A little too cozy for my tastes and I did struggle to get into it, but ultimately had a good time with this one.

The Last Gifts of the Universe by Riley August is not typically the type of book I gravitate towards. I attempted to read it, but unfortunately, I struggled to become engaged with the story and ultimately did not finish it.

This was a quick and cozy read. It wasn’t as rigorous or exotic as alien stories can be but it was fast-paced with good message. The endings was a little disappointing and inconclusive to me and the book uses a ton of tropes but it worked for this slight story.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

There's a lot to appreciate in this heartfelt novel. It's a very quick read - I finished it in one sitting. I think a lot of people are going to absolutely love it. While it didn't fully work for me, it had some wonderful moments, and I'll definitely keep an eye out for Riley August's future books.
I'm a huge mood reader, and this might just not have been the right time for me to try this one.

This book will really appeal to readers who like:
- Becky Chambers
- Quick, relatively light sci-fi with a slightly melancholy core
- Cozy and/or hopepunk sci-fi
- Archeology and/or geo-caching in spaaaaaace
- Cats in spaaaaace

Things I liked:
- The non-binary protagonist, Scout, and the fact that they didn't experience any transphobia or trauma relating to their gender identity
- The themes of grief, loss, and hope
- The story of Blyreena and Ovram, as told through archeological recordings; this was definitely the highlight of the book for me
- The existence of Pumpkin the cat

Things that didn't work for me:
- The prose, unfortunately
- The generic corporate villains
- The plot, which felt underbaked to me
- The fact that they kept taking poor Pumpkin the cat into incredibly dangerous situations. Why would they do this?? This was a strange and baffling choice that kept breaking my immersion.

Overall I recommend this book if you're looking for a quick, wholesome, archeology-tinged space adventure.

I really appreciated the chance to read this book. Thank you to Riley August, NetGalley, and Harlequin Trade Publishing | Hanover Square Press for graciously providing an ARC for review!

this was a really fun book with a unique concept. It wasn't super deep or complicated for a sci-fi book so it's definitely one anyone can enjoy. Overall this is just a light and fun space rope with a cute named pumpkin!

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

The Last Gifts of the Universe by Riley August is a dual first person-POV cozy sci-fi novella centered around grief. Siblings Scout and Kieran and their orange cat Pumpkin are on a mission to find out how to defeat the Endri, a force that has destroyed other civilizations. Scout finds the recordings of a Stelhari woman named Blyreena and listens as Bly recounts her love story with Ovlan.

I always love a grief story and this really delivered. It's short, but the ending packs a real punch that is strengthened by the time spent with Ovlan and Bly. Bly is a researcher who got an extremely critical review on her thesis when she accidentally collides with Ovlan. Instead of being upset, he takes her to dinner, listens to her, and proceeds to become her biggest supporter and partner. The two understand and believe in each other, rooting for the other’s career and being present for failures.

Scout and Kieran read as two siblings who only have each other but still have those same issues siblings tend to have. They share pizza and squabble and play video games, adding a sense of normalcy to the space setting. One of my favorite details was that the two forsake forty space-ready meals for the storage space for twelve pizzas to be rationed during their mission. It's a little detail, but it's human and realistic. Pumpkin is an absolute delight every time he's on the page and I would read a whole book of this fluffy, orange cat traveling around space with his two humans.

I would recommend this to fans of grief stories with a cozy bent, readers of sci-fi looking for a personal story with large stakes, and those who just love the idea of an orange cat in space

🚀 What’s it about?
Scout, their brother Kieran, and their cat, Pumpkin, are archivists scouring the universe for information on what has decimated every planet but their own. Along the way, they discover aliens caches with verbal accounts… only to have to fight to keep them from Verity Company who will lock anything they find behind a paywall.

Scout, Kieran, and Pumpkin find themselves on a race from dead planet to dead planet, trying to get answers. And along the way way they encounter death and danger at every turn.

🪐 My thoughts:
This book is alien, world-ending plague science fiction, but mostly it’s an examination of grief.

From Scout’s reflection on their mom’s death, to listening to aliens accounts of life and death from found caches, this story urges us to live every moment of life because it’s worth living.

🐈 (It’s also an ode to loving cats with so many great details about living with a cat in space).

I walked away from this book feeling deeply moved. And thought I would have loved more answers and story resolution, I enjoyed the writing so much that I highlighted sentences constantly.

🚀 Read this one to scratch the sci-fi itch and shed some tears along the way.

As an anthropology student, I loved the sci-fi take on a mission following cultural studies. This follows two siblings on a mission to analyze dead, empty planets in order to figure out what caused this universe-wide desolation. It was fascinating to follow characters who lived a more quiet life traversing the universe with their cat (whom I love). I was expecting more of an adventurous space romp, but instead it led to an emotional discussion of grief and living one's life. I genuinely didn't expect to be brought to tears, but I was. Overall, this felt like a fantastic exploration of this world, but I wish there was more closure resolving their mission of how these worlds became lifeless. This open ending thematically fits the point of the story though, that life continues even when another has stopped- the story continues for these characters even though the book has ended.

An interesting space caper with a family crew of two and their cat, chasing answers to the nebulous end of the universe, in a race against agents of a vague evil corporation. Which is pretty much all there is to this narrative...a lot of vaguely cool and kitsch elements. While it's a fairly easy and short read, there is very little to get super invested in, and the pacing could have been somewhat more taut and established the world-building better.

