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starlinggirl's review
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
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? Yes
4.5
thebedtimestory's review
adventurous
lighthearted
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? N/A
4.0
soph_sol's review
4.0
A timey wimey book about spaceships! Aww yeah. Thank you skygiants for reviewing it last year, so that I heard about it!
In this book: a bunch of people get stuck all together on one spaceship in a rift in space separated from the two time periods the people are from. Each has different histories, perspectives, motivations, and goals. Most of them don't like or trust each other or even want to work together, multiple of them have fraught histories with each other, and I was rooting for ALL of them.
One group of people is the ragtag crew of 5 aboard a ramshackle smuggling ship called the Jonah from the middle of a massive war between humans and an alien species. Of those five, three are the actual crew, one is a paying passenger trying to escape authorities, and one tried to hijack the ship.
The other group of people are paid employees on a major corporate-owned research vessel from a time 150 years into the future, the war a distant memory except for the legends of the Fortunate Five, the crew of a small spaceship called the Jonah who singlehandedly brought about peace and ended the war. But the people in this Jonah that the corporate vessel found with them in the rift don't match what they know about the Fortunate Five.
What's going on with the rift? Who are the crew of the Jonah? Is there any way for them all to make it back to their own times safely? Will this whole encounter change history and result in humans losing the war after all?
All of this was extremely fun, and I loved all the different characters, and seeing their backstories as they got slowly doled out to the reader over the course of the book. And the ending was so satisfying, and I definitely got emotional.
And I particularly enjoyed that one of the most important relationships the book is investigating is the complicated friendship between two men. Yes! Friendship IS so important! And learning how to be a better friend!!
I did have a couple complaints though, which I'll put behind a spoiler cut.
Ok first of all, multiple quotes on the back of the book refer to it as a "mystery" and it just doesn't seem that mysterious to me? But the book did seem like it was set up to be mysterious!
See, it felt obvious to me from the very beginning that what was happening wasn't all of them changing history, it was them making history happen exactly as it had happened the first time. But no, almost the entire time, everyone's like "all these things that are so different from how we always understood the Jonah's history, how concerning, really hoping we aren't breaking history as we know it!!"
I just wish that SOMEBODY had brought up the possibility of this being how history actually had happened, even just to be immediately shut down as ridiculous. But no, it isn't even raised as a thinkable interpretation until very nearly the end, in a way that makes it feel to me like the reader isn't supposed to be thinking of it as a possibility either. So then instead of feeling like I was in on a secret with the narrative, I felt like I was being condescended to by the narrative, almost.
Second....I spent an enormous portion of the book genuinely wondering if this was going to turn out to be the kind of sff book where Everyone Is Het. One character being queer is made clear in the back half of the book, thank goodness, but honestly the vibe throughout continued to be pretty het-flavoured in terms of the narrative focus tbh. Which like, sure whatever fine, but I do like a little more exuberantly expansive queerness in my specfic these days.
Also the backstory for one of the main male characters involves a fridged female love interest. His backstory would still have been personally tragic for him if she'd stayed alive and simply left him for good! The fridging felt unnecessary, and tbh felt honestly to me like it lessened the, like, personal responsibility sense of having lost her because of his bad decisions.
Three characters actually had a Dead Important Person in their backstory. Dafnë the fridged love interest, a dead brother, and a dead female student. So at least not all of them are female; that's something. But still! It kinda bugged me.
Third, Shaan felt to me like she came across as way too young for the age that she had to be in the story. She's someone who went through some intensive schooling, became a teacher, taught a number of students, had her Traumatic Loss experience, and is 6 years out now from that experience. Like she must be 30 at least, I would think! But I spent most of the book convinced she was much younger than any of the other characters, until enough of her backstory was revealed that I realized what her age must be. It just felt jarring to me. And maybe that's just about the way she personally responded to her trauma, but that's not really how it came across to me in the writing. Unless I missed something here, maybe?
Finally, of the Fortunate Five, I felt like we spent almost no time really with either Jaxong or Kva-Sova, and I thought they were both super interesting and wanted to know more! Tell me more about illegal peace activists! Tell me more about smart science women! Tell me more about the fashion for body mods!
Anyway, despite the complaints, I did still thoroughly enjoy the book for what it was doing, and I'm glad I read it. I am always here for explorations of what history means via the trope of time travel, especially when it's about history that isn't actually real life earth history!
In this book: a bunch of people get stuck all together on one spaceship in a rift in space separated from the two time periods the people are from. Each has different histories, perspectives, motivations, and goals. Most of them don't like or trust each other or even want to work together, multiple of them have fraught histories with each other, and I was rooting for ALL of them.
