Review: Local Star by Aimee Ogden
Rating: ★★★
Release Date: 5th April 2021
Genre(s): Sci-Fi
Massive thank you to Interstellar Flight Press and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Local star is a polyamorous space opera which follows Triz, a guttergirl (spaceship handywoman), her friend Casne and her ex Kalo. When Casne is accused of war crimes, Triz with the help of her ex, Kalo, must do everything she can in an attempt to save her, whilst also saving their Hab which comes under attack from the notorious Cyberbionautic Alliance (ceebees).
I picked this book up because it had polyamorous rep -which honestly is not something you see in books often. I loved how it normalised triads and quadfamilies (a family unit based around a four-person platonic, romantic and/or sexual relationship) as the norm, and it was super refreshing to see how poly relationships can also work in a platonic sense! Further, I adored how non-binary and neopronouns were normalised. For example there's a character which uses E (Spivak) pronouns and one of Casne's parents is referred to as the gender neutral Damu. Overall, fantastic LGBTQIA+ rep.
I really enjoyed the development of the relationship between Triz and Kalo, I really thought you got a sense of who Kalo was, even in such a short time frame! However, the same cannot be said for some of the other characters and relationships... The poly relationship developed by the end of the book just didn't feel right? Triz hardly had any interactions with Nan, and it almost seemed a bit like everyone had forgotten about her? I think this might be an issue with the length of the book, and I truly believe it would have benefited from being around 100 pages longer. Also, the focus on familial relationships, especially with Quelian, Casne's father, was nice to see.
A further issue is the pacing of the book (which again I think is caused by the length of it). I felt that there wasn't enough time focused actually on "main" plot point, and all of the action scenes seemed to be over very quickly, resulting in me just left wanting a little bit more. I also think the novella would have benefited from a bit more explanation of some aspects of the book, such as Triz's reasoning for disliking bodymods (why??) and the backstory of the villain (why are they the way the are? - currently it seems like they're just there for plot reasons).
Finally, the glossary at the end of the book was completely necessary and cleared up a lot of previous questions I had surrounding the new sci-fi world and some of the mechanisms. I just wish it would have been at the beginning of the book (or even mentioned at the beginning, so I knew it existed!)
Overall this book was a super quick & fun read, which I would recommend to all sci-fi fans, especially those who are dreaming of a bit more LGBTQIA+ rep (that's never found in popular sci-fi books unfortunately).
Local star is a polyamorous space opera which follows Triz, a guttergirl (spaceship handywoman), her friend Casne and her ex Kalo. When Casne is accused of war crimes, Triz with the help of her ex, Kalo, must do everything she can in an attempt to save her, whilst also saving their Hab which comes under attack from the notorious Cyberbionautic Alliance (ceebees).
I picked this book up because it had polyamorous rep -which honestly is not something you see in books often. I loved how it normalised triads and quadfamilies (a family unit based around a four-person platonic, romantic and/or sexual relationship) as the norm, and it was super refreshing to see how poly relationships can also work in a platonic sense! Further, I adored how non-binary and neopronouns were normalised. For example there's a character which uses E (Spivak) pronouns and one of Casne's parents is referred to as the gender neutral Damu. Overall, fantastic LGBTQIA+ rep.
I really enjoyed the development of the relationship between Triz and Kalo, I really thought you got a sense of who Kalo was, even in such a short time frame! However, the same cannot be said for some of the other characters and relationships... The poly relationship developed by the end of the book just didn't feel right? Triz hardly had any interactions with Nan, and it almost seemed a bit like everyone had forgotten about her? I think this might be an issue with the length of the book, and I truly believe it would have benefited from being around 100 pages longer. Also, the focus on familial relationships, especially with Quelian, Casne's father, was nice to see.
A further issue is the pacing of the book (which again I think is caused by the length of it). I felt that there wasn't enough time focused actually on "main" plot point, and all of the action scenes seemed to be over very quickly, resulting in me just left wanting a little bit more. I also think the novella would have benefited from a bit more explanation of some aspects of the book, such as Triz's reasoning for disliking bodymods (why??) and the backstory of the villain (why are they the way the are? - currently it seems like they're just there for plot reasons).
Finally, the glossary at the end of the book was completely necessary and cleared up a lot of previous questions I had surrounding the new sci-fi world and some of the mechanisms. I just wish it would have been at the beginning of the book (or even mentioned at the beginning, so I knew it existed!)
Overall this book was a super quick & fun read, which I would recommend to all sci-fi fans, especially those who are dreaming of a bit more LGBTQIA+ rep (that's never found in popular sci-fi books unfortunately).
If you've read this, let me know what you think in the comments!
Books and bouquets. x
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