A Review of Mike Chen’s Light Years from Home (MIRA, 2022).
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ccape
Written by Stephen Hong Sohn
Edited by Corinna Cape
I was really excited to read Mike Chen’s Light Years from Home (MIRA, 2022), as the premise was just up my alley. I will let the marketing description get us situated, as usual: “Evie Shao and her sister, Kass, aren’t on speaking terms. Fifteen years ago on a family camping trip, their father and brother vanished. Their dad turned up days later, dehydrated and confused—and convinced he'd been abducted by aliens. Their brother, Jakob, remained missing. The women dealt with it very differently. Kass, suspecting her college-dropout twin simply ran off, became the rock of the family. Evie traded academics to pursue alien conspiracy theories, always looking for Jakob. When Evie's UFO network uncovers a new event, she goes to investigate. And discovers Jakob is back. He's different—older, stranger, and talking of an intergalactic war—but the tensions between the siblings haven't changed at all. If the family is going to come together to help Jakob, then Kass and Evie are going to have to fix their issues, and fast. Because the FBI is after Jakob, and if their brother is telling the truth, possibly an entire space armada, too. The perfect combination of action, imagination and heart, Light Years from Home is a touching drama about a challenge as difficult as saving the galaxy: making peace with your family…and yourself.”
One of the most interesting things about this novel is the way in which Chen uses what I would call incidental ethnicity. The fact that the main characters are of mixed race background does not bear on the plot in any significant way. Nevertheless, what I really appreciate about Chen’s work is his focus on characterological relationships. The tensions that exist amongst the multiple characters always drive the plot ahead. The main issues arise around the fact that Kass has essentially been providing all the carework for their mother, and she finds Evie’s obsession with the UFO network to be at best unproductive and at worst completely escapist. When Jakob returns, it is naturally Kass who is the most suspicious of these circumstances and does not believe the circumstances that revolve around his reappearance.
So, I’ll leave it here with my requisite spoiler warning: turn away should you not want to find out other plot details! Chen’s novel is ultimately a kind of family plot, with the entire Shao family—at least what is left of them—having to come together in order to support Jakob. As is the case with many science fictional novels, there is a larger political heft to the plot: there is an alien species intent on destruction, so the family must help avert any potential fallout from that species taking too much of an interest in Earth. If I do have any critiques, it’s only that I would have loved to have more world building elements on the alien side. Most of the novel is set on earth, with very good reason: Chen is working on the character dynamics that have caused a family to disintegrate. At the same time, there is so much more material to work with that you’ll hope there might be a sequel just so you can find out what is fully going on in outer space!
Buy the Book Here
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ccape
Written by Stephen Hong Sohn
Edited by Corinna Cape
I was really excited to read Mike Chen’s Light Years from Home (MIRA, 2022), as the premise was just up my alley. I will let the marketing description get us situated, as usual: “Evie Shao and her sister, Kass, aren’t on speaking terms. Fifteen years ago on a family camping trip, their father and brother vanished. Their dad turned up days later, dehydrated and confused—and convinced he'd been abducted by aliens. Their brother, Jakob, remained missing. The women dealt with it very differently. Kass, suspecting her college-dropout twin simply ran off, became the rock of the family. Evie traded academics to pursue alien conspiracy theories, always looking for Jakob. When Evie's UFO network uncovers a new event, she goes to investigate. And discovers Jakob is back. He's different—older, stranger, and talking of an intergalactic war—but the tensions between the siblings haven't changed at all. If the family is going to come together to help Jakob, then Kass and Evie are going to have to fix their issues, and fast. Because the FBI is after Jakob, and if their brother is telling the truth, possibly an entire space armada, too. The perfect combination of action, imagination and heart, Light Years from Home is a touching drama about a challenge as difficult as saving the galaxy: making peace with your family…and yourself.”
One of the most interesting things about this novel is the way in which Chen uses what I would call incidental ethnicity. The fact that the main characters are of mixed race background does not bear on the plot in any significant way. Nevertheless, what I really appreciate about Chen’s work is his focus on characterological relationships. The tensions that exist amongst the multiple characters always drive the plot ahead. The main issues arise around the fact that Kass has essentially been providing all the carework for their mother, and she finds Evie’s obsession with the UFO network to be at best unproductive and at worst completely escapist. When Jakob returns, it is naturally Kass who is the most suspicious of these circumstances and does not believe the circumstances that revolve around his reappearance.
So, I’ll leave it here with my requisite spoiler warning: turn away should you not want to find out other plot details! Chen’s novel is ultimately a kind of family plot, with the entire Shao family—at least what is left of them—having to come together in order to support Jakob. As is the case with many science fictional novels, there is a larger political heft to the plot: there is an alien species intent on destruction, so the family must help avert any potential fallout from that species taking too much of an interest in Earth. If I do have any critiques, it’s only that I would have loved to have more world building elements on the alien side. Most of the novel is set on earth, with very good reason: Chen is working on the character dynamics that have caused a family to disintegrate. At the same time, there is so much more material to work with that you’ll hope there might be a sequel just so you can find out what is fully going on in outer space!
Buy the Book Here
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