FIRST LIGHT BOOK I: EVENT HORIZON by DAN F. BISPO: A Review (No Spoilers)
Event Horizon is a sci-fi adventure with a lot of promise. It feels like a pilot episode, and I mean that fondly. It feels like a classic adventure with a generous two-part pilot, each part being a full 90 minutes and standing beautifully on its own. I hope that makes any sense! I feel like if you get it, you get it.
Our story follows MC Yana, a self-doubting workaholic. She's been ignoring her coworkers' suggestions to take time off, and when she's pressured to apply for a position with the Nomadic Exploration Volunteers (NEV), she does so at the bare minimum—her goal being to fail the tests and get back to work as soon as possible. But when she's faced with forced time off and an unexpected acceptance into NEV, the promise of a working laboratory aboard a scout ship tempts her to broaden her horizons.
The fun of Event Horizon is assembling the team that will become Yana's crew. Not to flatten this story by comparing it directly to Star Trek (First Light is its own universe with a unique feel!), but you'll understand what I mean when I say it's neat to watch a space crew grow, like when Captain Janeway recruited Tom Paris, then later happened upon Seven of Nine, and so on. How will different personalities and lifeforms interact in these different roles?
As for the prose, it was a treat to read. Take for instance this passage which is helping to introduce Yana:
She looked at the mirror. Someone looked back. Reflected in the glass; she saw a woman, young but old, with bags under her eyes. A portrait of practicality, where all of humanity met halfway, a jumbled expression of mismatched genes in improbable combinations—the diluted offspring of a small vertical slice of mankind in forced cohabitation for several generations, until at last she escaped. Her eyes, staring forward, staring back, moved from feature to feature, assigning to each of them its least possible value. Perhaps there was someone in there, to the eyes of another viewer, but she looked at herself and felt only tired.
I'm such a fan of this as a character introduction. It's such a clever way to give us just enough information about what Yana looks like while leaving her exact appearance to our imagination. There's such characterization in the way Yana sees herself (or perhaps doesn't). There's even some interesting worldbuilding implied in there, and it's all written beautifully.
There's no reason you couldn't read Event Horizon on its own, but the adventure is only beginning. There will be more crew to meet, more of the ship to explore, and more adventures to be had.
I would certainly recommend Book I, and I look forward to beginning Book II.
Sage T. Green, Author
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