Mother Go by James Patrick Kelly

Mother Go Reviews

• 
  Peter Tillman

  Paul Di Filippo reviews James Patrick Kelly:
  
  http://www.locusmag.com/Reviews/2017/...
  
  "Our tale opens in the year 2159, on the well-settled Moon. We immediately meet our heroine, Mariska Volochkova, a fifteen-year-old immersed in the standard preoccupations of her age and era. Taking her academic lessons; tending hydroponics; learning to adapt to mind feeds (direct person-to-person transmissions into the brain); figuring out what she feels for her tentative boyfriend Jak. ...
  
  Kelly develops Mari’s character with finesse and grace and depth. ... Kelly shows us that in the gap between novels, he has only gotten more adept, crafty, empathetic and clever at constructing and inhabiting such a cosmic bildungsroman. "
  
  Note that PdF reviewed an advance text copy, but at present the book is only available as an audio ed. I'm pretty much an auto-JPK reader, but I'll wait for the print book. Still not in print as of 8/5/19 . Dammit.
• 
  A.J. Bauers

  Mother Go is probably my favorite story written by Jim Kelly. He mashes two things I enjoy dearly in fiction: easily understood hard science fiction in a semi-distant future and a teenager's coming-of-age story written for an older audience. I loved diving into this strange world of neural feeds, body alterations, and space colonies while grounded by familiar concepts like boyfriends, teenage rebellion, and tenuous relationships with family. It's the perfect combination of technical and emotional, which is exactly what I like my science fiction to be.
  
  This book is published by Audible, meaning it's available as an audio-book only. The narrator, January LaVoy, does a great job with her various voices. I also really like the slight echo technique used to signify neural communications. But the best thing I can say about the book and corresponding production quality is that I sat down on my couch JUST to listen to this story. Normally, I multi-task with cleaning and cooking. But for Mother Go, I couldn't hit the pause button.
  
  I highly suggest this book to anyone who appreciates a character driven story in a hard science fiction environment. Bonus points if you are particularly interested in reading a story about a daughter and mother's relationship set IN SPACE.
• 
  Lis Carey

  Mariska Volochkova is the clone-daughter of Natalia Volochkova, famed deep space explorer. Like her clone-mother, she is genetically engineered for the ability to hibernate, born for interstellar exploration.
  
  That's not what Mariska wants, in part because she resents the woman who created her and then took off through the wormhole to a distant galaxy. Mariska was left with contract father Sal, under a term adoption contract, and an artificial intelligence that is her room. More than anything she resents the idea that Natalia could return and, as her mother and legal guardian, take her off through the wormhole again, away from a life she enjoys, her friends, and the contract father she loves. Then Natalia does return, with news of a beautiful, habitable planet at the other end of the wormhole.
  
  And Mariska is a year short of being of legal age and able to make her own decisions.
  
  This is both a deeply personal story, of the complicated relationship between Mariska and Natalia, and a story of a daring plan to colonize a distant planet. Mariska is, at the outset, in many ways a self-absorbed child, but also smart, capable, and resourceful. Some of the choices she makes are dumb and impulsive when she makes them, but she learns and grows from each of them. Her determination to avoid her mother includes taking a job on a "mining bucket," a grungy but educational job. The plan to colonize that planet on the far side of the wormhole becomes the driving force of a political conflict, and Mariska's romance with a Martian draws her into it on a side she would never have predicted.
  
  Family dynamics, adventure, crisis, and political conflict over the resources devoted to the starship and the colony it will carry all make for an exciting, absorbing story.
  
  Recommended.
  
  I bought this audiobook.
• 
  Ric

  Evocative SF story of travel beyond the solar system.
  
  There is a line from an old
  Louis Auchincloss story that goes something like: "the flight of birds that meet athwart," which seems to me an apt description of this tale of a space explorer and her clone. Late in life, a Russian scientist, Natalia, longs for a family and decides to clone herself. However, her long absences force her to hire a surrogate father to raise her clone/daughter. The child, Mariska, grows up resenting her such that when they finally reunite, there are sparks flying all over. Needless to say, the child would have nothing to do with her elder clone.
  
  Meanwhile, Mariska in a bid to elude Natalia, departs her home on the Moon and moves to Mars, where she meets a modified Martian with whom she falls in love. The thing is, the Martian boy, is keen to go into space and needs Mariska's connection with Natalia to make this possible. Furthermore, the space company sponsoring the trip to a faraway system is considering to scrap the whole enterprise.
  
