I received a copy of THE HOUSE OF STYX thanks to the publisher through NetGalley.

I tried to read this, but it was just not for me. I can definitely see the appeal though. It gives me reminders of THE MARTIAN but more sciency and less humor. It is written very well, and the characters are interesting but not enough to keep me invested in such a large book that is only the first of a series.

Firstly, apologies this review wasn't completed before the book came out... I am sure NetGalley said this was coming out much later in the year,.

3.5*
The House of Styx is the first books in the Venus Ascendant series by Derek Kunsken.

If you follow my reviews on Goodreads, or on our blog, you will know I read a lot of epic fantasy. However, I have been wanting to read more Sci-fi, which I have been hunting on NetGalley. After reading the synopsis on The House of Styx, though short, I was very interested. The cover also attracted me; it looks like a giant explosion, which after reading the book you realise is a representation of the Venusian atmosphere… a horrible place to live!

The House of Styx follows the D'Aquillon family, who are viewed as rebels. They refused to abort their child, who was to be born with Down Syndrome, though they were told he would not be entitled to medical care or rations. The family made the decision that none of them would receive rations or medical care and moved lower into the Venusian atmosphere: a tough life where they had to be self-sufficient. The mother, eldest daughter (Chloe) and her husband have all died, leaving the father, four children and a nephew.

The father is stubborn and rules by force of will. The three other POVs in the book are three of his children: Emile, who is an alcoholic, drug user and hasn’t spoken to his father for several years; Marthe, who holds the families vote in the assembly and is their political voice; and Pascal, a sixteen year old self-taught engineer.

The world Kunsken has created is imaginative and bold. Venus is a planed the larger nations and banks ignored. Subsequently, people from Quebec colonised the Venusian atmosphere, living at different altitudes (on habitats and trawlers), where the conditions vary wildly. The colony separated from Quebec, something Quebec was more than happy to allow, and they were now in debt to a bank, which influences the colony’s politics.

The House of Styx starts off at a rapid pace with two of the family fighting to save a trawler. We are then introduced to the family members still living in the lower atmosphere, fighting for their survival. It is here where we begin to learn about the Venusian atmosphere and how people live there… it is horrid, was my thought! A very difficult life with many challenges.
After this we are introduced to the other POVs that the story focusses on and I felt the book became a little too slow for too long. The world Kunsken has created is interesting: the politics, how people live, communicate, and get around, but something felt slow to me.

I didn’t enjoy Emile’s story arc much. I felt it was too bland and predictable. The typical outcast of the family who has fallen out with his father, blames the world for things, so he drinks and does drugs. But he didn’t do anything exciting, or bold, or unexpected. It felt like a missed opportunity.

At around 20% of the book, if it wasn’t an ARC I probably would have put the book down and read something else. Not to never finish it, but just to take a little break, because I was still interested in what happens. I stuck with it and around about a third of the way through the book the story pace picked up again. Pascal and his father visited the surface of Venus and found something very interesting. A couple of extra characters also came into the story which expanded its scope and added depth both to the story and Pascal’s character.

When I put the book down around the 50% mark, later that day I was cooking and the story popped into my head, imaging what came next. This happens all the time to me, but it was the first time with The House of Styx. I was much more interested at this point.

The depth of some characters really begins to build, as do the politics, and the job they are planning, which is where The House of Styx (family) is born. We see the real Pascal, which I won’t spoil; Marthe really becomes a leader and is a character I really like; their father is challenged in his way of thinking and stubbornness, and the additional characters add a breath of fresh air. Emile’s story still didn’t do much for me, though he evolves in his thinking and behaviour around the 75% mark. He becomes a part of the story, rather than a side story arc.

What the family found on Venus and what they are planning is something which could become an epic storyline. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for book 2. I’m interested to see when Kunsken takes this story and what the future holds for The House of Styx.

I must be honest, I did not like the book when I started reading it. It was slow paced for me, and I did not connect with the characters. However, it is well written and the setting is quite good.

