Review: Earth Flight

The third novel in the Earth Girl trilogy

By Janet Edwards

Available now from Pyr

Review copy

When I picked up Earth Flight, I didn't realize it was the final novel in a trilogy. This did leave me lost at some points as Earth Flight is heavy on the future slang and such, but I also enjoyed piecing the worldbuilding together. Janet Edwards doesn't leave new readers too lost, however. There's exposition about what happened in previous novels.

In the future Earth of this trilogy, most humans can portal to other worlds. Those that have an immune system that doesn't allow them to portal are discriminated against. Jarra hid her condition, got caught, but still saved the world and is now a celebrity. Earth Flight tackles what happens after the unlikely hero has saved the world, a plot that seems obvious but that I haven't seen too often.

Jarra's clan are now prepared to adopt her, but not everyone wants someone with her condition to be officially recognized as a clan member. She and her boyfriend are going to get married, which also results in prejudicial objections. Fantastic prejudice can be a way to get out of writing about real prejudice, but I feel like Edwards does a good job in showing how many avenues of life prejudice can affect. Even as a hero, Jarra can't just get married if she wants to. While I didn't have much of an opinion on Jarra's boyfriend Fian (I think he did more in previous books?), I liked what Edwards showed of their relationship and how they work together as a team.

There is an action story to go along with the political plot, involving an alien probe and a scramble to figure out how to get Jarra into space if she can't portal. The action keeps the story moving along nicely.

Earth Flight feels like a throwback to seventies science fiction juveniles, but with a female character front and center and none of the casual misogyny common to that era of science fiction. That old-fashioned approach helps Earth Flight stand out from the current crop of novels. There's not much psychological depth, but there is fun worldbuilding and a cracking, straight-ahead adventure story.

I'll probably not go back and pick up the first two books, but I thought Earth Flight was a fun afternoon read.