The Wrong Stars

I've watched my fair share of Space Opera (Firefly, Dark Matter, Farscape, Star Trek, Star Wars - don't try to tell me those last two aren't Space Opera, THEY TOTALLY ARE) - but I haven't read much of it. I picked up The Wrong Stars mostly because reviews said it had a demisexual main character, rather than because it's a Space Opera. Regardless, I am SO GLAD I DID. The book is excellent.

First off, the diversity! Over the course of the story, we meet people who are, in no particular order, gay, bisexual, demisexual, asexual, transgender, and non-binary. The story is set 500 years after Earth sends out its first colony ships, and in that time, culture has evolved. Marriage is not common, but contractually-bound relationships exist. Promiscuity and non-monogamy aren't viewed any different than monogamy, and in the same way, the distinctions between gay, straight, and bi don't carry any negative connotations. It's not a complete utopia - it's still a capitalist society, and there is still scarcity - but socially, at least, it has definitely evolved a lot from the present!

Elena, one of our main characters, was a biologist sent out on one of the first colony ships. Stocked with seeds, crude replicators, and cryo-sleep pods, a small crew was sent out, in stasis, on a five-hundred year journey to a system with probable life-supporting planets. They were called Goldilocks ships, in the hope they'd find a planet that was “just right.” What humanity didn't expect was that in the intervening five hundred years, they would make contact with an alien species and be given the means for true space travel via wormholes. Some of the ships arrived at their destinations to find human colonies already thriving on their target planets! Elena, however, found something quite different, and it's a very disconcerting difference. She is rescued by the motley crew of the White Raven, and they quickly get drawn into the mystery.

I really enjoyed the world-building and characterization in The Wrong Stars. The science of it made sense to me, but I'm not very versed in science, so I can't really say how realistic it is. It was at least pretty internally consistent. I'd like to learn more about how the AIs are created, though. Luckily, there is a sequel coming! The Dreaming Stars should be coming out this September, and I'm DEFINITELY going to read it.

If you like Dark Matter, Firefly, or Farscape, you should definitely read The Wrong Stars. There's a little bit of light romance threaded into the larger plot, and one fade-to-black sex scene. It's definitely not the focus of the book. There is some violence, but nothing incredibly graphic. I would put it at about the same maturity level as Star Trek.

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

This first tale in the planned Axiom trilogy was all that I had hoped for, and more. True space opera with crazy/wonderful inventiveness and imagination realistically realized, far-flung locations, believable and likable characterizations, a plot that seamlessly led from one locale to the next, and two (count ‘em, two) alien cultures that were, in my opinion, strokes of genius in their development and execution. Needless to say, I am excited for the next book, The Dreaming Stars.

I was in the mood for a light SF adventure and this fit the bill. It has some fun characters, some weird ones, strange tech, and two different kinds of aliens. It was amusing that one prominent alien race is know as the Liars because of their penchant for giving wildly implausible explanations for things large and small. Moved quickly enough, but the denouement maybe wasn't as exciting as hoped for. 3 stars.

... It is as Jose Rizal said: a person who cannot see where they have come from, will never get where they want to go. But what happens when that past is all but erased? What if there is barely anything to see, because so much of it has been destroyed? How does a person ??? a people as a whole ??? move forward after that? This book does not offer an answer to that question ??? or at least, not one that is applicable to a real-world situation. But it does not need to, I think; it???s more important that it asks the question at all, because if a question goes unasked, then it will always go unanswered.

Full review here: http://wp.me/p21txV-Ex

DNF - PG 39

Why?

Mostly because I can already tell the romance is going to annoy me to death.

Callie felt that sparkle again, a throb in her solar plexus, a tightness in her chest, the desire to say oh oh oh.

This is the second time Callie has seen Elena and the first time she has talked to her. (The first time, Elena was unconscious.)

Mechanically the writing seems sound. Stylistically, it sound like a teenage boy wrote it. Only with no cursing. There is information I now have about the book that I wish I had when I bought it two years ago. I also wish that the me of two years ago realized that not all queer rep is good queer rep.