Right to Know

Right to Know
by Edward Willett
Published by Shadowpaw Press
Review by Allison Kydd
$19.95 ISBN 9781989398227

If some associate prolific Saskatchewan author Edward Willett, also creator of The Worldshapers podcast, primarily with his award-winning young adult fantasy, Right to Know*proves that he also understands adult audiences. His characters have an appealing complexity, and readers can’t help but be drawn into the moral dilemma that faces the protagonist in this exciting tale.

Thirty-two-year-old Art Stoddard is part of the aristocracy on the starship Mayflower II. Born and raised on board, he’s a media personality and an “approved reproduction partner.” Therefore, he has been spoiled by women as well as by the glory that comes from his father’s status as a Councillor and one of the Originals. They were the ones who escaped from Earth and established a new world in space, the only world Stoddard the younger has ever known.

Art Stoddard, however, is floating through life as well as well as through space. He’s still living with his parents, working at a prestigious job that asks very little of him, drinking and carousing too much, but getting away with it. Yet things are about to change, and he may just discover powers he didn’t know he had, as well as a cause more important than his own pleasure. He may even learn something about powerful women in the process.

For all his indolence, Stoddard has already sensed that the world of Mayflower II with its simulated gravity, biodiversity and artificial stars isn’t as idyllic as he has been taught to believe. Maintenance robots can’t keep up with the work, so constellations have blank spots, and tropical fish are dying in Hab Six. In fact, many things on board the starship are going terribly wrong. Even more important, the Council and Crew, who hold power over the lives of all starship inhabitants, may be the enemy and may have a dire plan already in motion.

While Stoddard idly notices some of the problems on the ship, his rehabilitation doesn’t begin until full knowledge of impending disaster is forced on him. And this is just the beginning of his adventures.

As any writer knows, having interesting characters and a story to tell is just part of the challenge. Perhaps because of his experience with juvenile audiences, Willett recognizes that he must also keep his readers engaged. His way of achieving this is through a breathless sequence of events and personalities. He also introduces a number of military and social groups vying for power, a situation that bears a remarkable resemblance to the world we know. In this way, Willett keeps his audience engaged by not straying too far from the familiar, even in outer space.

Edward Willett also writes non-fiction and poetry and runs his own publishing company, Shadowpaw Press.

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