"Hugo award–nominated author Stina Leicht has created a take on space opera for fans of The Mandalorian and Cowboy Bebop in this high-stakes adventure.

Persephone Station, a seemingly backwater planet that has largely been ignored by the United Republic of Worlds becomes the focus for the Serrao-Orlov Corporation as the planet has a few secrets the corporation tenaciously wants to exploit.

Rosie - owner of Monk’s Bar, in the corporate town of West Brynner, caters to wannabe criminals and rich Earther tourists, of a sort, at the front bar. However, exactly two types of people drank at Monk’s back bar: members of a rather exclusive criminal class and those who sought to employ them.

Angel - ex-marine and head of a semi-organized band of beneficent criminals, wayward assassins, and washed up mercenaries with a penchant for doing the honorable thing is asked to perform a job for Rosie. What this job reveals will effect Persephone and put Angel and her squad up against an army. Despite the odds, they are rearing for a fight with the Serrao-Orlov Corporation. For Angel, she knows that once honor is lost, there is no regaining it. That doesn’t mean she can’t damned well try."

Yep, space cowboy time!

There was a TON of diversity & many forms of representation. There is a full cast of women and a nonbinary character. There is disability rep, action packed fight scenes and beautiful world building. Persephone Station even has this beautiful cyberpunk feel to everything.


However, there were moments not love. The disability was only casually mentioned and it didn’t seem to affect the character enough to make it feel real. It felt glossed over rushed.
And let’s not forget to mention our nonbinary character stood out in a world that should have been built better for nonbinary folx. If you’re going to include diversity that is not from your own voice, you have to make sure you’re doing it for the people you’re representing and not to tick off a check Mark on a box.


That said, Persephone Station receives four stars from me. But also, I highly recommend NOT listening to the audio...(the dialogue tags are repetitive and will make you want to bang your head against a wall). So pick up a physical copy - or an ebook if that’s your thing - I still recommend this book to you!

**I was provided with an ARC through netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

A fun and fresh take on the genre with much to love but not without its flaws.

Set on a backwater planet, Persephone Station primarily follows a band of mercenaries under contract with a criminal boss. A particular job that they undergo puts them head to head with a corrupt Earther corporation who are hell-bent on exploiting the planets resources and eradicating its native species - The Emissaries, who want nothing more than to remain discrete from the rest of the universe.

There is also a secondary storyline following a character who finds themselves on the planet after following a distress call that only they can hear.

Action packed, this is a Space Opera-Western mashup that has a cinematic feel to it. In fact what caught my attention about this book to begin with was how it was described to have an air of Cowboy Bebop, Firefly and The Mandalorian and I’d say the vibes are definitely there.

It is very much a plot-driven story with intriguing political commentary and a cast of characters that you can’t help but get attached to. However, I do feel like the story could have maybe benefitted from being split into more than one book.

A slow and slightly info-dumpy beginning sets the story off, giving you a feel for the boisterous weather of another world and immersing you right into the noir city scene of West Brynner, but you have to push through a good 40% of the book before things really start to get interesting. Not only that, the world-building doesn’t really expand further than Persephone. Other than giving an insight on the political side of things and the United Republic of Worlds being name dropped a handful of times, we learn hardly anything about the rest of this universe. This wasn’t exactly a bad thing, it’s just that you’re left wanting more!

Furthermore though the two storylines weave and intersect one another perfectly, it did feel like there was a little too much going on so at times the story felt a little rushed and it was a case of more telling rather than showing with the action. A particularly gripping section towards the end where some big reveals occurred was wrapped up so quickly compared to other events in the book and I just wish it had had more page time.

However, there were so much to love about this book too! The sci-fi elements were exciting and well researched particularly when it came to The Emissaries and the discussions and ethics around artificial intelligence. I absolutely loved the main cast of characters who were all either female or non-binary. Each of them, despite having again a sort of info-dumpy introduction, was beautifully nuanced and their relationships and interactions with one another added both great humour and so much emotion to the narrative. I was personally a big fan of Angel de la Reza who sort of reminded me of Bobby Draper from The Expanse.

