Commander Solene Ellis has left Earth behind forever. Now she drifts through the void aboard the colony ship Nia Kvara, watching over 100,000 colonists in hibernation. Only Ava, the ship’s AI, keeps her company.
The voyage spans 3,000 years, but for Solene, time comes in fragments—fleeting moments of wakefulness between long, frozen sleeps. Hours blur into decades. Memories unravel. In the stillness, she begins to lose track not only of time, but of herself.
And solitude in deep space doesn’t stay quiet for long. Whispers echo where no one should be. Shadows shift just beyond her vision. A mysterious vessel appears in the void. Even Ava starts to act… strangely.
As reality fractures, Solene must face a terrifying is something out there hunting them—or has her own mind become the true threat?
For readers of literary science fiction, space horror, and character-driven psychological drama, HomeAdrift is a story of isolation, survival, and what it means to find home when there's nowhere left to go.
The world is overwhelming. The lives we chase, the norms we follow, the time we waste, and the dreams we forget. I write to process. To understand. To make sense of it all. I write because I run into walls—again and again. Walls that stop me from speaking, from connecting. So I write. It's how I find my way through.
My debut novel, HomeAdrift, is a story of isolation, identity, and survival—told through the lens of space, but rooted deeply in the human need for home.
I just finished this brilliant book and I am at loss for words. Because of how beautiful and powerful this book is. But mostly because I have no idea what is going on. Like several theories are spinning through my mind. It could be this or that or maybe even something else. And I hope this book never gets a sequel. I mean that in the most positive of ways. I love the ending with all my heart. I love how open to interpretation it is. I love that I might think this today, but think something else tomorrow. The ending blindsided me completely. But the second I read it, it made so much sense. The entire book leads up to that epic ending and reveal. So in a way I know the ending. I know in my heart how it ends. But I just love that the author does keep you guessing. There are a million clues to latch onto, and still .. it's in your hands to decide. Well maybe no. But people could interpret it like that. Right this second I am gravitating to one idea, and I do think that's the right one. It aches in my soul, it reverberates through me. I won't spoil it. Because I want all of you to discover and experience this book on your own. I want you to be as mesmerized as I was throughout this entire epic, heartfelt and amazing novel. It deserves every star in the world. It is just that good!
The book starts with Solene Ellis who is leaving earth on the colony ship Nia Kvara. She is the commander and in charge of getting the space ship safely to their new planet. The voyage will take 3000 years and she will be in hibernation for most of it. Waking up at several intervals to check if the ship is still in good condition and fix it if it needs fixing. She will check all the hibernation pods of the people who are aboard. To see that they are safe. And securely asleep for the entire journey.
They are leaving because a supernova is racing towards earth and earth is taking precautions. They are building an underground city on earth to keep humanity as safe as they can. And they are building several colony ships and sending them out in space to inhabit new planets and secure humanity's future. Because they aren't sure if the underground city will be able to withstand the impact.
And Sol has the important and difficult task to guide and help part of humanity get to a safe and habitable place.
How far can you do before the silence breaks you?
She will be all on her own and she will have to make the hard decisions. We follow Sol as she wakes up with every single cycle. Each cycle is around 300 years. And at first things go to plan.
But then things seem to be amiss. She sees scratches who shouldn't be there. Why is there a butterfly? What does it feed on? How is it even alive? Things break down, unexpected things. And slowly but surely we see the mental toll this entire journey has on Sol. Don't get me wrong. Sol is one of the most powerful and strongest characters I have ever read about. But falling asleep and getting out of hibernation is causing severe nightmares and the trauma from her past comes vividly alive in those dreams. And also the physical toll is slowly wearing her down. She starts to wither away. But she never gives up. She keeps on fighting.
It truly is a psychological novel about being alone. Of being alone with only an AI system to keep you company. It's a novel about how you deal with things that are amiss, how you deal with the nightmares, how you deal with making decisions that impact all the souls on board. It's about second guessing yourself and trusting your gut.
I love how peaceful and eerie this book felt at the same time. My heart went on a rollercoaster and I even cried for Sol at one point in this book. But I also encouraged her and admired how brave she is. I admired her strong will but I also love how she accepts her own vulnerabilities without weakening herself.
