A Pale Light in the Black

DNF - PG 17Why?Starts off with a somewhat exciting in media res space mission ala Star Trek and I thought I had found myself something. And then it devolves into ... well... our branch of the military has never won our fun little competition since its inception and woe are us.The death knell was when this was my only audio book and I actively chose to not listen to an audio book instead of having to listen to this one while I was at work.Honestly, I think the idea of a space coast guard is brilliant. I thought it was going to be fun. I thought there was going to be action and adventure and a group of people being all badass IN SPACE.Instead, there is absolutely no actual fun or action, but instead a lot of ...personal life conversations and setting up a romance. (Because when a guy sees a girl for the first time and thinks that she has beautiful brown eyes, it will be nothing else.)Honestly, I thought this was going to be more [bc:Valor's Choice 772606 Valor's Choice (Confederation, #1) Tanya Huff https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388720685l/772606.SY75.jpg 328540] and instead I got [bc:The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet 22733729 The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1) Becky Chambers https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405532474l/22733729.SY75.jpg 42270825].It's like chick-lit sci-fi for people that don't like sci-fi.And, to be fair, I will likely never recover from the whole I'm-a-Christian character who received special dispensation to travel the solar system - because, don't you know, Christians are the (only?) religion that thinks humans should never leave earth - but she cannot leave the solar system because that is ... sacrilege? Blasphemy? And yet, we're supposed to somehow believe that this character - this whole religion - is progressive enough to accept same sex marriage but actually traveling in space takes litanies of prayer?Max could have been an okay character, if she wasn't literally ever YA heroine ever.Yes, I should have read the reviews. But it just sounded so freaking awesome! I might have been warned away, but I likely would have decided that these reviewers that talked about how...bloodless this story was couldn't have been right (sorry!) and tried it any way And been disappointed. Greatly, greatly disappointed.

I honestly just had trouble keeping track of the characters. I did like the story though

An emphasis on the characters and their interactions, which I enjoy, with a mystery in the background, which they leave pretty cryptic and wrap up, rather suddenly, at the end.

How have I never heard of this book before??? People are seriously sleeping on an incredible sci-fi story.

A Pale Light in the Black is an absolutely wonderful character-driven LGBTQIA+ story featuring one of the best and most believable found families I've ever read about. Wagers writes fantastic character development and never info dumps. I would recommend this book to fans of the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers, especially fans like me who wanted a bit more of a plot in The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet.

The only criticism I have is that I would have liked to have more time experiencing the Big Game, the final puzzle team event, with the crew during the Boarding Games. I ended up liking the Games way more than I expected, and I was disappointed to miss out on that event in the final Games. The team works so well together and their dynamic really shines when shown on the page.

I love Jenks and Max with all my heart, and their friendship makes me so happy. It had such a realistic and natural progression. I cannot wait for the next book to be able to read more about these girls and the rest of the crew of Zuma's Ghost.

While a fun ‘found family' sci-fi story it seemed to have gotten in it's own way - Full review here:
https://youtu.be/IC_GKJOvow0