Book Review: Anchor Leg by Jack Croxall #mystery #sciencefiction #thriller

Stranded 750 million miles from Earth. Stranded with a saboteur. Stranded with a killer.

Humanity has spilled out into the Solar System, into a succession of giant space stations known as the Relay. Seren Temples is a security apprentice running the Relay's remote Anchor Leg. When sabotage strands her vessel near another damaged ship, Seren and her team are sent across to investigate. The second ship is a zero-G graveyard. Inside its vast hold, nothing but a single vial of frozen blood.

My review:

Anchor Leg follows the journey of Seren, a young security apprentice and her tough initiation into life aboard a cargo ship. Set in deep space, she's running away from an over-populated Earth and determined to build a new life for herself. What she gets is a baptism of fire aboard a space ship, with a crime to solve. 

The fast-paced plot grabbed me straight away, and the twists and turns kept me hooked until the end. As well as the superb world building, Croxall managed to bring real life to the characters. I became invested in their futures, and was genuinely sad when the story ended. I wanted more from this world he'd created. 

Anchor Leg skillfully combines the science fiction, thriller, and crime genres. It's a mystery set in space, and I loved it. If you like your crime stories to be dark, taut, and containing a speculative angle, this is the book for you. 

Because we have a little tilt

Spring has sprung in the Northern Hemisphere. Though some of the days my flowers were hidden in the snow, the rain has washed the frigid temperatures away. People are celebrating by wearing shorts even though they still have tuques on, and others are pushing through their rigorous spring cleaning.

Many of our beliefs, myths, and annual events revolve around the changing seasons. Demeter welcomes her beloved daughter back from the underworld and the world grows lush again. Fertile bunnies hide chocolate and colored eggs. Masses gather in the streets of India to throw powered dyes at one another.

But what would the changing of seasons be like on other worlds?

The changing of seasons depend on a planet's axial tilt, but not many other planets have tilts like Earth's. It's rare to have four regular seasons like we do. In fact, most planets have no seasons or wildly fluctuating ones.

It's interesting to imagine what the beliefs and myths in the lives of other worldly beings might be like. Would they even have annual events like we do?  Would they celebrate instead things like the passing of a comet in a regular orbit around their solar system or have myths about the great storm that swirls constantly in the south? How would it shape their minds to have no seasons or ones that could not be predicted?

One things for certain, aliens would likely see Earthlings' traditions as baffling and ridiculous. So much of who we are is based on the fact our planet has a little tilt.

What do you think an alien culture would be like based in a world with no seasons or wildly fluctuating ones?