How It Unfolds

“How It Unfolds” by James S.A. Corey gravitated towards my radar from my bookish friend, Rosh. As a fan of The Expanse series (well, the first four at least), I knew I had to check this quick short out. Deep down, the book is about hope, fate, destiny, and the permutations that may happen with the choices we make.

A team of interplanetary engineers is taking trip(s) to different galaxies looking for inhabitable plants for the future of mankind. The catch? The team does these ‘folding' excursions over different lifetimes. Stay with me here. It sounds sort of complex, but the rules are fairly easy to follow. The characters are rich; there is a bit of exploration, a tiny bit of humor, and a whole lot of heart.

|| “ We can live a billion different ways from here, but there's only one path behind us. That was never going to change.” ||

It is refreshing to get so much story in something so short, and I had exploration vibes similar to those of Christopher Columbus. Replace the sailing with teleportation, a spice trade with hydroponics, and a light sprinkling of new world/old world concepts.

If you are in the mood for a fun little sci-fi story, this would fit nicely.

**Side note: I just have to comment on the food in the book and the conundrum I pondered after I finished it: “the food was always the same: dense cakes with all the nutrients, fiber, and microbiota to sustain life in a puck the size of a pack of cards.” I was trying to decide if this would be better than the ‘protein-rich porridge' from the Matrix.