“Whatever lurked out there in the vacuum's cold embrace wasn't registered, wasn't sanctioned, wasn't supposed to exist. Which made it precisely the kind of thing that might keep her alive another month when the corporate vultures came to collect.” Life in the mid-22nd century is harsh; Lance Jepsen's novel The Last Orbit makes that clear. It's a time of conformity and control, and if you step out of line, you wind up like the protagonist, Nicole Gordon. Her life is beyond harsh; it's spent aboard a bucket-of-bolts spaceship scavenging throughout the solar system. To make matters worse, Nicole has been a bad girl in the past, so the corporate powers partially lobotomized her, leaving huge gaps in her memory. As she trudges through space, old instincts (or perhaps memories) lead her to an abandoned Ark-ship that the history books insist never existed. The find of a lifetime then becomes a chess game of death, with the authorities always a step ahead.

Action-packed and tense, The Last Orbit by Lance Jepsen is classic science fiction infused with noir elements. The plot centers on a rogue who makes a discovery that could alter the status quo if it becomes public and quickly evolves into a game of hunter and hunted across the vast expanse of space. However, while the narrative may appear to be straight pulp-fiction action, themes surrounding the excesses of totalitarianism and those who fight for freedom create a more immersive tale. There is also an acute distrust of mega-corporations and the dangers of allowing those entities too much control. Character development is very good, and the protagonist truly stands out as she struggles with the consequences of a broken mind. Fast-paced, thrilling but slightly unpolished, The Last Orbit will please sci-fi fans and anyone with a distrust of power concentrated in a few hands.

The Last Orbit by Lance Jepsen is a high-tension sci-fi thriller. It is 2143, fifty years after the world’s end. Memory-wiped and blacklisted salvage astronaut Nicole Gordon is piloting the Tethys spaceship in the Graveyard Orbit, a junkyard of discarded spaceships. Suddenly, a strange energy signature starts pulsing on the Tethys display. It turns out to be a ghost ark ship that should not exist. And worse – Nicole’s fragmented memory insists that she had known that ship. Exploring the ark ship’s depths, Nicole discovers a preservation chamber holding more than two thousand human bodies cryo-sleeping for half a century, with 17 months left before they die. The next moment, Nicole’s pilot credentials are revoked, and she is running for her life. Will Nicole survive and rescue the cryo-sleepers?

The Last Orbit impressed me with its irresistible cover, intriguing chapter titles, and fast-moving, enticing, and thought-provoking story. I was glued to Lance Jepsen’s corporate hellscape built on deliberate, calculated lies and the suppression of inconvenient truths. The cislunar world made me reflect on how the advent of technology, the consolidation of corporate giants, climate change, and the wars we witness today threaten the existence of human civilization. I marveled at the ingenious portrayal of the genocide of artwork, dialects, genetic traits, and their carriers - scientists, historians, and artists - as threats to corporate homogeneity. As I read on, I found myself enjoying the nail-biting tension of the atmospheric cosmic standoff and revelations of identity reformatting. If you like thought-provoking post-apocalyptic space fantasies, you should give this immersive dark fantasy a try.