Those Left Behind by N. C. Scrimgeour

Overall Rating: ***** (5 stars)

Those Left Behind is a space-opera novel, the first in a planned trilogy.

The human world of New Pallas is on the brink of destruction due to internal strife, overpopulation, and environmental collapse. Its only hope lies in the hands of Alvera Renata, a revolutionary turned starship captain. She intends to command a state-of-the-art ship, the Ranger, on a desperate mission to find a new home for her people.

When Ranger flies through a “waystation” on the edge of the New Pallas system, Alvera and her crew find themselves amid a galaxy-wide civilization called the Coalition, governed by a loose alliance of humans and several other species. In theory, the Coalition could provide new homes for all New Pallas’s billions. In practice, the alliance has troubles of its own. Aggressive outsiders, the Idran-Var, threaten the peace. Even worse, there are signs that some completely unknown entity is preparing to attack the Coalition – a force which may have eradicated whole civilizations in the past.

At first, the Coalition cautiously welcomes Alvera’s mission. Then a shocking betrayal scatters her crew and threatens to end her mission before it can even begin.

The story that follows is told from multiple points of view: Alvera herself, the son of her worst enemy, a colonist girl with unusual skills, a deadly young woman who refuses to be a warrior, and a soldier who comes to suspect he is fighting the wrong war. As we follow these five characters, we get a tour of Coalition space and the sense of a terrible conflict that is about to begin.

Those Left Behind is very clearly the first novel in a series. This book sets up a complex, multi-threaded story, and it resolves very few of the conflicts it starts. Even so, the characters are clearly drawn and engaging, and I found myself compulsively turning pages to see what would happen to them next. I usually dislike ensemble stories told from multiple viewpoints, but N. C. Scrimgeour has the skill to make it work. Her prose style is very clean, too – I had a hard time finding any copy-editing or line-editing problems in the text. This is a very professional job.

If I had a concern about Those Left Behind, it’s that the setting and plot felt a little derivative. The author’s ad copy mentions that “fans of Mass Effect . . . will love this,” and she is not kidding in the slightest. If you’re acquainted with the Mass Effect universe, then a lot of elements of the setting and plot are going to feel familiar here. It’s not a matter of copying – the most I would say is that this story is strongly inspired by the world of the video game series. N. C. Scrimgeour has done a superb job of remixing and reworking familiar tropes, building a compelling story atop them.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed Those Left Behind, and I’m going to be watching for the next book in the series. Very highly recommended if you enjoy high-octane space opera in the vein of the Mass Effect games.