Lockstep

January 13, 2014
Seventeen-year-old Toby Wyatt McGonigal is lost in space for 14,000 years before his damaged ship makes it to a planet. He awakens from suspended animation to find himself the wealthy heir to the 70,000 planets of the lockstep, so named because the inhabitants adhere to a uniform pattern of hibernation: 30 years asleep, one month awake. When Toby overhears plans to turn him into a mindless puppet, he takes refuge with vagabonds who revile his family of interstellar tyrants. He’s torn between wanting to help young Corva Keishion free her brother from quarantine and wishing to reunite with his own siblings, even though they seek his death. Schroeder depicts the corrosive effects of power and fame on family and self, but larger themes falter in the face of obedient, incongruously adorable bots, cuddly intelligent pets, and the inevitable but flimsy romance between Toby and Corva.

February 1, 2014
Far-future family power struggles from the talented Schroeder (Ashes of Candesce, 2012, etc.). With Earth dominated by a handful of trillionaires, the only road to financial success is to colonize one of the solar system's remote worlds. For 17-year-old Toby McGonigal and his family, this is a very real possibility thanks to Toby's mother's invention: a flawless hibernation device. Following an accident in space, Toby is alone, forced to enter cold sleep to await rescue. But when he revives, he's astonished to find himself on a flourishing, inhabited planet--one of thousands in the galaxy--and to learn that 14,000 years have passed. Welcome to the Lockstep Empire, so-called because its citizens exist mostly in cold sleep, with brief waking cycles that are carefully synchronized. This approach is engineered to surmount the challenges of intergalactic life: Travel between stars takes decades or centuries, and the resources required to sustain waking populations are used up far more quickly than they can be accumulated. Toby soon grows suspicious of the motives of his hosts--especially when he learns that the empire is owned and ruled by his brother Peter and sister Evayne, both of whom see Toby's return as a threat to their power and would like nothing better than to quietly murder him. With the help of Corva, one of a community of professional stowaways who've developed a hibernation technique independent of the cold sleep beds invented by Toby's mother and controlled by his siblings, Toby must understand the structure and operation of the Lockstep. He has one powerful clue: Back in the past, Toby and Peter collaborated to develop "Consensus," a worldbuilding virtual-reality game--to which the Lockstep bears a remarkable similarity. Unfortunately, this intricate, logical and fascinating construction lacks particularly well-defined characters and narrative force. It also seems to take decades to inch its way to a resolution. A disappointing effort that, if shorter and considerably tighter, would have sat happily on the YA shelf.

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February 15, 2014

Seventeen-year-old Toby McGonigal was on a deep space mission when his ship was lost. Recovered 14,000 years later, he wakes from hibernation to find that he is the messianic heir to the McGonigal family fortunes. While he was sleeping, his family developed a unique system called Lockstep in which planets would synchronize their hibernation periods to allow for easier interstellar travel. As the ones who control the cycles, Toby's family are immensely powerful, but his reappearance threatens his family's hold over Lockstep. VERDICT Schroeder ("Virga" series; Lady of Mazes) is not the first writer to play with the possibilities of cryogenic hibernation in a slower-than-light sf universe, but he's taken it to elaborate (and slightly convoluted) new levels. Unfortunately, the lack of depth in the plotting and the characters mean this is more intellectual exercise than engaging narrative.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2014
When 17-year-old Toby awakens from an accidentally extended hibernation, he discovers, to his amazement, that 14,000 years have passed. Even more surprising is that his younger brother and sister, Peter and Evayne, are only 40 years older than they were when he went to sleep. How can this be? But there are more surprises in store: Toby has become one of the most famous persons in history, a deity regarded as the Emperor of Time, thanks to a cult his sister has formed around him. And his brother, who has become a tyrant over the 70,000 worlds of the Lockstep, wants to kill him! The space-opera plot sounds relatively simple, but it is often lost in the fevered world building with which the author surrounds itthat and the vagaries of time, which even the characters acknowledge is complex. This is doubtless old hat to serious science-fiction fans, but tyro readers, feeling at sea, will welcome a humanizing touch: Toby meets a girl named Corva; they fall in love and together struggle to bring democracy to the Lockstep. And, yes, an open ending leaves room for a sequel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)