Well written and full evolved world building. Very technical, in the style of The Martian, which goes too deep for me. I found it hard to really engage with the characters or care where the plot was Headed. Nonetheless, think this book will find a passionate audience more in line with its premise

This book is so well thought out. The world building is incredible. The plot is gripping. The characters are interesting and the character development is strong. I can't wait to read the next one.

I received this as an ARC in return for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for allowing me to read this title.

Though the description made the book sound very interesting but it was a tad bit boring at times and long winded. I do not normally read sci-fi but wanted to try this since the description sounded interesting. The story line, characters, and plot were all good I just could not feel for the characters. I may or may not read the next in the series, but if you like sci-fi then this is a good book. The author did his homework on the abilities and possibilities or living on Venus so he makes it sound doable I just did not get into the book.

Hmmm... This book had me very excited with its gorgeous cover and interesting subject.
I did love the setting and a culture different from my own to learn from. However sadly I did not learn much from it. I think it had a great concept but executing it was in a style I am not fond of. The writing was very technical and space and machine talk. Yes it is set in that setting but the way it is written such as long paragraphs on sulfuric acid and machines etc.. kinda bored me. I wanted more meat on the people and motives and backgrounds. I mean they had downs syndrome and queer characters yet I dont feel like I got to know them much or exactly where the plot and stories were going. They did get there but it was just not in a style I enjoy alot. I do however think there are many people who would enjoy the way it is written and also the open ideas and very current topics that are shown in this book that people of today can relate to.
I would say read it for yourself and see what you think cause reviews seem to be mixed but mostly favorable on this one. I thank Derek Kunsken for his hard work and interesting story and for him and netgalley allowing me to read/review this book. I greatly appreciate it.

The House of Styx is the latest hard scifi offering from Derek Kunsken and a prequel series to his his Quantum Evolution series. The story is set on a near future Venus colonised by French Canadians because no-one else wanted it. With good reason: Venus is spectacularly inhospitable. Deadly sulfuric storms and incredible pressures make living anywhere but in the clouds above the surface practically impossible. Even living in the clouds is a constant, dangerous challenge. Venus's inhabitants live in huge floating plant-like creatures that float through the sulfuric clouds and live symbiotically with lightning from the storms. They fly through the clouds with wing suits and modified planes, are frugal with their shared resources, and are in constant faustian pacts with the external banks to acquire resources necessary to keep their colony alive, while having very little in the way of resources or exportables to pay those loans off with.

We follow members of the D'Aquillon family - rebel outcasts who live in the lower pressure systems after they defied the colony's orders to abort one of their children with Downs syndrome, voluntarily cutting themselves off from all access shared colony resources such as medicine in protest. We rotate perspectives through Pascal, the youngest is an engineering genius and struggling to grow up in the narrow sphere of experiences offered in Venus and the family, Marthe, the family's  representative in the political upper 'rangs', and Emile a struggling poet and family screw up. 

The best part of this novel is the worldbuilding. It's comprehensive, detailed, well-thought through and shown consistently all over the place throughout the novel. Venus is a character in this as much as any of the cast. She's shown as capricious, deadly and unknowable. You can learn to live with her, but you'll never truly understand her and she will never really love you. She barely accepts you. Trying to reconcile this tension is something the characters deal with constantly in their own ways and no-one ever seems truly at home on Venus. Familiar with her? Yes. Relaxed and comfortable? No.

Showing how our cast lives here takes a lot of time and is shown in a lot of interesting ways - the habitats, food production, salvaging, technology, shared resources, black markets and cultural quirks like waiting for people to be clear of sulfur after coming in to the habitat before touching them. It all makes it feel very real and lived in. The characters showed a good breadth of what life is like in different places on Venus - upper vs. lower 'rangs', haves and have nots, powerful and not so. Kunsken has done a good job, too, of showing diversity in the cast as well (to go into detail would, perhaps, be spoiler-y). Kunsken has really thought through the ramifications of what feasibly living on Venus would require and what a society built around that could look like.