  Eventually a conspiracy is born involving the clones and their fellow space explorers to take the ship by force and continue on with the trip.
  
  Without losing sight of the essential conflict between the clones and the love relationship between Mariska and the Martian, the author delivers a moving tale with strong elements of hard SF and extrapolation. Both the SF and the emotional motivations are quite delicately handled and fully satisfying.
  
  Recommended for hard SF fans, and fans of the long ago short stories by the same author. Only available as an audiobook as of this review.
  
  
• 
  Jefferson

  "She is NOT my mother!"
  
  Mother Go (2017) by James Patrick Kelly is an entertaining and moving space opera set during the 22nd century, when humanity is just getting ready to explore and spread beyond the solar system. There are space stations, lunar habitats, starships, anti-matter drives, cryo-sleep, a wormhole (made by a mysterious and absent race of aliens called the Builders), printed clothes and foods (“I like my food printed, the way God meant it to be”), neural “mind feeds” (“She’d almost forgotten the tingle it made on her scalp, like her hair was happy”), persona bedrooms, clones, body alterations for different environments, and much more. (But there are no sf weapons or super soldiers or violent action scenes, etc., for it is NOT a military space opera.) Ten human economies compete or collaborate: Mars, Moon, Titan, Sweet Spot, United Habitats, the Belt, and four great corporate states of earth. Complicating those relationships is the cultural clash between Spacers (who want to spread human colonies throughout space) and Firsters (who want to take care of humanity living in the solar system first). All of the above space operatic elements are grounded by everyday concepts like boyfriends, teenage rebellion, and fraught parent-child relationships.
  
  The teenaged protagonist, Mariska Volochkova is, as she puts it, “an immature dumbass” and “a selfish jerk,” living in a habitat on the Moon with Sal, a licensed father under contract to raise her. Oh--and Mariska is a clone of her famous spacer mother Natalya, who before Mariska was “born” left on a long mission through a wormhole into the Galaxy of the Builders and finding a near perfect planet for humanity to colonize. Planet D (for Destination) is now the goal of an ambitious, costly, and controversial mission to which the starship Natividad, AKA Mother, will take crew and frozen colonists, assuming that the politics, economics, and engineering etc. can be worked out.
  
  Mariska wants to find her own identity and life path without being manipulated or interfered with by her “controlling bitch” mother. She doesn’t want anything to do with Natalya, never replying to her communications and snapping “She’s not my mother!” whenever anyone happens to mention her. She sure doesn’t want to join her mother on Mother’s mission: “It's not fair!... she can't drag me off to some stinking rock like a jillion lightyears away!”
  
  There is nothing really new in all this. And I suppose that a few times Kelly cheats by eliding key scenes by taking us right up to a crucial moment (like when Mariska is supposed to give a make or break media conference) and then cutting the current chapter to start the next one after the scene is over, and he makes Mariska’s genetic modification to hibernate (from ground squirrel genes) too iffy, but he excels at getting in the head of a teenage girl and at immersing us in his 22nd-century world of wonders and flawed people, especially Mariska and Natalya and their relationship. It’s a clean, sure story in which to lose oneself for eight hours.
  
  The novel was first released as an audiobook, and the production gets everything right: no music or sound effects, except for a faint echo quality when characters are communicating to each other via mind feed, and occasional laughs or sniffs when a character is amused or smelling something, etc. The reader, January LaVoy, does fine with all the characters’ voices, male or female, young or old, Lunar or Martian, etc. I particularly enjoyed Mariska’s green-skinned Martian boyfriend’s stressed-out gasps while talking (his body was adapted for the thin air of Mars, so when he’s in “normal” environments, it feels like he’s breathing soup).
  
  The ending wraps up the plot while leaving room for future installments in a series. Should Kelly write more, I would probably listen to them.
  
• 
  Lynda Engler

  Mariska is not your typical 22nd century teenager growing up on the Moon. She is a clone of her famous mother, the doctor and spacefarer, Natalia Volochkova. Born in a tank and raised by a father paid to do the job, Mariska rejects everything her absent mother engineered her to be. She is supposed to become a Spacer, travel through the wormhole to the mysterious Builder’s galaxy, but what she does is what any teen does: she defies her mother, parties, and has complicated relationships. But once caught up in the drama of a thrilling conspiracy, Mariska’s coming-of-age is anything but typical.
  There was some fun tech in this novel but nothing that could not be realized a hundred years from now. The story flowed from one adventure to the next, always keeping me enticed. The narrator did a fabulous job, especially with Russian accents and a fictional Mars speech pattern. Well done, and highly recommended.
• 
  Billie

  This is one of those Sci-fi stories that follows someone's life. These can go two ways, one where the character becomes an implausible superhero, fingers in every pie, with the perfect scheme, and another where the story meanders so much that you loose all will to live and wish the author would get to the point.
  
