Under Fortunate Stars is a scifi that primarily focuses on time travel where 2 spaceships from different timelines fall into some kind of rift in space which takes them on a crazy flashback journey as it fills in the holes of the mystery. It's actually really cool and ambitious and the plot brought a really interesting perspective on the concept of time. it also involves aliens as one of the crewmates is a alien diplomat! That character subplot had me brimming with questions so a lot of layers to this one, which bring a lot of potential.
Full review to come on YouTube.

This was a great space opera! The banter was funny and super witty and wonderful. AND the pacing was great-- I absolutely flew through this story. Also, whoever designed this cover needs a raise and a chocolate chip muffin because it is *chef's kiss* stunning.

I'm not going to lie this was an impulse read because of the gorgeous cover, but the contents did not let me down. I loved this book!

I don't want to say much because piecing together what is happening was half the joy of this book. There are multiple POVs and multiple timelines and I love the way Hutchings wove it all together and the commentary it created on how history is written and remembered.

I'm not usually a fan of comparing all modern soft sci-fi to Becky Chambers, but this book truly gave me that in its inclusive softish sci-fi found family but with more plot than The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.

I was granted complimentary access to Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

Under Fortunate Stars is space opera at its best with a time travel plotline worthy of original Star Trek. Have I sparked interest? Good! You need to read this book.

I could sit here and summarize the book, re-write the synopsis, or break down POVs and timelines in detail, but I'm not going to do that. This book already has lots of those reviews and a glower above-4 star rating, it doesn't need more long-winded reviews.

What I will say is that the characters absolutely won me over. True to the space opera end of the scifi genre (as opposed to hard science fiction,) this book is all about inter-character relationships and dymaincs, and that is just so well done in this book. I loved all the banter! These characters can talk about absolutely anything and I'm invested. The characters themselves are built on interesting foundations, as well. Smugglers, academics, and historic heroes displaced in time. What more do we need?

I've heard this is a debut and that blows me away! If you love space opera, not only do you owe it to yourself to check out this book, but keep an eye out for more from Ren Hutchings.

What an epic space opera cross time-travel book!

It has twists, it has drama, and plenty of action. This is one of my favourite scifi reads of the year so far! Having to piece together everything? An absolute delight. I loved each twist as it came, and I am rather fond of the interactions with Leeg.

The writing was fast-paced, and I flew through this one pretty quickly — to nobody's surprise. The plot really worked for this aspect. I also enjoyed the multitude of characters, even though I was sometimes forgetting who was who in the book (this was probably a me thing).

Overall, this is just as smart as it is fun. I definitely recommend this one to those who like a bit of scifi!

Rating: 4/5

I picked this up because of the gorgeous cover, and I’m glad I did! It’s a really good, extremely satisfying time travel space opera.

“This is too strange to be a coincidence. It’s all connected somehow,” she said. “The engine problem, the Rift, that distress call… it’s all linked. And we need to figure out how if we want to get out of here.”


The Gallion, a corporate science ship, and its skeleton crew has been pressed into service to ferry a Felen ambassador to a conference when they suddenly end up in a null space where their engines are dead and communications don’t work. But there’s another ship in the so-called Rift with them: the Jonah, a legendary ship from more than 150 years in the past. The ship is famous for carrying the “Fortunate Five,” a group heroes who mysteriously stepped in and negotiated a last-minute end to the war between humans and the Felen. But the people on the Jonah are more a motley band of misfits than revered saviors, something the crews of both ships agree on. But with time running out, the two crews will have to work together to free themselves of the Rift… while also figuring out how to save humanity.

“Listen, when you grow up on a dust world, when you’ve seen the kind of stuff I’ve seen… you’ve got to look out for yourself first, understand? Nobody but yourself, and the handful of people you trust. If you can trust anyone at all.”


The story is told from the POVs of four main characters: Shaan, Jereth, Uma and Eldric Leesongronski. Shaan is the Facilities Coordinator on the Gallion (that is, the person who gives tours to visitors and deals with all of their questions). She’s happy to just do her job and is doing her best to forget about her past. Uma’s father worked at a Jonah museum, so she knows pretty much everything there is to know (or speculate about) the crew of the Jonah, especially Leesongronski, her personal hero. But you know what they say about meeting your heroes… Jereth is a charming rogue (think Han Solo) always looking for his next con. Eldric Leesongronski is Jereth’s straight man, a highly talented jump engineer who can’t seem to get his life, especially his personal relationships, in order.

