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chaosreignited's review against another edition
adventurous
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? No
5.0
squatchmeat's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
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
3.25
lauralauralaura's review against another edition
3.5
Another favorite kind of escapist read: a rag-tag bunch of interstellar scavengers with hearts of gold do the right thing, led by their hypercompetent captain (ideally female) and save the universe while redefining what it means to be a person. Great fun.
ladylizardxvii's review against another edition
2.0
I picked up this book because it was on a list of sci-fi fiction that had LGBTQ+ representation, and I definitely was not disappointed in that regard! The handling of bisexual, nonbinary, and trans characters was super positive, and I love reading sci-fi that foresees a future where people who identify LGBTQ are just accepted without question.
However, I found the rest of the book to be boring. I don't know how else to explain it, but we had a ton of really great, developed characters full of potential, but none of them had any chemistry with each other (excluding Callie & Ashok, honestly). It's a ragtag crew go off adventuring & beating bad guys in space story, but while it's clear the crew is fiercely loyal to Callie and their cause, I don't know that we actually get to see why. I also felt like the main story line/conflict (a race of aliens is probably the bad guy, oh wait, there's a bigger badder guy lurking in the shadows biding time to take over the universe, we have to go defeat them) was something I had read/watched/played before. So maybe that's why I found it boring because nothing surprised me.
I love the representation but everything else about The Wrong Stars didn't hit the mark for me.
However, I found the rest of the book to be boring. I don't know how else to explain it, but we had a ton of really great, developed characters full of potential, but none of them had any chemistry with each other (excluding Callie & Ashok, honestly). It's a ragtag crew go off adventuring & beating bad guys in space story, but while it's clear the crew is fiercely loyal to Callie and their cause, I don't know that we actually get to see why. I also felt like the main story line/conflict (a race of aliens is probably the bad guy, oh wait, there's a bigger badder guy lurking in the shadows biding time to take over the universe, we have to go defeat them) was something I had read/watched/played before. So maybe that's why I found it boring because nothing surprised me.
I love the representation but everything else about The Wrong Stars didn't hit the mark for me.
petealdin's review against another edition
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
quossie's review against another edition
4.0
Space opera at its finest. Shades of Firefly crossed with The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. The banter was razor sharp and witty, the characters a ragtag bunch of found-family misfits. Aliens who are actually alien, high-stakes plot, and lots of things blowing up. Fantastic - BYO popcorn.
amberdebie's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Cute, quick book to read. Love the diversity, although the voice of the queer characters felt off a bit to me sometimes. A bit exhibitionary? Probably in relation to the book being very plot driven and not character driven.
booksnbeanies's review against another edition
4.0
The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt is everything a Science Fiction novel should be. It is full of adventurous characters, post-humans, aliens, spaceships, and exciting action. Callie works for the TNA, catching bad guys, running freight, and pretty much anything she can do to earn some lix (money) throughout the galaxy. She finds a Goldilocks ship which are over 500 years old and investigates it only to find one of its members still alive. This changes everything for Callie and her crew upon the White Raven when they find a generator created by a alien species she has no knowledge of, yet.
Pratt makes everything easy to imagine and understand by describing everything perfectly, not too descriptive but just descriptive enough. The flirtation between several of the characters plays along well with the galactic events through the book. There is a lot going on in this book but not so much that you can’t follow along. All the characters play an important role in understanding the plot of this story.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book all the way up until the end. I feel as though the story should have ended at about chapter thirty and maybe a sequel could be written to include the last three chapters and so on. Other than that minor detail, I believe this book was skillfully written and will keep you on your toes, wondering what will happen next.
Thank you NetGally and Angry Robot publishers for an ARC copy of this book in return for an honest review. Release date for this book is November 7th, 2017.
Pratt makes everything easy to imagine and understand by describing everything perfectly, not too descriptive but just descriptive enough. The flirtation between several of the characters plays along well with the galactic events through the book. There is a lot going on in this book but not so much that you can’t follow along. All the characters play an important role in understanding the plot of this story.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book all the way up until the end. I feel as though the story should have ended at about chapter thirty and maybe a sequel could be written to include the last three chapters and so on. Other than that minor detail, I believe this book was skillfully written and will keep you on your toes, wondering what will happen next.
Thank you NetGally and Angry Robot publishers for an ARC copy of this book in return for an honest review. Release date for this book is November 7th, 2017.
hank's review against another edition
2.0
I need a new goodreads feature. I would like a rating to blink between two different ones, in this case 2 and 4. How could I be so undecided you ask? Here's how....
I find myself comparing this frequently to [b:Linesman|23604332|Linesman (Linesman, #1)|S.K. Dunstall|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1417986744l/23604332._SY75_.jpg|43205965] In that book the story was quite good, original and I raced through it fast enough to not notice the atrocious writing except afterwards. This book I did not get through fast enough to do the same.
The story in The Wrong Stars is excellent, not exactly original but the way it was put together and my desire to read what would happen next was always high. A cliche rag tag crew that stumbles on an adventure with aliens and rescue and what not. The cliche bits were fine and not overly done and got me caring.
The problem is that the writing is truly terrible, which is a term I don't use lightly since
A. I am not only not a good writer, I am not a writer at all
B. I usually don't recognize bad or good writing, the story is what mostly matters
The sentences did not flow and I had to re-read several to try to make them mean something, the dialog was worse. The novel flow is going along and we stop dead to have a conversation, which is stilted and drawn out and then...... we start the novel flow again. It happened so much, it started to become mesmerizing. The romance sucked (not literally) and the big secret mystery between captain and ship was not really that mysterious.
The Linesman trilogy was passable enough for me to read all three. This stops here.
I find myself comparing this frequently to [b:Linesman|23604332|Linesman (Linesman, #1)|S.K. Dunstall|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1417986744l/23604332._SY75_.jpg|43205965] In that book the story was quite good, original and I raced through it fast enough to not notice the atrocious writing except afterwards. This book I did not get through fast enough to do the same.
The story in The Wrong Stars is excellent, not exactly original but the way it was put together and my desire to read what would happen next was always high. A cliche rag tag crew that stumbles on an adventure with aliens and rescue and what not. The cliche bits were fine and not overly done and got me caring.
The problem is that the writing is truly terrible, which is a term I don't use lightly since
A. I am not only not a good writer, I am not a writer at all
B. I usually don't recognize bad or good writing, the story is what mostly matters
The sentences did not flow and I had to re-read several to try to make them mean something, the dialog was worse. The novel flow is going along and we stop dead to have a conversation, which is stilted and drawn out and then...... we start the novel flow again. It happened so much, it started to become mesmerizing. The romance sucked (not literally) and the big secret mystery between captain and ship was not really that mysterious.
The Linesman trilogy was passable enough for me to read all three. This stops here.
michellesbookmoods's review against another edition
4.0
As someone new to Space Operas, i enjoyed this. It was an engaging read.