The Twenty-Fourth Book of 2026: Descendants, by Richard Helmling
Started August 11, 2026, finished August 15, 2026
Richard Helmling and I have been emailing each other for a year or so now, ever since I discovered his book Athena: Emergent and he gave me encouraging words about mine, The Immortal Remains. I consider Richard a friend and a good science fiction author, and would love it if he could find more of an audience for his work. When he suggested I look at his story Descendants, I dove in at once and was not disappointed.
Descendants is a space opera, pure and simple. In the far future, humans have transcended flesh and blood and fled the dying earth. When one of these colonies discovers a interstellar object entering their solar system (like real-life interstellar objects ʻOumuamua, Borisov, ATLAS or even Arthur C. Clarke’s fictional Rama), then discovering that it’s alive, they send an expedition to meet it.
Though I found the opening chapters a bit exposition-heavy, the story got going pretty quickly. One of my favorite features of this kind of story is what the author does with the time between the frenetic period of preparation to start an unexpected voyage and the arrival at their destination. It’s a time of settling in, of characters getting to know one another, of conflicts coming to light and alliances forming. I consider this the “cozy” part of the story, like the first voyage in the Millenium Falcon between Tatooine and the Death Star, or any number of episodes in The Expanse when the crew of the Rocinante are traveling between points A and B, especially with a new crew member.
The author pays a great deal of attention to identity, since his post-human society includes many kinds of body and gender modification. I found the use of neutral pronouns a little confusing at times, but ultimately it rarely gets in the way of keeping characters straight (no pun intended).
I was happy with the ending as well, but I won’t give anything away here. Let’s just say the story is wrapped up nicely, but it’s the first book in a trilogy (and I've been encouraging Richard to get busy with volume two).
Descendants is available as an ebook exclusively on Amazon for sale or as part of Kindle Unlimited.