And then comes the ending. That brilliant bloody ending. That powerful and impactful ending. An ending that sends you reeling and gasping and wanting to figure out what truly happened. Which words on which page are true? What can you trust? The start, the middle or the end? Or those small tidbits in between. What do you hold on to? What ensnares you to this story. Which storyline feels real to you? Goodness gracious this book is just stunning. Absolutely stunning from start to finish!
5 HUGE stars for HomeAdrift. Definitely one of my favorite reads of 2025!
I am not sure where to start this review. So many thoughts going through my mind.
I absolutely loved the book, a character led, sci fi space horror told with deep philosophical resonance. Tension and emotion poured off the pages. So much to think about, small details become rabbit holes in my mind. Bigger ideas like isolation, survival, home, privilege, AI, time… they feel insurmountable.
I am not often a fan of an unreliable narrator, but the author merged Solene’s reality and hibernation dreams flawlessly, and had me questioning everything. In a good way.
Even after she reprogrammed Ava, the ships AI who went rogue from a previous hack, I was still unsure if what Ava said was true or not. Did the original destination planet really have a virus that made it uninhabitable for humans?
One thought that kept recurring for me was that Solene was awake for the equivalent of about a month, but thanks to years in hibernation for the space jumps, the time that actually passed in Earth years was millennia. That feels like such an unthinkable premise, incomprehensible. Solene had no time to process her feelings,her grief, her wonder.
Her awake time was spent reading reports and data collected when she was hibernating, as well as checking the ship’s functions and status. Things that happened 300 years ago when she was last awake felt like yesterday to her.
One quote stood out for me… “Extended life, for all its promises, has left me with a lingering sense of emptiness. The prospect of living for centuries – does it make me any more human, or does it strip away what it means to truly live?”
Such a huge question. I will be sitting with this and the rest of Solene’s story for a long time.
Thanks to @The_WriteReads and the author for a copy of the book to read and review.
Commander Solene Ellis has left Earth behind forever. Now she drifts through the void aboard the colony ship Nia Kvara, watching over 100,000 colonists in hibernation. Only Ava, the ship’s AI, keeps her company.
The voyage spans 3,000 years, but for Solene, time comes in fragments—fleeting moments of wakefulness between long, frozen sleeps. Hours blur into decades. Memories unravel. In the stillness, she begins to lose track not only of time, but of herself.
And solitude in deep space doesn’t stay quiet for long. Whispers echo where no one should be. Shadows shift just beyond her vision. A mysterious vessel appears in the void. Even Ava starts to act… strangely.
As reality fractures, Solene must face a terrifying is something out there hunting them—or has her own mind become the true threat?
For readers of literary science fiction, space horror, and character-driven psychological drama, HomeAdrift is a story of isolation, survival, and what it means to find home when there's nowhere left to go.
Review
What an all-encompassing read this was, science fiction at some of its best! This book played with my psychology and emotions, let alone those of Commander Solene Ellis.
The Earth and all its inhabitants are in trouble, so ships are being sent all across the Universe in the hope of saving human kind, whilst others on Earth take refuge within the heart of Earth itself. None of them know if they can survive. Solene is the Commander of one of these space ships, amongst one of the most challenging tasks anyone can ever have to take on board. The journey takes place in a number of jumps, each jump being hundreds of years, and at the completion of each jump Solene is woken from her frozen sleep to check on the ship while her shipmates sleep on.
This is a very character driven plot, with for a lot of the time just being based on Solene and her waking to carry out her tasks alone before rejoining her shipmates in ‘sleeping’ once again. Despite really being based around these stop off points I found the book to be totally captivating, and I just needed to read on to find out what happened. Throughout the journey there are various challenges Solene has to overcome, many of theme deadly in the extreme. I totally bought into the main character, and felt for her as she struggled for her own mind and her very sanity. She was tested to the extreme. I couldn’t understand why only one person was ‘woken’ up at the end of each jump, we are social animals and she needed company and someone to talk things through with, but she only had Ava, the ship’s AI. Even Ava becomes a deadly challenge and test for Solene to overcome
Amongst her adventures you find she is far from alone on the ship and in space, and there a few surprises along the way. Many of the deadly challenges tested the reader’s thinking on the morality and ethics of what they were doing, and at times you needed to take a breather from the book to dwell on themes within it. This book led to blood, sweat and tears for both the reader and Solene. There were some big shocks along the way, some of which I did not see coming, and left me reeling.