So my feelings are slightly conflicted but all in all I'd say this book is a solid Sci-Fi debut and I’d probably be interested if the author ever decided to return to this universe.
Final Rating - 3.5/5 Stars

📖A bar-owner-slash-mercenary contracts a team of mercenaries to protect a small planet of aliens. And then things happen. And the ending comes totally out of left field and I’m still a little confused about it to be honest.

👍The characters are fantastic. They’re all based on some pretty iconic archetypes in western and heist narratives. Plus, the cast is highly diverse and I’m always going to get excited about a character with they/them pronouns.

👎I truly can’t tell you what happened in this book. The pacing was really weird. There was too much page space devoted to laying out the plans and preparation for the action and then all the action was all crammed in the last few chapters.

⚠️mild content warnings for violence

——————
THE VERDICT: this was one of my most anticipated books of the year. The cover is gorgeous and the description caught my attention immediately. I wish it lived up to my hype.

⭐️⭐️⭐️
📚Recommended for fans of Ninefox Gambit and Cowboy Beebop.
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Thank you to @netgalley and @gallerybooks for providing me with a #reviewcopy
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A no holds barred, fully feminist and fulsome military SF space opera that showcases the talents of the author in a new subgenre..

You can read the full review at Nerds of a Feather.

This cover had me so excited! It is gorgeous! The synopsis was intriguing as well, but in the end, it was kind of a let down.

Good things: Space action! Lots of space action, a lot of fighting scenes: women wielding guns, flying spacecrafts, controlling robots - a strong female cast of mercenaries. Lots of BIPOC and LGBTQ rep that include sapphic and non binary people. A really cool race of aliens, AGIs and AIs. An interesting planet with so much to explore and see. Loved the visuals. It was a glorious idea for a space opera that just didn't fully hit the mark for me.

Big issue was the pacing. The book starts out with action and then ends with action. The middle just dwindled. I get it, there are a lot of things to reveal and set up. But through it all, I kind of lost interest in the characters and their reasons for going through with their actions. In the end I just wanted it to be over, even if the reveals were a bit unexpected and shall I say, evil?

This is a standalone, but there are things that were kind of left unanswered, so maybe a future spin off?

Thank you to Saga press for approving this read on Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Persephone Station has been marketed as for the fans of Cowboy Bebop and The Mandalorian. These comparisons... along with the amazing cover... are what peaked my interest in the book. However, Persephone Station does not actually contain any traveling through space. For me, this was a surprise and a let down.

Persephone Station is a multiple point of view story that is focused on exploring colonialism, empowered women, raising diverse voices, and noble criminals. While I love to see all of the above in books, this story didn’t connect with me as much as I wish that it had. The story is fast-paced and action packed. So much so that I didn’t connect with the characters a great deal, which lead me to cars less about the high stakes situations that our characters ended up in. I believe this sort of narrative is comply found in science fiction, but I typically read fantasy... which is often more character driven. Therefore, I believe that people who enjoy science fiction and fast-paced stories will love this book!

I enjoyed the diverse array of characters introduced in this story, along with the discussions around colonialism.

Persephone Station by Stina Leicht is a well-written and action-packed LGBT+ sci-fi space opera that's worth sticking with. It took me about a quarter of the book to really get into it, but by the end I was firmly invested. There's not a whole lot of world-building which is the biggest detriment to the novel. I mean, there are quite a few great sci-fi details but I didn't have a sense of the wider world beyond what was directly in front of me. My favorite aspect though was the diverse cast, especially in the second half as it was all really beginning to really come together for me. I wouldn't exactly call them good people, but they were fascinating to read. Plus, they didn't mess around when it comes right down to it. Overall, I'm glad I gave this stand alone novel a try and I'm going to have to try more of Leicht's work in the future.

Yep, I enjoyed the hell out of book. One, it has a stunning cover that I cannot remove my eyes from. And second, Persephone Station is a badass queer space opera that is slick, edgy, and is the punch in the face I needed. The more books in space with Be Gay, Do Crime, the better.

Right. So one of the selling points on this book to me, the reason I requested it was the plot. Crime boss recruits a ragtag crew of talented mercenary women with hearts adjacent to gold for a super dangerous (maybe illegal) mission. What came as a delightful surprise is that Rosie, the hard-ass crime boss mentioned on the back cover, uses They/Them pronouns.

