Book Review: Rising from the Sand by Ria Fritz
Yesterday I had the privilege of reading Ria Fritz’ debut novel, Rising from the Sand, a fast-paced, brilliantly well-edited police procedural action and suspense novella set in the corrupt cities of a desertified colony planet. The locals of the city of Tioria are experiencing random, isolated, increasingly severe attacks of retrograde amnesia, and it’s up to the protagonists, trapped in Tioria against their wishes by professional duty and moral obligation, to get to the bottom of these incidents, before they can leave.
The author manages to make interdepartmental police politics both realistic and interesting, almost a living force that the characters have to navigate and negotiate every step of the way during their investigation. All of the major characters are MOGAI, including an extremely endearing, respectful, non-sensational representation of a transgender teen girl. While there are some preludes to romance in this novel, that component of the subplot never dominates the narrative; these characters are professionals who put their work ahead of their personal lives, and it sincerely shows where their priorities are.
I especially love the character of Wynette; her initial overt abrasiveness and antagonism toward other characters is a fierce wake-up slap for the reader, within the first page. Over the course of the novel her personality develops magnificently, and we see dimensions of compassion and profound personal strength, which those initial encounters only hinted at. By the end of the book, she’s a difficult person not to adore, and she’s utterly convincing as a real person with real feelings, fears, misgivings, and motivations.