Review: The Relatives by Billy White

Centuries-long family drama, lost colonies, and the ultimate Oedipal complex with Earth combine to make The Relatives by Billy White an astonishingly addictive sci-fi novel.

Three mighty starships were set to leave Earth in the middle of the 22nd century, thanks to the advanced technology developed by Nugent Graham – a premise that quickly summons echoes of Elon Musk. Now, 250 years later, one of those ships is likely lost, the other may never have gotten off Earth, and the third ship, Revelation, sits squarely at the center of this novel.

That lone ship managed to reach Graham’s Planet to establish a colony of humans, even though the planet’s namesake and Founder never got there, due to his poor choice of sailing through space on the presumably lost ship. Wrestling with the bureaucratic details of sustaining life, as well as the existential questions of purpose and direction, these dual settings are quite the rich backdrop.

The Relatives Party on Graham’s Planet, led by presumptive heir Jordan Graham, represent a frightening regression of leadership, where control is passed between generations of family members, creating an incestuous viper’s nest of manipulation and paranoia. On another level, Jordan and other diabolical family members feel like carnival mirror characters that readers may recognize – arrogant politicians obsessed with control, determined to polish their public image as they sycophantically vie for scraps of power. The Opposition Party stands against such nepotism, which brings in characters like Gus and Call, who quaintly balance the evil machinations of the novel’s obvious villains.

Janey and her mom are another curious slice of domesticity, pursuing little passions while scraping by on the lost starship as it hopefully heads towards a new planet. Lorena is an intriguing figure as well, whose allegiances and beliefs shift powerfully on the page, though she is far from the only one. This design of microcosm and macrocosm characters works well in the novel; from the most well-known names in the galaxy to the simplest citizens just trying to survive, White captures these futuristic personalities in richly conceived detail, and convinces readers to genuinely care about their fates.

White proves to be a master of world-building and scene-setting early on in the novel, with skillful exposition that seamlessly drops readers four centuries into the future, and directly into the lives of this novel’s key characters. There is enough technical sophistication to sell the premise to hard sci-fi fans, but not too much to overwhelm those simply looking for a dystopian space adventure. The subtle mirroring of contemporary society is clever without being heavy-handed, such as “The Relatives” loudly denouncing the patriotism of anyone who dares to decrease the military budget. At times as philosophical as it is action-packed, the writing moves smoothly from one style to the next.

On a technical note, some of the narrative passages are overworked, with every physical detail and movement of a character described. Even if every line is well-crafted, some of the excess prose can be stripped away to leave some things to the reader’s imagination, giving these moments more room to shine.

All in all, The Relatives is a character-rich, prescient, and exciting vision of an interstellar future that is unique among contemporary science fiction.