Hard to suspend so much disbelief

It took me a moment to realise that Lewis had wanted to write a kind of anime cyberpunk in space, and once I felt centred in the vision for the book I felt more comfortable, but there are one too many problems with the story - chiefly that the prostitution aboard the Juno is nothing beyond prostitution no matter what it's called, and a significant number - if not all - of the interactions the First Sister has there are coercive and violent. I don't mean violence in the traditional sense of the word, I mean that she is unable to say no, doesn't want to engage with these interactions, and doesn't enjoy them. She isn't beaten, at least not in the first couple hours I listened to, but it's still overwhelmingly violent. And I got the impression I'd be in for a whole book of this. I understand Lewis doesn't want to go into the life of prostitution, and it's got a YA feel so it's fine to just touch on the surface, but it's nonetheless deeply uncomfortable and only a surface examination that begs for something deeper regardless. The other issue is that it is unclear what Lewis' attitude is towards the Icarii society. I felt there were twinges of fascism around it but this isn't explored, and Lito is supposed to be an exponent of this society but frankly acts and thinks like he's writing his feelings in his diary. Now that would actually be accurate in such a society: performing for the society and feeling great anxiety about how it shapes them negatively as an individual would be what happens, but that is again unexplored in the first few hours I listened to the book, so I get the strong feeling that their introspection being at odds with what they are required to perform for the society is actually an unintentional exploration of their character and Lito has no thoughts about this, despite having lots of thoughts about lots of other things, and so there is a disconnect between who Lito 'needs' to be, what he does, and how he is written, and the Lito who writes in his diary seems not to have much idea about why he might feel the way he does and think the way he does. Gary Tiedemann's performance does not lend any further credibility to who his character is supposed to be, with a gender-fluid intonation, that further argues for a character who slices people up with swords like a psychopath, and has to calm his emotions using a machine a minute later. That is why I frame this as something of a stereotypical perception of anime - the melodrama and unreality is full in your face.

The one positive is that the book is paced very nicely and speeds along efficiently, but understanding what Lewis was trying to get across and the speed with which they're doing it is not enough when the characters read false. Given that this is a trilogy I don't want to invest any more of my time in the universe and I would say although there is some queer representation in the book, I don't think it's significant enough at all to spend time with characters that where all else is concerned, are thinly portrayed.

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Great, queer and believable space opera

Can recommend, fan of sci-fi or looking for a good Queer book? Go for it!

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