I really enjoyed the set up for this and how it tried to drift away from the cliches of time travel and paradoxes. There were times where I was a little annoyed that characters seem to get a jail out of free card but it's a great debut.

Books about time travel are difficult to pull off, and I'm sorry to say that this one didn't quite work for me. I thought it was "average" on my scale (2.5 stars). I usually love a good space opera. This one was thoroughly plot driven, with a fairly typical human-versus-alien war and the usual cast of outlaws and physicists. But the moral of the story seemed to be that the "Fortunate Five" credited with ending the war that is central to the book would never have been able to do so without intervention from the future, and the plot felt slow rather than high stakes and suspenseful. Nonetheless, if you enjoyed Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch series, Ciel Pierlot's Bluebird, or Tade Thompson's Far From the Light of Heaven, you might want to give this a try. It's a solid space opera.

UNDER FORTUNATE STARS is a delightfully intricate, twisty time travel book where a vessel crucial to peace and one over a century and a half later both slip through space time. I loved watching them having to work together despite the expectations put on <em>the Jonah</em>'s crew and their reactions to it.

This is a time travel book that isn't constantly zipping through time. It's a few time periods getting yanked out of time together and interacting - and then working out how to fix it and what it would mean for the future and past. It felt like a really neat way of doing it, different to how I often see time travel (where you "run" events again.) Plus it was a nice way of hypothetically considering consequences without leaving the door open to potential plot holes (like "well, there's no real stakes because if it goes wrong, what stops you running it again?" type issues.)

The stakes are really good example of being life-or-death for the cast <em>and</em> the universe, and being compelling without the need for another "personal motivator" (like a beloved family member being at risk in some new way.) It's "if we cannot fix this and get to our own times we are going to die from entropy and there's no chance of being rescued as we are literally outside of time/unreachable" with a side helping of "and if we can't fix it then the future never happens." If they mess up, there are no second chances - for them or the universe - so the tension is high.

There is a really nice mystery around "the fortunate five" - the people who saved the galaxy from war. The identities of three are known, so there's a mystery of how and why they would become those people (as they're not all starting off pro-peace.) The mystery about the other two is who will they be from the crews? I liked having the mix of these two as it gave a variety to the uncertainties over how the past would resolve so that the future wouldn't implode.

It's a book told mostly in "the present" (of them all being together) but also across various pasts for the characters, which leads to all sort of events tying them together (and setting up plot elements.) These past elements wind together in an ultimately satisfying way. There were a few that I wasn't sure how they'd link initially, and then as those timelines played out finally saw how it would connect in. Plus there were a few were I was fooled into thinking I knew the entire linkage only to have more connections brought in!

In all, it's a great debut and I look forward to more books by Hutchings.

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

You know how they say that authors should make trouble for their characters? Hutchings did the opposite of that. Now, this isn't even me talking shit - the title of the book is Under Fortunate Stars for a reason, after all. That said, the fact that the characters were so lucky got pretty boring after a while.

Now don't get me wrong, this was well written and well edited and had standard space opera characters that readers will probably like (think Firefly). It just didn't really stand out for me.

Also, this book just confirmed my growing conviction that I don't like time travel stories. This is entirely personal preference, and I didn't count it against the rating at all.

The dialogue is clunky, the characters go from the frying pan to the fire and beyond in just about every chapter and there are way, way too many coincidences. Anyone of these characteristics of the book would usually result in a less than positive review; however I kept looking forward to seeing what was going to happen next and, in spite of some of these deficiencies, I really enjoyed the book.

If a good Director and screenwriter got a hold of the story, it had a respectable FX budget and quality actors, this would make a heck of a “B” movie and be better than 90% of the junk that ends up on the screen. If you don’t expect too much from this book, it won’t disappoint and you’ll probably end up with a smile on your face, like I did, as you make your way to the end.

Under Fortunate Stars is a rollicking good time of a novel. If you like stories about friendship, found family, and sympathetic smugglers in space, this one might be for you.