I really cannot recommend this book highly enough, and I’m sure I will be thinking on it for months to come. Even the time period this book covered was mind boggling, as well as what it said about the very size of the Universe which when you stop to think about it blows your mind!
The world is overwhelming. The lives we chase, the norms we follow, the time we waste, and the dreams we forget. I write to process. To understand. To make sense of it all. I write because I run into walls—again and again. Walls that stop me from speaking, from connecting.
So I write. It's how I find my way through.
My debut novel, HomeAdrift, is a story of isolation, identity, and survival—told through the lens of space, but rooted deeply in the human need for home.
When I think about a journey across the stars on a colony ship, I always think of action, danger and what lurks outside in the infinite universe. But this story made me reflect about the internal turmoil and the works of our minds through trying times, as well as the weight of responsibility for such a task, spanning thousands of years.
This is a slow burn through the eyes of commander Solen Ellis, travelling through space with thousands of people on a quest to find a new habitable planet where to make a new home. As the commander went into hibernation every time the ship needed to ‘jump’, we readers too stopped our journey, left to Solene’s troubled dreams. I loved every time Solene woke up, and I was waiting scared and impatient to see what had happened in the hundreds of years that passed between one jump and the next. And lots do happen! I won’t spoil the fun, but there were anxious times, sad and thought provoking passages, and even surprising twists! All faced bravely by the ship and her commander.
There were also very deep and truth-heavy passages told through a book in the story that although were stating the obvious, still cut through deeply.
I also have to say that whilst loving the story, at times, especially toward the last part of the book, the slow pace was starting to get to me.
I thought this was a great story with so many messages that science fiction lovers would truly enjoy!
Thanks to the author and Zooloo’s Book Tours for a copy and this is my honest opinion.
I loved this book!! It reminds me a tiny bit of Project Hail Mary but is also very very different. We are on a giant space ship with 100,00 would be colonists all asleep except for 1. (Well she also slept most of the time but is periodically woken by the ships AI to check on things and make sure everything is ok.)
‘She’s Solene Ellis and is of course the main character and we follow her journey through long hibernation periods and short wakeful stretches where she is updated on what has happened. The book starts getting more and more interesting as it goes along and we follow Solene on her journey and begin to wonder with her if all is at it seems.
I love that she begins to wonder what is real and what is not and overall I just really couldn’t put it down.
Loved it.
Book reviewed for tour with the write reads but that has had no impact on my review
This book was provided for review by The Write Reads. Thank you!
One of the staples of science fiction literature revolves around the end of the world. Whether from natural or man-made events, the end of the planet we call home is a popular subject. Some are set in a far off distant future, where others like HomeAdrift are set in a future that doesn’t feel too far away.
The Earth is in danger thanks to the sun going supernova and humanity is determined to survive. Some will stay, burrowing underground to create vast subterranean cities while others will take to the stars. Ships carrying tens of thousands of individuals each will make the perilous journey. The trips will take hundreds if not thousands of years and there is no guarantee of the outcome.
HomeAdrift is one of those books that is more character-driven as opposed to being action-driven. The characters – Solene, Ava, as well as some others – are the driving force of the story. The challenges that are faced, the decisions that are made, the outcomes that must be dealt with – all are essential pieces.
Solene’s task is a difficult one. As the ship travels to it’s destination, she is woken every few hundred years. Alone, save for the ship’s AI, Ava, she is the guardian of the ship and the thousands of souls in hibernation. At first, her job is easy but as the years tick by, her situation begins to change. Space is a solitary place and even with an AI companion, her mind begins to play tricks on her. The longer Solene is alone, the more difficult the job becomes and it eventually reaches the point where she (and the reader) have a hard time separating fiction from reality.
Mirchi’s writing in regards to the overall story and of Solene’s isolation in particular is captivating. The decisions Solene is forced to make are at time heartbreaking and we the reader feel the pain alongside her. When her ethics are challenged, we too feel the strain. Solene gives her all to ensure the success of the mission even as she questions herself, and we are right there with her.
I personally found HomeAdrift to be an excellent and very entertaining read. The book keeps you guessing throughout, even at the very end. I can easily recommend this one to my readers.