Aside: publishers, writers of back cover copy, I wish you'd stop hiding the queer shit, especially when a character is nonbinary. There. Moving on.

I dug Rosie immediately, and loved how their gender presentation changed throughout. I like how they played a roll in making sure that the indigenous species that is under fire from the big bad corp was protected, a great anti-colonial theme going on. I could have used a little more, maybe earlier on, about the motivations of the villain, but hoo boy that ending was a ride! The battle scenes are fantastically written. What else? Oh yes. I can't leave this review without saying the one reason this book can't hit the 5-star mark for me, and that's the gender inclusion; it still needed some work. But Hell Yes for the cool AF Rosie. They are in my pantheon of favorite characters.

I wouldn't mind a second book, just sayin.

3.75 Stars. This was a pretty exciting space opera. When I heard about a sci-fi book that was filled with lesbian, bisexual, and non-binary characters, my interest was immediately piqued. And of course when I saw the cover I knew I had to read this. The cover art is just so good. I do want to apologize to Gallery/Saga for being a little late with this review. Between watching the Senate returns, then an actual insurrection, and dealing with a migraine on and off for 3 days, I could not get into the flow of the book. I’m so glad I finally got this read and while it wasn’t everything I was hoping for, I did enjoy it.

While the book had a large cast of characters, there were three main characters that most of the POV times was spent in, Angel, Kennedy, and Rosie. Angle is ex-military and current mercenary, Rosie is a crime boss, and Kennedy who is hiding the biggest secret of all. This brings me to my main issue with this book in that I wanted more character development. There was some really good character potential here, between main and secondary characters, but I think some characters were harder to connect with then they should have been. Kennedy, was my favorite but I think it was because she had the biggest and most important backstory. The times that I liked all three main characters the best was when we were getting important details of their past and how it shaped who they were today. Rosie past, Angel’s family, and Kennedy’s sisters and her fight for humanity were all parts when I really cared about the mains. I wish there was more of those really affective and well written character parts throughout the book.

I know a lot of people that read my reviewers always want to know if a book has a romance. This does not have any. There are some characters with girlfriends or boyfriends, but they are mainly secondary characters and the relationships are more just mentioned in passing. I had this weird hope that Angel and Kennedy might end up at least in the same place together. Trust me I get how weird that is, and you will too when you read this book, but I could not help thinking they might make an interesting pair.

This book had a good mix of excitement. With everything going on this past week, I was struggling to get into the book. The beginning felt like a bit of a slog and I just could not get comfortable reading. Luckily, once the book found its groove, the story flow was so much better. Just about the last two thirds were exciting, action-packed, and more fun to read. So if you find the beginning a little bumpy, don’t worry because the action eventually heats up.

This book is not supposed to be a series but I could see a spin-off as a possibility. There is an alien race that is really interesting and I think Leicht has only just scratched the surface on what this race could become. A race of people that can shapeshift and speak to animals, were just really well done and interesting and I would love to see them star in their own book.

I would recommend this to space opera fans, especially if you are looking for book casts that are mostly women and non-binary characters. I was happy about the diversity and queerness of so many characters. Again, I did want more of a connection to many of the characters then I had. Lives were on the line in this book I wanted to feel that worry, but this didn’t quite grab me enough. The action and excitement where good and Kennedy is character that will stick with me. If Leicht ever writes a spin-off I would read it.

I’m waffling between giving this one 3.5 or 4 stars, but I’m going to settle on 4 because in honest truth there’s a lot that I liked about this book. I have critiques, but ultimately the story is solid, the characters enjoyable, and the plot easy enough to follow.

Summarizing this book is difficult without spoilers, which I avoid. But here we go:

There’s a planet called Persephone. There are indigenous, sentient life forms living on that planet that only a syndicate knows about. The Emissaries provide the syndicate with advanced technology and Serrao-Orlov provides them with goods necessary to survive, along with anonymity and invisibility. No one bothers them. Until, that is, a new power rises in Serrao-Orlov. She promises to salt and burn the earth in an effort to get the scientific information she wants from the Emissaries. Enter Rosie, a crime boss with a connection to the indigenous people, who hires Angel de la Reza and the rest of her crew to defend the settlement from an all out attack.

