Vermilion Sunrise

Vermilion Sunrise is a 2023 young adult science fiction novel by Lydia P. Brownlow. It was released in May of 2023 and was published by Warren Publishing Inc. I received a review copy from the author.

Same galaxy, different view. Seventeen-year-old Leigh awakens from cryosleep to discover she’s part of the first human colony in another solar system. The cryosleep is flawed. It kills adults and causes partial amnesia. As a result, the nations of Earth have launched into space an unlikely group–teenagers with no memory of volunteering for the mission. Ten light-years from home, they land on a planet largely covered by water. The good news: some water is drinkable. The bad news: none of their technology works. As the colonists struggle to survive, strange debris washes ashore, and a surprising discovery challenges everything they thought they knew. With a makeshift raft and meager supplies, Leigh and a small band of explorers venture across the open ocean in search of answers. But the truth may be more than they bargained for, especially for Leigh, who’s been lying to everyone since she arrived….

Leigh wasn’t a perfect protagonist but she was a very compelling one. She’s a natural leader, she has a strong moral compass and she’s stubborn. At the same time, she doesn’t trust easily, she’s cautious and at times a little too headstrong. Her flaws and attributes work in conjunction to add complexity to her character and make her easy to connect with. She’s not unreliable as a narrator, as she’s just as naive to the world and past events as the reader, which kept me engaged in her story and the overall plot, because it felt as if I was uncovering secrets about the world with her. Lex was the other point-of-view character in this novel. I found him to be very relatable as a character and easy to connect with and care about. He served as a good contrast to Leigh without making their dynamic adversarial. They were both strong leaders, but he tended to be a little more practical and realistic due to having been part of the colony for longer, while she was more naive and challenged the existing status quo. The dynamic that developed between them was interesting and felt authentic. There was a push-and-pull between them as they got to know each other and grew closer. There were missteps and miscommunications and struggle as their relationship developed, but it all felt natural. The reader got to see a slow build towards a partnership between the pair.

At its core, this novel is about a group of teen colonists exploring and trying to understand the strange alien world that they find themselves on. There is an undercurrent of mystery, as they wonder and try to figure out why they were chosen and why their technology doesn’t work, but the main focus of the story is of the group trying to survive. This allows the narrative to focus on the characters and have them drive the plot, not the other way around. It was very easy to follow that kind of story and become invested in what happens from there. There’s a lot of excitement and adventure as the story progresses, the characters explore the world and answers the colonists seek start to reveal themselves. The author skillfully foreshadowed the revelations to come without showing her hand too heavily or making those moments feel like a foregone conclusion. There were one or two conveniences when it came to the plot that I struggled with, however. At certain moments, it felt like there was no tension happening, no struggle that the characters would need to overcome to get from one plot point to the next. The story wasn’t any less exciting, but the climax and thus the conclusion didn’t feel quite as rewarding as a result.

The author took her time to really build the world of this novel. While the planet the novel takes place on might have features similar to Earth, such as beaches, oceans, forests and mountains, it’s clear from the moment Leigh arrives that the planet is certainly not Earth. Everything from the plants native to the planet to the night sky are different, which adds to the sense of adventure but also to the sense of danger. These colonists are clearly a long way from home and “normal” has no meaning. The world is vast, it’s vivid, it’s mysterious and as the colonists discover the dangers, so does the reader. It becomes abundantly clear as the story progresses that there is so much about the world left to explore, which leaves plenty of potential for later stories. The descriptions of the world are also very intriguing, which adds to the beauty and alieness of the world. Flora and fauna are described using very rich language and are depicted as having vibrant hues and strange appearances, which make getting lost in the story very easy.

Vermilion Sunrise was an entertaining and engaging book. It told a compelling. exciting story with characters that were easy to connect with. The world, while strange, feels fully realized. While not perfect, the premise presents some intriguing mysteries that the plot delivers on in a way I hadn’t read before. I’m not certain if this book is intended to be a standalone novel or not, but I would certainly be interested in revisiting this world again.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

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