Review: Architects of Memory (The Memory War #1)

Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Architects of Memory is the first book in a new series by debut author Karen Osborne. Osborne has created a solid novel, with worlds that appear inspired in part by works of CJ Cherryh (ex. Foreigner ) and Andre Norton (ex.Judgment on Janus.) Ashland Jackson is a terminally-ill indentured worker on a salvage vessel, the Twenty-Five. She is seeking to gain enough credit to pay off her debts and buy her citizenship in Aurora, and therefore the right to a cure for the illness- celestium poisoning- which she acquired in a mining colony. She lives in a ghastly corporate world in which citizens have rights the indentured dream of. When an alien species no one has seen, the Vai, decimate a facility and Ash is one of the salvagers, they discover what they believe is an alien weapon of immense power, but the exact nature of that power is something that will be explored over the course of the novel. Corporate intrigue overlaid on a battle between two very different species makes for an interesting read.

I found the concept of the Vai to be elegant and it became my favorite aspect of the novel. In the early portions of the novel, Ash and her relationship with Captain Keller felt almost like there was a soap opera aspect of this space opera that felt rather awkward. Anyone feeling disappointed by the girl on girl crushing and seemingly unrequited love of the first few chapters should just stick with the novel,  (I enjoyed the fact that Ash is an openly bisexual character, btw) because it becomes much more interesting as you get into the insidious corporate world Ash and Keller live in. There is food for thought here (what are we, if not the sum of our memories?) and I'm looking forward to the next book, Engines of Oblivion, which releases in 2021. 

The audiobook, available from Audible, is narrated by Sophie Amoss, is quite enjoyable.

I received a paper ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

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