I think the hardest thing to accept while reading this, though, despite all the worldbuilding and the embedded, real characters, is that I struggled to get engaged in the plot. The hook took a while to emerge and even when it did it progressed slowly. This is very much a first, establishing book and I found it struggled for pacing keeping my interest. There is only so long I'm going to keep reading about someone looping through the air or talking about how the world is here. There are external antagonists - the banks and the President - and conflicts among the characters, but they felt more like grit than real driving forces. The main plot was interesting (and took me an embarrassing amount of time to link to the Quantum series), but also unspooled slowly. I really wanted to know what came next with Pascal's discovery, but we only got to the doorstep of that this book. Something Kunsken demonstrated really well in his Quantum books is really tight plotting and pulling characters towards a goal, so I think it's a deliberate choice to approach this series differently. I suspect the worldbuilding set up in this book is necessary to allow for the more expansive plot movements that will happen in books 2 and 3, but it did mean that book 1 was light on for things happening. 

I also never really got into Emile's subplot. He never really integrated with the others' stories, and while he played an important emotional role in the end and showed the distance a lot of Venus's inhabitants feel from their new home, I struggled getting through his sections.

An ok first book - the world definitely has potential and I would still race to pick up anything Kunsken writes, but this series might not be for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Solaris/Rebellion for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Finding so much heart and poetry in a hard sci-fi novel is akin to finding a [spoiler alert] in the heart of Venus

TLDR; I was blown away by what Derek Künsken has put together. Now, let's have the second book. And the TV adaptation.

House of Styx is taking us on a journey of "what if": what if the major players of Earth had already colonized (or staked their claims of) the obvious planets like Mars, leaving Venus and its cloud oceans of sulfuric acid for those gallant few (Quebeqois Canadians who became independent) who are willing to risk a life of unimaginable hardship? And "what if" it was indeed possible to create flying habitats among these sulfuric-acid clouds and spend your life without ever seeing the sun or walking on solid ground? What would that do to a person?

The House of Styx has all the makings of a space opera that could easily rival The Expanse series. It starts deceptively slow at first (I've seen other reviews on GR complaining about the pace — personally I disagree), immersing you into the nuances of the tech specs. We're introduced into this strange world through the eyes of a hardened family of coureurs des vents (a play on the Canadian coureur de bois, the unlicensed fur traders and woodsmen in New France), who are trying to survive by harvesting "trawlers" (I imagine them as a kind of a mix between a tree and an electric eel that lives in the clouds, that has electricity and can be bio-engineered as a habitat). They've already lost family members both because of the storms in Venus and their perfunctory government's bureaucratic approach to medicine rations.

Very soon, we're doing a deep dive into the emotional landscapes of these characters — and the depth we find here is both surprising and heartbreaking. There's Pascal(e), the 16-year old engineer of the family, whose internal struggle with his own identity provides a window for us to speculate on the hidden character of Venus herself, hidden behind her clouds. I don't want to give too much away about what Pascal(e) is going through but I found the execution of this plot line so thoughtful, sensitive and elegant that makes you want to jump into the page and hug them. There's the brilliant Marthe, the older sister who can play the political game as well as any Game of Thrones character but without losing one ounce of her big heart... Marthe's decisiveness propels the book forward; she brings everyone together. She's the reason the House of Styx, a found family bound by a dream, even exists. And then, there is Emile: the trainwreck of a brother may be one of the most annoying characters until the end, as he can't seem to get his act together, but he gives Künsken the opportunity to deal with some issues you don't often see in such depth in science fiction. Like, how do you define spirituality, how do you deal with concepts like "soul" and communion when you live on a planet that wants to kill you? And how can you create art and poetry in such a world? For being my least favorite character, Emile has some profound lines.