I don’t usually like books with so many POVs, but this honestly worked for me. Each is distinct enough that I didn’t have any trouble keeping them separate, flaws and all. The scenes on the Gallion are mixed with chapters from each character’s past, revealing their backstories, failures and regrets, and how they each interconnect. The friendship between Jereth and Leesongronski is particularly fun, full of exasperated fondness and criminal hijinks. I also liked the interactions between Uma and Leesongronski as well, especially how Uma came to terms with her hero being, well, human. He’s not at all what she expected, but in some ways, he’s better. Watching him react to her near-encyclopediac knowledge of him (honestly, who wouldn’t be freaked out by “I’ve watched all of your lectures!”) was both hilarious and heart-achingly kind.

“Everything you’ve ever done, you’ve done with your whole heart. You throw yourself into things. And, yes, sometimes it’s a disaster… but sometimes it’s the only way to get it right. I trust you more than anyone else I’ve ever met.”


The characters and their relationships are the main focus, but the action isn’t neglected as well. There’s a lot of world building frontloaded into the book, though, so most of the action occurs in either the flashback chapters or towards the end of the book. As for my main con, it’s very much a “things happen for a reason” book. There’s a continuous series of, well, “fortunate” coincidences that lead to the exact group of people being on the ship at the right time, with the right components. It’s also a bit too neat how each character must come to grips with those regrets. But, in some ways, it feels right for this book. The overall message is of hope: that each person can overcome their past and make a better future together.

Overall, this book is a tremendous amount of fun. Recommended to anyone looking for a character-focused space opera who doesn’t mind a bit of fortunate plotting!

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I had a hard time getting into this book. I think I'm going to DNF it at 25%. The writing is pretty dry, and with so many characters introduced early on it has been difficult to form any attachment to them. For being stuck in space with limited battery power and no hope in sight, there was neither tension nor a sense of urgency. So much of the writing was internal dialogue it didn't move the story forward. I think this one had potential but I'm afraid it just wasn't for me.

Thank you Netgalley and Rebellion Publishing for an eARC for an honest review.

Reading Under Fortunate Stars, I had some Star Trek vibes, but not quite like Star Trek.

This is a story about a group of rogues and a science vessel from 150 years in the future, who find themselves in a wormhole and end up in sub-space. They combine their resources to get back.

The characters are all nice, average characters, which I really enjoyed, compared to other stories where authors who describe average characters seem to have over the top dream jobs.

Fans of the sci-fi genres will enjoy this, which I would say is a must read.

Gah, this was so unique and wonderful! From the start, I was completely hooked based on the premise alone. The reader has no idea if both parties are being straightforward with their claims, and if so, how any of what is happening is possible. Add to it, the stakes are ridiculously high, and not just for the crews of the ships. The entire future of the universe could potentially be at stake, and no one knows what to believe.

I enjoyed all the characters, too, which of course makes the stakes higher as a reader, as well. There are some great lighter moments that help balance out the intensity of the situation, which I really appreciated. I also felt very immersed in the world, too, which was quite a feat considering how isolated our characters were for most of the story.

I don't want to tell you too much about this book, because the most fun part for me was uncovering all the twists and turns, and I don't want to ruin that for you! I will say too, this would make an amazing show, so someone should really jump on that. It was a perfect blend of action, world building, and character development, and I flew through the pages so eager to find out what fun new twist would come next.

Bottom Line: Loved it so much I went ahead and pre-ordered it. You should too.

This book was just what I was looking for! It was a fast and entertaining space opera that kept me sucked waiting to see how our two ships will make it back where they belong.

We have the crew of the Jonah, captained by Jareth Keevan with his best friend who has just picked up a couple of hitchhikers.. well one is, the other might have tried to hijack the ship. On their way to drop off some cargo, they run into some kind of weird interference that shuts everything on the ship down and is slowly draining their resources.

Next, we meet Uma Ozaka chief engineer of The Gallon, they are a scientific vessel on its way to drop off an Ambassador. When they run into the same weird interference as The Jonah. When they pick up a distress call, which is weird enough because all their sensors are wonky and they haven't been able to talk to anyone outside the ship before this. Then the Gallon rescues The Jonah and a whole new can of worms gets opened.

The moment they realize that they are from different places in time was one of my favorites, the realization that they are not where they belong, and that the crew of the Jonah arent like anyone expects from what they have read in historical records was really entertaining. There wasn't quite as much action as I expected, but there are a lot of high stake moments that have you holding your breath hoping everyone is going to make it out alive.

I loved all of the backstories we got, especially Keevans. He and Shana were definitely my favorites, with Leeg and Uma a close second. I can't wait to see what Ren Hitchings writes next.

