A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe

After the initial skepticism fades of a space-adventure-mystery that also incorporates magic, wizards and spells, the goofy characters and charm of a clever, smarty-pants sci-fi writer settles in and finds a smile hasn’t left your face since you opened this book.

Let’s just say, if your suspension of disbelief is feeling a little rusty, you better bring out a polishing cloth. This ain’t no space opera. It’s more who-dunnit with every imaginable subgenre crammed in for good measure.

It might seem like overkill to some — the hyperactive imagination of an adolescent with no focus and quick fingers to thumb through a really big thesaurus. But the clever wordplay and fun plot unfolding, would reveal that kind of criticism to be a fool’s observation.

This a writer who is determined to wise-crack you into submission. “You WILL giggle and let your imagination go wild today, or you can’t have your puddin’” — more austere devotion to wacky than lazy crossover distraction.

The author’s mind may be a jumbled hoarder of genre trope, but if the adventure is bound to be this delightful, hoard away!

A really fine contribution to the sci-fi literature coming out, and with some significant value. The author’s choice of telling the story through character perspective works very well here – as does the choice to have sub themes include navigating a world built by and for others from the perspective of someone who is not part of that. And the antagonist in this book is incredible.

My cons for the book carry forward into the second one as well, and may into the third: the characters themselves are flat. Sure, there’s development and body to them - but it’s scripted, and an old script at that, being read aloud to you. Think table-read vs seeing an actor on stage. Table-reads are good and fun, too – just, not the same as seeing a performer at their zenith. Unfortunately in this case, too, that triteness can become distracting; you know what will happen at the end about 1/3 of the way into the story if you’ve even casually dabbled in popular sci-fi tv and stories from the past twenty years, to say nothing of having read classic science fiction/authors. The quick typecasting of characters – only to have that largely affirmed – makes it easy to divest in them, which for a perspective-driven story seems problematic.

The novelty isn’t with the characters but the world-building, which is where this story really excels and gets it right. The magical realism is fantastic and from my takeaway somewhat fresh in the sci-fi space, with only a few other authors outside of like the Star Wars space really taking that element from classic fantasy and adding spaceships and such.

Decent story, marred by the inclusion of unnecessary “magic” that really functioned just like technology, for the most part. So why not just make it technology?