But perhaps the most fascinating character of this book is Venus herself. The planet that hides an impossible secret inside her core. I don't want to spoil too much, because I'm guessing we'll untangle this mystery further in the second book, but it's certainly not something you expect to find within the core of a planet. When Pascal(e) and his Pa make that discovery, it can and will change everyone's lives.

P.S. This is a personal opinion, but I really enjoyed discovering so many well-rounded, queer characters in this book. Gender identity issues and discussions around ableism were done beautifully, only adding to the story.

PS2: Thank you to the NetGalley and the publisher for offering me an ARC of this book. The fangirling is 100% my own.

Not really what I expected not really in to science fiction.Story did not really do it for me could not finish book to far fetched,and could not understand what was meant to be achieved.Sorry

Setting up a colony on Venus, as you might imagine, would be something of a challenge and its harsh sulphuric atmosphere would undoubtedly affect anyone trying to live and work there. There are consequently a lot of hard bitten characters among the Venusian colonialists in Derek Künsken's The House of Styx, the first a new series of SF books set in this hostile environment. Although this first book has a good intriguing hook to keep you reading, the tough nature of this environment and the characters provide some developments that could be just as challenging for the reader.

Ideally, if you make an important scientific discovery in a place like this, one moreover that gives the first indication of intelligent alien life, you would imagine it would be carefully investigated and treated as a subject of close careful study. In reality however the truth is that any important knowledge or discovery like this is likely to be exploited for financial gains. That's Künsken strong point in The House of Styx; amidst the hard-SF examination of how a community of settlers might exist in the harsh fiery environment of Venus, he also gives realistic consideration to the political and financial pressures on colonists indentured to the government and to the banks, not to mention the historical, personal hardships and family rivalries that might prevent people from doing the right thing.

That's the choice faced by the D'Aquillon family, coureurs des vents, windrunners, who make their living on the lower levels of the sulphuric atmosphere of Venus herding trawlers, bio-engineering the organisms that thrive at this low level where few willingly venture. Indeed the major Earth powers didn't find much to establish any kind of settlement on Venus so it's been left to the independent state of Quebec to set up a community and political system that in theory should operate democratically for the benefit of everyone. Obviously that isn't always the case and because of historical differences during the 40 years that the colony has been established the D'Aquillon family have struggled along mainly independently of the system, even though they have a representative on the Council.

Just as they are being threatened with having their assets nationalised, the family make an astounding discovery on the surface of the planet where, for obvious reasons, few have ventured. Having noticed some unusual wind activity in one of the deepest chasms on the planet, Pascal and his father Geroge-Étienne D'Aquillon have sent probes and cameras down and made an extraordinary discovery. Immediate necessities for survival in these difficult times however means that they are reluctant to make the existence of this discovery known to the rest of the settlement, and they have their own plans for what they have found. The scale and implications of their discovery however are likely to be more far-reaching for Venus and the settlement in the longer term.

Künsken does well to take in the wider considerations of the situation. New worlds are going to require financing and regulation and are always going to come up against the unexpected. He also makes efforts to show how humans would struggle to cope in an alien environment, not just first generation colonists and workers, but other problems will develop and persist because of the way that humanity is hot-wired. This takes on different forms, from artists and poets trying to relate to these new sensations, to characters who try to block it out through sex, drinking and drugs, all of them struggling to maintain a troubled relationship with a difficult planet.

As is often the case with hard SF writing, the human characterisation is fairly basic and weak, with much more effort going into making the science credible and the society workable. The struggle with sexual identity is an attempt to broadens the characterisation, but Pascal's awkward young adult concerns and urges feel misplaced in the larger story and are very skip-overable. Much of the technological descriptions can also feel superfluous, but the effort to put a scientific basis behind the story is good and the discovery on the surface of Venus offers considerably more scope for surprises and a wider canvas in the next book in the Venus Ascendant series.

