An Unkindness of Ghosts

Aster is haunted by the words of her mother found in a journal written in code. For three hundred years, the HSS Matilda has been slowly making its way through space, carrying the remaining population of a dying world. Ruled by a tyrant, people are divided into classes based on the color of their skin. Aster and those with darker skin are forced to live in poverty, treated no better than animals while working to keep the inhabitants of the upper decks in luxury. Now the spacecraft may be failing, and through her mother’s journal, Aster may have found a way to not only escape the ghosts but also save the population.

An excellent science fiction novel and debut by Rivers Solomon, An Unkindness of Ghosts is able to touch on today’s racial issues by dipping into the past to create a story set in the future without sounding like it’s a lecture on morality.