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danielles_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
“In those moments of fear of other creatures, it was always important to look for the similarities. Do you know what the greatest thing we have in common with alien flora and fauna is? What the greatest thing you have in common with this bug is?”
...
“Life,” my father said, “is what we have the most in common with every other creature. We all want to live and become scared when living is threatened. All of us just want to survive and be comfortable, be happy.”
I enjoyed this! It's like if you took a Becky Chambers book and made it even more cheesy lol.
I really liked the world building, and the fast pace kept me turning the pages. The plot was pretty straightforward—just two siblings and a cat fighting against a large corporation for data caches from a long-dead civilization—but it kept me on the edge of my seat. Even though they felt a bit long and pointless at first, I really liked the segments from Blyreena, and seeing an alien civilization through the eyes of an archeologist (Her lover telling her "This one is." 🥺!!). I liked the anti-capitalism commentary regarding Verity Co having all the resources and hiding them behind a paywall, though it did make me pretty sad to think that Earth (maybe?) hundreds of years in the future (that seems to be the implied timeline?) is still stuck in late-stage capitalism...
I'm really intrigued by the concept of a society exploring the cosmos only to find every civilization dead from an unknown being, but this book only barely scratched the surface of that, and of course didn't answer the question of what happened.
Oh yeah, the main reason I wanted to read this was the space cat, and Pumpkin definitely delivered. :D
The character work was a bit weak. The author added a backstory with the two siblings' mother recently dying, which did give them poignant emotional depth, but I found the narrator, Scout, to be pretty annoying for most of the book. It was really frustrating to see them repeatedly insist to their brother that they had to keep trying to get the cache, even though there was almost zero chance of success and they kept getting into danger. And they kept saying that because Kieran was being more realistic about their chances, he must not care at all about the caches. Just... no? That's such an immature way of thinking. It was made even worse by the fact that for a while it seemed like there was no real reason Scout was even on the mission in the first place, since Kieran was doing all the important stuff, like piloting the ship, hacking into electronics, and opening and backing up the caches. I did eventually realize that they must be the anthropologist / archeologist of the mission, and just analyzes the data on the caches the two of them find? Still useless most of the time lol.
But I feel like once June started to warm up to Scout, I did too haha. I liked seeing them butt heads and grudgingly save the other. It was a very interesting dynamic.
Like I said, it did remind me of Becky Chambers a lot. Chambers is a master at creating unique aliens and loveable characters. And while her stuff can be really cozy and wholesome, she usually uses the plot events and character choices alone as a means of commenting on society and humanity. In comparison, the aliens didn't feel super alien in this book, and I didn't get super attached to the characters. Plus, the end was basically a lecture telling the reader to live in the moment and accept grief. And yes, it was cute and enjoyable, but it was very cheesy. But this is the debut of a self-published author, so I have high hopes for their future works for sure.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Deadnaming
loverrbboy's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
i cried:/// also i can’t read and didn’t realise that the protag is nonbinary until halfway through the book. my main reason for no 5 stars is a) how are they petting the cat while meteorside ??? like. surely the cat’s spacesuit covers the whole shit right? and the cat cant feel thru it? it’s a spacesuit?? and b) i have no idea what any of the characters look like besides pumpkin. please. i’m a visual learner, tell me what these siblings look like. need me an Ovlan. oh and not 100% closure here and the science nerd in me is unsatisfied but ITS NICE DO READ IT!! cw suffocation
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death of parent
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