This is a nice read for anxious times, as its stakes are somehow never particularly high despite the fate of humanity apparently and unexpectedly resting on its protagonists’ shoulders. Hutchings’ narrative arc and light, entertaining writing style keep dread and terror at a safe distance, making it clear that no matter how tense things get for the crews of the two spaceships accidentally brought together via a rift in time, things will work out. At times I found that this distance also kept me from becoming emotionally engaged with the characters and events, but I enjoyed the book anyway. After all, sometimes it’s nice not to get worked up and worried; sometimes it’s nice to read a far-flung adventure story and simply look forward to the inevitable mostly-happy ending. This is a great book to read if you just want to feel amused and be distracted from whatever else is happening in your world.

I’d recommend this title to readers who enjoy space opera and stories in which everything somehow comes together despite all odds.

I received a free e-ARC of this title from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my review.

The crews of the Gallion and Jonah meet in a rift of time/space after suddenly getting stuck there, to discover that the Jonah crew are famous persons from the past although for them it is Jonah's present. However, the historic figures are not what the Gallion crew expected them to be given how much they know of them from history and what being here in this rift means for the future and their past.

This is probably one of the best I have read since Becky Chambers' ALWTASP. You get many characters single POV, their backstories through flashbacks, they are funny, likeable and I was interested throughout. The time/space adventure was easy to follow and well written. I loved it and highly recommend reading this.

Thanks to #NetGalley & #rebellionpublishing for the ARC.

A big huge sci-fi thank you to the publisher for granting my request to read and review UNDER FORTUNATE STARS! I finished this book last night and gotta say my heart is full. It really is sci-fi at its finest.

My review goes something like this:

Worlds and timelines collide when two ships discover they are alone and trapped in a temporal rift; one from the future (present?) a research vessel carrying an Ambassador to an alien species and one ship from 150 years in the past where war is still raging with said species. This ship from the past belongs to the Fortunate Five--the legendary heroes who brought peace to the galaxy--but, and of course there is always a but: what if just by being in the rift they've changed the future irrevocably? Time to repair the past to fix the future.

Shall we get to what I loved about it? The characters. All of them richly envisioned and complex with back stories that fit together in a way that's so damn satisfying (*chef's kiss*). Absolutely my jam. From Uma, the Fortunate Five historian/enthusiast who struggles throughout with meeting her heroes, to Eldric Leegongronski, the troubled and not-at-all heroic captain of the Five along with his con artist parter in crime Jereth Keeven. What you think you know about the POV characters will be turned on its head as their arcs develop. I fell hard for both of the crews.

Now this isn't a wall-to-wall action kind of book; there are some wonderful character-building scenes as the crews get to know each other while trying to get both ships home. Were there some slower sections that could have been cut? In this reader's opinion, yes. Don't get me wrong I love a flashback, multiple timelines in a book about time travel is kind of imperative (if you ask me) but at the same time I don't think the book would have suffered if some of the past chapters were left to the reader's imagination. But I am not complaining. The writing is engaging, the twists are top notch, and that kept me invested and turning pages.

I love the casual queerness, found family, ragtagness of it all, the kind of space opera that leaves a big smile after reading. Calling all Becky Chambers and Alex White fans: this is a book for you!

This was everything I could have asked for! A space adventure, great story, really good characters and TIME TRAVEL! Loved it and look forward to more from this author!

152 years before the research ship Gallion set out to ferry a Felen alien ambassador to a meeting the legendary crew of the cargo ship Jonah had stopped a war and earned a place in history. But when both ships wind up in a temporal rift and the past meets the future, that history hangs in the balance. For one thing, the crew of the Jonah doesn't look much like the image of the Fortunate Five...they're scruffy at best, space scum in all probability. For another, they're a crew pushed forward in time with all their war wounds still fresh, and suddenly supposed to believe that they're brokers of peace?  Good luck with that, because they're going to need every bit of fortune the stars can provide if this ragtag bunch is going to work together, let alone save the future.

Full review available 5/1/22: http://www.sfrevu.com/php/Review-id.php?id=19772

I finished reading this book yesterday and OMG: I want more. This multi-pov space opera is exciting yet heartfelt, sci-fi geeky yet approachable. I wasn't able to put this character-driven, fast paced sci-fi story down.

