A review by sassmistress
A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book was an exciting ride. We're talking fast cars, shootouts, big explosions, epic hand-to-hand and aerial combat, battlefield banter. Space fantasy, almost cyberpunk, but I'm guessing a more accurate description would be magipunk? Arcane punk? Whatever it is, there were some really unique, imaginative ideas here. The magical war tech, body modifications, sport design, etc. are really cool and the world-building has been explored to the edges--what economics, disability experience, etc. look like. 

The writing and pace are excellent, the women are written well, the pieces all fall into place at the end, the solutions are clever and consistent with the world-building. I love the range of experiences, the found family, and the daring rescues...

It's just that the content isn't my speed. It's darker than I like, with antiheroes, a lot of bloody violence, sexual content, language, blasphemy, and general cynicism. The characters are rough around the edges, but without the heart of gold you'd get in stories like Firefly. They're likeable enough, but not lovable for me. 

It's an amazing book for the right reader; I'm just looking for a different vibe under all that excitement and creativity. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Sexual content, Cursing, Gun violence, War, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Genocide, Grief, Ableism, and Police brutality

Minor: Drug use, Slavery, Dysphoria, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

Violence: Near constant. Graphic descriptions of injury, copious amounts of blood, graphic deaths including crashes, skull crushing, guns, stabbing, explosions, immolation, and more.

Sexual content: Very frequent, includes innuendo, explicit talk, sexualization, reference to orgies, nude bathing in mixed company with sexualized descriptions, several occurrences of "closed door" sexual activity for MF and FF couples, plus post-coital scenes, passionate/frisky MF and FF kissing. All consentual, welcome, and reciprocated, IIRC.

Language: Decently frequent, including a**, cr**, d**n, and blasphemy of various sorts.

I put it down for drug use when I noticed a scene with tobacco smoking. There might be more. Several references to alcohol use that seem to be indicative of alcoholism, but it's not "up close".

One character has to regularly deal with in-universe ableist comments that kinda smell like racism, usually malicious.

Medical content, pretty graphic but might be a spoiler:

There's a medical resuscitation scene that gets pretty graphic, with robot appendages entering the body and writhing around in there. Violent cranial equivalent of defibrillation, repeated several times to try to save the person, with survival odds flashing lower every time.