Why You'll Love This
Humanity loses an alien war in two years flat — and the escape plan is one desperate starship pointed at the unknown.
- Great if you want: military sci-fi energy with a survival-of-the-species stakes premise
- The experience: fast-moving and propulsive — Forbes keeps pressure on every chapter
- The writing: lean, functional prose built for momentum over atmosphere
- Skip if: you prefer deep worldbuilding over plot-driven pacing
About This Book
Humanity doesn't lose wars gracefully. In Exodus, M.R. Forbes drops readers into a near future where first contact lasted two years and ended in total defeat — leaving a battered species with one desperate option: run. The Pioneer, a starship of almost absurd ambition buried beneath the Rocky Mountains, represents everything humanity has left. What follows is a story about survival against odds that keep shifting, where the enemy you fled may be the least of your problems. Forbes understands that the best science fiction isn't really about technology or alien threats — it's about what people do when the ordinary rules no longer apply.
What sets this book apart as a reading experience is Forbes's pacing, which operates like a slow burn that never actually stops burning. He layers tension carefully, building a cast of characters whose flaws feel earned rather than assigned. The prose is clean and propulsive without sacrificing weight — readers move fast through these pages because Forbes makes it genuinely difficult to stop. As the opening volume of the Forgotten Starship series, Exodus does exactly what a first book should: it establishes a world you want to inhabit and raises questions you need answered.