House of Styx is the first in a new science fiction series set on Venus. The story follows members of the D'Aquillon family as they try to survive and make a living for themselves above the surface of Venus and as outcasts from the government. The world building in the novel is excellent and imaginative and the descriptions of the clouds of Venus and how the characters fly from habitat to habitat are mind blowing. All of the different conditions of Venus that they must continually be aware of just for basic survival are so numerous, that the colony lives on a knife edge. The living trawlers that the colonists live on and farm on are so unique, I can't remember ever reading anything like them. Add in to this all of the political maneuverings that go on, you get an intricate story that moves briskly with characters that you really want to root for to succeed. The family makes a discovery that will change the course of their lives through the choices that they make to remain free of government control. The discovery is so significant it could change the course of the entire Venus colony. I found all of the characters so interesting, well fleshed out and the struggles they go through on a daily basis very relatable. The internal family dynamics are both endearing and heartbreaking. Pascal's journey as a transgender teen coming to grips with all of his/her feelings is so well written and has some truly heartbreaking moments. A very enjoyable read and looking forward to where the story goes from here.
Synopsis; In the swirling clouds of Venus, the families of la colonie live on floating plant-like trawlers, salvaging what they can in the face of acid rain and crackling storms. But Venus carries its own secrets, too. In the depths, there is a wing that shouldn't exist. And the House of Styx wants to harness it.

Thank you NetGalley and Rebellion for a the eARC of The House of Styx by Derek Kunsken.

The House of Styx is a fantastic slice of life novel of the D'Aquillon family's struggle living on Venus,a planet that is constantly trying to kill them.

George-Etienne is the patriarch, His daughter Marthe is their government liason, Pascal, the youngest, is struggling with his identity, Emiele is the black sheep, Alexis is his grandchild. a
Jean-Eudes is the child the government told the family shouldn't keep and the impetus for the division bergen the family and the government.

The story is rich in detail on the difficulty of living on Venus and the struggle to mine enough resources from the clouds of Venus to live and keep their floating habitats functioning.

The government is about to take more from the D'Aquillons, but George-Etienne has a secret that could elevate the family out from the governments influence. He must bring his family together, along with others, to investigate his secret further.

The House of Styx is part harrowing, part exhilarating, part freeing and part heart breaking. The research Kunsken poured nto this book makes life on Venus possible. Oh, and there are jetpacks.

The House of Styx is a complex sci-fi that relishes in scientific details as much as it does socio-political ones. The D'Avillons family has been spurned by the Venusian government, an independent colonization of Venus by Québecois families, and are struggling to survive in oppressive systems: the oppression of a banana republic controlled by corrupt Banks, and the oppression of an angry, unpredictable, vengeful planet. They may have a solution when they discover something new, absolutely incalculable in value, beneath the surface of Venus, but getting their hands on it is a lot more dangerous and complicated than even surviving so far has been.

The start of the book, say the first 50-70 pages, are difficult to wade into as they are rife with scientific descriptions of how things work more than comprehensible ones about what it looks like living in the clouds above Venus. There is very little hand-holding; it's like being dropped onto the surface of Venus without a parachute. However, the impressive part is how this book layers; by the time I reached 75% of the way through the book, I had a complicated and thorough understanding of living in adapted Venusian plants in the sky. More importantly, it wasn't just a still image, but full of movement. Künsken, via multiple POVs of the D'Avillons family and its enemies, creates the strangely intricate and shifting character of Venus.

Throughout the book, Künsken seamlessly interlocks the gears of mechanical engineering, political machinations, and personal relationships. Most importantly, one of the lead characters is a sixteen-year-old realizing she's trans and how she deals with that in terms of admitting it to herself, to her family, to her potential new beau. Künsken clearly took a lot of good sensitivity editing to heart for this queer, trans character, because it's a beautiful, painful, aching blossoming of faith in herself and figuring out how to not be lost. It resonated deeply, the grappling with her dysphoria and the steps she takes to be able to live in her body. And that this blossoming, this transformation, is happening in the atmosphere of Venus, a planet whose face can change at any moment, makes Venus the perfect companion to her story.