It gets more complicated and nuanced than that, as Kennedy Liu joins the fray with a mission of her own. But that’s where spoilers and surprises abound and some things are better off enjoyed.

Because the book shines with the unexpected. For one thing, something I never expect in this day and age even, is that the entire cast is either female or nonbinary. I’m not even joking. A boyfriend shows up at 39% with about a page of dialogue, if that. Of the main cast, I think about half are BIPOC and the rest I’m not 100% sure are white. It’s a good time, ya’ll.

For another thing, the “aliens” are truly aliens in this and the AIs don’t fall fully into human ruts. I appreciate the differences that are highlighted, the little reminders that although these characters may appear human for ease (and story), they are not.

I knew plot twists were coming, of course, but that’s because the pacing was steady and moved the way a story should. Every time something began to settle, something else popped up. But I’m pleased to say that most of the twists either surprised me, until just before they happened, or were welcome by me. It is an engaging story and one that kept me coming back to it with its action and plot.

Things I Liked About this Book:
+ The rep. THE REP. SO MUCH. It’s a beautiful thing and I cannot emphasize it enough. I know books aren’t built on the cast of characters alone, but it’s hard not to just be impressed by these people and their stories. The characters are all unique and have different motivations, which twist together to make for a motley crew of ladies in action.
+ The action, actually. I’m not big on fight scenes or on “Mission: Impossible”-esque situations, but this book made me enjoy them. I followed what was going on, which is an amazing thing, truly. I enjoyed what was going on. It was just descriptive enough to keep images in my head but condensed enough to keep me going without a slog.
+ The plot is a long and tangled thing, but I like that. I found interest in the story and what was going to happen to the characters in the very beginning. The main story only develops about halfway through the book, but I was still interested in the opening salvo, so to speak.

Things I Did Not Like About this Book:
- The opening is a bit typical in the sense that you are thrown a lot of “alien” and technologically advanced information in short order as the author tries to establish her world. I tripped over a few things in the beginning. But honestly, this isn’t even a hard criticism because at some point I let it all wash over me, much like you have to do, say, A Game of Thrones and go with the story until it makes sense. It does, in the end. Just have faith.
- Kind of disappointed in the character of Angel de la Reza. Not because I don’t love her, but because she didn’t really seem to have any faults. The story is told a lot from her perspective and includes thoughts from her. Everything in the narrative rationalizes what she does into being quite reasonable. She is, altogether, very reasonable. That’s good because I understand where she’s coming from. But it also doesn’t make for a very dynamic character. I would have loved to see her truly lose her shit on someone, or make a fatal error in pursuit of honor. Instead, she’s just very even keeled. Again, fine, and I love her still. But for a main character, she’s a bit too good in that regard.

Ultimately, I really do think Stina Leicht deserves a pat on the back for this and I will be looking out for her books in the future. I would love to see more from this world, too. The ultimate fate of some characters are left open and I’m curious to know more about what happens to them and how the setting carries on after the events of the novel.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Honestly, I don't think I could have loved this book more. From the start I was well and truly hooked by the socio-cultural aspects of the interesting world of Brynner but soon I was overtaken by a cast of colorful and lovable characters. As someone always looking to sci-fi and fantasy for a stretch beyond the current world, I was happy to see the diversity of race and orientation in the characters, including a main nonbinary character and comfortable usage of they/them pronouns. These aspects fit seamlessly into the world of Brynner and that's a sign of fantastic worldbuilding in my eyes. The worldbuilding is very fluid too as it's woven into the plot itself, never overwhelming the reader with big chunks of exposition.

The characters truly shine in this story and I find it impossible to choose a favorite. Each of them are wonderful on their own and amazing when put together. I could not put the book down because I cared so deeply about what was happening to them. The plot itself has great pacing throughout the story with the last third or so being a true rush to the climax in the best possible way. Even though the book is a standalone, and ends beautifully, I'm desperate for a second book. I need more from this world and these characters! I'll just have to keep hoping. Until then, I'll be recommending this one to any and every fantasy and sci-fi reader I know.


