John Wilker

I certainly liked the start of this novella. It protagonizes a space smuggler named Jax who shares vibes from Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop meets Han Solo but with a reasonably normal childhood. Instead of a level headed Jet Black or Chewbacca, Jax has 3 different robots with AI instead: a cynical space ship AI named Skip, an easily annoyed companion robot named Rusty and an ancient military robot named Baxter that is the most serious of the three robots. One of the things that the novel does very well is the banter between Jax and his robot crew. I certainly liked that.

The worldbuilding is unfortunately sparse and we only get tidbits some kind of oligarch empire called "The Empire" conquers new inhabitable planets to extract resources now that warp drive travel is widely available (and cheap).

Most of the early portion of the plot is Jax has been offered a quick & easy human rescue job from a planet rife in civil war. Things march off ridiculously well until... (spoiler) I certainly enjoy the positive aspects of the novel including the writing style and the occasionally crude humor. At only around 40,000 words, I do feel the worldbuilding was way too lean considering the number of habitable planets that all are culturally the same. I feel the book could have benefitted greatly with at least a bit more time to learn more about planet Mariposa.

One other thing that would have made the book better was that it was all action, hurry up, speed, NOWWWWW! The scene where Jax was at his home spaceship maintenance station was going so fast that he barely had any time to enjoy his alcoholic beverage. I constantly got the same vibe the entire portion of the story that I sampled. Sometimes infodump and slow chapters can feel annoying. But I really enjoy seeing characters change as a story advances. We get no sign of that in any character in the 25% point. In fact, the people Jax is assigned to rescue... we don't really know anything about them at all.

Jax suspects they are not ordinary peacekeepers, and the reader likely doesn't either. But it felt odd to me none of them were trembling out the wazoo as bullets were raining everywhere. Maybe the book later on confirms they were all sus. Even if that were true, a professional spy would have good acting skills to keep Jax's guard low.

The book picks up every now and then, only to slog at variable intervals. I liked Naomi (the mysterious woman that Jax rescued by 'accident'). We are never given an official explanation how she hacked into the client's face recognition system to fool Jax, but given her unique special ability (which is a slight spoiler), I would surmise she pretty much tricked Jax.

There is a problem I see in the novel, and it is once you learn the whole story, most of what happens in the story is well, kind of filler. Yes, Jax gets paid for the rescue gig which proves helpful to pay some gambling debts, but most of the book sort of wanders around. Even Naomi's surprise return to Jax's ship is never really explained. She didn't need to continue hanging around, but we never understand why. I never got vibes of strong sexual tension (Jax is pansexual and would sleep with pretty much anyone so I don't think he considers Naomi special in that way). Maybe platonic friendship? She might have discovered Jax's past and their mutual disdain for the Empire might prove useful to her ulterior plans. Quite frankly, I like them more as friends and not as a couple.

As for the heist, the book quietly reaches the big thing and... well, there certainly is a bit of a plot twist, but of the more quiet kind. I don't feel it was bad per se, but there were other books in the competition with heist stories. And whoa, some of those heist books are BEASTS. From the frantic sense of imminent danger in Pallas Lost to the immersion and strong characters in Memoirs of a synth, this book is fun, has some good moments. But the strongest heist books in the competition had great scenes throught pretty much every chapter of the book and this book only shone every now and then.

Even so, this book ends with a few nice loose ends, and I might consider reading the sequel sometime just to alleviate my curiosity to see what Naomi really wants from Jax.… (más)

Stay Tuned for more!

I’m hard at work on
Space Rogues 2: How Does This Stuff Always Happen to Us?
It’s a working title :)


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… (más)