Penny Ponders On The Reality Exchange
A different Starling from Hannibal Lector’s nemesis, but equally resourceful
This being James Vigor’s first book, I had no idea what to expect when I picked up The Reality Exchange. I found it written with a light touch that made it an easy read.
The main character, Winter Starling, is nowhere to be seen as the book opens. We see a group of border security guards at a spaceport heading towards the end of their shift. It’s not the routine day’s end they’re hoping for, but Winter Starling has no part in the ensuing chaos, indeed no interest in it, except in as far as it inconveniences her own plans.
The way Starling is introduced gives the perfect picture of a young woman wrapped up in the minutiae of her own life, uninterested in politics or the wider world. She lives at home with her parents but is carving her own niche, well aware that it’s not something her family would approve of.
I liked that Starling bucked the trend for young people at the centre of space adventures — space travel is not on her bucket list, she’s happy on her own planet, her ambitions go little further than the next deal, she lives for the day — and as it turns out, she has good reason to live her life this way.