Home Adrift by Soheil Mirchi, Salene is making the first trip to the closest inhabitable planet loaded with a bunch of earthlings who will be the first colonizers there. First they must make the thousands of years trip in stasis and she will be the only one to awaken every now and then to check with the AI to make repairs and to make certain everything is running accordingly. it doesn’t take long for Salene to find things a miss like things that are broken that could have only been done by other human hands and let’s not talk about the voices and this is just the beginning. There was a point at first where I thought this is going to be a boring book but it quickly ramped up the creepy and held its momentum I really enjoyed this book and think the author is very talented especially when it comes to creating a mood and sustaining it because this book really was creeping me out. This is a great space horror story in one I definitely recommend. If you love great sci-fi horror and a character who may or may not be sain then you will definitely enjoy this one. Before it’s over you’ll be rooting for her just like I did. #BookSprout, #TheBlindReviewer, #MyHonestReview, #SoheilMirchi, #HomeAdrift,
What an amazing read this has been. A great mix of science fiction and horror. I was so swalled up by this book and the characters. the tension, emotion and suspense of what will happen next had me turning page after page. The earth is going to be consumed by a supernova and they all need a plan to survive. Multiple ships are set to find new planets to colonise on. We follow the ship with Captain Solene Ellis and her ships AI, Ava. During the journey she must file reports and keep the ship running smoothly and make sure they all make it to their new home safely. During jumps she must hibernate, this prevents her aging and mostly to survive each jump. Though this takes a massive toll on her mentally and physically. Along with dealing with all that a mystery starts to unravel. Why was there a butterfly not detected by Ava on the ship? How did it get there ? This leads to some strange things happening.... including to Ava. These all seem fixed in due time but that isnt the end of her troubles. Are they being followed? Why? Who? When you think everything is all over and they finally reach the planet. Its not the end. This planet has a harmful bacteria that will kill them all. How could this be missed?
Each twist and turn has been thrilling.
Thank you @the_writereads and the author for the chance to read this book. I cant recommend it enough
In a quest for a new world, a woman captains a ship of hibernating souls on a 3000-year voyage. A stirring exploration of exile. Solene is the commander of a ship filled with 100,000 people in hibernation. She takes her work seriously, having trained for years. She questions whether she has made the right choice. Many friends chose Earth, settling below the planet’s crust, as they await a meteor with the potential to destroy the planet.
Before entering the first jump, she listens to her friends’ farewell messages knowing she will never hear from them again. They will be light-years away.
Solene has chosen humanity’s future and a chance for redemption. Every 40 years, Ava, the supercomputer that runs the ship, awakens her. She completes her duties to check the hibernation deck, complete repairs, and maintain the required records. The first jumps are so routine, she feels confident. This changes when she receives no message from Earth, not knowing whether it has survived.
She gets awakened by a malfunction and finds a butterfly lodged in engineering. People die in the hibernation chambers, and she is too late to save them. She detects the saboteur after shutting down part of Ava’s operating system. She fights the intruder and puts him in solitary.
These two adversaries have different beliefs, even though they have much in common. As elites, they have augmented bodies with extended lives. He volunteered to destroy this ship because he believes humans are not worthy. They debate each other about whether the human species should survive. Solene contemplates the strength of his beliefs during the remaining years.
Thank-you Reedsy for offering an ARC copy of this book.
I no longer write reviews much of late. But for some reason, this story touched me deeply. It was a very emotional experience. I found myself totally emerced in the events unfolding, and the well-being of the leading character. There is little action, not much conversation either. And yet I was held captive and eagerly looked forward to each new stop on a journey through time and space, and the heart and soul of a single, lone woman with basically the weight of the world on her back. It touched me deeply, and emotionally drained by the time I reached the end. I sincerely hope that for her we can honestly say she lives "Happily Ever After."
Thank you to Zooloo's Book Tours and the author for this ARC!
I love speculative sci-fi, and one thing I really liked in this book was the reflections on earth, and what happens in the future (though from the perspective of the book it was what had happened in the past). It was, sadly, very believable. The continued effects of capitalism and power of wealth really stood out.
Despite spanning thousands of earth years in travel time, this story was very slow and gentle; a sort of slice-of-life storyline set on a spaceship. The environment felt very familiar to me, and would do so for anyone who likes Star Trek or similar existing works. Personally, I felt that all of the problems were resolved a little too quickly and easily for me to get really invested in them, and the jeopardy felt surprisingly low.
