Read more about Prime’s digital imprint Masque Books and Ascension. Ascension is currently available as an ebook; it will be in print in December.
From Staffers Book Review
By Justin Landon
Put simply, Jacqueline Koyanagi’s Ascension is one of those books that marks a change. The cover alone seems to say, “this is science fiction unlike what you’ve read before.” After reading it I can attest that notion is fulfilled, although not exactly as I expected…Ascension is equal parts science fiction and romance…Koyanagi’s science fiction theorizes inter-dimensional rifts have allowed new technology to bleed into the galaxy…
While I found this compelling and well executed, I suspect some readers might find their expectations misaligned. Ascension is first and foremost a love story, not the default for many science fiction readers who tend to expect the adventuresome. While there is some adventure, and a bit of wonder in the book, it is most definitely on the back burner. Koyanagi is far more concerned by her characters’ leaps of faith and the relationships they develop.
As a novel of Alana saving her sister from Transliminal and their machinations, Ascension is good, but not special. It is well written, but will not be remembered for its deft manipulation of genre tropes, or kicking off some new literary style in the genre. What it will be lauded for is Koyanagi’s insistence on serving an under-served segment of science fiction readers. Although I considered whether to even mention the gender make-up or diverse lifestyles Koyanagi deploys in Ascension, I came to the conclusion I had to. They propel what is otherwise middle-of-the-road science fiction into something more significant. Koyanagi’s depictions, along with a dramatis personae that flips genre expectations on their head (there is one male character), make Ascension stand out…
