Cascade Failure

This story is carried by its characters. The plot is pretty interesting, which augments the enjoyability, but the focus is entirely on the main crew. Their chemistry and interactions are quite good. There's a lot of found family trope elements, and if that is your jam, you're going to adore this book.

I was intending to give this a full 5/5 ranking, but after about the 60% mark is when I started binge reading it, and I have to say--this isn't a book that stands up well to rapid binge reading. A lot of the dialogue is funny, but it's "quippy one-liners" funny and after hours of solid reading, it began to grate on me more than amuse me. The book started to feel a bit like an action blockbuster movie made by Marvel. There was a little too much repetition on certain things--key phrases and memories, like flashbacks in a show. A few spots that reminded us, unnecessarily, of character traits that had been long since established and really required no further reminders.

These things don't break the book though--just bring it down from what could have been high marks to a satisfactory passing grade instead. The stories are still very good, and you will still get attached to the characters, and for someone who enjoys a character driven story, that's all I need.

Fantastic world building with phenomenal prose! I couldn't believe this was a debut. Really fun found family in space with a lot of sarcastic banter 💙 definitely read this if you're more of a character driven reader because the plot is not the focus. Also, the chapters are real long. But other than that, fantastic!

Thanks to Tor and the Goodreads Giveaways for an ARC of this book.

This new novel, from debut author L.M. Sagas, is billed as “fast, brash, and wickedly fun” by Dayton Ward. On the inside, author J.S. Dewes says it has “earned its place among my favorite found family tales, alongside Killjoys, Mass Effect, and Battlestar Galactica.”

I couldn't stop thinking about Mass Effect the whole way through. Mass Effect is one of my all-time favorite video game series. There are big chunks of this book that read a bit like ME fan fiction. I don't know whether that is good or bad. Though I love Mass Effect, my joy here is less than full. I think it's because the story is so oriented around the “found family” and writing has a style tries to emphasize the ‘fun' and ‘gritty space crew' over everything else.

I kept thinking to myself, “I think other people would find this very fun.” I wish I did, but what I find fun in a video game is distinctly different from what I enjoy in a book. I have been reflecting on my reading (especially relating to my book club books, of which this is one), and I realize that I don't enjoy fun books very much. I had to work to finish the book. The way the author writes characters and dialogue is so far removed from what I like - every single emotion and motive is spelled out, sometimes over and over. There is so much telling, so little showing. Think words repeated, words in italics, words emphasized with “fucking” and other expletives (which does not offend, just doesn't work for me).

I also don't enjoy found family stories. There is a scene where the crew has a brief reprieve from the action and so they're dancing with one another. I had to skip pages to get past all of this, I couldn't take it.

If you're a reader that enjoys really light fiction with no thought required, where everything is explained, this would be a good pickup. If you want to read the novelization of a Mass Effect DLC that never was, I think this would be a good pickup. It's not reflective, contemplative, or serious in almost any way. That means it wasn't a good fit for me.

I felt obligated to finish this because it's a debut. I won't be picking up the novel's sequel, but I will check-in in a few years to see what sort of thing the author is writing at that time. This feels like an author finding their legs and using a very firm structure to manage that.

Pros: fun and interesting characters, tight plot, some thought provoking moments, good fight scenes

Cons:

The characters are so much fun. They’re all neurotic in complementary ways. Surly and snipey at times, talkative and playful at others. Eoan’s curiosity about everything was a real joy. Despite their arguments it’s clear Nash and Saint are a tight knit crew. Seeing Jal and Anke dropped into the crew’s dynamic made for some great interactions.

The plot is tight with enough down time to get to know all of the characters between chase scenes and fights. There are some real tense moments.

The politics of this future are suitably complex without taking over the story. There are a few decent questions about morality and whether it’s better to focus on the needs of society at large vs saving your personal friends and family. And who should make the necessary sacrifices.

It’s a book about the choices we make and how we deal with the consequences of the bad decisions of our past. Of working as a team to complete a goal. Of betrayal and redemption.

It’s a delightful story that, though it dealt with heavy issues at times, left me feeling hopeful about the future.

DNF @ 44%. If someone is looking for an easy to read, action, space crew sci-fi, I will maybe recommend this. Jal finds himself on a ship he doesn't want to be on and with a crew he doesn't want to be with. This is compared in the blurb to Becky Chambers and Firefly, the latter I can see, the premise is pretty similar. But the book didn't manage the charm and heart you have with found-families, which the blurb claims this has. I could see the attempts, but there was no magic there. Two characters were interesting, but Jal was very lackluster as the star. I didn't particularly care for the writing (I also downloaded the sneak peek on Kindle to see if the narration was skewing my opinion, it wasn't the audiobook), so I was hoping the story would be fine enough (it wasn't). Last, I was largely not a fan of the narrator's narration. So between everything, I thought it was time to accept this is not a book for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the arc.