One group of people is the ragtag crew of 5 aboard a ramshackle smuggling ship called the Jonah from the middle of a massive war between humans and an alien species. Of those five, three are the actual crew, one is a paying passenger trying to escape authorities, and one tried to hijack the ship.
The other group of people are paid employees on a major corporate-owned research vessel from a time 150 years into the future, the war a distant memory except for the legends of the Fortunate Five, the crew of a small spaceship called the Jonah who singlehandedly brought about peace and ended the war. But the people in this Jonah that the corporate vessel found with them in the rift don't match what they know about the Fortunate Five.
What's going on with the rift? Who are the crew of the Jonah? Is there any way for them all to make it back to their own times safely? Will this whole encounter change history and result in humans losing the war after all?
All of this was extremely fun, and I loved all the different characters, and seeing their backstories as they got slowly doled out to the reader over the course of the book. And the ending was so satisfying, and I definitely got emotional.
And I particularly enjoyed that one of the most important relationships the book is investigating is the complicated friendship between two men. Yes! Friendship IS so important! And learning how to be a better friend!!
I did have a couple complaints though, which I'll put behind a spoiler cut.
See, it felt obvious to me from the very beginning that what was happening wasn't all of them changing history, it was them making history happen exactly as it had happened the first time. But no, almost the entire time, everyone's like "all these things that are so different from how we always understood the Jonah's history, how concerning, really hoping we aren't breaking history as we know it!!"
I just wish that SOMEBODY had brought up the possibility of this being how history actually had happened, even just to be immediately shut down as ridiculous. But no, it isn't even raised as a thinkable interpretation until very nearly the end, in a way that makes it feel to me like the reader isn't supposed to be thinking of it as a possibility either. So then instead of feeling like I was in on a secret with the narrative, I felt like I was being condescended to by the narrative, almost.
Second....I spent an enormous portion of the book genuinely wondering if this was going to turn out to be the kind of sff book where Everyone Is Het. One character being queer is made clear in the back half of the book, thank goodness, but honestly the vibe throughout continued to be pretty het-flavoured in terms of the narrative focus tbh. Which like, sure whatever fine, but I do like a little more exuberantly expansive queerness in my specfic these days.
Also the backstory for one of the main male characters involves a fridged female love interest. His backstory would still have been personally tragic for him if she'd stayed alive and simply left him for good! The fridging felt unnecessary, and tbh felt honestly to me like it lessened the, like, personal responsibility sense of having lost her because of his bad decisions.
Three characters actually had a Dead Important Person in their backstory. Dafnë the fridged love interest, a dead brother, and a dead female student. So at least not all of them are female; that's something. But still! It kinda bugged me.
Third, Shaan felt to me like she came across as way too young for the age that she had to be in the story. She's someone who went through some intensive schooling, became a teacher, taught a number of students, had her Traumatic Loss experience, and is 6 years out now from that experience. Like she must be 30 at least, I would think! But I spent most of the book convinced she was much younger than any of the other characters, until enough of her backstory was revealed that I realized what her age must be. It just felt jarring to me. And maybe that's just about the way she personally responded to her trauma, but that's not really how it came across to me in the writing. Unless I missed something here, maybe?
Finally, of the Fortunate Five, I felt like we spent almost no time really with either Jaxong or Kva-Sova, and I thought they were both super interesting and wanted to know more! Tell me more about illegal peace activists! Tell me more about smart science women! Tell me more about the fashion for body mods!
Anyway, despite the complaints, I did still thoroughly enjoy the book for what it was doing, and I'm glad I read it. I am always here for explorations of what history means via the trope of time travel, especially when it's about history that isn't actually real life earth history!
geekwayne's review
4.0
‘Under Fortunate Stars' by Ren Hutchings is a novel about a rift in time where the present comes face to face with the past.
The Gallion is conveying a Felen peace ambassador when it becomes stuck in space. When they find another ship stuck, they are puzzled that it seems to be an old ship called the Jonah. Even more astounding, the crew appears to be the Fortunate Five, who ended the war with a famous treaty. The problem is that things aren't adding up with the historical record.
I really enjoyed this novel about meeting heroes from history and discovering they can be just as broken as the rest of us. I found the first third of the book less interesting, but patient readers will be rewarded with a pretty good story.
The Gallion is conveying a Felen peace ambassador when it becomes stuck in space. When they find another ship stuck, they are puzzled that it seems to be an old ship called the Jonah. Even more astounding, the crew appears to be the Fortunate Five, who ended the war with a famous treaty. The problem is that things aren't adding up with the historical record.
