Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - Chilling Effect

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Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes

9 reviews

just_one_more_paige's review

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I've had this one on my radar for awhile, but the time was ripe when facing down a set of international flights. Nothing says "distract and entertain me on a long airplane journey" like a space opera with the cover tagline of "Kidnappers. Alien emperors. Psychic cats. And she's out of coffee." It was as solid a choice as it sounds.

To continue from my previous "I'm behind" review...I remain behind. So. Another (mostly) borrowed synopsis from Goodreads: Captain Eva Innocente and the crew of La Sirena Negra cruise the galaxy delivering small cargo for even smaller profits. When her sister Mari is kidnapped by The Fridge, a shadowy syndicate that holds people hostage in cryostasis, Eva must undergo a series of unpleasant, dangerous missions to pay the ransom. But Eva may not make it long enough to raise the money. The ship’s hold is full of psychic cats, an amorous fish-faced emperor wants her dead after she rejects his advances, and her sweet engineer is giving her a pesky case of feelings. The worse things get, the more she lies, raising suspicions and testing the loyalty of her crew. To free her sister, Eva may have to risk everything: her crew, her ship, and the life she’s built on the ashes of her past misdeeds...and that's before she finds out that the threat is even greater than she imagined.

This is going to be a short review, because this book is exactly as advertised. Nothing more *and* nothing less. The promised psychic cats, crime syndicate kidnappers, mysterious and shadowy secret missions, found family crew, ridiculously entitled alien emperors, sketchy pasts and a very sweet love story (especially hilarious for a character as prickly - perfectly so - as Eva) were all present and accounted for. Except the coffee, which I realize was promised *not* to be there, but was, in fact, conspicuously not mentioned. (Not a big deal, on the whole, but, you know, transparency, haha.)

But seriously, if one can be serious in a review about such a ridiculous book, this was just plain hilarious and entertaining weird space drama. It was adventure after adventure at a nonstop pace and honestly such a fun reading experience, exactly the attention-keeping-without-requiring-too-much-effort book I needed for travel. There was some commentary on the military industrial complex and imperialistic power (as most scifi tends to have), btu done in a way that remained light and humorous, outrageous even...because this is space opera at its highest humor-level, and therefore not believable at all, but in the best way. I was able to ignore some of the world-building details that verged on the "too much/not quite explained well enough" because the details weren't really that important in the scheme of the bigger picture escapades. Sometimes, with more "serious" space operas like A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace, those details are central and necessary and I want them. Here I didn't need it and that was ok with me. But if you get bogged down by that, do beware.

Another small, but superfun, detail I liked included the chapter titles with twists on Star Wars names/quotes/situations. Fan service is a win for me in reading experiences like this, where the focus is on entertainment value. And I loved all the Spanish, so much, as per usual for me; the colloquialisms and sayings used really added a lot to Eva's (prickly) vibe and I was here for it.

There's definitely a setup for a sequel/series and, while idk if I want/need more right now, I would not be opposed to picking up when the next need for this specific reading experience hits again. It hooked me more than enough to keep me interested for the next time I'm looking/ready.

“The universe was full of that kind of stuff: beautiful, strange, and mostly forgotten.”

“That was war for you, like a game of musical chairs where seats kept disappearing until only one was left, and people rarely stopped to ask who the hell was in charge of the music.”

“She was only one person, but one person doing something was better than a whole lot of people doing nothing.”

“This is barbaric. […] On the contrary, [...] It's civilized as fuck. Civilization is just bullshit." (what a commentary on “civilization” - phew)

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unablelemon's review

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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ladythana's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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emilineopines's review

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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thoughtsontomes's review

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

There’s a blurb that if Firefly and Mass Effect had a baby, it would be this book and that’s very accurate. If Shepard was less competent and had way more mishaps on her missions, she would be a lot like our main character Eva. We also have the world building of the Wayfarers series with way more action. There are more mentions of farts here than I’ve probably read in other books which did annoy me but it seemed to subside as the story went on and I could look past it. Also if you’re looking for alien romance, you do get it here (fade to black fyi for my monster loving girlies out there - don’t get your hopes up). But for someone who lived romancing they aliens in mass effect, I dug it.

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becksusername's review

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adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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5am's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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obviousthings's review against another edition

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I liked the characters, but the plot felt a bit too contrived at times.

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ryraeriv's review

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Chilling Effect is a fun romp through space that follows Captain Eva Innocente and her crew as they try to make money, survive, and kinda, save the universe. All in all, this is a fun, light-hearted book with a very interesting concept that doesn't take itself too seriously. The main character verges on unlikable, swinging wildly from self-pitying to brazenly reckless, but she also has some wonderfully funny and honest moments. The plot is fast paced and keeps you engaged but some aspects of it seem unnecessary and add little to the development of the story. A large chunk of this book relies on a version of the miscommunication trope, which I personally detest, but it definitely made me feel things. The side characters can come off as a little one dimensional in scenes but they serve their purpose and the diverse array of representation (race, gender, sexual orientation, alien species) is a definite bonus. Valdes manages to build up a sci-fi world that is well thought out and easy to understand without spoon-feeding every aspect of it to the reader. This book was worth the read and makes me want to continue on with the series.

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