Two brothers are traveling through space, looking for clues to why every other planet in the universe has gone dead. As space archeologists, they search for caches of information left behind by extinct species. When they uncover a clue that could provide their long-sought answers, an evil corporation swoops in to steal their discovery. But Scout, our MC, won't give up so easily. And so begins a chase across the stars, tracking clues to uncover what might save their own planet from extinction.

Yes, that is a cat in a spacesuit on the cover and YES you get to meet him, feline explorer Pumpkin. There was a surprising exploration of grief and loss on top of the space chase and intergalactic mystery. The tech was interesting, and the world building engaging. The only thing that brought this down a star were a few scenes complaining about space boredom. To be honest, if your characters are complaining about being bored, your readers are probably bored too. Otherwise, this an enjoyable, cat-loving, intriguing adventure with an ending that will warm the heart. Recommended!

Scout, their brother Kieran, and their cat Pumpkin are on a mission to find out what happened to all the other civilizations in the universe. Scout is an Archivist, searching for any and all information these dead planets can give. Kiernan is a tech genius who is on this mission solely for Scout's sake. When searching for a cache, they have an unpleasant encounter with two people who work for Verity Co, an organization who also hunts for information around the universe, only to charge exorbitant prices for anything connected to that information. Kieran was able to copy a portion of this cache before the Verity Co employees took it from them and now Scout is finding themselves intrigued by the very personal message left by Blyreena, a respected leader of her people. The more time Scout spends viewing Blyreena's message, the more they realize that time might be running out for their universe as well. A well-crafted sci-fi, space fantasy with a interesting cast of characters, especially Pumpkin the cat.

“I pause. Pumpkin pauses. We get along on our suspicious spirits alone.”

“Pumpkin meows and walks right against my ankles, trailing a few centimetres behind so he has the head start on any escape rush towards the exit.”

This is so unique, fresh and entertaining. Loved the premise and execution. A fun and wild ride while also being emotionally satisfying.

Goodness, this was not what I was expecting at all. I thought I was getting a cute little queer sci-fi adventure with an orange cat sidekick. Instead, it was a braided rumination on grief and on purpose and on *living*. Kinda like thinking you’re gonna watch Captain Marvel and ending up with Battlestar Galactica instead. Actually, no. The Last Gifts of the Universe made me feel like I did the first time I played Horizon Zero Dawn: a pinprick of glorious hope in the face of overwhelming devastation. It’s a quick read a 200 pages, but this story is going to stick inside me for a long, long time. It’s kind of the exact book you want to read if you’re willing to look the end of the world right in the face with an adorable cat by your side. Plus a nonbinary protagonist named Scout, who has a little bit more in common with Scout Finch than they’d probably ever believe.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing | Hanover Square Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book and provide an honest review.

The Last Gifts of the Universe reads like The Outer Wilds by way of Becky Chambers, featuring a trans protagonist. I love the idea of this book: the small family, grappling with recent grief, adrift among the stars. The shells of civilizations that came before, the terrible melancholy of searching for life and finding nothing. The race against capitalism to preserve information as a public good.

Unfortunately, though, I found the themes of this book to be so exhaustingly overstated that I really struggled to enjoy this at all. It takes the wind out of its own sails through long-winded over-explanations, paragraphs and paragraphs reiterating how every moment is precious. I'm sorry but you can write a story with thematic subtext without stating your theme, textually, repeatedly.

I had some other, more minor issues with this: it felt intensely uncreative that the alien civilization they were exploring was literally just exactly like human civilization, featuring college and marriage and bureaucracy and video calls and takeout. Long sequences of this book are devoted to learning about this former, alien race, along with exploring the ruins of their cities, and I think those sequences would have been more interesting if they actually felt alien from us.

Also, by the third life-threatening experience I wanted to strangle these characters for continuing to bring their cat on space walks. STOP BRINGING THE CAT. You guys are the literal worst cat owners of all time. You should lose custody of this cat. Why the hell would you keep bringing him, other than narrative convenience to hit the final story beat.

I received this as an eARC for the new publication (it seems the book was taken out of print for a bit).

Overall I loved the story and really enjoyed reading Scout’s adventure to find a cache that could save their world. The relationship between her and her brother (and Pumpkin!) is very sweet, and I enjoyed the interweaving of another character’s story through it all.

There were a few places that confused me, but I think that was due to formatting over the actual story (ie: a couple of places change the narrative view, but it wasn’t clear and I had to re-read and note which viewpoint I was reading; I believe this will be resolved by simply Italicizing the other character’s viewpoint). Because I believed this to be a formatting issue, it doesn’t affect my rating — I will update when I get my preorder in the mail if these issues are resolved!

Speaking of, I loved this so much that I preordered the new hardcover edition. I can’t wait to own this little treasure of a book! I finished wishing I had more, which is always a sign of a great read to me!

Thank you Harlequin Trade Publishing for the eARC!

This book follows siblings and their cat as they explore the galaxy, uncovering clues from ancient alien cultures. It's a quick, light-hearted read with strong writing. I picked it up after enjoying "Revelation Space" and craving more stories about ancient alien ruins. This fun adventure is full of heart, with their cat joining the journey in a tiny spacesuit.

The siblings discover journals from a long-dead alien, adding a layer of melancholy to the story. These passages are beautifully written and frequently highlighted in the Kindle version.

Fans of sci-fi archaeology, mystery, or adventure will love this poignant and memorable read. Highly recommended!

This book packs a punch! I was hooked on page one and read it in one sitting. I’m hoping there is a sequel. I love Pumpkin and hope for more space cat companions.