Beacon 23 by Hugh Howey

Amy  

science fiction

Told in first person, the protagonist’s name is never provided. But he is the solitary inhabitant of Beacon 23, a "space lighthouse” in a galaxy which is at war.  He’s on a 2-year mission servicing this beacon and dealing with spaceships that come to his corner of the galaxy.  He’s lonely, has a troubled past, and is going a little crazy. He’s an unreliable narrator.

Beacon 23 is actually a compilation of five novellas which serve as chapters in the resulting novel. This is similar to how Hugh Howey structured his Wool Omnibus (now referred to as Silo #1 since the TV show’s success). However, Beacon 23 was nowhere near as compelling as the Wool Omnibus. The chapters held little nuggets of fun but failed to make me care very much about the character or his situation. The final chapters were the most exciting. I felt like many of the stories were too quickly ended.  The situation was set up, described in detail, and then it closed quickly and without much impact. 

There is a general story arc centered around the protagonist’s mental health, but it’s not gripping in and of itself. In fact, I almost stopped reading but decided to stick with it because of the audiobook narrator. (See below.) I did appreciate the humor Howey injected into his story. But Beacon 23 really never grabbed me.

There is a very small part of this novel that is extremely similar to a major aspect of Andy Wier’s Project Hail Mary. Looking into it, Beacon 23 was published six years before Project Hail Mary. It's plausible that both authors organically came to very similar ideas (and the character name of Rocky!) but who knows?

Because I follow him on social media, I know that Howey spent a few years on a sailboat, often by himself. I wonder if some of this novel was autobiographical—feeling alone in a big world. Was Howey trying to escape his past ghosts like his character? Did Howey have trouble accepting his feelings like his character?  I’m guessing yes on both counts. They both were central aspects of the character’s situation.

Now, about the audiobook narrator, Peter Ganim was fantastic! He had a great vocal repertoire and excellent voice acting. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have finished this book!  A+!