The Disasters

I'm giving 3 stars for what it is...a quick, fast paced YA sci-fi

2.5 stars.

You could definitely tell it was a debut. There was just a little awkwardness in the phrasing of most of the dialogue and the descriptions.

The story was interesting enough, although mostly predictable.

OH MY GOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!!! That was absolutely FANTASTIC!!!!! First off, the Diversity in this was PERFECTION!!!!!!! I really Really LOVED how all the characters were written!!!! I care these characters SO MUCH!!!!! And the romantic TENSION!!!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! I really Really LOVED this SO MUCH!!!!!!

Based on the tagline, blurbs, and hype, I was hoping for funny sci-fi that I could booktalk, but this was surface with barely realized characters, full of boring tropes and not funny (barely even sarcastic) or really containing much space action. I only finished to see if it redeemed itself. Nope, stayed basic until the end. An additional star for being queer, saving it from one star.

3.5 stars rounded-off to 4. The story and characters were good, but this book has no re-read value so giving it less than 4 stars.

Spoiler-free review.

Likes:
- The ending

If I had to pick one word to describe this book, it would be: fun. It's not earth shaking or ground breaking - and that's okay. It's a fun sci-fi escapade with so very, very much diversity. (And, please, can we have more fun, diverse sci-fi? Please?) LGBT+ rep, POC and neurodivergent. The characters are all likable, especially Nax, our Captain. All the characters are the ‘joking under fire' sort and they know that a well placed joke can make tension crumble, which makes me adore them all the more. Definitely a fun read and, while it's not as epic as I was hoping for, I am so happy I read it.

This was such a fun, quick read! The characters were likable, the plot was action-packed, but ultimately, I'm not sure this story will really stay with me. Still, it was a fun read to perk up a long work week.

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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We sit in silence while al-Rihla, the jewel of the colonies, gradually takes over more and more of the viewport. It looks exactly like it did on the pages of my textbooks, only so much more. I let my eyes linger for a moment, taking in green continents outlined in rich red sand and huge, intensely blue oceans that glitter below. I know we're in a life-or-death situation, but it's hard not to be overwhelmed by the view. I can see why all the antiexploration crap went away once a few humans actually got out here. Who could look at all this and not want it? It's bizarre–I've only seen Earth from space once, and I was busy trying not to die at the time. Now I'm looking down on a completely different planet, in person, in space, while flying a ship I stole.

I'm actually here. This is all I've ever wanted, though I didn't get it in the way I wanted.

And in a few painfully long minutes, I'll find out whether I get to live to see the other seven colony worlds one day, or if I get to die in a dramatic crash and kill all my new friends instead.

Fantastic.

The Disasters

Well now, this was a surprisingly fun ride! It shouldn't surprise me that a book with teenage flight school rejects, put into an impossible situation, was a breezy read. It's pretty hard not to get caught up in their emotional roller coaster as the world that they thought they really knew falls out from under them, and it's straight to flight or fight mode. Or, in this case, I guess it would be fight and flight mode? No spoilers, but yeah. That's pretty accurate.

Kudos where kudos are due, M.K. England did a stellar job of getting these characters to go from complete strangers to a ragtag little band of heroes, in no time flat. Nax and his motley crew probably wouldn't have been all that chummy in other circumstances but, as catastrophic events tend to do, the sheer amount of craziness they go through quickly and believably pushes them into a mini family. I loved watching as they learned to navigate the quirks of one another. I can't count the number of times that I smiled as England gave a nod to anxiety, or a hug to a transgender character, and then carried on as normal because the whole point was that this was a part of them, but not who they were. These character worm their way into your heart really quickly, I'll tell you that. You've been warned.

Plot wise, I thought the book started out fantastically. Although the action definitely gets started early on, and doesn't let up for a minute, there was plenty of time in the first few chapters to really get to settled in to the colonies, and up to speed on the way that life in Nax's time worked. I loved the diversity in the cities, and I can't deny that the attention to detail whenever explanations of new planets were being given made my heart happy. I felt like I was there right along with them. My only complaint in this department was that at about the halfway mark the book takes off at breakneck speed. It felt like the latter half of this book was so quick moving, and so rushed, that it almost completely changed the way that it was written. I'm all for space battles, and watching people work together, but I think some of the interactions that I had loved during the first part really suffered.

What settled this book down to three stars was really that last fact. By the time I reached the last few chapters of the book, the amount of battles and skirmishes had reached a point where there wasn't much else happening. I can't explain too fully without spoiling anything, but suffice it to say that there were some relationships that I so wanted to see more deeply explored that were left to the wayside while bullets were flying and ships were banking. Now, to be fair, this whole plot does center on a particular deadline. So I did understand that things needed to pick up speed. It's my own personal, character driven brain at work here. I can absolutely see how people will be in awe at the sheer amount of madness that poor Nax and his group have to go through before this book ends.

All this rambling is basically to say that I really enjoyed this book. Despite any qualms that I may have had, I think M.K. England did a great job of bringing diversity, humor, friendship, and space battles together into a book that is a lot of fun to read. If you're looking for a lightning fast read that is filled to the brim with characters who will make you smile, that's The Disasters.