In a distant future, Toby McGonigal was put to sleep for interstellar travel, but never wakes up. Until now, 14,000 years later. Once Toby wakes he finds that the universe is vastly different. His frozen planet of Sedna was once almost unlivable, but now it serves as the inspiration for the Lockstep Empire, which his family rules. The Empire uses cicada beds to enable entire planets to hibernate for decades and wake for short periods of time. This way traveling between planets is easily done, and no time is lost from the long journey. However, only the royal family can control the Lockstep, and they punish planets by resetting their system so that they wake before anyone else, making them age faster. This isolates the planets.

That’s where Toby’s importance comes in. In order to stop his now tyrannical younger brother (who’s not so young anymore) from abusing the Lockstep system, the system is controlled by McGonigal DNA. Accordingly, Toby’s sudden appearance could change the universe itself. As a result, Toby is a very wanted man, both by his brother, who wishes him gone so that he can maintain his reign, but also by revolutionaries wishing to overthrow the system. Joined by a group of friends, and a mysterious girl named Corva, Toby must overthrow his brother, and stop the tyranny.

Lockstep is an amazing novel, set in an imaginative future for Earth and our universe. Toby is a level-headed, cautious young man, easily adaptable, but also realistic. When he finds out that he is 14,000 years in the future, he freaks out, but he doesn’t let that keep him down. He is forced to keep adapting and make his own opinion of this strange new world. Moreover, the setting is fantastic, and the book presents an amazing idea of how humanity could function without superluminal travel.

Unfortunately, the world is a bit confusing. It’s a great idea, but it should be explained more often, and in simpler terms. Another great aspect is how the underlying problems in Lockstep are easily relatable to Earth now. The Lockstep system was designed so that the planets’ inhabitants don’t overuse all of their resources, much like our own natural resources struggle. The novel also focuses on how money really does run the world, and how corruption is never that far away, even in a universe that seems like a utopia.

This is a wonderful book for fans of Ender’s Game and Ready Player One. However, if you’re new to science fiction, I would recommend checking out Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon or another easy to get into sci-fi, before reading Lockstep.