begins to shift.

It is clear from the start that this is going to be an well written, action-packed book. The prose is tense and to the point. Right at the start the sense of the world is delivered within a brilliantly crafted paragraph the voice of which also says it all about the lead character:

“That’s one thing they never told Lena Horror about space – how damn dark it is. Her gang sped down the glowing glass streets of Oubliette, but it was only a tease of light, false and too dim for comfort.”

There are three main narrative voices in this novel, Lena, the leader of the Daughters of Forgotten Light, Sarah Pao, who comes in on the same shipment as the baby and is quickly inducted into Lena’s gang to replace a lost comrade, and Senator Linda Dolfuse who has suffered a terrible loss both physically and psychologically in her need to retain her position in a cut-throat political world.

This is a dark, unforgiving world, creating fierce loyalties within the gangs and their fiefdoms made up of the dwellers, those not fortunate enough to be in any of the gangs, and who have become their subjects. The population is made up of unwanted women, as the young men who cannot be kept by their parents are sent off a cannon fodder for the military.

Sarah’s learning curve as a gang member is a useful way for the author to worldbuild without appearing to, as she learns how to ride their bike and how the social structure works. When the peace begins to falter, the tight spots the Daughters get themselves into are written with breathtaking pace.

The parallel story on Earth is no less gripping, given that Senator Dolfuse is caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to maintaining her elevated position in a world where the resources are rapidly diminishing due to the ongoing climate change. Her part of the story revolves around whether she can manage to survive the political wrangling or whether, caught in its turmoil, she will become another candidate for the Oubliette.

DNF AT 27%

I initially liked this book's premise but as I read, I found it hard to get invested in the story. The representation/diversity in this book is A+ but that's about it. I am not a fan of dystopians and although I think the world is well-built, the prose is hardly engaging. It's slow-paced and that's why I didn't have the motivation to finish this book. I've waited for things to get exciting but my patience has worn thin already. There are also a lot of characters and they just blurred together inside my rusty brain.

This book didn't work for me but maybe it will work for you. If you're looking for a sci-fi/dystopian read, maybe you should check this out.

Ahoy there me mateys!  I received this sci-fi eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  So here be me honest musings . . .

daughters of the forgotten light (Sean Grigsby)

Title: daughters of the forgotten light

Author: Sean Grigsby

Publisher: Angry Robot Books

Publication Date: September 4, 2018 (paperback/e-book)

ISBN: 978-0857667953

Source: NetGalley

This book appealed to me because it is by an author whose work I have had an interest in reading and it is about a prison city in space with gang warfare.  Unfortunately I don't think I was the target audience for this one and two issues led me to abandon ship at 25%.

So this book starts with a gang on a "motorcycle" ride through the space prison.  Now why would a prison have motorcycles and guns?  I was hesitant at the start but decided to go with it.  Angry Robot tends to have premises that are not mainstream and it is one of the things I love about them.  So the gangs in the prison are on a city-wide truce.  But trouble is brewing and the truce is barely hanging on.

One of the main characters, Lena "Horror" Horowitz, leads one of the three gangs in the prison called the Daughters of Forgotten Light.  There are two other gangs.  One is called the Amazons and is an all-white cannibalistic group.  The other is an all-black group called the Onyx Coalition.  A supply shipment is coming in and what is in that box will change the status quo of the prison.

So one of the things that is in the box is a baby.  Aye mateys.  A baby was sent to the prison.  This was the first thing that I didn't like.  It made absolutely no sense (motorcycles and guns aside).  I didn't read the entire blurb when I requested the book worried about spoilers.  Well had I read the entire blurb, the two spoilers contained in it may have stopped me from requesting this one.

But it was the second issue that led to the abandonment of the novel.  The women in the prison have to be hard to survive.  It is literally a prisoner-eat-prisoner kinda world if ye aren't careful.  It seems that each gang has six members.  In the Daughters of Forgotten Light there is the leader who is called "the head."  The others are called the right arm, left arm, right leg, left left leg, and the ass respectively.  The ass of course is the newest member, Sarah, who was told, "You're at the end and take all the shit."

