Reunited
(2016)
Written By: Nicole Givens Kurtz
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: Cybil Lewis
Pages: 39 pages (Softcover)
Publisher: Mocha Memoirs Press
Why I Chose It: I’ve heard so many great things about the Cybil Lewis books that I decided there was no time like now to dive in. As a shorter book, it fit my busy schedule perfectly.
The Premise:
When a soldier returns from the moon colony wars, ravaged and worried about his missing wife, Cybil’s gut warns her to pass. Recalling her own days in service, Cybil decides to help Benjamin Satou’s locate his other half. The small fact that Satou’s a cyborg, a military secret and ethics nightmare only makes her want to walk away from the case even more. Her curiosity gets the better of her in this fast-paced, futuristic pulp thriller.
Cybil decides to do all she can to get the two lovers, Reunited.
Spoiler Free!
Discussion: The book starts with a wham and immediately dives into the action. It took a few pages for me to get a handle on what was happening but once I got a taste of Cybil’s stubbornness and the incredibly interesting setting of the moon, I was sold.
The world-building is fascinating; learning little pieces of the manufactured air, the bubbles of buildings all on the moon created a magical sci-fi world. We get just enough worldbuilding to intrigue me to want to know more. There are junkyards, cyborgs, and face masks to support breathing in strange places. This is the perfect level of science fiction for me, I get just enough detail to keep the story moving but don’t get dragged down into details. I loved the sensory details of the world within the story, the taste of air filtered through a mask, the smell of ozone. They all made the world feel solid and real.
However, the star of the show is Cybil. She’s a great character, stubborn, smart, cocky, and ready to face any challenge thrown at her. I couldn’t help but cheer her on as she hunted for answers, pulled into situations she knows will cause problems for her, but she goes boldly on in the name of solving the mystery. She’s a smooth-talker who tries to understand situations rather than just punch first.
The mystery is curled in to perfectly fit this fast-paced thrill of a story. As a reader, I got just the right amount of information to follow the case but was never quite able to leap ahead of Cybil. There’s enough back and forth with past and present that the full story unravels in just the right amount of time for this short tale.
The ending surprised me, and though it wasn’t at all what I expected, it fit the twisted, bitter, futuristic world that Kurtz built with every page.
In Conclusion: For those looking for a quick, dark read set in a fantastically built science fiction world, Kurtz delivers with this Cybil Lewis short story. I’ll certainly be looking for more from this author.
[…] Andrea dives into short science fiction with a review of Reunited by Nicole Givens Kurtz. Part of the Cybil Lewis series, this story with a strong female lead features a bit of mystery along with some military SF — think of off-world space colonies, cyborgs, planetary wars, a missing persons case, and a fascinating setting on the moon. Does this little book pack a lot of punch? Only one way to find out! Take a look! […]