Let me tell you how I thought this review would go. As I began reading The House of Styx (which I received free via NetGalley and publisher Solaris), I thought that I would enjoy this book, for sure. Derek Künsken had, after all, reignited the faint embers of my love for posthumanism with The Quantum Magician and then fanned those flames with a dose of time travel in The Quantum Garden. However, I also thought that the thesis of this review would be, “This is a fun SF book that I liked but did not love as much as The Quantum Evolution books.” I prejudged it based on its being a planetary romance rather than a space opera.

I am so, so wrong. The House of Styx surpassed my expectations in every conceivable way. Not only does Künsken deliver another excellent, diverse science-fiction future, but he does so with humour and grace—and he just drops a trans character in my lap like oops no big deal. More on that at length, I promise, in a bit.

Trigger warnings in this book for portrayal of gender dysphoria/gender incongruence, as well as scarification.

In the future, humans have colonized the upper atmosphere of Venus. More specifically, Québécois have colonized Venus—yes, Künsken, Canadian, reaches into his Québécois heritage for some cultural inspiration here, exposing a wider audience to the glorious, sacrilegious profanity of Québécois French. La colonie, in debt to a powerful bank, barely scraps by, and the D’Aquillon family is even worse off. That is, they make a discovery, in a cave on the inhospitable and nearly unreachable surface of Venus, that could change everything. It could certainly alter the fortunes of the family, not to mention all of la colonie—if this monumental discovery doesn’t fall into “the wrong hands.”

So the book quickly turns into a race of against time: how does the family recruit enough trustworthy allies to capitalize on this discovery before the executive powers that be complete their political de-clawing of Marthe, the family’s representative in l’Assemblée? It’s going to take a combination of political and social negotiation as well as good ol’ engineering know-how! Along the way, Künsken gives us these amazing scenes of what he conjectures life in the Venusian clouds could be.

From herding, modifying, and even bio-engineering the “trawlers” (gigantic Venusian life forms that live in the lower clouds) to flying with wing packs while wearing survival suits designed to resist the corrosive and toxic atmosphere, The House of Styx is replete and resplendent with a fantastic imagining of what life on (or at least, above) Venus might entail. I haven’t read much fiction concerning Venus; Künsken lampshades this in the book by reminding us that the major exploratory nations kind of wrote Venus off as a dead end after their few probes. So I love that Künsken looked at this planet and said, “No, there is so much more to talk about here,” and then turned that into reality. While this imagination was present in The Quantum Evolution books, it was spread across the numerous settings within those novels. Here, Künsken deploys it in a more concentrated way. There are exciting, cinematic scenes that would be incredible to reify on film if anyone ever wanted to adapt this series. After the success of The Expanse I could easily see this working as a TV show.

Beyond the poetical vistas and musing on the stark, brutalist beauty of Venus’ surface and atmosphere, The House of Styx also features excellent characters and relationships. First we have the interplay among the D’Aquillon family themselves. Künsken invests each character with such an interesting, three-dimensional personality, from the steady, dependable Marthe to the black sheep of Étienne. There’s the relentlessly warm Jean-Eudes, who has Down’s syndrome, and then of course, there is my personal favourite character, Pascale.

I was not expecting a trans character in this book, and I think that says something important about our expectations for trans representation in literature. There is this misconception sometimes, I think, that for books to feature trans characters then their coming out/transition/journey must be the main focus of the story. That’s all that’s important about us, right? So the fact that here it’s not the main plot, and that feels unusual, is so important. Künsken’s portrayal of Pascale’s journey—the questioning, the agonizing over the questioning and her dysmorphia, the acceptance she receives from the people in whom she has confided so far—is excellent. Yet it all happens as a subplot within a book that is, really, more about exploration and the power struggles within a small colony.

