Written by Hugh Howey
Published by NLA Digital, December 2015
258 pages
Completed August 25, 2024

For centuries, men and women have manned lighthouses to ensure the safe passage of ships. It is a lonely job, and a thankless one for the most part. Until something goes wrong. Until a ship is in distress.

In the 23rd century, this job has moved into outer space. A network of beacons allows ships to travel across the Milky Way at many times the speed of light. These beacons are built to be robust. They never break down. They never fail.

At least, they aren’t supposed to.

This was an interesting read. It starts out as one type of story but slowly expands into something else. The main character is complicated as he deals with combat related PTSD and the loneliness of being on the beacon without anyone nearby. As a result it’s not always clear if the things that are happening are real or not. The reader is in his head for the story so really just has to go along for the ride and hopefully understand everything that the story is about in the end. The book was originally published as 5 short stories and then collected into one novel. Each story does its own thing but continues the overall plot of the main character being in charge of running the beacon. There is a vague ending and then an epilogue that concludes what happened. I believe I prefer the vague ending because it fit better with the overall concept of figuring out what is really going on.

See the StoryGraph page for “Beacon 23” for more reviews and warnings.