  This book balances the two sides well. It's not an action story, but there is lots of action, it's not a slice of life story, but it follows Mariska's coming of age.
  
  I felt connected to our protagonist, and she's very human, living and growing. It does get a tiny bit slow about half way through, but then it picks up again. My only complaint I suppose is that she maybe is a little too mature for a 20-something year old.
  
  I think you should read this book. It's good.
• 
  Richard Magahiz

  I listened to the audiobook, which is the only way it is being released at this time. I liked the first part of the book which was the closest to a YA story, transitioning into a section with tragic overtones. The second half is a starship story with a conspiracy I didn't completely grasp and with a few odd coincidences. The ending is pretty solid, though, with one unexpectedly moving leavetaking episode that I admired. I know the author has spent more time as a short story writer but he did a decent job at bringing the different pieces together into a cohesive whole. Is there a sequel? I am interested in finding out.
• 
  Teresa

  I would describe this as a sci-fi coming-of-age story, but better because...space travel and science! Jim Kelly is a masterful writer with impressive credentials and this, his first full-length novel in two decades, does not disappoint. I won't give anything away but I will admit to crying at the end. I hope he plans to give us a sequel or two because I really want know what happens to the Mariska and the whole crew. I think this is a story that would appeal to both the hard-scifi camp and the chicklit camp.
• 
  Ashton West

  Here is a heartfelt coming-of-age story about a teenage girl navigating relationships; complicated would-be boyfriends, her payroll father, and her distant "mother" (who she happens to be a clone of). It's a wonderful journey of finding both independence and loyalty among a pretty thrilling conspiracy. Kelly's technologies (including sharing-brain-feeds, deep space travel, print-anything-on-demand) were fully realized, believable, and never got in the way of the story. Not to mention the ending... agh! Highly recommended.
• 
  Miriam

  Set about 100 years in the future, this wonderful sci-fi story takes listeners from the Moon to Mars and beyond.
  
  There are interesting characters including a number of clones, a Martian, and some handsome rogues. Intrigue and a conspiracy add to the excitement of training for a one-way mission through a worm hole to a new galaxy and place for humans (and Martians) to colonize.
  
  For a different review, check out AudioFile Magazine:
  http://www.audiofilemagazine.com
• 
  Brad

  I picked this book up because of it's unique audio-only format. It's a well-told story of sci-fi, politics, family, and friendship. The author has a clear disdain for religion and traditional family values that comes out clearly in the book. The sexual content was awkward and I didn't feel it was necessary. The reader (performer) was very good although a few of the male voices sounded the same.
• 
  Shawn Ridenour

  This was a slow moving story of an immature self centered teen (aka teen) slowly growing up in a nearish future. There weren't enough likeable characters and the sci fi ideas weren't quite big enough to make this engaging.
• 
  Zivan

  An interstellar journey has so much potential to explore Sci-Fi concepts.
  
  James Patrick Kelly manages to weave an incredible number of them on to a colonized solar system so intriguing, that I didn't mind the fact that most of the story happens before the starship even launches.
  
• 
  T.W. Fendley

  enjoyed the audiobook ... wish the next book was already available because it ends rather abruptly!
  
  
• 
  Adele

  sometimes i suppose this happens... this book , although i suppose technically what one can call a GOOD book, didnt intrigue me at all.
• 
  Sarah James

  The writing was fine. This book was just...boring. I could have stopped at any moment and never cared what would happen next.
• 
  Peter Sanfridsson

  What is even the point with this? No story, no resolution just bleh.
• 
  Stephen

  A coming-of-age story, set in space with a dash of squirrel genes.
• 
  Amanda

  The interesting part of the story doesn't start until 3/4 of the way into the book. The main character is annoying, and SHE'S ASLEEP FOR ALL THE EXCITING PARTS! Why would you make a main character who's super power is hibernation?! It means she literally sleeps through all the good parts of the book.
• 
  3sm3

  Too YA for me.