I loved the intricate plot, flawed characters, and the expertly-crafted time travel was not confusing or boring. Oh, and the twists??? Buckle up and hang on.

Fans of Star Trek and Becky Chambers will LOVE Under Fortunate Stars.

Under Fortunate Stars is an impressive and engaging story, that blends the familiar sci-fi concepts of time travel and integrating with alien societies to create something fresh and exciting.

It does this by focussing on the character stories, and the novel almost becomes a cosy mystery as you try to figure out how this band of misfits became the saviours of civilisation, if indeed that is what they are.

As enjoyable as it was, I wish the story focussed more on the present day action, as I felt the Fortunate Five’s backstories were unnecessary, and detracted from forward motion of the story. Similarly, some of the secondary characters seemed to blend into one another.

However, Under Fortunate Stars is an impressive debut and I can’t wait to read more from this author.

For fans of Star Trek, and 70s pulp sci fi.

I totally loved this book!

Under Fortunate Stars is a space opera that completely revitalized the time travel trope for me.

When it came to the time travel itself, it was so tightly wrought. Unlike a lot of time travel stories, where it’s someone from the near future interacting with someone from the far future, the early group was already from a future setting, so while there is some technology that’s better, it’s not a fish out of water story.

I also really liked how everyone pretty much accepted the time bubble from the get-go. Part of why I’m hesitant about time travel stories is because they usually contain the tired “omg what’s going on” part of the story for far too long. This one does not and I found it far more realistic and engaging. The way the timelines interwove also worked really well, both major aspects and minor ones. You could tell it was intricately plotted.

The setting is so well done, because we get the ships, which were fun, but also flashbacks to the Jonah’s crew in the past, on three or four planets. As such, the story didn’t feel contained to the ships but there was a more expansive world-building around it. I especially liked the “Dust worlds,” which are partially terraformed worlds that have been essentially forgotten/abandoned by the companies that made them.

Yet, one thing I could have used more of was the war with the Felen - while we’re told they are attacking places and there are battles in the past, we don’t get any of that firsthand, so the threat isn’t as apparent as it could have been. I didn’t really notice this until thinking about the book later though.

The characters are where the story really shines. Despite it not being a comedy in the slightest (there are some really intense moments), the novel has the feel of a workplace comedy. By this, I mean there is a small cast of characters - a few directors, the captain, and some engineers - and a great deal of the story is them playing off of one another. I really loved their dynamic and how the ship functioned. While it’s clear there is a hierarchy, the crew also are the type to get a drink together when the day is done.

The names were also interesting. They were not odd but felt slightly different than those we usually see. It felt to me like this was either a parallel dimension to ours, or it was so far in the future people have merged last names or created new ones, which led to this development. It also helped keep the race of the characters ambiguous, which, to me, suggested that this was a future where we’ve all kind of blended together for the most part.

There were some great brief moments of comedy in the story, which helped keep the tone exciting and not depressing or dark. Jereth, one of the Jonah’s crew, had some moments that really made me laugh. What I liked most about him was that he initially comes off as a cocky jerk, but he grows on you as the story progresses and he become one of my favourite characters.

The rest of the characters are likeable and varied. The two other main characters, directors Shaan and Ozakka, were competent and good at their jobs but had their own stories, just like Jareth and Leeg. There is a very fun and cute love story sub-plot I was totally here for. I also really liked the trajectory of Leeg’s backstory, as while it did go in a way I expected, it approached an aspect of it in a nuanced and realistic way. The alien characters were kept mainly to the sidelines, so when we did see them, it was like “ooh!”, but I didn’t feel like they were deliberately shunted to the sidelines. It was a good balance.

What’s so great about this novel is that it’s about adults and for adults, but it’s not a dark and violent story about human depravity. It’s a fun story, with serious moments, about a group of normal people facing a momentous task. Honestly, it’s a breath of fresh air and I absolutely loved it.

I'm so impressed with this scifi debut and how Hutchings interwove all the threads between multiple characters and timelines. I felt they did an incredible job ratcheting that tension dial up step by step as the puzzle of this space mystery slowly came together.

