Persephone Station

Persephone Station by Stina Leicht
Published by Gallery / Saga Press on January 5, 2021
Genres: Science Fiction
Pages: 512
Format: eARC
Goodreads

Hugo award–nominated author Stina Leicht has created a take on space opera for fans of The Mandalorian and Cowboy Bebop in this high-stakes adventure.
Persephone Station, a seemingly backwater planet that has largely been ignored by the United Republic of Worlds becomes the focus for the Serrao-Orlov Corporation as the planet has a few secrets the corporation tenaciously wants to exploit.
Rosie--owner of Monk’s Bar, in the corporate town of West Brynner, caters to wannabe criminals and rich Earther tourists, of a sort, at the front bar. However, exactly two types of people drank at Monk’s back bar: members of a rather exclusive criminal class and those who sought to employ them.
Angel--ex-marine and head of a semi-organized band of beneficent criminals, wayward assassins, and washed up mercenaries with a penchant for doing the honorable thing is asked to perform a job for Rosie. What this job reveals will effect Persephone and put Angel and her squad up against an army. Despite the odds, they are rearing for a fight with the Serrao-Orlov Corporation. For Angel, she knows that once honor is lost, there is no regaining it. That doesn’t mean she can’t damned well try.

Let me start by saying – THIS SHIT SLAPS!!! If you are not up to date with internet lingo (and I do not blame you AT ALL if you aren’t), that means – THIS BOOK IS AWESOME. I had SUCH a blast reading it, what a fun ride. There are spaceships, epic fights, badass women, queer protagonists, alien species, and! The best thing of all! FOUND FAMILY wweeeeeewwwwww. This was my first read of 2021 and lemme tell you, we are off to a great start babyyyyyy.

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My Favorite Things

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First of all the tagline is “Hugo award–nominated author Stina Leicht has created a take on space opera for fans of The Mandalorian and Cowboy Bebop in this high-stakes adventure.” And I LOVE THE MANDALORIAN so you know I had to do it. Of course it has a different vibe than Mando but like, still similar?? The main characters have hearts of gold but are also a little bit criminal, yknow? It’s that do what you gotta do to survive kinda thing that Mando also has going on.

One of the BEST things about this book is that it’s a fiercely feminist space opera adventure. Like, cishet male main characters?? We don’t know them. The main cast of characters consists of a ragtag crew of all women, a nonbinary crime boss, and a person who is kind of an AI in a human body. Pretty kickass if you ask me. And I guess that’s why you’re reading this review – you’re asking me hahaha. I loved every character, and how different each character was.

The plot is a bit slow in the beginning but when it picks up, OH BOY does it pick up. There are a lot of elements at play in the story, and my favorite thing was the slow reveal of the personal motivations going on behind the larger political acts. I also love the anti-colonizer sentiments woven throughout the story. We respect indigenous cultures here (the alien civilization being the indigenous culture in this case).

I thoroughly enjoy the author’s writing style. She is great at weaving in dialogue and exposition in a way that always feels natural. I also really liked the points of conversation between one of the main characters, Angel, and the shipboard AI, Kurosawa. It’s really fun to be able to see lots of different kinds of conversation, as AIs are fundamentally different to humans. I feel like it lets you get a cool alternate perspective to learn more about the characters.

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Small Improvement Areas

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I mentioned earlier that the plot is a bit slow in the beginning. It did take me a little while to truly get hooked in because of that. There is a lot of information given really quickly, and it’s a bit difficult to figure out all the pieces.

Even though there is a lot of information given at the beginning, I feel like the world-building could have been more fleshed out. That seems contradictory, but I kinda felt like there were just a lot of pieces that needed more information to piece together. Obviously that requires even MORE, so it must be difficult to do. But yeah, I just want to know everything about this world/universe basically haha.

So my main wish for improvement – GIMME MORE BOOKS IN THIS UNIVERSE!!!!!! Hahahahaha.

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So yes, I loved this book A LOT and I hope you all go check it out! It releases TODAY, so get thee to a bookstore!! Virtually and/or safely!! (Also check out that stunning coverrrrrrrr).

Thank you to Saga Press and NetGalley for the eARC!