Among other highlights in the genre last year, 2024 saw maybe the strongest group of Prometheus Award finalists in years, including winner Critical Mass by Daniel Suarez, a terrific near future thriller that pulls no punches about the dangers of working in space, and Lord of a Shattered Land by Howard Anthony Jones, which kicked off what may well be the best fantasy series of the decade. However, it's Theft of Fire by Devon Eriksen that may be the dark horse contender if the bunch, especially since it shortly after became the first independently published novel nominated for the Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel since 2018.
In the not-too-distant future, mankind has finally made some tentative steps towards settling the solar system, with asteroid mining and gas giant refineries fueling a new boom as more people, most of them technicians and laborers, decide to take their chances seeking fortune in space, and off an increasingly repressive Earth.
Not that the stars offer that much more freedom—corporations have control over much of what makes this new settlement and industrial boom possible. For example, Space X (yes, that one) invented, patented, and tightly controls the fusion drives that nearly all spacers are forced to lease from the company for an exorbitant rate.
The result is that spacers like Marcus Warnoc are often in debt up to their eyeballs, and to keep his asteroid mining ship running and the leased fusion drive paid for, he has begun getting involved in some shady business—including what some might call piracy—to make ends meet. Needless to say, his feelings on the corporate overlords breathing down his neck are less than positive, complete with [redacted spoilers].
Which is why it's truly unfortunate that Miranda Foxgrove, one of the many competing heirs to the vast Space X fortune, selected him and his ship specifically to ferry her into the outer solar system, extorting him via the debt her company holds over him. Their destination? Distant Sedna and a mysterious alien artifact that promises to upend life in the Solar System as much as the fusion drive, if not more so.
The journey will certainly upend both of their roles within it.
Despite actions and stakes that promise to redefine mankind's place in the cosmos, Theft of Fire keeps its class and setting impressively small focused largely on the two lead characters as they fuel and exchange barbs with each other. The combative relationship between the two becomes less so as the novel progresses, and Marcus and Miranda both read as developed, complex, three-dimensional characters. Their contrasting circumstances offer a clever way to flesh out some of the world building and history, given the wildly different situations of a down on his luck spacer and a genetically modified corporate heiress, who despite their differences are both scoundrels, if charming ones.
Eriksen has given a lot of attention and detail to the science in Theft of Fire, with all of the ships, colonies, and tech feeling like grounded progressions of the technology on the drawing board today, and all action is contained to the Solar System and the laws of physics as we know them. While the science is foundational, the characters and story feel much more like something from older science fiction, when all mankind needed to conquer the stars was his will and a spacesuit. The mesh between the more modern grounded science and classical heroics makes for an interesting read—think Leviathan Wakes, if written by Heinlein
The novel does feel a tad overlong in parts but never actually drags. Some may also may raise eyebrows at the mention and use of some modern brands—Space X is far from the only one featured prominently—but I found it non-invasive in Theft of Fire, though as always the book runs the risk of hindsight bias coming back to bite, like having Pan American Airways prominently featured in 2001: A Space Odyssey, or the countless works that predicted everything of the future but the fall of the Soviet Union.
There is a reason that Theft of Fire is rising to heights unseen by a self-published title in years. It's no small feat for an author to achieve most of what it offers in their debut novel, an engaging character study, some brilliant action, and threading the needle between classical and more modern styles of the genre. Eriksen and Theft of Fire both burn brightly, and I'm excited to see where they both go from here.
-Korsgaard, Sean C.W. "The Reference Library.", January/February 2025, pp. 197-198.