Space ships and a space station from the past and present get caught in a subspace time rift in this new sci-fi novel by Ren Hutchings. I enjoyed the flawed characters and the subject matter. I didn't enjoy the slow pacing or the ridiculous number of coincidences necessary to carry the plotline. Frankly I lost interest in the outcome at around 65% in. The story takes place in different time periods with chapters jumping back and forth between reflections on the past and the present. It is initially confusing but the author does a great job tying it all together. Lies are revealed. Past actions mulled over and characters are forced to work together to overcome what appears to be certain death to save themselves and maintain peace. Thank you to Rebellion Publishing for my free review copy. The writing and editing was superior for a debut novel. I think new sci-fi readers will like this book more than fans of the genre will. It wasn't for me.

I really enjoyed this character-driven tale of the meeting between the crews of a freighter, the Jonah, and a research vessel, Gallion. Both ships pulled into a time rift in space. The Gallion is from 152 years in the Jonah's future. The Jonah is a famous historical ship in the Gallion's time, as are the 'Fortunate Five' who all had a part to play in ending the generations-long war with the Felen.

There's such an awful lot to like: the wonderful flashback personal back stories that ensure the characters are full and well-developed, but with the flaws that make us human; the flowing and easy to read writing that pulls you in from the first page; and the way everything 'clicks' together. The one slight downside for me was the number of characters in the book (there were sixteen on the Gallion), but this is probably more down to my dumb brain than anything else.

I loved Uma Ozakka, the Anvaelian Director of Engineering. She knew EVERYTHING about the Fortunate Five and was such a huge fan of them. Her father being a curator of the Jonah Museum meant she had access to things that others did not. They say never to meet your heroes, and, in this case, Uma was very surprised that they weren't in any way like their portrayals in history. (Perhaps a wee lesson there for everyone?) It must've been very surreal to see yourself as a statue and have your name on a plaque knowing that you've done nothing to deserve it! The Felen ambassador was a pain in the bum, but when you think of the ambassadors on Star Trek or Babylon 5, weren't they always?

I love books that can pull my emotions and leave me thinking about things in the present. This was like reading a huge jigsaw puzzle where the stars are in alignment and it is possible to make all the connections. It makes me wonder if the connections had to happen like this every time for the outcome to be achieved, or were there times when the outcome happened naturally in time? It's hard to believe this is a debut novel as it is a very high standard. I look forward to reading more from Ren Hutchings in the future.

I chose an ARC of this work which I voluntarily and honestly read and reviewed. All opinions are my own. My thanks to NetGalley, the author, and Rebellion (quickly becoming one of my favorites).

The crew of the Jonah, the most famous ship in Earth history, saved the universe by stopping an intergalactic war 150 years ago. When the research vessel Gallion is trapped by a curious energy anomaly and receive a distress call from a ship claiming to be the Jonah, suspicions and tensions run high. But if this really is the Jonah and its crew, with both ships trapped outside of time, what will happen to the universe as they know it…

This book has heavy Star Trek vibes. It’s somewhere between The Next Generation (politics, acceptance, interspecies concepts) and Voyager (two suspicious crews learning to work together). Add in the time travel and voila.

Despite this, it took me a while to get into it. The fragmented writing style (short chapters from the POV of different characters on the two ships, in various different times and backstories) felt very choppy at first, but kept me hooked and reading later on. About 10% of the way through, you start to feel how the stories might converge, and a lot of the action kicks off.

I love the concept and most of the characters, and I liked the way the story slowly built, weaving past, present and future together. Unfortunately, I wasn’t particularly interested in the main romance, and I found some of the twists a tad predictable.

Still enjoyed it overall, though, and would recommend it. It just didn’t fall in love with it the way that I’d hoped.

Actual Rating: 3.5

Under Fortunate Stars is one of the best standalone space operas that I have read in a while. Driven equally by plot and character through space, history, and time itself, I was instantly drawn into Ren Hutchings' universe. Through current time interactions and character flashbacks, she builds multidimensional characters that I felt so much empathy for. This book made me laugh and tear up in equal measure.

Ultimately, this story is about how your history, the component parts of what makes your story, are the building blocks for a broader future than you could ever realize. It's about how our stories interconnect and continue beyond the scope of our perception.

