★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Founder’s Mercy is a thrilling, young-adult sci-fi adventure set in a well developed world filled with likable, relatable characters
Founder’s Mercy tells the story of teenage Adan Testa and his best friend Bo as they navigate life in the Bolvar Union on the colony of Neska. At first, the Union seems like your standard sci-fi dystopia, but Lach’s rich, layered world-building gives the city an accessible, lived-in feel. I can easily imagine settling in for a bowl of Mother Agra’s hearty Marsh Pig stew at a table overlooking the Daralsha River.
Adan’s story centers on the fact that he doesn’t want to perform his upcoming mandatory military service. That’s a goal I can get behind. He and Bo develop an (unlikely) plan for escaping the Bolvar Union. Like even the best laid plans, it goes awry.
Lach is a gifted storyteller. He sets the scenes well as we move from place to place and act to act, including enough detail for me to picture his highly detailed world without bashing me over the head with it. Like many stories told from the perspective of young adults, the world starts small and focused but grows larger and larger. And I was right there with Adan each step of the way as he discovered just how big the world really is.
Lach’s complex, nuanced characters sealed the deal for me. They mainly exist in the liminal space between the teenage years and adulthood. They make good choices and bad ones. They get some things right and others disastrously wrong. One of my pet peeves is YA writers who treat their YA characters like miniature adults, and Lach masterfully avoids this trope. Throw in a healthy heaping of Lach’s queer perspective, and you’ve got a cast you can really sink your teeth into. That perspective includes characters who don’t assume someone’s gender based on their appearance. Everyone is they/them until revealed to be otherwise. Adan’s gayness is a similar non-issue. And the easy intimacy of Adan and Bo’s friendship is a delight. It’s a refreshing perspective I’d love to see more authors take.
The story contains some mild descriptions of violence, and several characters deal with growing up without parents. You’ll find some romance, but nothing racier than kissing and cuddling.