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ahkrin's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Blood, Gun violence, Genocide, Colonisation, Murder, Terminal illness, and Car accident
Moderate: Death, Animal death, Violence, and Kidnapping
Minor: Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Cursing, Grief, and Gore
scifi_rat's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.25
Plot: 3 stars
Prose: 2.5 stars
Pace: 2 stars
Concept/Execution: 3.5 stars/1 stars
Characters: 2 stars
Worldbuilding: 3 stars
Ending: .5 stars
Prose: 2.5 stars
Pace: 2 stars
Concept/Execution: 3.5 stars/1 stars
Characters: 2 stars
Worldbuilding: 3 stars
Ending: .5 stars
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Grief, Gore, Racism, Violence, War, Death, Medical content, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Cursing, Death of parent, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Xenophobia
Minor: Genocide, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Addiction
typedtruths's review against another edition
challenging
funny
slow-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? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence and Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Terminal illness, Kidnapping, Death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Grief
➸ Trigger warnings for blood and gore depiction, physical injuries and illness including terminal illness, coma, grief and loss depiction, death of a friend (off-page), death of a partner mentioned, military violence and battle scenes, organised crime mentioned, gun violence, kidnapping, explosions, plane crash, animal attack, and animal death.troisha's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Medical content
Minor: Alcohol, Confinement, Death of parent, Gore, Torture, and Vomit
azrah786's review against another edition
3.5
[This full review can also be found on my BLOG]
**I was provided with an ARC through netgalley in exchange for an honest review**
CW: violence, gore, gun violence, murder, war, death, medical procedures
A fun and fresh take on the genre with much to love but not without its flaws.
Set on a backwater planet, Persephone Station primarily follows a band of mercenaries under contract with a criminal boss. A particular job that they undergo puts them head to head with a corrupt Earther corporation who are hell-bent on exploiting the planets resources and eradicating its native species - The Emissaries, who want nothing more than to remain discrete from the rest of the universe.
There is also a secondary storyline following a character who finds themselves on the planet after following a distress call that only they can hear.
Action packed, this is a Space Opera-Western mashup that has a cinematic feel to it. In fact what caught my attention about this book to begin with was how it was described to have an air of Cowboy Bebop, Firefly and The Mandalorian and I’d say the vibes are definitely there.
It is very much a plot-driven story with intriguing political commentary and a cast of characters that you can’t help but get attached to. However, I do feel like the story could have maybe benefitted from being split into more than one book.
A slow and slightly info-dumpy beginning sets the story off, giving you a feel for the boisterous weather of another world and immersing you right into the noir city scene of West Brynner, but you have to push through a good 40% of the book before things really start to get interesting. Not only that, the world-building doesn’t really expand further than Persephone. Other than giving an insight on the political side of things and the United Republic of Worlds being name dropped a handful of times, we learn hardly anything about the rest of this universe. This wasn’t exactly a bad thing, it’s just that you’re left wanting more!
Furthermore though the two storylines weave and intersect one another perfectly, it did feel like there was a little too much going on so at times the story felt a little rushed and it was a case of more telling rather than showing with the action. A particularly gripping section towards the end where some big reveals occurred was wrapped up so quickly compared to other events in the book and I just wish it had had more page time.
However, there were so much to love about this book too! The sci-fi elements were exciting and well researched particularly when it came to The Emissariesand the discussions and ethics around artificial intelligence. I absolutely loved the main cast of characters who were all either female or non-binary. Each of them, despite having again a sort of info-dumpy introduction, was beautifully nuanced and their relationships and interactions with one another added both great humour and so much emotion to the narrative. I was personally a big fan of Angel de la Reza who sort of reminded me of Bobby Draper from The Expanse.
So my feelings are slightly conflicted but all in all I'd say this book is a solid Sci-Fi debut and I’d probably be interested if the author ever decided to return to this universe.
Final Rating – 3.5/5 Stars
**I was provided with an ARC through netgalley in exchange for an honest review**
CW: violence, gore, gun violence, murder, war, death, medical procedures
A fun and fresh take on the genre with much to love but not without its flaws.
