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Reviewed by Divine Zape for Readers' Favorite
Battle of Jericho 2038 by J. F. Elferdink is the best science fiction novel I have read this year. The story is set in a near-future in which Candyland, a consortium owned by Roman Starke, monopolizes a space elevator. Starke’s off-planet warehouses have the capacity to store five percent of the world’s staple crops, but Starke is not a benevolent leader, so he leaves the masses starving and struggling to survive. That is, until the elevator malfunctions and a deadly virus is unleashed. His compassionate daughter, Callie, repairs the tether, sacrificing herself and becoming a symbol of resistance and hope for the people. The rebels form Callie’s Collective, with guidance from supernatural powers, especially the deceased Mark Kennecott. Liam, Camden, and Janine are key leaders of the struggle. Will they be able to exploit the legal loopholes, seize the elevator, and mine asteroid Istra for funds without violence?
The pacing builds on episodic scenes and quickly hurtles from the elevator accident to pirate attacks, planned pandemics, and celestial warfare, punctuated by frequent bursts of action. J. F. Elferdink skillfully blends supernatural intrusions as Mark and Callie intervene from the afterlife, with hard science fiction expositions, such as the reports and technical briefings on carbon single-crystal graphene tethers carried by the New World Times. The character work in Battle of Jericho 2038 is broadly drawn and functional, and Elferdink successfully portrays Callie as a martyr and Roman as a grieving tyrant who does not win the reader’s sympathy. This book focuses on conflict and worldbuilding, meticulously detailing GEO Nodes, galactic harbors, hibernation technology, and asteroid mining on Istra. The world depicted is cleverly built to give readers an image of what our world becomes when a few rich and powerful men continue to feed their greed.
