Book Review: ‘Frontier’ by Grace Curtis (a queer Western space opera)
Science fiction is a genre that I’ve always wanted to dive deeper into, but other than a few authors, series’ or themes that I already know I love, I get a little intimidated and unsure where to go next.
I can’t remember where I first heard of Grace Curtis’ debut, ‘Frontier’, but as soon as I saw it compared to the ‘Wayfarers’ series by Becky Chambers it was an immediate yes from me. Her soft, thoughtful, introspective sci-fi is 100% a type of sci-fi that I love. I loved ‘Frontier’ too.
Saints and preachers, librarians and horse thieves, lawmakers and lawbreakers, and a crash-surviving spaceborn vagrant searching for her lover on a scarred Earth.
Earth, the distant future: climate change has reduced our verdant home into a hard-scrabble wasteland. Saints and sinners, lawmakers and sheriffs, travellers and gunslingers and horse thieves abound. People are as diverse and divided as they've ever been - except in their shared suspicions when a stranger comes to town.
One night a ship falls from the sky, bringing the planet's first visitor in three hundred years. She's armed, she's scared... and she's looking for someone.
Love, loss, and gunslinging in this dazzling debut novel by Grace Curtis. For fans of Sam J. Miller, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Becky Chambers, Frontier is a heartfelt queer romance in a high noon standoff with our planet's uncertian future, full of thrills, a love story, and laser guns.
The novel started off a little abstractly and I wasn’t too sure if it was going to settle into something I’d enjoy, but the writing was sharp and engaging so I persevered. I’m SO glad I did as I fell into the style and got swept along with the story of an unnamed stranger who has fallen to Earth in mysterious circumstances, desperate to track down the woman she loves.
On top of the protagonist being unnamed for around 60% of the novel, her identity also changes in the narration as she moves from place to place and becomes a different person to each narrator in that place. The Stranger to the librarian she helps; the Tramp to the son of a preacher who feeds her when she’s desperate; the Courier; the Guest. It’s such an effective style, and one I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. It could be alienating to some, but I loved it and the way that it shaped her character and identity.
The structure on this world is fascinating, and also terrifying. Humankind left a climate-ravaged Earth 300 years ago, leaving behind only those faithful to Gaia who refuse to leave her behind. To the rest of the galaxy they are illegally stationed on the planet, and to those who remain, the rest of humankind are sinners. Even though the two sets of people haven’t met in centuries, they are at war in ethics, morality and religion, and this is the world that the Stranger lands in. Dry, parched, desperate, and yet full of innovation and a grit and determination to thrive.
‘Frontier’ is a novel of hope. Hope for the people willing to help and love you when you need it. Hope that the end of the world might not be the end. Hope that climate disaster might still be avoidable.
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Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the e-proof of this book. My thoughts and opinions remain my own.
Written by Sophie
