This was not the kind of book I expected to get based on the synopsis and I'd be lying if I wasn't a bit disappointed by that. I felt that a large chunk of the book leaves the reader in the dark, confused and aimless. I can appreciate mystery and obscurity but this took it too far for my enjoyment.

Grace Curtis’s Frontier really challenged my ability to connect with a story wherein multiple stories are interwoven and debatably important.

I genuinely enjoyed Curtis’s writing style and the overall premise of this book. However, I had a hard time connecting with the characters and understanding their importance within the story.

To and for me, Frontier is a book that I wish I could see mapped out or illustrated based on the author’s vision. I struggled with the sci-fi component and the construct of the plot.

The ending was really enjoyable and I almost hoped for an epilogue just to get a little bit more of it.

Thank you to Rebellion, Grace Curtis, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Frontier is a unique book, set up as a series of vignettes that paint an increasingly detailed picture of the world and the main character. What starts as a hazy portrait of a world in the aftermath of destruction sharpens into a portrait of survival and love. Surprisingly funny and astute, one of the books strengths is the side characters and the depth they bring to the novel. There are moments of awkward prose, but overall I highly enjoyed this book and will be recommending it to others.

This book is like one of those quirky speculative movies you would catch on late night cable, particularly during the 80s and 90s, the sort of thing that catches your eye enough to stop and see what's up and then gradually gets its hooks deep enough that you finish it with an utterly unexpected sense that you were better for having seen it. You know the ones, those movies you become a diehard fan of and then try to get all your friends and family to watch so they'll join you in the love. All it takes is having the curiosity, patience, and quiet dedication to arrive at the end and figure everything out.

Frontier is a sci-fi western story about a stranger traveling a desolate and godforsaken future earth in the hope of reconnecting with whatever it is she's lost. It does take it's time, but it's also doing so with a certain wry amusement with humanity, sympathy for its pain and confusion, and a bit of contemplative observance that subtly reveals the mystery of our hero and her investment in those she meets. I don't dare reveal more than that, just trust me when I tell you there is much to be gained from steadily reading this one. I know I'll be thinking back to it from time to time.

The World building is really good and you'll find yourself feeling very much at home in this modern- feel Space Western.

Be prepared for a slow sauntering toward the conclusion though, and don't expect any quick character arcs.

It is good storytelling that carries a climate change message as The Stranger navigates a ravaged Earth.

You'll want to follow The Stranger's search for answers.

*Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC copy of this title.*

DNF at 30%. Not sure what this was supposed to be but it’s not “…The Mandalorian meets Mad Max, with the emotional heart of the Wayfarers series.” As far as I read it’s not even a story. It’s a collection of capsule vignettes, each a few pages long, strung together with little if any bridging to connect them.

Per the blurb:

…a ship falls from the sky, bringing the planet’s first visitor in three hundred years. This Stranger is a crewmember on the first ship in centuries to attempt a return to Earth and save what’s left. But her escape pod crashes hundreds of miles away from the rest of the wreckage.

That you have to read the jacket to understand this because it’s explained no where in the first third of the novel is a HUGE problem.

The Stranger finds herself adrift in a ravaged, unwelcoming landscape, full of people who hate and fear her space-born existence. Scared, alone, and armed, she embarks on a journey across the wasteland to return to her ship, her mission, and the woman she loves.

If you say so. Again why do I have to read the blurb to know this? Why is this not clearly communicated within the story? And worse, the the first third focuses on someone called The Courier. It's never clear if the Courier is the Stranger who crashed on the planet, the person the blurb tells me the Stranger is seeking to be reunited with, or some random person who may or may not be important later? After 80+ pages, I no longer cared.

Ms. Curtis: I am not a writer but I will I pass along two pieces of writing advice from a great story teller who also taught writing, that I have found to be true of every good story. If you’ve not read this author, he’s worth your time.

1. “Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.” – Kurt Vonnegut.
The first third of Frontier does none of the former and because of that it’s never clear if the action is advancing toward anything worthwhile.

2. “Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.” – Kurt Vonnegut.

No novel should take multiple chapters and many tens of pages, to get to the gist of the story. If you can’t communicate who the characters are and where the story is heading in the first couple chapters, you haven’t thought enough about what you are trying to communicate to begin writing. Start over until you can.

On my buy, borrow, skip scale: Skip. There are some promising ideas in Frontier, but the whole was not ready for publication.

I ended up buying and reading the finished copy since I was delayed in reading this. This book was not at all what I expected. It definitely had a wild west feel, like the summary implies. I wasn't sure I was going to like this until I finally finished. I felt left in the dark for too long. But the ending wrapped things up nicely.

A Western flare mixed with a science fiction setting creates this unique world that takes you into a post-apocalyptic future. The book is described as heartfelt and I can see this as I read with the romance and the genuineness of the characters that Curtis installs.