Note: I received a free electronic edition of this book via NetGalley in exchange for the honest review above. I would like to thank them, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to do so.

This review can also be found on my blog, Where the Words Take Me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for offering this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was taken in by Stina Leicht’s Persephone Station the moment I saw its beautifully artistic cover and was sold when I read what it was being compared to: a blend of Cowboy Bebop and The Mandalorian but with a leading cast of women, non-binary, and queer characters.

Upon reading it, however, my excitement quickly fizzled. By far the coolest thing about the book is its cover, not the representation it delivers. The author seems to have focused so hard on providing good, squeaky-clean diversity and rep that she forgot a key element: making the characters and its plot interesting. There isn’t a hint of the eclectic friction found in the Cowboy Bebop cast, and it’s also sorely missing the heart of The Mandalorian. If I could sum up Persephone Station and its characters in a few words, they would be “safe and boring.”

First, though, a slight overview. The planet of Persephone is controlled by rival gangs and the Serrao-Orlov Corporation. However, the planet is secretly home to an indigenous group of beings called the Emissaries, which would make any of Serrao-Orlov’s claims to the planet in violation of galactic law. The CEO of the corporation wants to keep the Emissaries a secret and exploit them for her own gains. Rosie, the criminal gang leader running Monk’s Bar, has their own reasons for wanting to protect the Emissaries, so they hire a group of mercenaries for what could be a suicide run. Enter Angel de la Reza and her rag-tag crew, Lou, Enid, and Sukyi.

For the first third of Persephone Station, info-dumping abounds but it doesn’t seem to say much. While it tells me way too much about every character’s backstory while glossing over key details, it doesn’t offer these facts in a way that makes any character sound particularly unique or contributes to a sense of world-building, which often feels like a neglected addition. I have no idea why Catholicism, for instance, is emphasized so much as having contributed to the colonization of space beyond a subtle dig from the author, perhaps. Old Earth is mentioned, along with a plague that made many people leave it for space, but it rings hollow, nowhere near fully fleshed out despite it being a core backstory element of one character.

Speaking of the characters, they all largely get along with no problems. Aside from some weak banter, Angel, Lou, Enid, and Sukyi have no intriguing friction between them, no interpersonal drama, no grudges, no hangups, not even any notable idiosyncrasies to distinguish them from each other. None of them are even dating each other, either. Which, you know, friendship is all well and good, but if everyone is wonderful and amazing and cool with each other, then it makes for an incredibly dull affair to read. They are all defined much more by their rep and what jobs they perform on the ship than personality traits.

Diversity and representation is a good thing, but characterization cannot stop there. Well-written characters need to be so much more than that. They need to have defined good and bad traits, and those need to be played with. Having all four of Angel’s crew on the page at the same time is like reading the same character non-stop. It got to the point where I was skipping over dialogue tags because it really didn’t matter much who was saying what. There was never a sense that any character had a character arc or was growing in any direction, positively or negatively.

Rosie got a few more extra points for being non-binary, but they are not in the book enough to make too much of an impression. For being a gang leader, they are also remarkably bland. Where is the spice? Where are the moral contradictions, the internal battles, the dirty dealings? Have I mentioned I was bored the whole time?

By the halfway mark, action was at least happening on the page, but at this point I didn’t care about any of the characters for it to make a difference. The actions that happened to them stirred no reaction in me, and far too often, characters were doing things only because the plot demanded it of them. I couldn’t click with their reasoning for doing anything, cocooned in Plot Armor as it was; character motivations and personal desires just weren’t in the picture. The only character who remotely piqued my interest at all was Kennedy Liu; in fact, her entire AI side plot was far more interesting than the grand majority of the book, and yet it is barely covered. At the same time, it matters a lot to the main plot. Most of the time, I thought the author had forgotten about it.

Essentially, for being a 512-page book, Persephone Station attempts to do far too much without succeeding at anything. At the same time, it makes perfect sense to be a standalone because I’m not sure where other books could go with such a shaky foundation, which was stretched all too thin. Perhaps others will find comfort in such straight and narrow characters and plot, but I need conflict beyond a weak stand against a capitalistic villain if I’m to have a good time.

