The Elysium Heist

As Psylina explains to her sister, the seductive casino worker Psalome the Dazzler, in Y.M. Resnik’s The Elysium Heist, they may be surrounded by beautiful women, but there are complications: “One of those pretty women needs to be rescued from the jackass who stole her life and the other two want you to rob a casino.” These last are Finley and Kiyokimora—and five point-of-view heroines do complicate the story, though it flows surprisingly well with them all. Psylina continues, “I know you, Lo, and that is exactly why you agreed to this escapade. Ilaria and your desire to help her are affecting your judgement. You like her.” And there’s the novel’s multiple conflicts in a nutshell. 

In fact, Ilaria is fleeing her religious husband and space colony as an agunah—a “chained” woman whose husband won’t grant her a Jewish divorce. As such, she’ll never be able to remarry. On Thillov, married women can’t leave the planet alone or access their bank accounts. Finley thinks, “I’d been to plenty of Jewish run planets before, and none of them were anything like this.” She had offered Ilaria an ultimatum: 

If Ilaria could blow up her office, make it look like an accident, and not hurt a soul, we’d smuggle her off planet.…Ilaria said yes without hesitation. She even upped the task to leveling the entire mine and setting a fire hot enough to destroy any and all human remains so there would be no questions as to the validity of her death. Apparently, jilted women take things to a whole new level of unhinged. 

Accordingly, Ilaria escapes to freedom. She’s rather sheltered—she flinches at sex tapes and profanity. At the same time, she breaks expectations with her surprising and fun quirks, like her training in explosions. As she thinks: 

“All I really want is my life back. My self-respect. A chance at a partner who loves me despite the fact that I like experimenting with explosives more than praying or keeping house. In fact, you might say blowing stuff up is my form of prayer. It certainly feels divine.”

This unusual twist on religion is a fun way to shatter expectations for a conflict that goes back to the fiction of Isaac Bashevis Singer. Even in futuristic space casino capers, some elements of Orthodox Jewish life will remain the same. She’s a realistic, believable character with plenty of Yiddishisms. 

Off go all the zany young women on their mission. Kiyokimora GoldWeaver is being blackmailed by Ilaria’s husband Shaul Harbormaster—the sex tape part won’t damage her reputation, but the fact that the client dropped dead from a combination of his drugs and her gold body paint is a problem. Further, the blackmailer stole her heirloom pearl earrings, laser stamped with her family crest and imbedded with a piece of her great-great-grandmother’s DNA. But they’re not just jewelry—without this evidence, her lawyers can provide reasonable doubt. Shaul is using the pearls as his buy-in for the Tournament of Gems at the Casino. And the dealer, Psalome, will be wearing all the buy-in jewelry over a very seductive outfit. All their skills will be needed to win the day.

A sixth friend in the jumble is El (short for Elysium), the AI who manages Psalome’s and Psylina’s lives at the casino. Psylina, who nicknamed the computer, identifies it as her “joyfriend,” a fun way to add a nontraditional relationship. As she adds, “We bring each other happiness. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that.” However, it does as she thinks, “Now I’ve committed to helping my sister rob the love of my life.” Here is the difficulty for the characters, as personal loyalties clash over and over. 

As the friends, partners, and sisters defend one another, they all quest for romance and freedom in an exploitative universe. Science fiction and futuristic elements are light. The fun comes from the personalities and the excitement of the heist. Meanwhile, Psalome and Ilaria in particular embark on a spicy and boundary-breaking new romance. It’s a satisfying read as the heroines triumph—and do so with a delightful amount of joy. 

Note: The reviewer received an e copy of the book from the author

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