Phil in SF reviewed Beacon 23 by Hugh Howey
Shell shock comes for a space war soldier
2 stars
Content warning minor spoilers
Plagued by feelings of guilt at being the only survivor of a skirmish in a war with aliens, "Digger" uses his hero status to get a posting to a beacon at the edge of Sector 8. The beacons are somewhat like lighthouses, but with signals that warn faster-than-light ships to avoid asteroids. One person staffs a beacon alone for 2 years at a time. Digger wants to be alone.
And so in what was originally a series of short stories, we witness Digger as the beacon fails at the wrong time, as he rescues what he thinks is alien life in the debris of a destroyed ship and starts talking to a rock, as he deals with bounty hunters, and as NASA puts another beacon nearby and Digger falls in love with the woman tuning it even though she talks like a psychologist.
The stories are slow and are driven by Digger's pedestrian inner monologue. Every other character is one-dimensional. Claire, the woman in the other beacon, has no personality but serves as the woman who heals Digger's war-broken psyche. Because the embrace of a woman is what every man needs.
The setup is intriguing enough that I suspect the Apple+ series made from the stories is a lot more interesting than this was.
