Dierock 88 is a sci-fi novel that follows the main character, Atlas, as he goes from a humble life on a scrapping station to a prison planet surrounded by danger. It’s the first book in the Kosmonautai series written by S.A. Oliver. I found this to be an excellent intro into this world with especially well written characters.

The book starts off in the scrappers station where Atlas and his father live with a colony of others who take part in the same kind of work. It’s isolated and provides meager payment, but Atlas has made a fair amount of friends here. Especially a girl named Zena. The action in the story begins right from the first scene where we get a feel for what kind of personality Atlas has and his abilities. This stuck out to me as a perfect introduction to a character. We get a feel for who they are through a cinematic set piece instead of exposition where the narrator just tells us. The reader decides for themselves what they think of Atlas and his abilities instead of being told what to think. This is a natural way to showcase a character in a book. The other part that stands out to me about this intro is the poetic prose used to set the scene. This is something that comes up a lot throughout the book, often beginning a chapter with elegant description. It’s fascinating to see the tone changes from this type of writing to the dialog and thoughts of Atlas. Which, being a teenage boy, are not as poetic but instead more bold and somewhat crass at times. The author shows a good range in changing between these two styles.

The storyline itself brings us to a prison planet (which I feel is not a spoiler since it states that on the back cover) where atlas is separated from his former life and all his friends and family. He realizes how sheltered he was and he must learn quickly how to take care of himself. This situation likely will feel oddly familiar to many people. It reminded me of the feeling of moving out of my parents house and being on my own. Learning to do everything to take care of myself and how different the real world can be. Although, I never battled monsters while trapped in a frozen wasteland. There are several points that I think the author connects these sci-fi settings to real life and makes them feel relatable.

What makes these situations feel so relatable is the fact that the author knows the characters so well. The character development is probably the strongest part of Oliver’s writing. They are written with complete personalties that are distinct from one another. It was easy to remember each person because they were each written in a memorable way. They feel like people I may have known throughout my life. Since they are so thoroughly written, each situation plays out in a believable way. Characters act how they you would imagine they should without surprise changes in the personalities that would make an outcome feel cheap or cheated.

There are some situations that occur in the story that I feel stretched the concept of the prison planet, however. The security seems rather lax for what is shown to be an important mining operation that uses high-threat criminals for labor. There are punk concerts and groups running clandestine operations that are broken up by security, but it struck me as odd that some of these things would be allowed in a prison planet with extremely high value prisoners. Given the information that the corporation has on Atlas, I would think he would be in a max security area. This is not a major criticism, in fact, I might even say this is nit-picking. It’s better to think of the planet as a colony. The residents live normal lives, to some degree and it’s made clear that no one escapes from the planet.

The plot does a great job of setting up characters and alluding to future plot points so that the climax of the plot has high stakes. The narrative climbs steadily until the end, which was done exceedingly well to hook the reader’s interest for the next book. The first book being fairly contained to a small group and a single location (for the most part) was a great choice. It gives us a very focused look at the players in the story and gives the reader a thorough understanding of their motivations before opening the story to the massive galaxy and all the political machinations and scheming between groups.

Dierock 88 is a fantastic character driven story that delivers an intense and satisfying adventure. The various personalities and their relationships were well written and led the reader to be invested in their goals along with them. The book felt somewhat like a young adult novel, but done in a way that it would appeal to any age. It’s a clean novel, the only off-color content would be a few swear words, which is something I always appreciate in novels. I would definitely recommend this to a wide range of book readers and I am looking forward to the sequel.

-Patrick Jones