I liked this story, but the narration style wasn't my favorite. ( )

Sarah and daughter Mia must follow the precepts:
Always run, never fight.
Preserve the knowledge.
Survive at all costs.
Take them to the stars.

Over ninety-nine identical generations have had space flight as their goal, and now as World War 2 winds down, nineteen-year-old Mia travels to Germany to rescue Werner von Braun. The mother-daughter pair - there always must be two - influence the rocket race between the Soviets and the U.S. with the goal of Taking them to the stars foremost. They are the Kibsu, and while they may not remember the origin of the precepts, it's of paramount importance that they follow them and avoid the Tracker, who is trying to stop them.

This was a fascinating blend of science and historical fiction - I guess technically that makes it alternate history, but the historical research was so solid that it read more like the latter, just throw in some aliens with a purpose influencing world events. I was surprised to discover the length of the notes at the end where Canadian author Neuvel went into great detail about his research and I discovered that things and people I thought were made up were not. We also get some flashbacks of previous generations of Kibsu that tantalize with the possibility of future installments in the trilogy explaining more of their origins. And for music fans, there's a playlist to discover through the chapter titles. ( )

I enjoyed this one quite a lot; it was fun envisioning the space program(s) as initiated and encouraged by aliens. As one who remembers the impact of the launch of Sputnik, cried about Laika, and watched a man walk on the moon, it was all personal to me. ( )

I thought I knew most of the Canadian science fiction writers but Sylvain Neuvel is a new discovery for me but one that I will read from now on.

The Kibsu are a small but impactful group of women who have made it their life's work to get humans into space. There have been ninety-nine identical women born by the time World War II rolls around. Mia is number ninety-nine and she has an important job to do in 1945. Her mother, Sara, has realized that only the Germans have the necessary expertise to help the Americans build rockets that can reach space. So she has arranged for Mia to infiltrate Peenemunde, the facility where Wernher von Braun has been designing missiles for the Nazi, and get von Braun to a place where he can be rescued by the Americans when the war ends. Compounding the danger of this mission is the fact that The Tracker, a person or persons who have been trying to find and kill the Kibsu for generations, is close on their trail. As history now knows von Braun did come to work in the American space race so it is no spoiler to say Mia succeeded. But the story doesn't end there; once von Braun was safely secured Sara and Mia left the USA and went to the USSR. Sara needed to have them disappear from The Tracker but she also wanted to step up the Russian space effort so there would be a space race. One of the rules by which the Kibsu function is that there can never be three of them alive for very long. It's high time that Mia had a baby but that would mean losing her mother. Also, in Moscow Mia realizes she is attracted to a black female which complicates the issue. At the book's end it is obvious that there is more to come in this story. I look forward to reading the sequel. ( )

Overall interesting, good writing, great concept. The action sequences broke up the flow and were really tedious. ( )