I was so sad that this book had to end.

I received an ARC of this book from Solaris in exchange for an honest review.

I'm a big space opera fan, and the genre has hit some spectacular highs over the last few years (my love for Yoon Ha Lee and Arkady Martine's works in particular is well-documented here). Under Fortunate Stars tells a more standard story, of the kind that might be found in a Star Trek two-parter, but tells it well, with rich worldbuilding, tense action scenes, and a classic cast of characters that I always enjoy reading about. Readers experienced with time-loop stories will figure out the mystery at the book's center without too much trouble, which leaves room to appreciate how Hutchings plays on the tropes of space opera to deliver an entertaining ride. Despite the tagline "Fortunate Five," the duo of Keeven Jereth and Eldric Leesongronski are at the core of the story, a classic pairing of smooth-talking Han Solo type and laconic...well, he's better-dressed and more intelligent than Chewbacca for sure! As both of their pasts unspool over the second half of the book (in much more satisfying fashion than Disney's attempt in Solo), Hutchings adds some depth to what could easily have been two-dimensional outlines. Eldric in particular is given much more personality in his flashbacks than he exhibits in most of the present-day scenes, and I found myself wishing that any of the other main characters could have had the insight we readers possess into the man behind the "mathematical genius" he bills himself as. The supporting cast--both the remainder of the Fortunate Five, and the present-day crew of the Gallion--are a little more loosely sketched, though one scene with Eldric and the Gallion's chief engineer Uma Ozakka, stands out as a non-flashback highlight of the book. Under Fortunate Stars blends the fish-out-of-water elements of time travel with a classic lost-in-space plot, peppered with creative turns of phrase like "grey destruct" and "Jaxong drive" (weirdly satisfying to read, and even more satisfying to say out loud) that lend added flavor to the story. While the broad strokes are familiar, it's these details, and the occasional twist along the way, that kept me reading without ever feeling spoiled by my own genre savvy. The book's quieter moments shine even brighter and offer a lot of promise for Hutchings's future work. I will certainly be on the lookout to see what comes next!
Four out of five stars. A classic space opera featuring everything I know and love about the genre.

It was interesting for sure but a thrilling adventure definitely not.

Under Fortunate Stars is a story of two timelines placed 152 years apart. The crew of research vessel Gallion encounters the Jonah - the legendary transport ship of the Fortunate five that brokered a peace treaty and stopped the war 152 years ago. The only issue is that crew of Jonah do not look/act like heroes of the war and are not on a peacekeeping mission as per recorded history. With them caught in the rift space and the power running low, both crews must race against time with their lives and entire history at stake.

Under Fortunate Stars is a tale of unlikely heroes rising to save humanity and thereby becoming legends. Like all legends, the story of fortunate 5 is shrouded in mysteries and our key protagonist Uma Ozakka is surprised to find the fortunate 5 very different from the historical records. Aren't we all surprised when we meet our heroes, eh? Nevertheless, the aspect that history didn't know the identity of 2 of the 5 was a dead giveaway of who those two were going to be. Also, casually side-stepping the bootstrap paradox with no explanation was a bummer!

One of the major issues with the book was that it felt like the story was written in reverse. The ending or outcomes of key events were written first and then subsequently events were created to lead up to that outcome. The reason for this feeling? Many chapters/events didn't make sense while you were reading it but then became significant a few chapters later. Not a good process when the story is built on character development.

That brings me to the second problem of the book - character development. This is not a fast-paced novel. The events fold quite slowly in the book but the focus is on the characters. We are presented with the backstories of many key characters. However, there were aberrations in characters' behaviors. Leeg is aloof but harbors regrets, Uma is resolute but breaks down at multiple places, and I could not even figure out Keven and his motivations. The 'evil character' was abrupt and laughable. We're constantly presented with the internal conflicts of the key characters but it didn't hit the right chords and therefore, I didn't care much about any of the characters and their predicaments.

If other reviews are of any indication, this book might appeal to certain sections of sci-fi readers. Guess I'm not one of them.

Thanks Solaris/Rebellion Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.