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4.35 AVERAGE
4.35 AVERAGE
You pick up a book, you read a couple of chapters, and you think: "Ah yes, that's the stuff!" Breakout is one of those books. I had a feeling that I would really like it, but it was even better than expected.
Breakout is a fast-paced, action packed space opera with a lot of heart. Excellently written and well executed, a prime example of a page-turner. The representation deserves a medal. It's broader and more inclusive than many others offer without ever forcing it.
This book feels... like home. Different worlds, alien races - yes, they are original, and yet they quickly feel familiar. Largely contributing to this sense of familarity and home is the ensemble of likeable, relatable characters. And I kid you not when I say, there's not a single one I do not like - how did this happen?
There remains only one thing to say: Next volume when? Gimme gimme gimme *grabby hands*
Breakout is a fast-paced, action packed space opera with a lot of heart. Excellently written and well executed, a prime example of a page-turner. The representation deserves a medal. It's broader and more inclusive than many others offer without ever forcing it.
This book feels... like home. Different worlds, alien races - yes, they are original, and yet they quickly feel familiar. Largely contributing to this sense of familarity and home is the ensemble of likeable, relatable characters. And I kid you not when I say, there's not a single one I do not like - how did this happen?
There remains only one thing to say: Next volume when? Gimme gimme gimme *grabby hands*
Since earth has been destroyed, humans, cyborgs and aliens have to life together in space. But for some it’s harder to get along or call it a home. Not only are aliens and cyborgs seen as a lower race, but at some places old traditions from centuries ago are revived. For Trystan this has been a struggle, as his body or name never felt as his own. At the other end of the galaxy Malek is brewing in escaping the inescapable prison, Helios 2. While on Kirillion, the city as big as a planet, thief Làhn has to flee from his home when a job of his go south.
When somebody tells me a book is a combination between Firefly meets Guardians of the Galaxy, I’m instantly drawn to it. Add to the mix that it’s an indie, queer, found family sci-fi with a space-opera adventure and I’m sold.
And this didn’t disappoint one bit. As Cristea created not an average sci-fi, but a warm, thrilling, diverse and amazing novel set in space. It’s filled with wonderful and vivid images of ships, galaxies, aliens, big city’s, neon planets, trade stations and even scrumptious descriptions of fried street food. It completely drew me into space.
The only minor issue I had was the somewhat inconsistent pacing. It had some major fast paced action scenes, combined with some slower parts of reflection. But it felt a little off in the middle.
But well fleshed out characters with real, tangible emotions made up for that. Cristea didn’t scare away of discussing themes like disability, discrimination, trauma or struggles with finding your own identity. I highly recommend it if you’re into sci-fi or in search for an amazing queer read with wonderful characters.
When somebody tells me a book is a combination between Firefly meets Guardians of the Galaxy, I’m instantly drawn to it. Add to the mix that it’s an indie, queer, found family sci-fi with a space-opera adventure and I’m sold.
And this didn’t disappoint one bit. As Cristea created not an average sci-fi, but a warm, thrilling, diverse and amazing novel set in space. It’s filled with wonderful and vivid images of ships, galaxies, aliens, big city’s, neon planets, trade stations and even scrumptious descriptions of fried street food. It completely drew me into space.
The only minor issue I had was the somewhat inconsistent pacing. It had some major fast paced action scenes, combined with some slower parts of reflection. But it felt a little off in the middle.
But well fleshed out characters with real, tangible emotions made up for that. Cristea didn’t scare away of discussing themes like disability, discrimination, trauma or struggles with finding your own identity. I highly recommend it if you’re into sci-fi or in search for an amazing queer read with wonderful characters.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
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
adventurous
funny
hopeful
medium-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:
No
Breakout was such a fun read, and it really reminded me why I love sci-fi so much. I’ve been reading so much fantasy, magical realism, and realistic fiction/romance lately, and I am so happy that I took some time to really dig into this.
This book is truly the definition of space opera, and it does it so well! There is an absolutely queer cast which I love, but it goes a step further with inclusivity of disability and neurodivergence among its characters. The cast is quite the array of characters, and while they all come from different backgrounds and places in the galaxy, their stories all mesh together really well and show common themes throughout the book.