I really enjoyed this novel about meeting heroes from history and discovering they can be just as broken as the rest of us. I found the first third of the book less interesting, but patient readers will be rewarded with a pretty good story.
rshelley's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
linbergmann's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
lizshayne's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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? Yes
4.0
I love a good space opera. There's war, peace, wibbly wobbly timey wimey ness, Han Solo redemption arc, weird science. You name it, it's basically in here.
And Hutchings uses the tropes of space opera in her blender to build a story that feels really fun and enjoyable to ride along with even as you know where it's going because that's not the secret. The story is how they get there against all odds. Because it always is. That's space opera.
And Hutchings uses the tropes of space opera in her blender to build a story that feels really fun and enjoyable to ride along with even as you know where it's going because that's not the secret. The story is how they get there against all odds. Because it always is. That's space opera.
bloopblop's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
sashas_books's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.5
A book club pick :)
My friends, I have just immersed myself in a Star Trek episode that was almost 500 pages long.
(With maybe a bit of Firefly thrown in, but I only ever saw two episodes, so I am not an expert.)
The above is not a bad thing in itself, Star Trek being Star Trek :)
“It’s like the ship is being hammered by some kind of anomalous subspace energy.” Well, of course it is!
“I’m a mathematical genius, not a fucking magician.” (That was the best line in this book!)
I thought I was going to have fun. The story was not very original, but interesting enough to keep me turning the pages. And I did have fun (all these fortunate coincidences ;) ), but only for a while.
The writing keeps you going from chapter to chapter. This is not the kind of writing that goes right to your heart, and that’s usually ok for this kind of book. It kept giving me an unpleasant aftertaste, though. Also, there were way too many long, long, long info dump conversations that tried my patience. All of them should have been cut in half (at least).
The Felen and the Voiced are very obviously “inspired by” Ann Leckie’s universe – the Presger and the Presger Translators. I rolled my eyes at that. All the books out there influence each other in some way, but there is borrowing and then there is borrowing. Borrowing done badly is just annoying.
The characters were not done well. I don’t mind flat characters in a “Star Trek book”, the problem was that this book wanted them to have some depth and tragic (oh, so traaaaaaaagic) backstories. It didn’t work.
That feeling of overwhelming second-hand embarrassment when you are watching a badly acted mediocre play? That was me for about two thirds of the book. “Oh, no, I can’t believe the author made character X say this.” The characters broke down in tears a lot, too, falling sobbing to the ground. I looked away, embarrassed. Cringe, cringe, cringe. I don’t think that was the reaction I was supposed to have ;) Oh, and the romance was achingly bad.
While I was still having fun, I thought it was going to be three star read – an entertaining and undemanding book with some flaws to facepalm at. But the bad characterization and ambitions that really have no place in a book of this kind made me so annoyed and impatient to finish that I am giving this two stars. Somebody give me better sci-fi, please!
My friends, I have just immersed myself in a Star Trek episode that was almost 500 pages long.
(With maybe a bit of Firefly thrown in, but I only ever saw two episodes, so I am not an expert.)
The above is not a bad thing in itself, Star Trek being Star Trek :)
“It’s like the ship is being hammered by some kind of anomalous subspace energy.” Well, of course it is!
“I’m a mathematical genius, not a fucking magician.” (That was the best line in this book!)
I thought I was going to have fun. The story was not very original, but interesting enough to keep me turning the pages. And I did have fun (all these fortunate coincidences ;) ), but only for a while.
The writing keeps you going from chapter to chapter. This is not the kind of writing that goes right to your heart, and that’s usually ok for this kind of book. It kept giving me an unpleasant aftertaste, though. Also, there were way too many long, long, long info dump conversations that tried my patience. All of them should have been cut in half (at least).
The Felen and the Voiced are very obviously “inspired by” Ann Leckie’s universe – the Presger and the Presger Translators. I rolled my eyes at that. All the books out there influence each other in some way, but there is borrowing and then there is borrowing. Borrowing done badly is just annoying.
The characters were not done well. I don’t mind flat characters in a “Star Trek book”, the problem was that this book wanted them to have some depth and tragic (oh, so traaaaaaaagic) backstories. It didn’t work.
That feeling of overwhelming second-hand embarrassment when you are watching a badly acted mediocre play? That was me for about two thirds of the book. “Oh, no, I can’t believe the author made character X say this.” The characters broke down in tears a lot, too, falling sobbing to the ground. I looked away, embarrassed. Cringe, cringe, cringe. I don’t think that was the reaction I was supposed to have ;) Oh, and the romance was achingly bad.
While I was still having fun, I thought it was going to be three star read – an entertaining and undemanding book with some flaws to facepalm at. But the bad characterization and ambitions that really have no place in a book of this kind made me so annoyed and impatient to finish that I am giving this two stars. Somebody give me better sci-fi, please!
raptorq's review
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: War
Minor: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Death