Allow two days for this dark, thought-provoking, philosophical, dystopian, adult, post-apocalyptic, psychological, science-fiction, adventure fantasy quest satire, set in the future regarding home, aliens, alternative medicine, eschatology, grief, horror, mystery, PTSD, and space opera adrift.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
HomeAdrift by Soheil Mirchi is a sci-fi book by the author. Solene is our MC and she is a commander on a ship floating through space and watching over the colonists who are deep in hyper sleep on the ship. She is on the ship for 3000 years where she is asleep sometimes and then awake other times after the Earth is no more. The plot is compelling in this book for a sci-fi, which is normally not my favorite genre but in this case I really enjoyed the read. The fact that earth gets destroyed could happen in real life in the future, You really feel like you are alone and isolated in space. I really liked Ava, the ship's AI/computer system that tells you about what is happening outside the ship. I thought the ending was an emotional ride and bitter sweet for the readers. The story was a good one and highly recommended to sci-fi fans!
What an incredible debut novel. HomeAdrift tells the story of a lone commander aboard a colony ship, overwatching 100,000 sleeping colony members on a voyage spanning 3,000 years. The plot to this was so intriguing, with lots of unexpected plot twists that kept it even more engaging. Mirchi created incredible imagery throughout the story, of not only the planets, but also of the isolation that the commander experienced on the journey. The atmosphere of the story was tense and eerie, and I especially enjoyed the use of time within this story, as I feel like it added an additional layer of disorientation that made this story even more intense. I would say it’s a slow burn, which I’m not usually the most keen on, but Mirchi managed to keep this engaging throughout. It’s also surprisingly emotional. Sadly, parts of this story very much feel as though they could eventually become a reality (and some, definitely are already a reality), it really made me think about the future of our planet.
The blurb fascinated me along with the mix of genres, I can safely say I’ve never read anything like it! It was brilliant!!
Building tension and unease at a pace that you just flowed into, an amazing story and plot with surprises along the way, not what I expected at all. I wouldn’t say I’m a sci fi fan so don’t let genre put you off, the tech stuff was easy to follow too. I think it was the unknown that really captivated me, coming out of hibernation at various points and finding out what changes had occurred it really did get me thinking and the story has stayed with me. A truly great read.
HomeAdrift pulled me in way faster than I expected. The mix of isolation, slow-burn psychological unraveling, and space horror was honestly the perfect combo. I loved how the story plays with time - those fragmented wake-ups made me feel just as disoriented as Solene. The creeping tension, the eerie moments with the AI, and that sense of something lurking in the void kept me turning pages. It’s haunting, atmospheric, and surprisingly emotional. I really liked this one!
Thank you to The Write Reads and the publisher for providing me with a free book in exchange for an honest review! All opinions contained within are my own.
I have learned in recent years that I’m a big fan of genre-blending novels, especially if the genres blended are two of my favorites. So if you take science fiction and horror and smash it together, chances are I’m going to love it. I’m happy to say that HomeAdrift falls into this category!
Now, I will say this leans more into sci-fi but the horror in this is so hauntingly written that it cannot be denied. This is a story of isolation, of loss, of what the weight of responsibility and guilt can do to the human psyche. We follow Commander Solene Ellis as she takes command of a generational ship meant to help seed humankind amongst the stars after the Earth is destroyed. Solene’s job is to wake up at every stop the ship makes to make sure that everything is still running as it should be. As the voyage continues and Solene’s isolation deepens, her connection to reality starts to frazzle. But is it just her perception of reality? Or is something on-board her ship that shouldn’t be?
Though it took me a moment to get into this story, once I was in, I was hooked! This is compellingly written with a main character that is so sympathetic, it’s easy to feel what she is feeling. To join in her mounting dread as the story continues. It makes the story so enthralling in a way that I absolutely loved! Her interactions with the ship’s onboard AI, Ava, made for some thought-provoking moments, as well. Not to mention some of the most terrifying moments. Solene as a character really shines in this book, which is a testament to the author.
I also loved the use of atmosphere in this novel. You felt the solitude, the eeriness, the loneliness and it made the story that much more intriguing. The writing was wonderful and, again, though it took me a moment to settle into the book, I was glad I stuck with it! This is a slow burn but, I promise, it’s worth it.
