“A History of What Comes Next” by Sylvain Neuvel

This is another book that I snagged off of Tor.com as part of their monthly free ebook series! (You can sign up as well at the link.) I had no idea what it was going in, and I was very pleasantly surprised by the outcome. I like going into books mostly blind, it keeps my mind open to whatever happens.

To summarize, this book is about a group of people called the Kibsu. They exist as mother/daughter pairs and have a superhuman ability, both to fight and kill as well as understand physics and math. Their knowledge and rules have been passed down from generation to generation, until they get to the 99^th pair: Sara and her daughter Mia. The book mostly follows narration from Mia, with a decent amount from Sara as well, and flashbacks from earlier Kibsu women. At the beginning of the book, Mia is heading to World War II Germany to try and get the German rocket scientists out. Her mother is back in the US working for the government, but while Mia’s there she finds out some aspects of their past when she was a baby and she and her mother lived in Germany. Upon her successful return, her mother elaborates on the fact that they are Kibsu, women with a purpose to take humans to the stars and cannot hope to have normal lives. Meanwhile they are being hunted by men that seem to be similar to the Kibsu that they refer to as the Tracker. This causes Sara to uproot them and move to Russia. There Mia starts to run a space mission to try and mock the US into racing against Russia to get to space. She also falls in love with a Black girl in Russia, Billie, while also getting married to another Russian scientist (this guy a man), despite Sara’s misgivings. The book ends with the Tracker finding them, a fight ensuing, and the Kibsu killing the Tracker. Sara dies in the fight, and Mia moves elsewhere to have a child and continue the line. She is now determined to figure out who the Kibsu are and where they come from.

Ok long summary, but there’s a lot going on in this book. Before getting super into it, there’s the title. I really enjoy the title of this book, A History of What Comes Next. It is never dropped in the text itself, but it captures the spirit of it. It’s almost an oxymoron, “a history” referring to the past and “what comes next” referring to the future. Similarly it’s historical fiction, we all know how the space race ends and what goes on here, but we have no idea what happens on a personal level for these characters. It’s a cool way of portraying this dichotomy.

Clearly Neuvel has done a lot of research for this book. There’s actually a fascinating chapter at the end of the book where she goes over the historical accuracy of her work and recommends further reading. Surprisingly, many of the events are very true to history, minus the inclusion of Mia and Sara. There’s also plenty of research into both climate change (there’s a side plot where they want to determine if this planet is worth saving) and rocket science. What I think is most miraculous is that all of the science is very easy to understand (yes I’m a scientist, but it’s in very plain language). Having said that though, discussing both topics was probably a bit much for most readers. Also the idea that in the 40s people were thinking about carbon dioxide levels is… A bit hard to believe.

The narration is in an interesting style, it’s mostly a monologue from the point of view character. Bullet points indicate dialogue, without indicating who is speaking. It isn’t hard to follow, context clues are typically very clear, but it feels minimalistic. There’s an increased focus on what the protagonist is thinking rather than what they’re saying.

And then there’s the queer stuff. It’s really nice to see an interracial, queer romance take place. It’s far from a focus of the book, but it plays heavily into Mia’s thoughts and decisions. And hearing them discuss the polyamorous aspects of it, what it means for their relationships and their happiness. Listening to them articulate that monogamy was not best for them and that it did not affect their love for each other is powerful.

This is the start of the series about the Kibsu, and while I probably will not immediately pick up the next book, I did enjoy reading this one. It definitely stands well on its own, and it taught me a few things about history along the way.