Farscape meets The Great British Bake Off in this fantastic space opera You Sexy Thing from former SFWA President, Cat Rambo. Just when they thought they were out… TwiceFar station is at the edge of the known universe, and that’s just how Niko Larson, former Admiral in the Grand Military of the Hive Mind, likes it. Retired and finally free of the continual war of conquest, Niko and the … finally free of the continual war of conquest, Niko and the remnants of her former unit are content to spend the rest of their days working at the restaurant they built together, The Last Chance.
But, some wars can’t ever be escaped, and unlike the Hive Mind, some enemies aren’t content to let old soldiers go. Niko and her crew are forced onto a sentient ship convinced that it is being stolen and must survive the machinations of a sadistic pirate king if they even hope to keep the dream of The Last Chance alive.
At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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You Sexy Thing is sci-fi set in a distant universe in far future. You Sexy Thing is also a biomechanical, sentient spaceship with a sense of self-worth and infinite curiosity and desire to learn new things. When a group of ex-soldiers turned restauranteurs led by Captain Niko Larson accidentally end up on it, it seizes the opportunity to improve its existence. After some twists and turns, everyone ends up happy.
Except the reader.
I picked up this book expecting a space adventure, comical or action packed—or both. What I got was very little of either.
The book begins with seven chapters of setting a stage, which is then abandoned and never returned to again. After a brief burst of action, most of the book is spent on the spaceship waiting for something to happen. At around 60% mark something finally does, and the book takes a turn into fairly graphic cruelty, only to return to inaction. A few loose ends are tied, the stage is set for the follow up, and then the book ends.
What the reader gets is a token of a plot, a hint at a backstory and an attempt to tie the two. The action scenes are over in a paragraph or two of rather emotionless telling instead of taking the reader on an adventure. The rest of the book is spent in the heads of a cast that isn’t very interesting, done in a distant third person narrative that hops from head to head every two or three paragraphs, with a few if any cues as to whose head we’re in. At no point are the characters driving the plot. They’re merely on a ride like the reader.
What saves the book from being a total disappointment is the attention the author has put into creating her aliens. I was tolerably amused by them until I realised that it was all I was going to get. Niko and the spaceship were able to carry the book on their own. The rest were just fillers, and didn’t merit the time we spent in their heads, even if I liked most of them.
I was especially disappointed with Atlanta. She was the most introspective of the lot, yet the reader isn’t given even a hint of suspicion about her identity. And the reason for her being with the crew turned out to be stupid and completely unconnected with the plot. She, like the rest of the characters, didn’t have a single reason for being there.
If there’s a follow-up, I hope it’s about more than the promised travelling around the universe cooking, and I hope the author will concentrate on a couple of characters to make most of their stories. But I probably won’t read it either way.
I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Niko Larson, a disgraced Admiral in the military of the Hive Mind, and her team have retired to TwiceFar station far away from…well, everything. They’ve opened a restaurant, the Last Chance, in order to save enough money to buy a ship of their own. Things are going well until a rumor spreads that a well-known food critic is coming to their restaurant. On the night the critic arrives, so does the mega-wealthy owner of the “You Sexy Thing,” a huge bio ship, who only wants to share a meal with the food critic. What could possibly go wrong? There are explosions, and the team finds themselves running for their lives.
The writing and plotting talents of Cat Rambo are on full display in this book. Her cast of characters, with the exception of Nico, are aliens, each with their own personality and each developed enough to have the reader falling for all of them. There is also a sentient ship that wants more than being owned by a narcissistic entitled rich man – lots more – and who grows with the help of the team members. The world building in this book is stunning because you can put yourself on TwiceFar and “Thing” and actually feel the floor and walls of the ship as they pulsate with life.
Even if you haven’t read any YA books or don’t like SciFi novels, put this book on the top of your to-be-read list because of the author’s writing, her world building skills, and the characters she’s created. In other words, don’t miss the opportunity to read a book that will keep you up past your bedtime to read just one more page, one more chapter, or the rest of the book to see what happens to the Last Chance owners.
My thanks to Tor Books and Edelweiss for an eARC.