So, if you like your sci-fi with a healthy dose of fright, I think you should give this book a try!
This was one of those books that captured my imagination as well my worries for this planet and the kind of future we were leaving for our children.
In this book, Earth was about to be destroyed, and humanity had to find new habitable planets in different parts of space. And one such space ship was under the command of Solen Ellis along with her AI, Ava, which had thousands of souls hibernating in pods.
Solene too had to go into hibernation every time the ship needed to "jump" through space time loop. And the story continued when Ava woke her up. They had a final destination to land on, a place where the souls of humanity could be woken up and allowed to flourish and thrive. But of course, obstacles galore came about their way. Those were the twists that had my heart in my mouth, and my empathy rose up for Solene.
A slow burn book, a debut from author Soheil Mirchi, the story captured my interest in myraid of ways. The author's words resonated deep within me as I too believed in the truths that had been written using fiction. Those lines made me pause and ponder.
The deeply impactful moments came about when the author described the solitude that Solene had to face when she woke up and walked down the corridors of the ship, all alone with the responsibility of saving these hibernating humans. That left a chilling feel when I imagined the scene in my mind, and my heart went out to Solene. Poignancy and action both found their place in author Soheil's prose, and many a moment had me holding my breath.
This was truly one of the most different books I had ever read. And even after so many days, I could visualize the passage of this ship through space. That spoke a lot about the talent of the author. Kudos, Author Soheil Mirchi.
PS - I am sure the main question looping through your mind is - do they find a habitable planet at the end? For that, you will have to read the book.
I loved the sound of this book and was intrigued as to how the author would capture the long span of time. As the end of the world draws near, Commander Solene Ellis, with only the ship’s AI for company, is tasked with finding a home for the thousands of hibernating souls she is responsible for. Throughout this book, the sense of being alone is deeply felt each time she is wakened to almost prowl the ship as she checks on her charges and the upkeep of the colony ship. The way she falls asleep and then wakes up sometimes hundreds of years later is written seamlessly so there’s no jarring moments with the transition of time. I found the book to be a slow burner as although there isn’t a huge amount of action, there are however, a few notable exceptions, and I found myself needing to know if Solene would find a new home for her charges. There are also some quite poignant moments, which only emphasised the sense of isolation. Adding even more depth to the story is the book Solene chooses to read during her waking hours, which I won’t say anything more about as it does explain why she is on this mission. I loved Home Adrift, a story which will stay with me for some time to come, and I look forward to reading more by Soheil.
There’s almost nothing I love more than some space horror / exploration. The isolation, the fears, everything I just love about them is included in this book. So I knew I had to read this book. And it did not disappoint.
This book will literally crawl under your skin and into your head - and those are the best types of books. The writing is engaging and will have you completely absorbed in the story for its entirety. Every sentence hits right where it’s supposed to.
Having left Earth for good, it’s only Ava - the spacecraft AI - that Commander Solene Ellis has for company. While she can observe others, they are in hibernation. No real use for her companion-wise. But there’s scarier things than just what lingers outside in the void. Sometimes the dangers come from inside your own mind.
A claustrophobic read that you won’t want to put down. My only “complaint” is that the chapters are longer than I like. I like short chapters - it’s a total mind thing. So it’s not a valid complaint. Plus the writing keeps you so engaged you’ll hardly notice.
Fully enjoyed this one and it’s got my stamp of approval (not that that matters for anything haha) def recommend it.
Anyone who knows me will tell you that science fiction is probably my second favourite genre. I love the possibilities for creativity and for reflection. HomeAdrift offers this in abundance. At its heart this is a psychological read, focusing on the isolation of Solene and how that affects their perception of the world around them. What really got my attention though was the way this was written. It’s beautifully crafted and we get glimpses of a future where the world that we know is no more. Most heartbreakingly is that the destruction of earth seems all too real and very possible. I have to say that this is a high contender for my top ten, even top five, of 2025. It’s so interesting, well written and with such a flow that I could not put this down. I loved Solene and seeing how they perceived the world and dealt with isolation. If you are a fan of science fiction with substance this is one for you. As always thank you to Zooloo’s Book Tours for the copy to review. My review is always honest, truthful and freely given.
A copy of this book was provided through Zooloo's Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.