Persephone Station hovers over a backwater planet that's largely forgotten, but the Serrano-Orlov Corporation knows secrets exist there that they want to exploit. Rosie owns Monk's Bar, a place where mercenaries can go for a drink or to be hired. They hire Angel, a former marine and the head of a wayward group that tends to do the right thing. This job pits them all against the corporation, but it's a fight Angel's willing to have.

Persephone Station is billed as a space opera for fans of The Mandalorian and Cowboy Bebop, both series I love. Of course, I would want to read this, and it definitely doesn't disappoint. Technology not only augments a person's physiology but can (to a point) resurrect someone dead for another tour of duty. Frequent resurrections will create problems, mostly neurological, it's not a viable solution for the average person. Spaceships have their own artificial intelligence, but there are no AI's that are considered actual conscious entities. Kennedy Liu is one and will have to hide her identity as she tries to investigate an emerging consciousness asking for help. This brings her to Persphone, right when the gang wars are coming to a head, and Rosie's neutral space is rapidly no longer neutral. They have a history with the new head of the corporation, as well as with the indigenous population on the planet that had been hidden from sight.

We start with an assassination op that is tricky to do from the start, giving us a chance to meet Angel and the rest of her team, as well as the rivalries on Persephone and the technology available. It's woven in so deftly, you don't even notice that you're being immersed in this world. It isn't obvious at first how Kennedy's story ties to that of Angel and Rosie; their tie is clear, as Rosie hires Angel to take out a gang leader leaving bodies in their bar's territory, which is terribly bad for business. That op might have gone well, but a simultaneous op went on at the same time. In time, it becomes clear that there were three different factions at play in that moment, leaving the planet up for grabs by a ruthless woman that wants the tech the indigenous population has.

These are mercenaries with a heart of gold, going from killing for money to protecting the indigenous from the corporation that would cheerfully plunder their tech, raze their homes to the ground (and had in the past), and continue to turn out a hefty profit exploiting their knowledge. There is a selfish purpose, too, and the last ties come together at the very end. It's rough and tumble at the edge of the galaxy, which makes for fascinating and wonderful storytelling. There are different genders and sexualities treated as normal, different cultures and ethnicities, and different ethical compasses being used. Angel is essentially the leader of a girl gang, and never once does it feel forced. I don't know if this is planned to be a series, but I hope so! So many of the supporting characters had a presence and history all their own, and I would love to see future adventures starring them.

I love a good space opera. When I read the description, it called to mind Joss Whedon's Firefly, and I thought, oh, heck yes, I must read this! It also interested me because I've realized that my reading material is sometimes lacking in diversity, and it's good to expand one's horizons. So, space opera, female protagonists (and antagonists), broadening my reading universe - all good things. I was excited to get started!

The actual reading, though, didn't hook me quite as much as I'd hoped. It took a good chunk of the book - maybe 25-30% - for the story to really grab hold of me. The early portion focused on giving the reader a lot of information without doing a great job of using that information to build and develop the setting.

Once I got past that first part, the book was more engaging and read much more quickly. It had some fairly standard sci-fi tropes - the evil corporation looking to take over a vulnerable planet while trying not to look like a villain, the criminal with a heart of gold, artificial intelligence. It also had a lot of ripping good battle scenes, if those are your jam.

The characters were also interesting, for the most part. I was particularly intrigued by Kennedy, the AI who can apparently take human form. I would have liked to know more about her and her sisters, who were apparently not in human form. What's their backstory? And I won't give away what happened, but there were some parts of the story that just made me tear up.

But some things I didn't really understand. What was with the sickness that we read about? Why was exposure to the Emissaries deadly for humans? If Vissia was sick and going to die, why wasn't she a candidate for revivification? It would have been nice to have those questions answered more fully. Is Ms. Leicht going to write a sequel? Maybe so. If she does, I might read it.

And if you're looking for diversity in your cast of characters, you'll find it here. Gay, non-binary, people of color, they're all here. The only thing I found distracting was that Rosie's pronouns were they/them, and in scenes where Rosie's point of view was used as well as the point of view of any other group of characters, it sometimes became a bit muddled to figure out to whom "they" or "them" was referring.

