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ajb24's review against another edition
5.0
My rating might be closer to 4.5 stars? Nax's feelings of being a complete failure to his family were...idk kind of annoying? Or at least felt undeveloped like, I had a hard time sympathizing with him because he just gave vague generalizations like "oh OBVIOUSLY my family hates me because i'm SO bad" but what actually happened didn't seem...like it would cause that much drama??? IDK other than that this book was really fun!! I LOVED the concept of space colonies and the surrounding politics that comes with it. The world-building was really cool and interesting and I loved all the tech. PLUS, we love proper diversity! That was really cool! Ugh this was just a fun adventure book with enough action, emotional parts, and futuristic landscapes to keep me entertained the whole time :)
stardust_heidi's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
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
5.0
OKAaaaaaayyyyyyyyy!!!!!! This is a fucking delight, and I would like more, please. Queer. DIVERSE SPACE EXPLORATION!!!!!!!!!!!! Universe ending bad guys. A bunch of space school rejects who save the universe. Much hijinks. Much suspending of belief (BUT I MEAN, IT’S FUTURISTIC SCIFI, SO I HAD A FUCKING GREAT TIME DOING IT). The audiobook is delightful.
andykarnik's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
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
5.0
I LOVED THIS BOOK!
A queer found family in space pulling off heists and having adventures.
Think Firefly without the Confederate undertones or Voltron without the aliens, mech, and terrible writing decisions
One of my favorite parts might have been how the "reveal" about why Zee flunked out was handled.she's trans and that's why the academy didn't want her, but the team doesn't care/is angry for her and it was all so understated??? Beautiful trans representation
I wish I'd had this book when I was like 16, but I'm ecstatic to have it now.
A queer found family in space pulling off heists and having adventures.
Think Firefly without the Confederate undertones or Voltron without the aliens, mech, and terrible writing decisions
One of my favorite parts might have been how the "reveal" about why Zee flunked out was handled.
I wish I'd had this book when I was like 16, but I'm ecstatic to have it now.
bellatap's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
The only thing I disliked was it was a little slow but that’s just a me thing. Other than that I loved the characters, the story was interesting and I never really saw what was coming next. I liked where and how it ended as well and it was great overall!
emhunsbaker's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
tamnatasya's review against another edition
2.5
It was just ok for me
All the characters are different but I don't really vibe with any of them
There's some stupid thing happened and I got kinda bored halfway of the book but I managed to finished it
Maybe I'll like it more if I read it 5 years ago
All the characters are different but I don't really vibe with any of them
There's some stupid thing happened and I got kinda bored halfway of the book but I managed to finished it
Maybe I'll like it more if I read it 5 years ago
ariesalxndr's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
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? Yes
5.0
bumblemee's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-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? No
3.0
This was so much fun!! - Very fast and easy to get through.
I'd say this book is very accessible to people who get overwhelmed by complex sci-fi, because the sci-fi is so light that sci-fi fans might be very underwhelmed. Yes, it takes place in the year of 2194, but except for a bit of new tech and interstellar travel, things seem to be very similiar to life as we know it. ... They're using tablets that seem to be like today-ones and there's a scene where a printed out note is attached to a door... you can't tell me that anyone still uses paper print outs in the year of 2194, especially on another planet than earth.
So yeah, this book doesn't require a lot of mental gymnastics to get to know a new world - a little too little even in my opinion. But in the end I didn't care that much, because I am one of those people who don't read much sci-fi due to it often being rather complicated with a lot of science and technology elements (who would've thought).
I think the author found a good balance between giving the characters to minimum amount of depth to root for them and focusing on the plot, which was moving very fast and didn't leave a lot of space for side quests or basically anything other than straight forward.
I liked the group and their dynamics, even though they developed very fast to a high amount of "found family" vibe, faster than seemed appropriate. But I guess that's realistic enough given the circumstances (meaning: we HAVE to work together, otherwise we're dead).
Nax was a fitting protagonist, his adrenaline junkie personality was important for this kind of book, because he adapted very fast to every situation. I liked that we got some bi rep with him. While there's nothing wrong with free flying sexual/romantic attractions in emotionally high pressure situations though, I think it would've been enough for me if there wasn't this slight "love triangle" situation, those scenes could've been used otherwise in my opinion. Still, I liked that while there is a an attraction in the book, they're not throwing around "I love you"s, so it didn't feel thaaat insta-loves to me.Fell for Rion alongside Nax though, my god that dude has charisma.
The plot is interesting, I'm a sucker for disaster people against a mighty opponent, trying to rebuild their reputation (these peopleweren't really disasters though, they just thought they were). It was a little too straight forward and uncomplicated for me, but still fun to follow.
The writing style was easy to follow and witty. Sometimes I was a little amused, because you could tell that the author tried to use impactful sentences at the end of chapters. (Don't know how to explain that better.)
All in all I'd recommend this if you search for a quick, uncomplicated read and are intrigued by sci-fi, but don't need there to be that much "sci".
I'd say this book is very accessible to people who get overwhelmed by complex sci-fi, because the sci-fi is so light that sci-fi fans might be very underwhelmed. Yes, it takes place in the year of 2194, but except for a bit of new tech and interstellar travel, things seem to be very similiar to life as we know it. ... They're using tablets that seem to be like today-ones and there's a scene where a printed out note is attached to a door... you can't tell me that anyone still uses paper print outs in the year of 2194, especially on another planet than earth.
So yeah, this book doesn't require a lot of mental gymnastics to get to know a new world - a little too little even in my opinion. But in the end I didn't care that much, because I am one of those people who don't read much sci-fi due to it often being rather complicated with a lot of science and technology elements (who would've thought).
I think the author found a good balance between giving the characters to minimum amount of depth to root for them and focusing on the plot, which was moving very fast and didn't leave a lot of space for side quests or basically anything other than straight forward.
I liked the group and their dynamics, even though they developed very fast to a high amount of "found family" vibe, faster than seemed appropriate. But I guess that's realistic enough given the circumstances (meaning: we HAVE to work together, otherwise we're dead).
Nax was a fitting protagonist, his adrenaline junkie personality was important for this kind of book, because he adapted very fast to every situation. I liked that we got some bi rep with him. While there's nothing wrong with free flying sexual/romantic attractions in emotionally high pressure situations though, I think it would've been enough for me if there wasn't this slight "love triangle" situation, those scenes could've been used otherwise in my opinion. Still, I liked that while there is a an attraction in the book, they're not throwing around "I love you"s, so it didn't feel thaaat insta-loves to me.
The plot is interesting, I'm a sucker for disaster people against a mighty opponent, trying to rebuild their reputation (these peopleweren't really disasters though, they just thought they were). It was a little too straight forward and uncomplicated for me, but still fun to follow.
The writing style was easy to follow and witty. Sometimes I was a little amused, because you could tell that the author tried to use impactful sentences at the end of chapters. (Don't know how to explain that better.)
All in all I'd recommend this if you search for a quick, uncomplicated read and are intrigued by sci-fi, but don't need there to be that much "sci".
emms_across_formats's review against another edition
3.0
Needed more peril and time in space.
Otherwise it was decent enough.
Otherwise it was decent enough.