I don’t have much to say about this one other than it just wasn’t for me. It was quite politically incorrect at times, which I feel like was the point, and it just got uncomfortable with little/no lay off. That being said, someone could most definitely enjoy this book!

This was quite a fun and fast reading, but it was, somehow, lacking. It's not bad, and we have a lot of interesting (even if sometimes annoying) characters, and it's fun. But plot-wise it's not the most complicated or compelling book. It's the right reading if you are in need of something lighthearted, with a space spice to it. We have some great scenes and the author has a good sense of humor (some scenes made me laugh out loud), and if you just to want something to keep you busy for an afternoon, that is not demanding and that it won't stay with you once you finish the reading, this would be the right book for you.
But if you are in for something a little bit more, something that would keep you company and would make you thought about it even once you have closed it, well... than you would be mildly disappointed by it.

At first I thought it was a funny book and the beginning got me interested but that was it. I got about half way and just couldn't any further. There is nothing to keep the reader going and the humor isn't enough to keep the reader going. I got this book back in April and I tried to read a little bit every night but got to a point where I had no interest in finishing the story.

Unfortunately,
I had to DNF this one. I made it through about 15 percent. The humor was forced, at best. At worst it was drudgery. I don't like when authors try to push their politics in a story.

Often hilarious, occasionally aimless, and overall a good read.

There's a surprisingly cool story in Astro-Nuts that belies its goofy title and nondescript tagline. And it starts with an honest-to-goodness, great-by-any-standards cold open that was really arresting. This led to the introduction of a captain and his small crew aboard the SS Jefferson, who stop to investigate a derelict space craft and end up taking on a new passenger. The situations that arise from this are funny in and of themselves, and the dialogue is often on fire. It was so funny sometimes that I was pausing in between lines to wipe tears away.

I'd like to call attention to chapter 6, specifically, which featured a spoof on two quintessential British gentlemen sharing an exaggeratedly formal jibber-jabber. It was so out of left field, so sharp, and it maintained such a solid tempo that I truly laughed out loud several times.

The book also takes several twists and turns that are right out of the slapstick playbook. Being set in space, there's an obvious comparison to a certain Mel Brooks film, but it's far more straight-laced than that—you're not going to find anyone breaking the fourth wall or checking the script. Instead, it's more akin to something like Austin Powers, in that there are some plot points that will make you smack your forehead and smile because they are very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very delightfully dumb.

But the book has a bit f a split personality.

There's this short scene in Astro-Nuts involving two detectives who interrogate the book's main cast. One of the detectives just wants to get down to business and do the normal detective thing: ask questions, get answers, put the pieces together. And then there's the other detective who... well, he doesn't quite know exactly what he wants. He enters the room with his game face on, but then a second later, he's hitting on the suspects, going on about robots taking all our jobs, flexing his muscles, and even going full-on Mortal Kombat.

Those two detectives fighting for control of the interrogation sum up the tone of this novel pretty nicely.

See, on one hand you've got this lighthearted space adventure with surprisingly clever dialogue, fun characters, and a neat little plot (albeit generic). And on the other hand, you've got this bizarre comedian popping up every now and then to tell low-brow gags and grade school dick jokes. The two seem to fight over control of the book's narration like two men in a boxing ring.

And I'm talking about the reeeeeally low-hanging fruit here. Tired racial stereotypes. Harambe the Gorilla. Dubious commentary about an underage female pilot. And then there are constant — constant!— allusions to dicks and balls: the description of a penis-shaped ship taking off, the character named Richard Head (HAHA, get it? Because what's a nickname for Richard?), etc. The main character is named Captain Cox, for Pete's sake, and almost all the bit players have dicknonymous names like Willy, Peters, Johnson, Woody, etc. Some of it transcends and is funny regardless, some of it falls flat, and a few jokes seem scooped off the cutting room floor of Mind of Mencia. As is always the case with comedy, your mileage will vary.

Other jokes aren't fully baked or seem contrived. Sometimes I wasn't sure a joke was being told at all until I got to some vague hyuck about Mormons or the overuse of "Hitler" as an insult. And when these jokes got especially concentrated, I won't deny that it was sometimes hard to keep going.

This was especially true for chapters 10-14 (which, according to the KNP on my Kindle amounted to a full third of this book). These chapters were... frustrating at times. They all take place in the same location —the GDB— and that long, protracted visit was so tonally different from everything that came before it that, aside from a few funny gags, it almost seemed to have been written by a different author. And when the cast finally left the GDB and the scene was over, I found myself thumbing back through the pages wondering what purpose that massive detour served beyond a couple brief spurts of grimace-inducing violence. And then there was chapter 16, which, I mean, was pretty short (only 61 KNP), but like, what was that even supposed to be?

Overall, despite some hard times, it was mostly a good read. Lots of laughs, some fun characters, and an okay plot. The ending was super meanspirited, and like some of the other gags, felt contrived. These really undermined the sweeter, goofier moments, like Cox's various musical references, including the inspiration for his ship.

And, yes, I did Google John Dibiri.

Recommended for anyone looking for lighthearted adventure, but be prepared for some inconsistency in tone and pacing.

"Thank you for the E-Book ARC provided by Netgalley"

DNF- I have unfortunately decided to DNF Astro-Nuts by Logan J. Hunder. The humor and writing style are just not for me and that is not to say it is bad I am sure that many people would enjoy a Science-Fiction spoof but I am not one. I don't particularly like humor that uses serious topics as throw away lines and I felt like that was being done a bit too much for my taste.

A tired sludge through a book where the author is trying too hard to be funny and fails miserably. Each chapter was more cringe-worthy than the last, and I only stuck with it in the absolutely vain hope that it would get better.

Weak storyline with unsatisfying humor

I didn’t enjoy this book. I found a lot of the humor juvenile and the dialogue silly. The characters weren’t compelling and the story wasn’t well paced. The characters weren’t particularly sympathetic, especially the main protagonist. A lot of the story line was just silly. Several times during the first half of the book, I would stop reading it but then went back in the hope that it would improve. At about halfway through, I threw in the towel and stopped reading. This is especially disappointing because I had enjoyed Witches be Crazy by the same author.

I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love comedic sci-fi. But this . . . this, I did not love. It read like it needed another editing pass or two to clean up the awkward phrasing, tighten the jokes, and flesh out the characters. And I wasn't laughing, or feeling entertained by, ANY of the jokes, which was kind of the death knell for the whole thing; it felt like it was trying too hard to be clever, and ended up not being clever at all.

As always, your mileage may vary. But for me, this just didn't click.

Astro-Nuts is definitely out of the box from what I normally read. The story did totally remind me of Spaceballs, and I thought it was hilarious in that utterly ridiculous kind of way. If you take Star Wars like super serious, then you might not appreciate this kind of humor. It's more for those light hearted space adventure readers. It's a fun read either way. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.