Lockstep by Karl Schroeder
Released: March 25, 2014 | Genre: Science Fiction, Space Opera
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When seventeen-year-old Toby McGonigal finds himself lost in space, separated from his family, he expects his next drift into cold sleep to be his last. After all, the planet he’s orbiting is frozen and sunless, and the cities are dead. But when Toby wakes again, he’s surprised to discover a thriving planet, a strange and prosperous galaxy, and something stranger still—that he’s been asleep for 14,000 years.
Welcome to the Lockstep Empire, where civilization is kept alive by careful hibernation. Here cold sleeps can last decades and waking moments mere weeks. Its citizens survive for millennia, traveling asleep on long voyages between worlds. Not only is Lockstep the new center of the galaxy, but Toby is shocked to learn that the Empire is still ruled by its founding family: his own.
Toby’s brother Peter has become a terrible tyrant. Suspicious of the return of his long-lost brother, whose rightful inheritance also controls the lockstep hibernation cycles, Peter sees Toby as a threat to his regime. Now, with the help of a lockstep girl named Corva, Toby must survive the forces of this new Empire, outwit his siblings, and save human civilization.
Karl Schroeder’s Lockstep is a grand innovation in hard SF space opera.
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Karl Schroeder wrote Lockstep under one strict rule: no faster-than-light travel. He wanted the kind of sprawling space opera you normally see in Star Wars or Star Trek, people traveling between distant star systems and still being able to have a shared civilization, but without violating known physics. So, instead of using FTL, he invented the Lockstep system.
REVIEW
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ☆ ☆
I’ll keep this one short: it’s confusing. 😵
That said, I do admire it. Lockstep proves that science fiction isn’t just about its clichés or tropes, it’s a setting that can be molded to tell any kind of story.
Going in, I expected something much more epic based on the synopsis. And while the Lockstep universe does deliver a true galactic scale, it may have bitten off a little more than it could chew.
There are just too many moving parts to keep track of:
The lockstep/wintering cycles
Planets outside the system
Planets inside the system, but on different schedules
Worlds being labeled “slow” or “fast” compared to the standard cycle
And the fact that wintering, or refusing to, is used as a punishment
Confused yet?
Here’s the gist: Humanity lives one month at a time every 30 years. While people hibernate (aka “winter”), bots mine resources so that when humanity wakes up, supplies are ready and waiting.
It’s a fascinating idea, no doubt about it. But the execution? Maybe a little too ambitious for its own good.
