After Moses: Prodigal Review

Crumbling Ceres

The setting of Prodigal is more focused than it was in After Moses, with all of the jobs occurring on the dwarf planet Ceres. Where the settings of After Moses bring to mind the American Old West and particularly the frontier, Ceres emphasizes the decline of civilization. Rival gangs, orphans begging in the streets, and deteriorating infrastructure all contribute to a higher tension threshold.

The thematic struggle between lawlessness and order still exists, but it feels like lawlessness has the upper hand here. The greater the potential for danger, the greater the potential for adventure!

I particularly enjoyed the action that incorporated the low-gravity areas of the city and how the characters utilize the variations in their environment in order to meet their goals.

Drama-Free Found Family

The characters remain a delight. In this sequel, they are still distinctly likable, and their interactions with one another remain drama-free. Their relationships are not without tension, of course. There are two teenagers in the mix, and Yvonne is struggling with her past. But the reader is never asked to doubt the strength of their bonds or subjected to emotional manipulation for its own sake.

Those bonds are distinctly familial in nature. “Found family” is a popular trope, and here we see it employed beyond the usual “we are all such fast friends.” There are the siblings, of course—Davey and Grace—who found one another on the streets and have stuck with one another through thick and thin ever since. But Matthew’s relationship with Abigail, lacking a romantic component, has settled into something resembling siblings as well. Their banter and teasing feels comfortable; their implicit trust in one another, stronger than mere friendship.

Matthew falls naturally into a father role: he is the legal guardian for the teens, the authority figure on the ship, and the only adult male in the group. This is a role he began to embrace in the first book, and he continues to take it seriously.

Perhaps more surprising is Yvonne’s emergence as a mother figure. When Davey is arrested, he calls her first, rather than Matthew, and one of the officers assumes that she is Davey’s mother. She has taken on several roles, including cooking, gardening, and maintenance of the ship (their home). Her concerns tend to be with the emotional wellbeing of the rest of the crew, and as we saw in After Moses, she does tend to pry. It will be interesting to see how her character develops as she continues to wrestle with her own secrets.

Episodic Pacing that Ramps Up

It is intriguing that with such strong character relationships, most of the story has them separated. Grace is lost on her own, taking care of a small group of orphans and dodging slavers while trying to get back to The Sparrow. Matthew and Davey are working to find her, while searching for a piece of W’s puzzle, and stop a quickly escalating gang war. Yvonne and Abigail remain with the ship and take on the occasional small jobs to keep them in the black, bringing Yvonne face-to-face with the man who killed her husband.

These groupings result in an episodic rhythm similar to the first book. However, the story takes place on a single small planet, subjecting the crew to similar sources of tension, such as antagonists and low gravity areas, and as a crew they share larger goals. These make Prodigal feel more streamlined than After Moses, with a higher tension climax for the book as a whole.

Prodigal

There are a number of “prodigals” in this story. Rival crime syndicates each have their own, although what exactly they refer to is a mystery initially.

White Void has kidnapped the granddaughter of the Morgensen family—the first prodigal. The Morgensen family is responding with a prodigal of their own, and it is a weapon they are confident will end the war between them.

But perhaps the truest prodigal is Grace. She is lost, and although it is not to “wild living,” she still makes some choices she regrets. She has anxiety about some of the crimes she commits while separated from her family and how it will impact her reception, particularly with Matthew.

Matthew reflects the father in the Biblical parable, welcoming her home with open arms. he reassures her, “There is nothing you could do to make us stop loving you.”

Unchanging Love

This idea seems to be a greater theme of the series. In After Moses, Abigail fears what Matthew will say when he finds out she is a paraplegic, but he does not kick her out or resent his reliance on her on the job. Knowing her weakness lets him care for her better in his contingency planning.

Matthew similarly kept secrets from his crew about his past. When the whole story is laid out for them, he tells them they do not have to stay “under a captain that pretends to be things he’s not.” He, too expected his past to change his relationship with everyone in a negative way. Instead, sharing it with them improves it; they are able to help him with his crazy scheme to right some of the wrong.

Forgiveness

In order to have love that is not affected by sins and failures, there must also be forgiveness.

Grace’s grandfather looks to make up for his past mistakes by sacrificing himself. But Matthew does not permit it. He points out, “We don’t make our own atonement….You’re not here because we expect you to make things right. You cant do that. You’re here because of Grace. She wants you here. Evil deeds aren’t covered by good ones, they’re covered by forgiveness.”

Perhaps this seems a bit preachy—a perfect Believer’s answer. But the context of the story, wherein everyone is wrestling with what this means in personal and complex ways, prevents it from feeling trite.

I suspect we will see the theme of unchanging love and forgiveness in future books, this time for Yvonne as she wrestles with her choice to kill the murderer of her husband (even though she did not succeed).

Check Out After Moses: Prodigal!

After Moses: Prodigal is a fun sci-fi adventure with crazy action and likable characters. I look forward to reading more about the crew of The Sparrow in the next After Moses book!