Holy timeline! There are two of them, right from the start. Or is that one timeline plus flashbacks? Three timelines? And four POVs. But it all makes perfect sense, trust me. There are smugglers and mathematical and physical geniuses, undercover activists, a war in space, aliens, genetic modification, love, heists and more. That‘s all I am going to give away, read the blurb if you want more! Anything else would diminish the fun of finding it out by yourself!

<i>“We could even be completely outside the flow of time.“</i>
You don‘t say! Smart idea to tell the story by jumping back in time by increments and slowly revealing pertinent information to the reader for consecutive chapters. With the odd surprising twist strewn in.

Jereth‘s shaking hands showed up a bit too often for my taste. Other than that I was quite happy with the writing, although I would have preferred more action and faster pacing, especially towards the end. Some bits could have done with less telling and more showing.

There was quite a lot of navel gazing, which I tend to dislike, but here it fit nicely into the plot and was an integral part of the story telling. The characters were believable, distinct and varied.

Great concept, a love of history and screwy timeline shenanigans. No idea if the science was solid, it worked for me. Satisfying ending with a nice plot bunny. As a debut novel this is excellent.

I would read more by the author and recommend or gift this to others.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Rebellion Publishing through NetGalley. All opinions are my own and I was not required to give a positive review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC, it has not affected my honest review.

Publication Date: 10th May (UK)

The synopsis of 'Under Fortunate Stars' sounded absolutely perfect and I'm glad to say that this book was everything I wanted and more. The story opens with the Galleon, a scientific research spaceship funded by a private company, becoming entangled in the "Rift" where they find themselves alongside another ship. This is the Jonah, and onboard is the legendary Fantastic Five that brought about peace to the galaxy 152 years ago. However, the crew on board the Jonah are anything but heroic and nothing like what history describes. I adored the combination of the modern crew members (the stand outs for me were Shann, the Facilities Manager) and Uma, the Engineering head) meeting their mysterious heroes and finding that they are completely ordinary people. At the same time, the back stories of the Five (especially Leeg and Keevan) were fascinating and incredibly well written. The gradual realisation that these individuals would go on to shape history and time if they escape the Rift is brilliant and I loved how the reality of the Five was hidden away by history.

What Ren Hutchings has done with 'Under Fortunate Stars' is wonderful and it's definitely a book I'll come back to in the future for another read.

Under Fortunate Stars is the debut novel of author Ren Hutchings. The novel is a character-focused space opera dealing with a time loop, as characters from 152 years apart in time wind up having to work together despite the fact that the past crew - legends in the future people's time - don't match up with what they expect from the histories they've been taught. It's a novel I'd originally planned to skip, but someone recommended it on twitter, so I decided to give it a try.

And well, Under Fortunate Stars is well executed, with a plot that is in many ways predictable, and yet works quite well with its character moments throughout as it jumps back and forth through time. The characters are solidly done, particularly the quarter who get point of view chapters, and the flashback and "present day" chapters are interspersed well to show character development throughout, such that you really see growth and development as the book goes forward. At the same time, there isn't anything truly special going on here, and some characters are wildly underdeveloped in favor of others, despite having hints of more going on that are never explored. The result is a solid but not exceptional debut.


-------------------------------------------------Book Summary---------------------------------------------------
Smuggler Jereth Keevan and his companion Eldric ("Leeg") Leesongronski are on what should be one big final smuggling job on their dilapidated freighter Jonah, though everything keeps going wrong: the war with the alien Felen keeps knocking out their potential stopping points, the passenger they picked up has taken one of the bunks on the ship, and they had to deal with a would-be-hijacker....who now lies imprisoned within one of the other bunks, forcing Jereth and Leeg to sleep on the floor. And then, as they attempt to change course, they find themselves caught in a strange Rift, knocking out their entire communications and engines.

152 years later, the corporate ship Gallion is on a corporate mission, carrying a Felen ambassador on a surprise journey. It has been 152 years since the Fortunate Five and the legendary ship Jonah brokered the peace between the Union and the Felen on the planet Etraxas, and became the mysterious legends worshipped or praised by people like the Gallion's chief engineer Uma Ozakka. But something has gone wrong with the journey, and the engines and communication have cut out, leaving themselves in a potentially very embarrassing predicament. Until the sensors detect another ship out there and bring it in....only for that ship to be the Jonah itself.

