Despite a childhood love of science fiction, I usually default to fantasy when it comes to genre-fiction. When I saw the simple cover of Ultra 85 in the bookstore—a rocket blasting off into a cover of deepening blue—I took a chance on an unknown commodity.

In 2115, humans have left uninhabitable Earth for Babel, a space station. There, the best and the brightest of them anticipate being chosen to live in a utopian society on a planet named Paradise. A little heavy-handed, there.

The book was written by hip-hop artist Logic (with Bobby Hall), another draw. The author’s love of pop-culture is brought into Ultra 85 by way of a pilot from 2115 who is obsessed with forbidden cultural artifacts from earth—music, movies, and the like.

The plot zips along quickly, reading like a made-for-Netflix film. Character development is difficult to find. The 1990s banter thrown around by the pop-culture obsessed character sounds awkward and forced. While the idea was interesting, the execution left this reader unsatisfied.

Logic. Ultra 85. Simon and Schuster, 2024. Epub.