Breakaway Books

Authored by Alastair Reynolds; Published 2008; Science Fiction

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️

House of Suns is a thrilling whodunit on a cosmic scale, spanning huge swaths of time and space. While many traditional sci-fi elements were prominently featured, I’d never seen them configured in quite this way.

House of Suns follows two clones, Campion and Purslane, as they seek to reunite with the rest of their “line” of clones. When they arrive at the planned reunion, they discover that most of their fellow “shatterlings” have been killed in an ambush. They race across time and space to uncover the true perpetrator behind the crime. I loved this novel that, underneath all the sci-fi bells and whistles, is a true mystery.

The novel touches on several classic sci-fi themes: whether machine intelligence poses a threat to humans, the limits of deep-space travel, and the joys of intergalactic exploration. Woven throughout is the story of how the shatterlings were created as clones from one human girl who wanted to explore the universe. I loved both the backstory and the mystery that took front and center, with all the details coming together to make for a beautiful, complete conclusion. 

The shatterlings themselves, perhaps unsurprisingly, can be hard to get attached to emotionally. All clones of the same humans, they are essentially variations on a theme—it was a little odd to see how they interact. Because of their stasis and cryo technology, their perception of the passage of time is so radically different from mine that they do seem quite alien. Ironically, I was much more immediately attached to their robot companion Hesperus, but, like all other machine intelligences in this novel, he is constantly under suspicion. This sensation, of never quite knowing who to trust, was one of the highlights of the novel.

House of Suns was a wonderfully unique mystery—if you’re looking for the perfect mashup of science fiction and thriller, it’s right here!