MICROMIUM by David Gittlin is a delightful science-fiction adventure set in a near-future where a possible clean energy source from Mars has captured humanity’s hope. A team of scientists travel to the red planet to perform an audit of the privately-run mining operation. The team does their job a little too well, uncovering a secret that the company was desperate to keep hidden.
The story that unfolds in this novella is very compelling and carries the reader along with a fast-paced tale that isn’t difficult to follow. The characters are at their most interesting when they are working to solve the central problem of the book and working together as a team. When major twists are thrown their way, readers are eager to follow along with the team wherever they’re headed. There is drama and excitement, and all of it serves the larger story.
The story treads on well-worn science-fiction ground There is a mysterious new substance that promises great advancements but has a dark side. Also, there’s sinister corporation claiming to work for the public good but with something to hide. Gittlin employs these in a fantastic way. Sci-fi can be weird and have concepts difficult for readers to latch on to, so these familiar touchstones help readers through the story by giving them familiar footing at times. How these elements weave themselves into the larger narrative is very satisfying. The settings and the players are original and just familiar enough that readers find themselves readily able to picture it all in their mind’s eye.
The decisions the characters feel authentic as we learn more about them and their situation, even if some of those characters seem to exist simply because they must. Some of the interpersonal scenes fail to land as well as others, with characters seemingly thrust together simply because the circumstances of the plot demand it. It’s not unrealistic that a small-group of people going through a high-stress situation would form bonds and grow close quickly. So, while this may be by design, readers may not invest as deeply in those relationships as they should. In one intimate scene, the characters seem to acknowledge this, that they’re only together because of circumstance. This is clearly a choice and not a narrative oversight.
Nonetheless, these characters’ stories are full of gripping drama and very real stakes. In sci-fi, it can be difficult to cut your characters off from the help they might need in a technologically-advanced society. Stuck on a planet millions of miles from that help, where the very atmosphere is deadly, solves that problem in a very real way. Like other recent stories focused on the red planet, the threat of being stranded there is ever-present, adding another layer of stakes to an already high-tension story.
Like all good science fiction, MICROMIUM features both a specific narrative that is enthralling and a larger universe that seems ripe for future storytelling. Many writers fall prey to focusing more on the latter element than providing a resolution for the former that is both complete and satisfying. Gittlin does not. The story he sets out to tell is resolved very clearly, but how that ending unfolds opens the possibility for more stories about both these characters and the world in which they live. Readers are left wanting more, but not because the story that drew them into the book was left unfinished.
~Joshua M. Patton for IndieReader