Other cis authors, pay attention: this is how you do it. Normalize trans people existing against the backdrop of your larger story. Pascale is far from the only character who grows and undergoes challenges in this book. Each of the main characters struggles with the responsibilities that the D’Aquillon discovery foists upon them, as well as their own flaws and fears. And of course, there is a truly heartbreaking event at the climax of the story that no doubt will set up some intra-family conflict in the sequels.

Indeed, the character dynamics in The House of Styx are just great. There are very few one-dimensional characters here—even the nominal antagonist, Présidente Gaschel, gets some page-time from her third-person limited perspective so that we can understand why she’s acting the way she does and avert the idea that she is a bumbling, maniacal villain. Meanwhile, the people who ally themselves with the D’Aquillons do so cautiously. There is no automatic, trite pledges of loyalty here. There is careful discussion of the economic and political ramifications of what they plan to do. There are also other power dynamics at work: sex and attraction, resource management in a resource-scarce environment, etc. Künsken carefully layers all of the rich ingredients that together form our spheres of human motivations.

So, in the end, what do we have here? The House of Styx is a science-fiction novel set on/above Venus but with the potential to open up into so much more in the sequels. It focuses on a core group of characters who are diverse in personalities, sexualities, gender identities, etc., including an excellent portrayal of a young trans woman. I do want to be clear: I’m not giving this book 5 stars just because there’s a trans character here (though that helps); even without such a character this novel is an excellent story in every respect. But Künsken’s attention to so many aspects of characterization truly elevates it. After the clunky, sexist read that was Foundation and Earth, this was such a refreshing contrast from the tunnel-vision of so-called “classic” science fiction. The House of Styx is exactly what I want from modern-day science fiction: it is imaginative, inclusive, and incredible.

Thank you Solaris and NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

After seeing the title and reading the premise, I was pumped to read this book. I have always loved Greek mythology so the title was super intriguing. The River Styx, in Greek mythology forms the boundary between Earth and the Underworld. I liked the homage to that in the title, since life on Venus sounds incredibly hard and, according to the fantastic descriptions, sounds like you are in limbo between life and death.

That is one thing that Kunsken did amazingly well. The world-building was very strong. He gave in depth descriptions of the civilization, the clothing, and atmosphere of Venus, as well as certain aspects of each characters life. It was almost too descriptive in certain spots, but some people may like that, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

However, as good as the world-building was, I felt that it could carry the story since the actual plot seemed to be very minimal after the first 30% of the book. The pacing to move forward was incredibly slow and as soon as one interesting thing happened, it seemed to be set on the backburner so that we could explore the characters. I really like character development, but when it helps to move the plot further instead of staying stagnant. Being marketed as an action-packed sci-fi, I found it more like a contemporary lit book that just happened to be set in space. While it wasn't the book for me, I know there will be a lot of fans that do find that they love this book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. The opinions expressed herein are mine alone and may not reflect the views of the author, publisher, or distributor.

I didn't know before now that I needed a book about colonization on Venus.

We always get Mars in the science fiction world, or in one case I've read, Jupiter. Or we have to go all the way out of bounds of our own solar system to reach a new world. When an author makes a jump to a planet that seems uninhabitable, then makes us think it's possible to live there (albeit after dire hardship), then I've been sold.

I'm a sucker for family relationships in stories, especially involving either mother-daughter bonds or the complicated working out of sibling relationships. In such a hostile environment, against such odds, finally seeing a story where I could feel the love--not just the tension--between family members was a wonderful change. We need more families in science fiction.

I know, I know. The publishing world is overrun with series. But then you get a fresh new voice, and...well, you can't help yourself. You want more. I want more. The beginning was a bit slow, and sometimes the prose a bit stilted, but it's the start of something beautiful. Gimme.

The plot's emphasis is on the D’Aquillons, a family of settlers originating from Canada. They are largely independent from the Banks and Federations that govern life on Venus as the result of a personal disagreement. Scouting the surface of Venus for potential minerals that they can sell, They discover an impossible wind going into a cave on the surface of Venus while looking for minerals to sell.. Would this discovery change both them and the Mankind forever?