Story: C
Prose: B
Characters: C+
World: C
Theme(s): C
Enjoyment: B-

The Good:
Fun. I mean, there are some mild shenanigans afoot, and we love shenanigans.
Quite readable, smooth prose. Curtis has a practised and marked style.
Strong characterization. Our unnamed protagonist meets a number of characters, and Curtis renders them as distinct individuals in the short time we spend with them.
Fun protagonist. We don't know anything concrete about her, let alone her name, but she's determined, resourceful, and in possession of a delightful disposition.
Heart. Frontier has heart in spades, and it's particularly evident when our nameless protagonist pines for her missing lover.


The Bad:
The unnamed protagonist lacks the dedicated supporting cast or intriguing setting necessary to carry her journey. This is Frontier's deepest flaw. You can have a protagonist we know nothing about for most of the story and still have a fun and interesting book. You can have an absent supporting cast and still have a fun and interesting book. You can have a lacklustre setting and still have a fun and interesting book. Any two of these three is completely fine as long as the third element supports the other two. But we can't have a protagonist we know nothing about, looking for a missing lover we know nothing about and befriending people who last no longer than ~50 pages in a setting with little intrigue.
Boring setting. Despite some singular points of interest, the setting is simply one part generic western and one part odd religious twist with a sprinkling of store brand post-apocalyptic dystopia.
Poor choice of opening scene. The protagonist's ship/lifepod has recently landed, and a trio hopes to sell that sweet space metal for big money. Greed gets the best of them, and they kill each other hoping to score more money for themselves. It's a bad foot to start on: introducing characters, killing them immediately, and then forgetting about them.
We learn nothing about the main character or her missing lover until near the end. Listen: I think mystery is good. I think intrigue is important. But you need to feed readers with sufficient tidbits until the reveal, or they'll get bored and hungry and look for satisfaction in another story.

YMMV:
Some light Gideon the Ninth-flavoured humour (but lacks the cast.) If you like Gideon, Frontier has a very similar-but-lighter flavour to the prose and overall story.
Questionable use of a tortoise. You– you can't– you can't make a hole for a secret compartment in the middle of a tortoise's shell. That's the location of their SPINE.

Final thoughts: Unfortunately, despite some lovely characters, prose, and sentiments, Frontier lacks a crucial supportive element necessary to carry the story from beginning to end. Regardless of any criticism I have for Frontier, I really enjoyed reading it and look forward to future books by Curtis.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the whole vibe of this book- a queer sci-fi western, like how can it get better than that?! The way this story was written was unique and interesting, as we meet the main character through different perspectives as she travels through the post-climate-crisis wasteland in her search to find her lover. Her identity remains "The Stranger" for most of the book. However, we never stay with the various side characters for very long, and I would have loved to read more about them since I found the world and its religious cults so fascinating. Overall this was a quick and enjoyable read for fans of westerns and gay girlies from space, and I would recommend it!

Pitching a novel as having Firefly vibes is a surefire way to get me to pick it up, and that’s what happened with Grace Curtis’ Frontier. An intriguing, queer blend of western, romance, and science fiction, Frontier swept me off my feet and into its world with a rare ease.

Told as a series of interconnected stories focusing on a nameless stranger as they traverse a Western-influenced, post-apocalyptic society, Frontier demands some patience from its readers upfront. But those who give it that patience will be rewarded with an extremely satisfying adventure, rich world, and deeply emotional tale as its pieces come together. I really enjoyed this novel and am eager to read Grace Curtis’ work in the future.

Thank you to Solaris and NetGalley for an advance review copy. All opinions are my own.

I am enjoying that Science Fiction appears to be increasing in popularity again based on the number of titles I’m seeing. It’s a genre that I do believe has a lot to say about now. Sadly though Frontier by Grace Curtis feels an unusual blend of old school plots and new style that for me really don’t mesh that well.

A mysterious object appears in a land that was once Australia. The earth after climate change was deserted and those few remain believed Gaia punished them and they must repent. From the object The Stranger arrived in a dangerous world where life is cheap and danger always lurks and seeks someone close to them.

There was a lot of deja vu in this story. It tumbled with post apocalyptic imagery - corrupt and evil Sherrif’s searching for our non-terrestrials , bizarre moments (a gunfight over books) and likely fake religions and in many ways goes for the obvious. There are some nice touches - the reminder that medication in an apocalypse will be scarce but overall nothing particularly new jumped out at me.

The characters are fairly boiler plate and having one named The Stranger for quite a large part of the book feels a little strange where blanks and annoyingly the non-Earth historical records interrupting the story signalled both the plot; major revelations and also signalled again that nothing new is coming. It’s a very simple tale fast paced but rather empty.

Curtis’ style aims for poetical but feels a little laboured and a mosaic structure of mini adventures that for me don’t come together. Overall a big disappointment and not one I can recommend.

I liked this book for what it was. The setting was really good but I felt that there could have been more character development they felt a little flat. Overall a book worth your time with a good background.

I picked up this book because I love a western sci-fi theme, and because of the description of a sapphic love story. While I did love a lot of the worldbuilding- a mostly abandoned earth due to climate change, leaving desolate towns, a fear of technology, and religious zealots. I was very into the first few chapters where the scene is set and we meet our MC who has just crash landed in a spaceship, I was ready for some sapphic pining ala How to Lose the Time War...