The narrative explores the impacts on a sole person when they become responsible for what could potentially be the survival of the human race. Psychological impacts are demonstrated via the dreams the main character, Sol, has and physical impacts touched on after the later stents of hibernation.
There were a few moments of the plot I questioned, never sure whether these were intentional or further sign of the psychological impacts Sol was experiencing.
The author injects himself into the story, encouraging readers to reflect on what might be inherent human behaviour to destroy, the impacts of AI, and economic and social divides. Be prepared to consider some big questions and take time to reflect.
I enjoyed the science elements at the beginning and they're restricted here so they're not throughout the story - if heavy sci-fi isn't your thing then you might enjoy this.
A gripping stellar debut that lingers, provoking some big-picture thoughts 🚀
HomeAdrift sucked me in from the opening pages where we meet Solene who has woken up to check on her ship’s progress. It is on the Nia Kvara, ship number four of Project Haven, on a 3000 year long journey to reach Kepler 409c which is 222 light years from Earth.
They are fleeing an impending supernova which is due to strike Earth. She awakens first at Proxima Centauri after 42 years and then there will be many others. Only she wakes all the other colonists remain in permanent hibernation. As such she gets to experience 1000s of years of time over effectively a very short period of wakefulness.
What makes the book so good is the way the author starts delving deeper and deeper into her head and the psychological impact of this.It just gives you a sense of epic scale of the universe the depths of loneliness and the mind. I can’t recommend it enough. Thank you to Dave and the write reads for my copy
In HomeAdrift, we take an intergalactic journey across the stars as we join Solene Ellis who's left Earth, never to return, oboard the colony ship, Nia Kvara. Solene watches over 100,000 hibernating colonists, with only the ships A.I for company. The voyage is planned to take 3000 years so Solene also takes skints in hibernation. But in her wakefulness, it's not long before she starts to hear things and see things where no one should be and spots a ship out in the vastness of space? Are they being hunted? Or is her mind playing tricks on her? Be sure to pick your copy up to find out.
So all In all, as a sci-fi fan, this was right up my street.
I loved the feeling of isolation and loneliness portrayed here as Solene seemingly slowly desends into madness. It made for such an atmospheric, evocative, mysterious read.
I'm reviewing this as part of a tour with The Write Reads.
As an enthusiastic reader, I read all genres, and I've sometimes found sci-fi to be kind of a hit and miss genre for me. I think that's because the setting often feels different from the world we know, and sometimes I struggle to connect with it. However, I really enjoyed this book.
There was something about Solene’s narrative that made me want to hang on every word. I thought about how it might feel to be alone as she was. I also found this book quite intense and psychological; I felt like I was reading a horror or thriller. There were some nail-biting moments, and some moments that left me strangely emotional. Either way, it provided me with an escape, and I would recommend it to sci-fi fans.
Thank you to The Write Reads, and to the author and publisher, for the opportunity to read and review this.
HomeAdrift by Soheil Mirichi is definitely a 5 star read for me.
It's a relatively quick read but it is surprisingly deep for that. The main character Solene is the only crew member on the ship who wakes. She does so occasional on the massively long journey to ensure everything is ok as the rest of the colonists stay in hibernation.
What made the book stand out for me was the brilliant way the author delved into the psychological toil of her endless cycles of wakefulness and hibernation that that lasts for years. The loneliness, disorientation, paranoia its all done really well.
Easy 5 stars for me. Thank you thewritereads for sending me a copy in return for an honest review
A sci-fi book that will make you stop and think. A sci-fi book that is somehow filled with existential dread, and that makes your mind go places you usually wouldn't. While the story initially seems like it’s one of madness and unraveling alone in space, it isn’t. And then again, it also is. A space horror. A horror of being inside one’s own mind and being locked away (I can’t think of a better description) in space, in solitude, but with an AI companion, and it gives those visceral tingly feelings as you read and feel it all happening as if it’s you there.
This was a slow and steady read that I found myself devouring. It gripped me right from the start and didn't let me go until I finished it and I am still thinking about it now.
I don't know what I expected from this book, but it was so much more than I thought it would be and I really enjoyed it. The writing is engaging and really makes the reader stop and think, even when it is terrifying to do so and the story line is complex and interweaves both existential and psychological elements seamlessly.
I don't want to give anything away but I would highly recommend reading this book