Fast-forward some 400 years or so and a group of about 300 of these people now live as a "family" in the desert under the guidance of a man calling himself Adam Light. Think cult, but with dangerous leanings. All this group wants to do is live in peace, out from under the boot heel of The Council, and to do that, they've infiltrated a mission to space containing the best and brightest of what The Councils has to offer, in the hopes of finally establishing a new home for their family. Their target is an enormous spacecraft called House of Wisdom that was abandoned some 10 years ago, after a devastating virus was unleashed by Dr. Gregory Lago, who also happens to be the father of Zahra, the woman in charge of the mission. Also aboard, although now as a hostage, is a man named Jaswinder Bhattacharya (or Jas for short), who happens to be the only living survivor of the House of Wisdom atrocity. He is also the nephew of one of the most powerful Councilors, and his mother and father were scientists aboard House of Wisdom, so he makes a pretty valuable hostage. With so many high-value targets on board (most of them the privileged children of members of The Councils), this should be easy for Zahra, and her team. Naturally, nothing goes according to plan.
For starters, The Councils apparently lied about much of what happened on House of Wisdom, so not long after boarding the vessel, Zahra and company discover that the ship was home to a violent and twisted massacre, and not simply the site of almost 500 people dying peacefully of some virus, as was told to the public. What happened there seems inexplicable, but before long, those on board will discover the truth. Unfortunately, despite the tragedies that occur one after another, their leader, Adam, insists upon continuing on with the mission. After all, he and the rest of the family are headed to House of Wisdom on a ship called Homestead, and it's up to Zahra to succeed or all the blame will fall on her head. As bodies start dropping one by one, those who remain realize that they are fighting something much more insidious than anyone realized, and if they can't convey this info to The Councils and Adam, what happened on House of Wisdom could be the least of Earth's problems.
The book switches perspectives between those of Zahra and Jas with each chapter and, to be honest, in the beginning there were so many characters that I felt a bit lost. Eventually, the book hones down to the core group and the story grows far more exciting. Salvation Day does have somewhat of an immigration message behind it, and I can't help but notice that all of the characters seemed to be from regions other than North America, at least it read that way to me. Personally, I typically prefer my fiction when it doesn't have a social message it is trying to convey to me, but I can say that the last half of the book is very exciting and doesn't focus so much on that issue.
Salvation Day is Kari Wallace's first book and I enjoyed it. Once I got past the barrage of characters in the beginning and the initial set-up, I found it to be an exciting and nerve-wracking adventure. If you like space-focused sci-fi with a wicked virus at the crux, you'll probably enjoy Salvation Day.