Two crews from 152 years apart meet in this strange rift, causing great confusion: For the crew of the Gallion, the Jonah's crew doesn't match the historical record, and how can they really be so? For the crew of the Jonah, this potential future makes no sense - they're no heroes, just a bunch of messed up smugglers and stragglers, how could they be heroes? But to get themselves out of their own situations, and to set the timeline back right, the two groups will have to figure each other...and themselves out....before they get stuck forever.
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Under Fortunate Stars is the type of novel that jumps around, with each chapter roughly taking place from the perspective of one of four characters - Eldric/Leeg, Jereth, Shaan, and Uma - and jumping back and forth in time. And not just between the two time periods that the characters come from, but rather between the "present" where the two groups are mixed together and between the individual pasts of each of these quartets. So we see the pasts of Jereth and Eldric that lead them to be together on the Jonah; we see Shaan's past that she's been on the run from; and we see more particularly how each character used to act and how they've been forced by experiences to change and develop.

And this works well, which is pretty important because well, it's pretty obvious how a lot of things are going to go and the story barely tries to hide it. Any genre savvy reader will recognize that the book is taking place in a stable time loop, and that the events of this story are going to lead to the Jonah completing their mission - with the characters in the past only gaining the knowledge they needed to make history from their interactions in the future (and that at least one future character is going to wind up going back to the past). It's pretty obvious that the characters are going to find a way out of the Rift they're stuck in, that once a certain place from a person's past shows up in the present it's going to result in that character taking a bigger role, etc. etc. It's not 100% predictable (for reasons I may discuss below) but there's a lot here you'll see coming.

Which again still works because your character arcs are enjoyable and done well. In Jerith, you have the con artist who is still pretty reckless and way too self-confident...and yet is far more tempered than he used to be, when his nihilistic greed essentially screwed over his best friend in Leeg. With Eldric/Leeg, you have the mathematician who loved but let himself be led astray by Jerith, where he didn't quite know how to listen to what the woman he loves really is asking for. The two of them you'd think would have a big fight over the consequence Jerith gets them into, and yet they really don't because each realizes how much of it was their own faults, which is a nice touch, and each develops fairly well in the present day into a better person. Then there's Shaan, the Gallion employee who was secretly once something more and has to overcome her shame over her past and finds that with Jerith's encouragement - as well as Uma, who worshipped the "Fortunate Five" and finds ways to reconcile her understanding of the past with what is revealed. None of these character arcs are tremendous, but they all work pretty well.

Still, there are a number of character arcs that don't really go anywhere and really feel like they should - like the Corporate heir on the Gallion who acts like he's going to get in the way due to his pompous beliefs only to never do anything. Or the famous physicist member of the Fortunate Five turns out to be the person who attempted to hijack the Jonah and was imprisoned, which you think would make a difference....but no, once the Jonah's crew is on the Gallion, the physicist is just wholly trusted by everyone and this never comes up again. Or the researcher into alien-human relations who was on the run.....well you get the point. There's a lot of potentially interesting characters here, but with the exception of the main quartet, they basically all get discarded for large segments of time until they become plot relevant again, if they ever do.

The result is a solid debut novel, crafted fine, but not one that really did anything super special or memorable. But taking a predictable plotline and working it this well is something, and definitely makes me interested in what Hutchings can do in the future.

Time-travel, space opera, save humanity debut; Under Fortunate Stars packs a punch. With excellent characterisation and dynamics, a clever mystery and themes of forging your own path and reckoning with the past this is an excellent SF debut from Ren Hutchings. It is well plotted and drops clues and reveals with perfect pacing to keep you hooked. A great edition to the genre.

I was so looking forward to reading this. Sadly, I found it just didn't work for me and I just couldn't get in to it.

Full disclosure - the world got crazy and I’ve only read 20%.

However! It’s fantastic so far and I’m loving it! Can’t wait to continue, the writing and characters are so wonderful and I’m so excited to see how the plot unfolds.

thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review

This was fine, but not for me. It felt very dragged out, the prose didn't grab me and none of the characters were distinct enough that I was excited to read from their perspective. I haven't had good luck with space operas lately so me not enjoying this book is probably affected by this - big sci-fi fans might find a lot to love.

"We existed. We made a difference." -From Under the Fortunate Stars

4 stars

A time traveling space opera? Sign me up! This puzzle of a book started a slow pace for me as I wasn't sure where it was heading getting two different crews to keep straight. Eventually it picked up though, and the characters and great writing drew me in. I thought some things were a little too...fortunate, but all in all a great sci fi read.

I really wanted to enjoy "Under Fortunate Stars". Unfortunately, I found myself tossed into a very busy world without enough time to latch onto the different characters or elements of the world. And because of that, I found it hard to care about the characters as they went through the story and ultimately did not enjoy it, despite comps to books I adore.

A compelling read with great writing and characters that were incredibly well developed, to the point where I think it might be one of the best things about the book. I couldn't stop reading and when I had too, I couldn't wait to start readfing again. I will definitely be looking for more from this author.