I greatly enjoyed this book. If you look at my reading dates for it, you'll see that it took me 2 months to read, which might lead you to suspect the opposite... BUT. I enjoyed savoring this book. I read a chapter or two at a time, and took my time with it, and somehow that worked perfectly for me for this story. Even when the action ramped up, I still wanted to linger over the story instead of rushing along with the plot.

I had fun with the characters in the book. They had a nice variety to them, and even though we never leave Fergus's (3rd person) POV we still got to see a nice amount of the backstory and personality of the secondary characters. Mari and Bale probably got the most additional screen time, and there was some really fun interaction and dialogue between the three of them.

The setting, though very different from our real world, was nicely fleshed out and I didn't have any trouble imagining how Cernee was set up and how it worked. (I didn't exactly have a map in my head, but I understood the principle.) I appreciated getting some of the backstory of the universe without it being info-dumped, and I'm really looking forward to reading more of the series to see where else Fergus's travels take us. ( )

I really enjoyed this book and will absolutely be reading the next one. ( )

This one was a lot of fun. It has a very high body count but otherwise a satisfying space opera. ( )

This was good on audio with the speed bumped up. It probably didn’t need it, but I sort of can’t stop speeding up my audiobooks, now that I’ve started.
Anyway, this was a fun sci-fi adventure, and I’m on board for the next. I loved the world-building, especially the different ways of getting around. I really liked the fly sticks. I either spaced out during the initial description, or maybe there wasn’t an in-depth description, but I liked to imagine them as Harry Potteresque space broomsticks. The bedazzling special effects of the ones Fergus kept ending up with made me so happy.
This wasn’t exactly a heist, but it was filled with trickery and hijinks, which I always welcome. At times I felt like I was getting to the plot’s climax but knew I couldn’t be because I was so far from the end of the book. In that sense, it felt like the story was being drawn out, but if I think of it as a chain of crescendos and decrescendos, it works. And each individual miniplot was exciting.
Fergus’s constant self-recrimination became trying by the end, but what really bothered me was the hostility directed at him from the other characters, particularly the female characters (the male characters blamed him somewhat but were a lot more chill a lot more quickly). I couldn’t understand the extent of it, even if initially, some of it made sense within the culture or whatever situation he found himself in. Mari eventually warmed up to him, but I didn’t understand why her attitude toward Fergus lasted so long. Her best friend being hateful right after being rescued, had an explanation, but I didn’t think it was good enough. And Ely’s statements toward him at the end just made me mad since he was constantly trying to save everyone.
I’d like to see him among good friends in future books. I love the idea of the shipbuilders, and I’m hopeful to see more interaction with their sentient ships.
Nice start to the series, and I’m looking forward to more adventures with Fergus. ( )

***WHO SUCKED ME IN***

The enabler named Thomas from SFF180 in their SFF180 🚀 Anticipated Science Fiction 2019 video published on 26 dec. 2018