What will the world look like in thirty years’ time? How will humanity survive the oncoming effects of climate change? Set in the near future and inspired by the world around us, Gravity Is Heartless is a romantic adventure that imagines a world on the cusp of climate catastrophe. The year is 2050: automated cities, vehicles, and homes are now standard, artificial Intelligence, CRISPR gene … editing, and quantum computing have become a reality, and climate change is in full swing—sea levels are rising, clouds have disappeared, and the planet is heating up. Quinn Buyers is a climate scientist who’d rather be studying the clouds than getting ready for her wedding day. But when an unexpected tragedy causes her to lose everything, including her famous scientist mother, she embarks upon a quest for answers that takes her across the globe—and she uncovers friends, loss and love in the most unexpected of places along the way. Gravity Is Heartless is bold, speculative fiction that sheds a hard light on the treatment of our planet even as it offers a breathtaking sense of hope for the future.
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I really dug some of the characters in this book, and the action was inventive, if not always real plausible. Very interesting world created here.
I’m very picky about the sci fi I read. It must have a completely envisioned world and compelling characters. This book has both. It’s set in Earth’s future, but only 30 years from now. All of the changes are completely believable as something that might happen in the next 30 years. Quinn as the main character is delightful. She’s brainy, funny, and a bit romantic. I do love that she changed her mind about her wedding, being held on a cloud, and escaped in a wing suit. Pretty cool. Quinn is a scientist and views the world through scientific lenses. That means this book is more about climate change than war over territories. Very interesting and timely. Highly recommended.
Smart women in a fascinating future world!
Sarah Lahey is the most creative thinker and world-builder I’ve read in a long time. At once astonishing, hilarious, heart-warming, gripping, and thought-provoking, this futuristic story grabbed me immediately – a smart woman (Ph.D. Electrodynamics, expert in climate change weather) who doesn’t want to get married on the eve of her wedding? And avoids her wedding, being held on an actual cloud, by jumping off the cloud and flying away in her wing suit? Quinn is a character I wanted to follow, and soon I was captivated by her and her life. Filled with Jetson-like flying vehicles and high-rise living modules, the story went way beyond the Jetson’s boring suburban life. This is our world in the not so distant future, when the climate has warmed unbearably, some people live in climate controlled utopias and others are struggling in shipping containers in the searing heat, and the political struggle is between an authoritarian cult-like maniacal man and a wise egalitarian woman who offers hope for the Earth and the struggling masses. Forced to play a major role in the political fight due to the mysterious disappearance of her brilliant scientist lesbian mother, Quinn plays out a life and death drama as well as an unconventional romance with a wry, jaunty view of things that sometimes catches her heart, and endeared her to me. Throughout the book, I delighted in the relationships and technology that Lahey imagines but have not yet appeared, such as feelings for people who are part machine, an emotional support robot in the form of furry rodent who is slow on the uptake, and all the technological gadgets for human sustenance, communication, and war. She also matter-of-factly features strong, smart, fearless women and gentle, supportive men, while exploring the nuances of gender roles that still abound. I didn’t want this book to end, and I’m so glad it is only the first in a series!
Read like the writer was connected to some reality that I the reader was not.
Loved this book. The characters came to life for me. Can’t wait for the next one!
This is an excellent and quirky debut novel. The characters are captivating, frustrating and all too human. The story, set in a near future world, deals with complex issues along with those that are personal. I highly recommend reading this. The second book in the series is scheduled for release in 2021.
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Loved it. An adventure romp… set in a not too distant future and played for high stakes. Gravity Is Heartless is packed with insightful and oft heart-warming observation about what makes us human in the first place. It’s fun, witty and endlessly inventive… Bravo.