This is another one of those short ‘Single’ novellas that Tor are producing at the moment. At a mere 112 pages, there’s not a lot of space for expansion, but it’s a Space Opera tale that packs a lot in!

You may know Dave from his ‘Fractured Europe’ series of award-winning alternate-history series of books (Europe in Autumn, Europe at Midnight, Europe in Winter) but this is very different.

Acadie is more like a scenario that Peter F Hamilton or Alastair Reynolds would normally write. It’s a story that follows ‘Duke’ Faraday, 150-year old ex-lawyer. Following the old Heinlein maxim that no one in their right mind should be given power and responsibility, Duke reluctantly holds the position of President of Acadie.

In the finest traditions of old-school SF, the story tells of human expansion into space. Like the Pilgrim Fathers before them, a group of hyper-intelligent genetically adapted people, many of them created by radical scientist Professor Isabel Potter, have left Earth to avoid ethics laws and discrimination.

The only problem was that by leaving, Potter and her acolytes ‘borrowed’ a colony ship from the mega-corporation Bureau of Colonisation, (the BoC) who monopolised Earth’s planetary expansion. This unfortunately also included 150 other colonists suspended in deep-sleep, something that, even after 500 years, the BoC is reluctant to forget, even though the unfrozen colonists were returned to Earth if they wished.

And now the colony, up to now kept in secret, seem to have been found by a BoC probe. The question now is what should the colony do, and whether this is a deliberate search or an unfortunate accident? It’s Duke’s job to sort out the problem – something that’s going to take clever negotiation, cunning and skill.

Acadie is a well-written tale. What this story does is show a writer willing to play with traditional tropes, an author who is very skilful at setting scene and developing characters in a limited amount of words. The first part of the book reminded me much of a Heinleinesque-style story, a style something often imitated but rarely executed well. It’s surprisingly light of touch compared with Dave’s more serious, meatier novels, but I liked it a lot. There’s clever touches of backstory combined fairly seamlessly with events in the present. Unlike many attempts of ‘aping Heinlein‘ I’ve read, the dialogue is realistic without falling into the trap of information dump too often. The characters are likeable, too, although, as to be expected in a 100-ish page story, there’s not too many. Dave even manages to get some humour in without it being too far-fetched. (I don’t want to give it away here, but Council meetings in Acadie look like fun!)

And then….. the story hinges on an almighty twist. Once the reader has been lulled into the setting and the characterisation at the beginning, the second part of the novella reveals the true purpose of the story. What began as fun ends up as… more than that.

The conclusion is something that will leave you thinking, and made me start the story again straight after I had finished. I did not see the twist coming, which is how it should be. (But on re-reading – there are clues there.)

In summary, Acadie is a great story, showing that there’s more to this author than his well-known series. It’s also another novella that shows the power of the medium, one that made me want to read more. Skilfully done and cleverly engaging, I heartily recommend it as a story worth reading.

Acadie by Dave Hutchinson

A Tor Single. Published September 2017. Review copy received.

112 pages

ISBN: 9780765398260

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