Set on a backwater planet, Persephone Station primarily follows a band of mercenaries under contract with a criminal boss. A particular job that they undergo puts them head to head with a corrupt Earther corporation who are hell-bent on exploiting the planets resources and eradicating its native species - The Emissaries, who want nothing more than to remain discrete from the rest of the universe.
There is also a secondary storyline following a character who finds themselves on the planet after following a distress call that only they can hear.
Action packed, this is a Space Opera-Western mashup that has a cinematic feel to it. In fact what caught my attention about this book to begin with was how it was described to have an air of Cowboy Bebop, Firefly and The Mandalorian and I’d say the vibes are definitely there.
It is very much a plot-driven story with intriguing political commentary and a cast of characters that you can’t help but get attached to. However, I do feel like the story could have maybe benefitted from being split into more than one book.
A slow and slightly info-dumpy beginning sets the story off, giving you a feel for the boisterous weather of another world and immersing you right into the noir city scene of West Brynner, but you have to push through a good 40% of the book before things really start to get interesting. Not only that, the world-building doesn’t really expand further than Persephone. Other than giving an insight on the political side of things and the United Republic of Worlds being name dropped a handful of times, we learn hardly anything about the rest of this universe. This wasn’t exactly a bad thing, it’s just that you’re left wanting more!
Furthermore though the two storylines weave and intersect one another perfectly, it did feel like there was a little too much going on so at times the story felt a little rushed and it was a case of more telling rather than showing with the action. A particularly gripping section towards the end where some big reveals occurred was wrapped up so quickly compared to other events in the book and I just wish it had had more page time.
However, there were so much to love about this book too! The sci-fi elements were exciting and well researched particularly when it came to The Emissariesand the discussions and ethics around artificial intelligence. I absolutely loved the main cast of characters who were all either female or non-binary. Each of them, despite having again a sort of info-dumpy introduction, was beautifully nuanced and their relationships and interactions with one another added both great humour and so much emotion to the narrative. I was personally a big fan of Angel de la Reza who sort of reminded me of Bobby Draper from The Expanse.
So my feelings are slightly conflicted but all in all I'd say this book is a solid Sci-Fi debut and I’d probably be interested if the author ever decided to return to this universe.
Final Rating – 3.5/5 Stars
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Animal death, Death, Gore, and Medical content
caseythereader's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
3.75
Thanks to Saga Press for the free advance copy of this book.
📚 Mix together a little bit space western, a little bit space opera, and a lotta badass queer women and nonbinary people, and you've got the start of PERSEPHONE STATION.
📚 The plot is vast and the characters are all easy to root for, even when you're not sure if they're the good guys. (Seriously, there's no way I could succinctly sum up the plot, but it's also not too hard to follow.)
📚 There are some truly excellent battle scenes.
📚 PERSEPHONE STATION also poses some interesting questions about artificial intelligence and the Singularity without getting too 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY about it.
•
What I didn't like:
📚 The characters are pointedly racially diverse but that doesn’t really have any bearing on things - I'm not entirely sure if race doesn't mean anything in this universe (the same way it's a queernorm universe) or if the author just wasn't sure how those identities would play into the story.
📚 Mix together a little bit space western, a little bit space opera, and a lotta badass queer women and nonbinary people, and you've got the start of PERSEPHONE STATION.
📚 The plot is vast and the characters are all easy to root for, even when you're not sure if they're the good guys. (Seriously, there's no way I could succinctly sum up the plot, but it's also not too hard to follow.)
📚 There are some truly excellent battle scenes.
📚 PERSEPHONE STATION also poses some interesting questions about artificial intelligence and the Singularity without getting too 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY about it.
•
What I didn't like:
📚 The characters are pointedly racially diverse but that doesn’t really have any bearing on things - I'm not entirely sure if race doesn't mean anything in this universe (the same way it's a queernorm universe) or if the author just wasn't sure how those identities would play into the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Medical content, and Suicide
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