Cover art for “Ascension: The Ymir Trinity” by A.M. Leishman

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Last night I finished A.M. Leishman’s short novel Ascension, The Ymir Trinity (2023). It’s supposed to be book one in a series, but so far, no other books have been published.

I first encountered Leishman on twitter/X but he’s also on bluesky. We indie authors have to stick together.

I won’t lie. For me, it was a hard book to get into. I felt like I was walking into the middle of a movie. Cute, teenage psychopath Dawn encounters older and more reserved Alma walking into her local public library and fairly swoons over her. The two have been in contact with an entity named Ymir who has been giving them instructions about an impending interstellar war and pushing them to ally themselves specifically with the U.S. Military.

The two of them plus General David Trauger form an alliance that takes them to the highest levels of power, both on Earth and beyond.

The story sort of reminded me of E.E. “Doc” Smith’s Lensman series (yes, that’s high praise). There’s the same vast scope of space, numerous planets and races, as well as super powerful humanoids communicating with super powerful aliens.

There was also (for me) the same difficulty in keeping everything straight as far as who was who, what connected to what, and which planet I was on at any given point in time.

Some of the transitions were abrupt, but that may have been an editing issue. There were numerous typos that usually creep into works where the author is also the editor (or has only one editor who is a relative or friend).

I liked the “old-timey” space opera feel but felt disconnected from how Dawn and Alma were originally recruited, why them, who or what these super-entities were, where they came from, and why all this was happening in the first place.

Dawn is the most intriguing characters. She’s brutally honest and absolutely cutthroat about anyone or anything she sees as a waste of resources. Her idea of eugenics is to wipe out most of the human race to delete the bad genes that are being passed on. She also is highly sexualized and has a number of affairs, both straight and gay.

Alma, being more conservative, has no desire to be considered a “god” but is cast in that role by just about everybody including a stereotypical Evangelical Christian American President.

People mostly don’t die permanently, since part of Alma’s (and others) ability is to resurrect folks from a common pattern. That’s also how teleportation works (think of the Star Trek transporter), so dying and coming back isn’t usually a big deal.

There is one scene where a powerless Alma is captured by her enemies and brutally tortured. It was uncomfortable to read and I wondered why that level of horror was necessary. Typically, stories which include such a dark tone in a sequence use it throughout the story, but that wasn’t the case here (Dawn’s murderous tendencies aside).

I wondered about the physics involved in some of the events, such as if Jupiter were squeezed down to the size of a big rock and how that would affect the orbits of all the other planets, moons, and asteroids in the solar system. It probably would, especially in how Jupiter’s gravity prevents a lot of random objects from endangering the inner planets including Earth.

All that said, Leishman kept up the suspense until and very end leaving room for at least one sequel. I imagine it’s not everyone’s proverbial cup of tea, but it does offer a compelling mystery that with a vast reach across the galaxy.

Oh, I’ve included a shorter review on Amazon and goodreads.