I was offered an e-book copy of The Hatch from Henry Roi PR, an agency representing the author Michelle Saftich, in return for my honest review, which follows below. I thank them for reaching out and giving me this opportunity.
I rated this 5 stars.
Originally I was going to rate this 4 stars. I knocked one off because I do not see myself re-reading this novel again, even though it was an enjoyable first read. I usually prefer darker fiction, more horror tinged, and while tense in many places, this could not claim to be horror. I bounced it up to 5 stars because it did give me something I usually do not have the pleasure of doing: I can recommend this book to the many members of my family that enjoy Science Fiction but in no way like same type as me. My dad, he got me into reading, he had the large at home library. I could go in his desk room and pick out almost any book I wanted; he introduced me to my first Hitchcock, King, Asimov, Heinlein, and so many others. But my interest soon went a little too far into horror for him to be able to converse with me about. So I am very happy that there is a book I can comfortably tell my dad and uncles about, that is directly in their preferred genre; I could make direct eye contact and tell them this has no crazy horror stuff mixed in, this is a well written, interesting novel, enjoy.
Now I do not know that much about what goes into actual space travel, or the practical evolution to future space travel; I also did not know anything about cloning dinosaurs when I read Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, but I enjoyed it. Mira Grant on virology and zombie viruses, Blake Crouch on multiple universes and alternate timelines, I could not stress enough how this stuff goes over my head, but I can tell that they knew what they were talking about and were putting in a way for us to enjoy. When I read their stories I feel like I could almost understand, and thats how I felt after reading this novel and long distance space travel. This was a well thought out novel that blended science with the more ethereal, psychic abilities.
An aspect I appreciated of this novel is that the female protagonist was presented as strong, but without the usual trauma needed for her to rise to that position. She was raised in a loving home, given support by her parents, and had a healthy sense of who she was because of this. It was a refreshing change of view. I also liked that there were male and female characters that were shown to be good and wise throughout the book, it felt more realistic than some stories where they go overboard with only their one chosen character being the shining light of a situation.
So the premise of the book, which I know has taken me a bit to get to, is that Earth is on its last legs. We have used it up so much that most of the population is used to eating nutrition bars, not fresh food. There is also a planet ending asteroid going to hit Earth, but there are a few plans to try and stop that; make a ro