Now I understood the gang members are harsh.  But the newest member is the subject of cruel hazing pranks.  Stupid stuff like being told to stand naked, having cold water thrown over her, etc.  I know hazing exists in the world but personally, I think it is pointless and shouldn't exist. 

But the main problem of the pecking order was a member called Hurley Girly who used to be at the bottom and has now moved up a step.  Hurley Girly is sexually interested in the new girl and is a predator.   She doesn't care about Sarah's preferences, physically intimidates her, leers, and makes highly inappropriate comments.  The only thing really stopping Hurley Girly from outright assault is the other gang members.  And I couldn't stomach watching this person abuse her new status and power.  I don't  care how harsh the gang is, I don't want to read about abuse and watch it happen.  So that was the end of the book for me.

Side note: the first mate claimed me brief description of this book reminded him of a movie called "Escape from New York."  Now I haven't seen it but if ye liked that then maybe this be the book for yer tastes!

While this book didn't end up appealing to me, I may be willing to give this author another shot.  I am on the fence.

So lastly . . .

Thank you Angry Robot Books!

Goodreads has this to say about the novel:

A floating prison is home to Earth's unwanted people, where they are forgotten... but not yet dead, in this wild science fiction adventure

Deep space penal colony Oubliette, population: scum.

Lena "Horror" Horowitz leads the Daughters of Forgotten Light, one of three vicious gangs fighting for survival on Oubliette. Their fragile truce is shaken when a new shipment arrives from Earth carrying a fresh batch of prisoners and supplies to squabble over. But the delivery includes two new surprises: a drone, and a baby. Earth Senator Linda Dolfuse wants evidence of the bloodthirsty gangs to justify the government finally eradicating the wasters dumped on Oubliette. There's only one problem: the baby in the drone's video may be hers.

To visit the author’s website go to:

Sean Grigsby - Author

To buy the novel please visit:

daughters of the forgotten light - Book

To add to Goodreads go to:

Yer Ports for Plunder List

Phew!

This is a mad, bad, dangerous dystopian adult scif fi that is, at times, hard to handle. What I mean by that is that as you read it, you wonder... can this happen and the frightful answer is YES. Full of violence and anger, this is a book about the darkness that sits in us all, and what is created when government gives people an "easy" way to limit population growth and get rid of criminals at the same time. By sending them (problems) away - out of sight, out of mind. And it's all completely legal.

The women - girls - the unwilling, and sometimes innocent Forgotten Ones are sent to another planet on a one way trip to hell. Because it is hell. A hell where you fight to survive and to survive is to become Death itself. Limited, unpalatable food, no rules and no authority turns girls into monsters. And yet... they are still capable of love and are even able to form unbreakable bonds by joining, of all things, motorcycle gangs.

I had a strong taste of Mad Max- Fury Road (with a twist of Water World.) A multi POV story full of strong, remarkable, dangerous women.

This is a dark, bitter hit of reality that exposes the what if... What if we were thrown away, discarded like trash and forgotten? What would we do to survive?

A brilliantly written book by Sean Grigsby with an end you won't see coming.  A gripping tale with deadly, dangerous, powerful female characters who are impossible to forget. .

One hell of a novel with great semblances of Mad Max and Bitch Planet. Filled with manic characters, graphic detail and vulgarity commonly found in gory sci-fi novels, I enjoyed Grigsby's unique universe and his concepts (some of which I haven't encountered in a while) but the one minor thing which annoyed me was that it felt like I was reading another Kameron Hurley novel. We all know that Hurley is mad at the opposite sex because she obviously wanted to be a boy when she grew up, but instead she takes sucker punches with her petty words whenever there's a chance.

Therefore, enjoy Grigsby's kick-ass novel, and ignore that little Hurley voice bitching about men.

In the best possible sense of the word, this was nuts. A mad motorcycle ride through the human psyche which apparently is lit and shot like Bladerunner and boasts areas that properly belong in saloon bars in spaghetti westerns. It reminded me of some of the better pulp novels of the sixties and seventies. The diversity was excellent. The characters – almost all female – were well drawn. The pace was frenetic. A short fast slap of a read.