Great world-building! Even though the world the author was trying to create came across the pages very vividly, it was overwhelming at times. I felt like at certain points i got lost in the details which took my attention away from the story and slowed my reading. I do not read science-fiction books frequently; it is a genre I am trying to read more in. However, i am the type of reader who focuses more on the character development and the plot development, rather than the scenery and other details. In my opinion, this book definitely delivered on the development on certain characters. It is a great beginning for a series.

The House of Styx is the first book I’ve read by Derek Künsken, but it certainly won’t be the last, as this was one of those books that seized hold of my imagination and heart and didn’t let go. I was fascinated by the premise from the get-go, especially ‘life, can exist anywhere. And anywhere there is life, there is home,’ which for me, immediately humanised this story. Because that is one of the things, I loved about this book, that while it is undoubtedly ‘hard Sci-fi’, it is far more than that. As it doesn’t focus on spaceships or journeys across galaxies, but is rather a more detailed exploration of life and survival on a single planet, and of the lives of those who have carved out an existence there. It is about colonisation and family, identity and belonging, survival and life.

The House of Styx is beautifully detailed, while treading the careful balance between the science and the narrative, without losing the latter amongst the technical language. Instead, Künsken uses detailed research and technical language to create a world that feels fantastically real while using it to enrich the story he has brought to life. I thoroughly enjoyed the depth of the descriptions, and the jargon, as I love that level of detail and realism in my Sci-fi, although it may not be too everyone’s taste. However, I found that it made the worldbuilding reach a whole other level and created a vivid image of the harsh environment on Venus, and the ingenious ways that the settlers were finding to survive. One of the most fascinating aspects about this book for me was that it wasn’t set within some far-flung galaxy but our own. And on the more unusual setting of Venus, which I don’t think I have encountered before, and that on top of this worldbuilding made House of Styx a stand out read for me.

I will say that at times I found that the narrative seemed to lose focus, but for the most part, it was well-paced, and deliciously layered not just with detailed descriptions, but intrigue and tension that built throughout the narrative. I was not prepared for where the book went towards the end, but although a little surprised, I felt that it worked well and lay a strong foundation for the rest of the series.

The characters do not lose out to the richness of the worldbuilding. I felt that all of them were strongly written in their own way, each adding fascinating threads to the narrative although there are places where it feels as though we have not been given a chance to get to know them as well as some of the more major characters. However, considering this is the first in a series, there is room for that to change, and even as they stand, these characters are interesting. There were a few that stood out even beyond this, and in particular, I found Pascal’s character and plotline to be one of the most interesting, and powerful in the entire book. However, what truly stood out for me was Künsken’s exploration of characters dealing with lesser represented issues from down syndrome to gender identity, and at a deeply personal level, because regardless of the scale of the world, this was a story about the people.

This was a book that refuses to be bound by its genre, taking the SF elements and making it so much more, and written in such a way that it captures not only your imagination but your heart. I would unreservedly recommend this book to anyone who loves Sci-fi, especially with a leaning towards hard Sci-fi, and to anyone who is looking for something different and wonderfully human within that genre.

The House of Styx is set on Venus. The author did a great job in developing the setting and his attention to the details really brings you into the story. The people mostly live in man made habitats above the clouds, but there are some that live further down in the clouds in habitats made from giant floating plants. The story focuses on a family that lives down below with two of the adult children living above for different reasons. The daughter, Marthe, takes care of the family business and the son, Emile, moved up there to get away from his father five years ago.

While the father, George-Etienne, and his youngest son, 16 year old Pascal, were exploring a mysterious occurrence on the planet surface, they discovered something unexpected, which drives the rest of the book. Mixed in is a well written subplot about Pascal trying to figure out who he is.

This is book one in a new series and I am disappointed that I could not find a hint of when the next book will be released. Looks like it will be a long wait to find out what happens next.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley to review.