Well, it’s been entirely too long since I last did these, so how about another round of book reviews, hm? Just in time for you to get that last-minute gift for the book lover in your life. I got three really great reads in this edition, so let’s get to it.
Star Shepherd: Shepherd of Light by R.R. Virdi
Fans of Firefly and Cowboy Bebop would do well to read Star Shepherd.
At its heart, Star Shepherd is very much like those two. Ragtag ship, lonesome good guy captain who’s maybe not as good as good guys go. Big-time, overbearing government and factions of resistance. That familiarity, which could be a liability for others, is a warm blanket in R.R. Virdi’s capable hands, aided by memorable side characters and a willingness to (occasionally) buck expectations.
Well-written, tension-filled, and just fast-paced enough to be exciting without leaving the reader wondering what’s going on, Star Shepherd shows Virdi to be a more versatile writer than some might think, and his love for the genre is clear throughout.
That love is also infectious. The ending was a bit open-ended for my tastes (perhaps a sequel is eventually in the offing?), but everything good about this subgenre of sci-fi is on display in Star Shepherd, and the result is a fantastic, engrossing read.
Rating: *****
Starbound by S.E. Anderson
Starbound pissed me off.
In a good way.
If you read Celestial — and if you didn’t, how are you reading Starbound, the fifth in this series? — you’ll know why. Still, S.E. Anderson’s latest has all of the same elements that made the previous four installments so great: heart and humor.
The two go hand-in-hand, and again, I mention how refreshing it is to see a sci-fi series that doesn’t take itself so damn seriously. Anderson’s writing prowess is again on full display, even as she weaves through the first half of the book in such a way that you might feel like you’ve missed something. But that’s by design and the beauty is, her characters feel the same way.
The latter portion of the book does rely on a trope that I’m not a fan of (not giving anything away here), but the twist Anderson puts on it is inventive enough, and I’m still emotionally invested enough in Sally and others that it didn’t bother me as much as it normally would. But be warned: this book does end on a bit of a cliffhanger — though with this being a series and at least one more installment on the horizon, that’s not surprising.
So much of what came before in the first four books of this series come to a head in Starbound, giving it a satisfying dimension of closure — despite this not being the finale (and I say this knowing full well the next book might negate some of what’s in this book; to this point, nothing surprises me).
But the long and short of it is this: Starbound is excellent, every bit the equal of its predecessors, and you need it in your library. Just don’t be surprised if you find yourself contacting the author to jokingly chide her for how rude this all is.
Rating: *****
Wanderers by Chuck Wendig
There’s no categorizing this book — except to say, it’s a bit of everything.
No, seriously. This is part sci-fi thriller, part dystopian epic, part contagion film, part commentary on modern political fuckery, part romance, part tripping-on-acid coming of age thing… Wanderers is all of these things and more. Chuck Wendig clearly takes a throw-everything-including-the-kitchen-sink approach to the story, and it works.
It shouldn’t work, but it does.
This is easily the best book I’ve read in quite so time. Don’t let the size fool you; the pages fly by, largely because Wendig has a way with the written word I’ve not encountered in other writers, and partly because even when he’s slowing down to explain things to us, we’re still being hurdled along this amusement park ride with the “Out of Order” sign hanging on by one nail.
There are plenty of moments where this book is uncomfortable to read (I found chapter 50 in particular to be possibly triggering for some, and thus feel the need to say as such). Sometimes, that discomfort comes from just how plausible some of this is, and how closely in some ways the world of Wanderers mirrors our own. But that discomfort is part of the experience, and without it, this would not be the grand opus it is.
Wanderers may very well be Wendig’s defining work, but aside from that, it is an all-encompassing, everywhere-at-once, engrossing read. It’s the sort of book that needs to be on everyone’s shelf, regardless of taste or genre preference.
I hesitate to use the phrase “modern-day classic,” but that’s exactly what Wanderers is.
Rating: *****
J.D. Cunegan 