Unfortunately the structure of the book took the story in a very different direction than I expected. Each chapter is about a different person who eventually overlaps with the MC on her journey to find her lost love. But she's never the main character in these shapshots, so we really don't ever get to know her, and her lost love is only ever barely mentioned. I found this structure just impossible to connect with, I felt there was no buy-in to the main character or the supposed love story. I had expected some flashbacks so we get to know the MC and her lost love, but that never happens. We actually don't meet the lost love or learn their names until 70% into the book and they are only ever together briefly. By this time I just did not have an interest in the MC or their relationship because I was given no real reason to care throughout the story. We meet and learn about every one else in the abandoned earth except the MC and her lost love, which truthfully could be interesting to people if they get into the world, but it just wasn't enough for me. Also, at the end one of them says the other was "going Native" yikes :/

I think this unconventional story structure could work for some, the worldbuilding is definitely interesting, but it overall didn't work for me. I kept thinking how this would have worked better as a movie, where you have the visual of the MC to keep you connected in the wandering stories about other characters until it eventually connects with her.

CWs: death, murder, gun violence, grief, alcohol, injury detail, animal death, derogatory language (going Native)

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for the e-advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I requested a digital copy in order to sample the prose on my phone (since I don't have a eReader) before requesting a physical copy for review. My review will be based on the physical ARC I read (if I qualify)

This book was exactly the book I needed to get me out of my reading slump. It took me by the hand and dragged me over the finish line as I struggled put the book down in order to do supposedly important things like, sleep, I guess.

Frontier is a really awesome interpretation of climate disaster and human society in the aftermath. It somehow managed to meld together sci-fi with western with dystopian, and left me wanting to read more of this fantastic genre mash-up. The story also has an interesting layout in that it tells the story of our main character's adventures while half the time being told from another character's perspective - and even better, each character is fantastically fleshed out and seems real, even if they only they have a couple pages to tell their story.

I was shocked when I read that this was Grace Curtis' debut book, and I'm eagerly awaiting more.

Thank you so much to Rebellion, Solaris, and NetGalley for a free e-ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

3.5

Frontier is a sapphic sci-fi western that feels like a mix of Becky Chambers and This is How You Lose the Time War.

The narrative starts very disjointed, using vignettes that follow an unnamed main character who has crash landed on Earth and is on a mission to find her lost love. The unique narrative structure ultimately paid off, in my opinion, but I can see it being divisive as it does leave the reader confused for a good chunk of the book. That being said, the ending is everything I could have wanted from a book that describes itself as, “fusing the fire and brimstone of the American Old West with sprawling post-apocalyptic science fiction”. Curtis does a good job capturing the essence of the western genre from the lone stranger main character to the wasteland/lawlessness of this post-apocalyptic future Earth. In the beginning, it was the world that kept me reading more so than the plot, and even after finishing I find that I want to know more about the world, both the on Earth and in the Empire.

I have been trying to write this review for close to a month now, and it isn't going well. Not because I didn't like the book; quite the opposite. Because I think it is quite lovely, but I don't exactly know how to tell you why it was lovely, because of the spoilery nature of many of the lovely bits. I'll try though, because I have to.

Okay so. The main character is... I can't tell you who it is, is the thing. The Stranger is obviously not from around here, and "here" is a mess. It's basically what is left of a messy, abandoned Earth, years after humanity as a whole decided to up and leave. It tracks, basically: ruined one planet, so we went to find more to ruin. Anyway, we're still being crappy on Earth, obviously. But what its dwellers do not expect is someone who left to come back.

It's described as a "Space Western", and it absolutely has those vibes. The atmosphere is absolutely on point, and frankly, if I had landed there I'd be reluctant to hang out in this place either. But the Stranger is not just here for funsies and to assess the dying planet. She's there to find her love, which makes the story that much more compelling and emotive. There is also a lot of humor and charm infused throughout the story. I also was quite fond of some of the side characters we encountered along the journey, they certainly added to the story.

The worldbuilding was fascinating, and though I'd have liked to know even more of the things, I get that it isn't really possible in the length of one novel. I did love the background we got, as well as the world building of the current time/location. I also absolutely loved the ending of this story. It's one of the best and most fitting book endings I've encountered, and it made the reading experience feel even more worth it.

Bottom Line: Loved the atmosphere and concept, and that it was truly a love story at its core while still being really well developed and exciting.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

LOVED LOVED LOVED this book! From the very first page, I knew this was going to be a winner. The prose and descriptions were absolutely gorgeous. It reminded me of Firefly in the best way - the marketing campaign is right. If you like Becky Chambers, the feel of this book is quite similar to her writing. I love space westerns, and I love sapphic books, so it's a given that I was going to like this book - I'm so happy it met my expectations.

Frontier is basically what it says it is: a sci-fi, western, LGBTQ romance. I found that it was missing something that I can't put my finger on. It was an alright novel, but it's in no way a favourite of mine. I felt that you didn't get to meet the characters in depth because it was on the shorter side.