Braking Day

By: Adam Oyebanji

Narrated by: Ariyan Kassam

On a generation ship bound for a distant star, one engineer-in-training must discover the secrets at the heart of the voyage in this new sci-fi novel.

It's been over a century since three generation ships escaped an Earth dominated by artificial intelligence in pursuit of a life on a distant planet orbiting Tau Ceti. Now, it’s nearly Braking Day, when the ships will begin their long-awaited descent to their new home.

Born on the lower decks of the Archimedes, Ravi Macleod is an engineer-in-training, set to be the first of his family to become an officer in the stratified hierarchy aboard the ship. While on a routine inspection, Ravi sees the impossible: a young woman floating, helmetless, out in space. And he’s the only one who can see her.

As his visions of the girl grow more frequent, Ravi is faced with a choice: secure his family’s place among the elite members of Archimedes’ crew or risk it all by pursuing the mystery of the floating girl.

With the help of his cousin, Boz, and her illegally constructed AI, Ravi must investigate the source of these strange visions and uncovers the truth of the Archimedes’ departure from Earth before Braking Day arrives and changes everything about life as they know it.

©2022 Adam Oyebanji (P)2022 Recorded Books

Unremarkable but fine YA novel

By YA I mean that it’s organized around the idea that a couple plucky youngsters with a bit of courage and pure hearts can save the world. Not much here to recommend it beyond just being a nice story

Engaging and inventive sci-fi

The plot was clever, centering around a big idea: the landing of a generational starship at its planned destination. The world and characters were engaging. Aspects of the ship and life aboard it were quite inventive. There was class struggle, existential questions, and nail-biting moments. The writing and narration were vivid and compelling. I look forward to other stories by this author.

Very clever story, uneven narration

I don’t usually like YA books, but this one has a certain magic touch. The very clever writing is sometimes obscured by mediocre narration, but, oddly, the narrator is remarkably good at character’s voices, which I very much appreciated. You might do better reading than listening, but either way, I recommend this book to sci fi fans of any age. It kind of makes me think of Harry Potter, in space.

Generation ship tale

Adam Oyebanji’s Braking Day is a generation ship story. The action begins at the point of their hundred year plus journey to Tau Ceti when the ship must begin firing the engines in the direction of their trav-el to begin the process of slowing down for orbital insertion. The main is an engineer and develops vi-sions which leads to the recognition that historical narrative of their origin is not quite accurate as they learn of a ‘ghost’ ship that was believed destroyed early in the mission. In addition, certain elements within the ship officers’ cadre are not ‘excited’ about the social changes that will occur as the group makes planetfall.

Oyebanji mixes several themes with the broad context of a generation ship experience. The action is virtually non-stop with plenty of interesting plot twists. The narration is well done with good character distinction.

Really enjoyed this book.

The quality of scifi storytelling is up there with greats like Alastair Reynolds and made for a really enjoyable read. It's rare these days to come across this kind of scifi and I hope Adam Oyebanji writes many more scifi books of this caliber.

Excellent

Excellent generation starship story. Quite modern. Reminiscent of Brenda Cooper's own generation starship story The Creative Fire.

The first quarter sometimes caused me to lose focus from a lack of knowing when, where, or what was happening, but the confusing moments were few and far between. This is apparently a first novel, so makes sense. Looking forward to the author's next, and would go on-board for another rump in the same universe.

Thrilling and Immersive

One of the best hard-scifi books out there. The world building is so detailed and rich, I almost felt like I was there listening. Cannot reccomend this enough.