There are three POVs in this, which I struggled with in the beginning, as I am usually a one or two POV type person, but I actually enjoyed seeing all three perspectives in this.
Malek is our first POV, and he is arguably my favorite perspective to experience (though maybe not my favorite character). He is a troublemaker with a heart of gold stuck in a prison. He works with his co-captives to escape and create a new crew of a ship, taking after his amma.
Trystan is our next POV, and he is close to one of my favorite characters. Truthfully, I struggled a few times with his perspective as he splits his time between android and human bodies, and sometimes it made it difficult to follow, but I just adored his character. He is a closeted trans boy with absolutely terrible parents, and he works to deal with his realities while also working to combat the injustice of his world.
Làhn is the final POV, and while I do like this character and the other characters he brings along, I felt like this character may have been the least developed and lacked as interesting of a storyline for the first three quarters of the book. He gets three or four chapters less than the other two characters, which might play a contributing role in this.
I think there were definitely opportunities in the story overall, as there were so many moving parts and characters to contend with, but I think that a big part of sci-fi is that you have to have willful suspension of disbelief in order for things to work, and if you can succeed in that, I think you can find enjoyment in this story and learn to love the characters and empathize with them during their struggles.
I received an advance reader copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
This book is truly the definition of space opera, and it does it so well! There is an absolutely queer cast which I love, but it goes a step further with inclusivity of disability and neurodivergence among its characters. The cast is quite the array of characters, and while they all come from different backgrounds and places in the galaxy, their stories all mesh together really well and show common themes throughout the book.
There are three POVs in this, which I struggled with in the beginning, as I am usually a one or two POV type person, but I actually enjoyed seeing all three perspectives in this.
Malek is our first POV, and he is arguably my favorite perspective to experience (though maybe not my favorite character). He is a troublemaker with a heart of gold stuck in a prison. He works with his co-captives to escape and create a new crew of a ship, taking after his amma.
Trystan is our next POV, and he is close to one of my favorite characters. Truthfully, I struggled a few times with his perspective as he splits his time between android and human bodies, and sometimes it made it difficult to follow, but I just adored his character. He is a closeted trans boy with absolutely terrible parents, and he works to deal with his realities while also working to combat the injustice of his world.
Làhn is the final POV, and while I do like this character and the other characters he brings along, I felt like this character may have been the least developed and lacked as interesting of a storyline for the first three quarters of the book. He gets three or four chapters less than the other two characters, which might play a contributing role in this.
I think there were definitely opportunities in the story overall, as there were so many moving parts and characters to contend with, but I think that a big part of sci-fi is that you have to have willful suspension of disbelief in order for things to work, and if you can succeed in that, I think you can find enjoyment in this story and learn to love the characters and empathize with them during their struggles.
I received an advance reader copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Breakout is a queer space opera following three groups of people whose lives will be brought together to fight against one galactic megacorporation. Malek is an outlaw falsely imprisoned on Helios who plans a daring escape with a few fellow prisoners. Tryst is a trans boy raised in a conservative isolationist human-only planet Eden One when is given an android body and he accidentally uncovers a plot of hypocrisy and unethical experimentation. Lahn is a Guild thief, happily settled in his role, when a job goes wrong and he is forced to flee the planet with his best friends and finally uncover the secrets of his unrecalled past. Their seemingly disconnected lives will intersect when they discover that they are all victims of Berik Corp and must work together if they wish to bring it down.
I don’t know if it was marketed as such, but I would consider this book YA (to set your expectations) with its young protagonists, coming-of-age stories, simple language, and short punchy sentences. What the book has got going for it is its diversity with its complete spectrum of racial identities and queerhood. It demonstrates the universal struggles of queer (and non-queer) people and many of the other issues that they can encounter while grounding it with stories of friendship, acceptance, and found family.
