There are 22 candidates. There are 12 seats.
The last interstellar colony ship is down to its final batch of humans after the robots in charge unhelpfully deleted the rest. But rebooting a species and training them for the arduous task of colonisation isn’t easy – especially when the planet below is filled with monsters, the humans are more interested in asking questions than learning, and the robots are all programmed to kill each other.
But the fate of humanity rests on creating a new civilization on the planet below, and there are twelve seats on the lander. Will manipulation or loyalty save the day?
What a strange read.
This has been compared to all kinds of things, like HitchHiker's Guide and The Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies. I can see where those comparisons are coming from, but I don't think any of them are exactly right. There is some absurdest humour...largely in the simulations, especially early on...but the tone as a whole doesn't fit HHG. While there are more people than spaces on the lander, no one is deliberately murdering anyone else to get to 'win' so it's not quite Hunger Games. And while there are two factions, it's not taken to the extremes of Flies. And yet, all of those are accurate as well. Is anyone confused yet?
Let's talk about the story. The blurb above is pretty accurate, but it leaves out the fact that all the human characters are perpetual twelve year olds, stopped just before puberty by their caretaker robot. Although they have noticed time passing since, they haven't matured at all, which makes some of their actions kind of odd to me; kids of twelve simply can't plan ahead the way these kids do, although it's notable that the most mature is Delta, who has been away from the influence of the age stopping injections for quite some time. There are twenty two kids, which means that most of them are names and one character trait, which at least makes them easy to tell apart.
The back story comes to us in fits and starts, but I think this is how it goes; sometime after our current day, humanity attempted to put together colony ships. The first two failed, and by the time the third one launched, it wasn't as well supplied as it could have been. It landed on a moon which was subsequently mined almost hollow for metal; the metal was used to create a space elevator for the first load of colonizers. Their mission failed because the planet hates them, but in the absence of anywhere else to go, the very last lot of humans are being prepared for their attempt at building a colony. (Point of confusion; these are the only humans left, but they are expected to raise a civilisation once they get down there. I know the reproductive number varies depending on who's giving it, but it's certainly higher than twelve; there's no way they can build a civilisation on their own.)
I'm making it sound like I didn't enjoy it, but I did, very much. That's maybe why I'm frustrated; the parts I enjoyed were great, but it could have been even better with so little effort! Just a little more explanation would have done it for me.
I'd love to see this as a TV series. I think if it really leaned into the absurdity, it could be a lot of fun (they might have to age everyone up a little bit, though). And I really hope there's a second book coming! But if not, this ending is good enough.
Overall I really enjoyed this, and I heartily recommend it.
The Chosen Twelve publishes on the 18th January, 2022. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
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