Ratings21
Average rating3.4
Persephone Station, a seemingly backwater planet that has largely been ignored by the United Republic of Worlds becomes the focus for the Serrao-Orlov Corporation as the planet has a few secrets the corporation tenaciously wants to exploit.
Rosie—owner of Monk’s Bar, in the corporate town of West Brynner—caters to wannabe criminals and rich Earther tourists, of a sort, at the front bar. However, exactly two types of people drank at Monk’s back bar: members of a rather exclusive criminal class and those who sought to employ them.
Angel—ex-marine and head of a semi-organized band of beneficent criminals, wayward assassins, and washed up mercenaries with a penchant for doing the honorable thing—is asked to perform a job for Rosie. What this job reveals will affect Persephone and put Angel and her squad up against an army. Despite the odds, they are rearing for a fight with the Serrao-Orlov Corporation. For Angel, she knows that once honor is lost, there is no regaining it. That doesn’t mean she can’t damned well try.
Reviews with the most likes.
This book is good! I see quite a few reviewers saying the first 100 pages dragged for them, but I didn't find that to be the case for me. I was very engaged from the beginning and I loved the world instantly.
In particular, I really liked the scale. A lot of sci-fi and fantasy novels I've been reading have featured empires as a part of the history. Makes sense and I generally enjoy that sort of story, but narratives about fighting back and defeating empires can be so exhausting to read for a variety of reasons. In Persephone Station, corporate colonialism is still very present but the story happens at a much, much smaller scale.
However, the author manages to cram in quite a bit of story and I'm super conflicted about it. On one hand, I think this universe is so interesting and would love to see more adventures from this crew. On the other, I think there were a few bits and pieces that just didn't add to the story significantly, including the first chapter. I enjoyed it, but could see why these extraneous bits might annoy other readers.
My only BIG gripe is actually quite small and unimportant. The big bad at the end of the book is pretty underwhelming and talks like a charicature of a villian.
Would not be opposed to some short stories or even another in-world novel!
I was supposed to have read this book a long time ago but I'm still not very comfortable with sci-fi and I need to be in the right mood to appreciate it. I finally felt it was time and I'm glad I did.
This one took a while to get into, not that it's the book's fault - it's just me always needing some extra time to get used to the sciency and techy stuff in a sci-fi novel. But the characters more than made up for the initial hiccup - the author has created an amazing found family here, some old friends and some newly made, but seeing this wonderful group of women and non-binary folks kick ass was pretty satisfying to read. Also the whole idea of good mercenaries helping an indigenous species defend themselves against a greedy corporation and it's maniac head is very fascinating, and the unexpected help that our main group of characters receive was so cool. The pacing wasn't always consistent, with a more exciting beginning and ending alongwith a languishing middle - but the last 20% full of tense and nonstop action made up for any lack previously.
I don't know why but I didn't actually expect to enjoy this much, but I'm so happy I turned out wrong. Maybe if the book was only mercenaries and crime lords fighting against evil corporations and an artificial intelligence capable of empathy (and believe me all of this is present), I might not have liked it so much. But the strength of this book lies in the bonds these characters share with each other and the cause for which they are fighting. Definitely an interesting addition to my read pile.
I love a good space opera. When I read the description, it called to mind Joss Whedon's Firefly, and I thought, oh, heck yes, I must read this! It also interested me because I've realized that my reading material is sometimes lacking in diversity, and it's good to expand one's horizons. So, space opera, female protagonists (and antagonists), broadening my reading universe - all good things. I was excited to get started!
The actual reading, though, didn't hook me quite as much as I'd hoped. It took a good chunk of the book - maybe 25-30% - for the story to really grab hold of me. The early portion focused on giving the reader a lot of information without doing a great job of using that information to build and develop the setting.
Once I got past that first part, the book was more engaging and read much more quickly. It had some fairly standard sci-fi tropes - the evil corporation looking to take over a vulnerable planet while trying not to look like a villain, the criminal with a heart of gold, artificial intelligence. It also had a lot of ripping good battle scenes, if those are your jam.
The characters were also interesting, for the most part. I was particularly intrigued by Kennedy, the AI who can apparently take human form. I would have liked to know more about her and her sisters, who were apparently not in human form. What's their backstory? And I won't give away what happened, but there were some parts of the story that just made me tear up.
But some things I didn't really understand. What was with the sickness that we read about? Why was exposure to the Emissaries deadly for humans? If Vissia was sick and going to die, why wasn't she a candidate for revivification? It would have been nice to have those questions answered more fully. Is Ms. Leicht going to write a sequel? Maybe so. If she does, I might read it.
And if you're looking for diversity in your cast of characters, you'll find it here. Gay, non-binary, people of color, they're all here. The only thing I found distracting was that Rosie's pronouns were they/them, and in scenes where Rosie's point of view was used as well as the point of view of any other group of characters, it sometimes became a bit muddled to figure out to whom “they” or “them” was referring.
Persephone Station gets three and a half stars from me. The story itself gets three stars, and I bump it up a half-star for Ms. Leicht's excellent creative use of the English language. She does turn an entertaining phrase! It might be worth picking up if you're a sci-fi fan and can handle finishing a book and feeling like there are loose ends still hanging.
Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery/Saga Press for an advance reader copy. All opinions here are mine, and I don't say nice things about books I don't actually like.