As a lifelong devotee of science fiction and the occasional dystopian chill, I’m always hunting for stories that blend adventure with quiet thought. Plutoshine by Lucy Kissick delivered exactly that for my 2023 reading list—though it first shimmered into print on 17.02.2022—offering adventures and reflections on a remote, alien world. Think technical wonder threaded through with human warmth: the kind of off‑world tale that pairs nicely with a contemplative mug of tea.
Plutoshine by Lucy Kissick: Life on a remote planet
Plutoshine imagines a fledgling community at the frigid edge of the Solar System, where a vast mirror project is set to bathe Pluto in borrowed sunlight. The engineering audacity of the “shine” is thrilling, but Kissick keeps her lens trained on the people living under domes and ice: technicians, scientists, and families navigating a place where every breath is borrowed. It’s a remote planet rendered intimate—cold horizons outside, warm, complicated lives within.
What gripped me most is the careful balance of adventure and introspection. There are EVA scrambles, frayed supply lines, and political scuffles, yet the novel lingers on quieter questions: how communities govern themselves when every action has a cost; what it means to terraform not just a world but our own expectations; where belonging begins when the ground beneath you is literally alien. The science feels grounded, but it’s never a lecture—it’s the weather of daily life.
Kissick’s prose is clean and attentive, alive to the creak of pressure doors and the hush of long nights. Her background in planetary science hums beneath the surface, giving the setting a tactile believability without crowding out the human drama. Favourite line (paraphrased): “We tried to light the dark—and found ourselves by its glow.” It captures the book’s heart: illumination as both project and personal revelation.
Verdict: 🍵🍵🍵🍵 — reflective adventures off-world
Four teacups from me. Plutoshine is a reflective, gently adventurous novel that rewards readers who enjoy character‑led stakes framed by credible science. I loved how the grand endeavour of lighting Pluto becomes a mirror for the settlers’ inner weather. If anything, a mid‑book lull asks for patience—but the pay‑off feels earned and tender.
If you gravitate towards thoughtful space fiction—think the humane warmth of Becky Chambers with a dash of the infrastructural heft of Kim Stanley Robinson—this will sit happily on your shelf. It’s less about fireworks than about the afterglow: trust, responsibility, and the long work of making a place liveable, ethically as much as physically.
For the record: I read the 2023 edition; the book first released on 17.02.2022. The German tagline nails it—“Abenteuer und Reflexionen auf einem abgelegenen, außerirdischen Planeten”—and that’s exactly what you’ll find here. Brew a hot drink, settle in, and let the slow, amber light of Pluto do its work.
Plutoshine left me with the quiet thrill I crave from off‑world fiction: a sense that the frontier is as much within as without. If you’ve read it—or have another remote‑planet favourite—tell me what shone for you, and how many teacups it deserves.