The book is also action-packed with a clear direction to where it is going, bringing together three storylines into one plot that sets up a found family of space outlaws as they go on future adventures towards a certain mission that will be the overarching narrative of the series. So this is essentially one drawn out origin story for this motley crew of a spaceship as these three groups escape or “break out” of a prison, an oppressive world, or a comfortable life.
I did have some issues with the book that set it back a bit. It’s really trying to do too much for a relatively short book. It’s got a huge cast with so many characters supporting each of the three protagonists. There was a lot of shifting between perspectives and storylines (they don’t intersect at all until the final third) with short chapters that really doesn’t allow for the building of momentum or tension.
And while I do appreciate the addition of mental health struggles, there was also too much being introduced for all the different characters so there’s not much time to actually have more meaningful discussions for but a few of them. The book also relied heavily on coincidences to line up all the storylines together (I initially thought there would actually be some conflicts between the groups from the different storylines, but it all came together too perfectly).
Breakout is a YA space opera that is inherently queer, thought-provoking, and action-packed but is also taking on too much.
*I received a complementary copy from BookSirens as part of its book tour via Pride Book Tours.
I don’t know if it was marketed as such, but I would consider this book YA (to set your expectations) with its young protagonists, coming-of-age stories, simple language, and short punchy sentences. What the book has got going for it is its diversity with its complete spectrum of racial identities and queerhood. It demonstrates the universal struggles of queer (and non-queer) people and many of the other issues that they can encounter while grounding it with stories of friendship, acceptance, and found family.
The book is also action-packed with a clear direction to where it is going, bringing together three storylines into one plot that sets up a found family of space outlaws as they go on future adventures towards a certain mission that will be the overarching narrative of the series. So this is essentially one drawn out origin story for this motley crew of a spaceship as these three groups escape or “break out” of a prison, an oppressive world, or a comfortable life.
I did have some issues with the book that set it back a bit. It’s really trying to do too much for a relatively short book. It’s got a huge cast with so many characters supporting each of the three protagonists. There was a lot of shifting between perspectives and storylines (they don’t intersect at all until the final third) with short chapters that really doesn’t allow for the building of momentum or tension.
And while I do appreciate the addition of mental health struggles, there was also too much being introduced for all the different characters so there’s not much time to actually have more meaningful discussions for but a few of them. The book also relied heavily on coincidences to line up all the storylines together (I initially thought there would actually be some conflicts between the groups from the different storylines, but it all came together too perfectly).
Breakout is a YA space opera that is inherently queer, thought-provoking, and action-packed but is also taking on too much.
*I received a complementary copy from BookSirens as part of its book tour via Pride Book Tours.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
tense
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:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
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:
No
This was a fun and exciting read. I really liked that along with the Trans / Queer representations there were various disability and mental health representations as well. The characters are great and I really enjoyed learning about them. Each of the three main characters has their own group of friends that are going along for the journey which makes things more exciting. The book ends in a way that makes it feel like a pilot episode for a tv show with a long story arc but will have standalone episodes along the way to completing the arc. Definitly a lot of story possibilities! I'm looking forward to reading the next book.
This was an excellent indie book!! Super rad YA queer, diverse sci-fi, which I loved to see. All the main and secondary characters were both queer and diverse in their race, abledness, and/or neurodivergence. Awesome rep.
There are three main characters and they have alternating chapters - I was pleasantly surprised when this worked REALLY well in the beginning, I was equally interested in all of them and it felt very seamless. I do think that they all met a bit late in the book, maybe around the 75% mark? And then a ton of actioned happened very quickly, so I think this book could have been a bit better paced. And I caught a few minor typos/edits (like a missing period, an extra letter, etc). Otherwise, loved it!! Especially if you’re into sci-fi, definitely pick this one up.
There are three main characters and they have alternating chapters - I was pleasantly surprised when this worked REALLY well in the beginning, I was equally interested in all of them and it felt very seamless. I do think that they all met a bit late in the book, maybe around the 75% mark? And then a ton of actioned happened very quickly, so I think this book could have been a bit better paced. And I caught a few minor typos/edits (like a missing period, an extra letter, etc). Otherwise, loved it!! Especially if you’re into sci-fi, definitely pick this one up.