#adgifted all thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Driftborn by Simon Bullock

Book Info

Genre: Space Opera
Age Category: Adult
Number of Pages: 480 Pages
Publication Date: July 28, 2026 (digital edition) May 26, 2026 (hardcover edition)
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/252725186-the-driftborn
Storygraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/ff1dc076-433f-409f-9cbb-b3857e9998c8
Amazon: https://a.co/d/0aZs34GH (Canada) https://a.co/d/0iyRG1df (USA) https://amzn.eu/d/04mwepeF (UK)

Blurb

A forgotten wreck. A forbidden map. A gate that should never have been opened.
On the salvage moon of Veyra’s Fall, Kade Renn only wants one thing: a working air filter for his sick sister, Lira.
Instead, he finds a buried courier ship older than the official history books. Inside it is a dying Driftborn pilot, a forbidden star map, and a message from Kade’s mother, Elian, who supposedly died nine years ago.
The Directorate says the gates saved civilisation. It says the Driftborn are criminals, free-route smugglers and a threat to every recognised human world.
The Directorate is lying.
Forced to flee with Lira, their strange scrap-mech Nix, and a half-illegal ship called The Moth, Kade is pulled into a hidden war over the true origin of the gates. The deeper they travel beyond authorised space, the more dangerous the truth becomes.
The first crossing was not what humanity was taught.
The gates were not built by us.
And something has been waiting for us to understand what we woke.
For readers who enjoy grounded space opera, ancient alien mysteries, damaged ships, found family, dry humour and human stakes beneath the scale of the stars.
The Driftborn is a tense, character-driven science fiction novel about control, memory, survival and the danger of mistaking every door for an invitation.

About the Author

Simon Bullock is a British-born author living in the Netherlands. He writes psychological thrillers, historical fiction and speculative novels with a focus on believable characters, emotional tension and dark, understated humour. His work often explores ordinary people under pressure, hidden truths, and the consequences of systems that fail the people inside them. He also writes selected speculative fiction under the pen name Richard Randon.

My Review First thing first this is not a quick read, nor is simple and easy reading. But this just means you need to carve out real time and set your environment and head space into the perfect place first. We follow the  characters and their harsh lives living under the Directorate. Everyone is taxed to the hilt so they have life debts ( almost see that coming here) illness makes them take risks with their very lives, but what choice do they have? Its tense, its consuming, its heart wrenching and you can feel like a nervous wreck reading it. But what a tale. I could see this as a sci fi series on TV or a multi part movie. Not my usual read. But highly engrossing and enjoyable.