Persephone Station gets three and a half stars from me. The story itself gets three stars, and I bump it up a half-star for Ms. Leicht's excellent creative use of the English language. She does turn an entertaining phrase! It might be worth picking up if you're a sci-fi fan and can handle finishing a book and feeling like there are loose ends still hanging.

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery/Saga Press for an advance reader copy. All opinions here are mine, and I don't say nice things about books I don't actually like.

Where to start? While it's promoted to appeal to fans of the Mandalorian and Cowboy Bebop, it felt more akin to Firefly and Outlaw Star. To which I have no complaints! While the first third of the book is an info dump in order to get the reader familiar with the world and how it functions, you soon find yourself hooked on the action and connected with the diverse and engaging, female led, cast of characters. It had all the great aspects of a good sci-fi story, by using a futuristic backdrop to address real world issues. Even if you're not a fan of sci-fi, this queer space opera may change your mind!


*I received this title as a free advance digital copy and this does not influence my review or opinion.

Persephone Station by Stina Leicht is a confusing female lead space opera. This novel is very confusing especially at the beginning, this is one I fought with myself over do not finishing but I pushed through. The story is like a one off episode of Star Wars The Clone Wars, merged with some characters from the Alien franchise, there's an Ellen Ripley in Angel, there's a Call in Kennedy, and a whole lot of Private Vasquezs. The character are different but most of them all talk the same. The plot is pretty crazy and doesn't really start going until half way, we get the villains motives at the 90 percent mark. There is bits of exciting action but once again most it is often hard to follow. The bear action scenes were awesome. The best part of this novel is when the Merc crew talks crap to each other, there's some good lines that I would include in this review but I read an ARC copy, thanks to Netgalley and Gallery Books, and can not post words since they are subject to change. The book does have a non-binary character and lesbian characters to represent the LBGTQ. When I read the description I had high hopes for this novel as it is being publicized as a female lead Mandolorian like space opera, but I just did not enjoy it.

The Plot: Women with political influence start getting murdered, they are linked to indigenous alien race that have advance technology. The villain wants the tech for her own devices. The Merc crew perform a suicide mission protecting the race against and army of mech suited soldiers.

What I Liked: The scenes of the women talking crap about past missions and relationships was the best I wish it had more scenes like that. The bear verse mech suit was the highlight of action, there's another scene where one of the aliens communicates with a bear that was pretty cool. There is some great lines of dialogue, most take place in the two talking crap scenes. I do love te female empowerment and LGBTQ representation. I like the characters of Angel, Kennedy, Beak, and Sukyi. The relationship with Angel and the ship the Kurosawa was a special one.

What I Disliked: The whole first half of this book is so rough, you will have twenty names in the first thirty pages and 17 of them all talk the same, making it impossible to form a connection. It jumps a round to weird spots, who set up the log bobby traps? why is one team now separated when they were just together? The villain's motive is way too late the woman seems to be evil and then she starts getting bossed around, it was bad. The world building is half realized, or we as the reader only see half of it. Catholic religion is brought in briefly then never talked about again.

Recommendation: I recommend you skip this book if you need LGTBQ charters in a science fiction setting please check out the excellent Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. Star Wars the ultimate for your space opera fix. The Star Wars series has been bad about not having too many strong female protagonists, but has been slowly changing and making effort for more, so check out the newer novels. I rated Persephone Station by Stina Leicht 2 out of 5 stars.

This was a sci fi adventure that grabbed me and kept me turning the page long after bedtime! Every main character is either a woman or non-binary. It features an underdog crew of mercenaries defending a secret sentient indigenous population being exploited and attacked by an greedy corporation that wants to take over the planet and its resources at any cost. There are plenty of out of the frying pan into the fire moments as the rebels fight to protect the indigenous beings. It took a while to get going, and I liked the build up and development of the story. Once the plot really got moving, I was completely drawn in and couldn't wait to see what happened. I really enjoyed the themes of anti-colonialism, diversity -- especially with regards to the gender spectrum, and powerful women and nonbinary people. Oh yeah, and there's sentient artificial intelligence too! I really enjoyed the world that the author created, the characters and their exploits. I love an engaging adventure, witty banter, strong women, diverse representation, rooting for the underdog, and social justice -- this story had it all. This didn't end in a cliffhanger, but leaves room for future episodes. I hope that is the case!

