Persephone Station

 Dividing the book into three parts, the first one was hard to get through. It was slow moving and there was a lot of information thrown at me from different perspectives. This isn't a negative outright but it takes a minute before it comes together. The middle part is where that happens and it starts to really pick up. The final part, the ride towards the end was honestly exhilarating. I literally didn't put it down once I hit the last 200 pages.

While I was down on the first sort of the book, Stina Leicht kept me in it with the wonderful characters and their interactions.

There's a lot in Persephone Station and I can't say it was perfect but, in the end, it was definitely a fun ass ride. 

There are so many things that made this book difficult to listen. Especially the frustrating “they said”. There are tons of other verbs and ways to show who is speaking. The only diversity I've noticed was the occasional “asked”. Plus the language itself felt too simplistic and did nothing to grip my attention. I had to strain to stay focused at times.

Overall the story left me with a feeling that it could be so much deeper and better. The natives were so good at some points, but those were few and far between.

Plot “twists” were attempted at, but (imo) poorly executed. It took me about one chapter to see that when Rosie asked Kennedy to snitch on Kurasawa's crew, she wasn't really going to betray them.

[I was listening to the book, so my apologies for likely mistakes in characters' names.]

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.

2.5
i think this book would've been so much more enjoyable if it was shorter. Or a tv show. I loved the characters and the world building but I just not into the long-winded descriptions of combat and the story in general was kind of all over the place.

Persephone Station by Stina Leicht is a dark space opera that will appeal to Firefly fans. The story has that same sort of found family/mercenaries type vibe. Stina Leicht, known for her short story work and The Fey and the Fallen and the series The Malrum Gates, brings us her first full science fiction novel in Persephone Station.

“Why do you think, bitch?” His accent was pure West Brynner. A local. That could mean many things. “If you're here for a robbery, you picked the wrong damned apartment, asshole. Drop the knife.”

The story stars Angel de la Reza, an ex-marine thrice revived head of a band of criminals for hire. Reza is a deep and sympathetic character. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, there are certain Firefly tones to this story. Angel reminds me a bit like Malcolm Reynolds. She is gruff, gritty, with a complicated backstory, who once adopts you into her motley crew, you become family. Angel and her team take a job and are framed for an assassination that they don't do. They may steal from you, kill you if you look at them wrong, but assassination something they won't do.

Angel, as well as her crew, are forced to flee the station. Rosie, a sympathetic crime lord, has a different idea for them. Protect the planet from another from the Serrao-Orlov corporation that is a front for another crime lord. Things get complicated as they meet the indigenous people of the planet and find out that this isn't just a protection job, but they will have to fight an army of mechs, drones, and other ships. There are quite a few shooting, explosions, and battle scenes to balance the dialog and quieter moments.

“The question was rhetorical. They knew why it had been done. Intimidation. But they had a powerful need to verbalize even a small piece of outrage. It was like puking up the tiniest bit of poison. The end was inevitable—the toxin had done its work, but the impulse was unstoppable nonetheless.”

This book is full of wonderful space opera moments. The plot is very character-driven. The cast of characters is almost entirely female, non-binary, or gender-neutral. As someone who reads a ton of space opera, I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to see BIPOC or non-binary individuals as strong characters.

The world-building in Persephone Station is unique. It has the feel of an old west frontier but in space. There is an outlaw type feel over all of the descriptions. The planet that Angel's team works to protect seems very Earth-like; however, the indigenous people and creatures are very imaginative. Especially the aliens and how they communicate. It reminded me a bit like Adrian Tchaikovski's Children of Time series, where the spiders rely heavily on scent as a means of communication.

“Rage, pride, and avarice, Rosie thought. Three of the seven deadly sins. A great fall after such an auspicious start.”

The pacing was uneven in the story, and that is my only complaint. The beginning of the story had some exciting fight scenes. They were exceptionally well done, with a little bit of gore. However, the pacing slowed down a bit. The middle portion of the story seemed to be holding its breath before the big finale. I would have liked a bit more transition between the beginning and the end. But, once you got to the last part of the book, everything came together beautifully. The different characters' perspectives made sense, and the ending had an unexpected twist, which was fun.

Persephone Station was a great read. From beginning to end, even with the plot slowing down a bit, I still couldn't put the book down. The characters are dynamic, and the found family trope is always excellent, and that cover was gorgeous. If that cover doesn't make you want to read this book, the opening two chapters will. If you are looking for a space opera with BIPOC and queer representation, this is your book. Check it out!

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.

I loved this. A space opera with an all female flight crew? I'm in.

Persephone Station is a small out of the way planet. So why would a big corporation like Serrao-Orlov want to set up there? Angel and her crew are about to find out since Rosie, the local crime boss has hired them for a very important job.

I loved the story, and I loved the characters. Hopefully this will be a series. I would especially like to read more about the Emissaries. They are very interesting to me.

I received a copy from Net Galley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Persephone Station is an entertaining riff on Kurasawa's Seven Samurai, set on a corporate planet that's home to a sentient indigenous species and barely habitable for humans. Hired to protect the natives from corporate mercenaries by Rosie, resident crime boss with a mysterious past, retired Marine Angel de la Reza and the women on her team must do the best thay can with limited resources, while sentient AGIs with an interest in the outcome, pursue their own agendas. If you're a fan of Seven Samurai or The Magnificent Seven, you'll enjoy Stina Leicht's forthcoming space opera.