Beacon 23 by Hugh Howey

 “Every morning is an afterlife. Every evening, I die anew in the trenches amid nightmares of artillery finding their target.”

Beacon23 is a “lighthouse,” a one-man space-station anchored on the fringes of an asteroid field, there to guide space travelers safely through danger. The man who runs Beacon 23 is nameless, one of many stationed to a solitary life, making sure NASA’s never fail Beacon’s never fail… Until one day, his does.

So this book will delight sci-fi nerds. If it’s space travel, intergalactic war, and aliens that you like, this book has it. If you like explosions, quick impulsive decisions, and crazy characters, this book’s got those. It’s a fast read, if you like that kind of thing, and if you do, that’s okay and this book’s for you.

But if you’re the type of reader who likes to read a little deeper, this one might also be for you, too. Beacon 23 appears to be anti-war propaganda wrapped in a fast-paced space opera. The main character who’s real name is never revealed, could be anyone. Anyone who has ever served in the Armed Forces and lived to wish they hadn’t. Wounded in the line of duty, he left the front-lines to go live a solitary existence running a beacon. PTSD, Survivor's guilt, and desperation to hide his secret shame (he wants to save lives, not end them) are driving him crazy. And the crazy is not being improved upon by solitary confinement. He is a little sad and a little nuts.

Hugh Howey somehow manages to convey the idea that mixing violence with violence to create more violence isn’t the solution to violence, without getting all preachy...Up until the end when he interjects a brief author’s note in which he gets all preachy. (I maybe would have waited until the end of the book, but-) The narrator's uphill battle with himself is won when he realizes that once upon a time, he made the right decision. That mercy isn’t a weakness maybe it is a powerful weapon.

There's a war raging across galaxies, generations, and sentient space traveling races. Billions have died fighting it. One lonely, broken little man, holds the power to end it.

4 STARS