[2.5 Stars]

-- Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review --

Pros:
- The cast of characters in this book were quite loveable as well as diverse + representative
- A lot of the dialogue was really fun and made me laugh. I liked how witty everyone was and I felt like individual character personalities really showed through in how they talked.
- This book was high action, which I found to be quite fun. Basically 50% of it is a giant battle scene, so I definitely was never bored
- The concept behind The Emmisaries was intriguing in itself and I really want more about them and their history

Cons:
- While I think the main conflict and story arc were really interesting, I think it took far too long to be fully realized. I found most events and motivations really confusing because I had no idea why certain things were happening or why I was supposed to care. It wasn't until the end of the story when stuff was finally (kinda) explained that I started to grasp the overall idea of what was happening. Withholding information might have been intended as a way to build intrigue, but instead, I found it mostly frustrating.
- There were a decent amount of dropped + unnecessary storylines.
**Caution, SPOILERS ahead**
In the first chapter, it was heavily implied that Beak had contaminated Vissia with a virus that allowed for editing of the human genome, and later in the story, Rosie notices Vissia sounds sick over the phone. Yet this is never resolved or explained. What was the purpose of that?
Also, we're informed that Vissia and Rosie were treated by The Emissaries and now have a longer lifespan. And this means that they can't have kids? Yet Vissia does anyway, but her kid is born without a frontal lobe (yet still lives to be decades old)? I wanted way more explanation on this. On why only these two humans were given this treatment, what exactly it does for them, why they can't have kids, and why they can't leave the planet for a long time (and The Emmissaires for that matter too).
Furthermore, Sukyi's illness never felt like it was ever explained properly. Perhaps I missed it, but I kept waiting for an explanation of this plague she has and what it means (why it seemingly isn't contagious), but I never got one. Also, the fact that Sukyi has a kid felt really out of the blue and unnecessary.
- The ending felt quite rushed compared to the pacing of the rest of the story. It's like we finally got to the big climax and started receiving the answers we were waiting for and then......epilogue. I wish either we had received those answers earlier, or the ending had been stretched out so that the weight of everything could be fully realized.

Overall, although there was a lot to like, the inconsistencies in the plot/worldbuilding really held me back from being fully absorbed in the story. There were just too many times where I was confused and asking questions that were never answered. If that had been polished up a bit more, I think I really could have loved this.

The novel starts with a scene in which a delegation from an intergalactic corporation attacks the indigenous settlement in a colony. The person who leads the attack, Vissia Corsini, was previously welcomed by the indigenous population, but there was an unexplained betrayal. The book then skips ahead quite a few years, and introduces a different set of characters. Captain Angel de la Reza is hired by a crime lord to assassinate a rival, and then to protect the indigenous population, who were believed extinct. Meanwhile, the same crime lord also hires an illegal AI inside a human body, who is on the planet to track down a mysterious AI who is calling out for help.

I appreciated the inclusive vision of the future that Leicht puts forth. Human characters were denoted to be from specific regions of Earth that, using numerical logic, wouldn’t be white. In addition, there was a relaxed approach to sexuality and pronouns, with no characters ever commenting on other characters’ identities. I thought it was interesting that some characters insisted on calling the non-humanoid inhabitants indigenous, rather than alien, saying that humans were the alien ones on the planet. I also liked that Leicht kept de la Reza’s crew small, focusing on the relationships between the different women.

There were times, mostly in the beginning of the novel, where I was struggling to keep all the new characters straight. Originally, I was looking for specific indigenous characters from the first chapter, assuming they would reappear fairly quickly, not hundreds of pages in. This made it harder for me to keep the new cast of characters straight, since I was trying to suss out if they were actually a previously introduced character in disguise.

Overall, if you liked Firefly, you’ll probably like this book. It was the same elements: a rebuke of imperialism, a vibrant crew, crime with a good heart.