A thrilling SF tale driven by likable outlaw heroes.
Flakus, in his self-described “latinopunk” novella, crafts a cyberpunk adventure about a cybernetically enhanced outlaw on a distant planet.
Ryu Ruiz is a “runner—a cybernetically enhanced outlaw who harvests and transports Starflesh, a mysterious fungus with mystical hallucinogenic properties that transforms its users mentally, but also physically. For example, one prominent user’s “hair fell out, leaving him completely bald. He looked ten years younger…. His skin became a golden color which seemed to emanate a soft light in complete darkness.” Running is incredibly dangerous, and police patrol the city of Cuetlaxochitl, the seedy major port city on the remote and dangerous planet Xochipili, the only place in the galaxy where Starflesh grows. Xochipili's history as a penal colony for undocumented immigrants on Earth makes the far-flung futuristic galactic setting feel immediately timely and relevant. Ryu runs Starflesh both because it’s his only career option and because he’s in love with Miriam, the head of the runners’ guild. Her bar, the Dos Santos Cantina, conceals the Chicxulub, the eponymous spaceship that Miriam plans to use to return to Earth after one last big score. The book, which is deeply infused with Latine language and culture, is at its best when it follows Ryu's thrilling exploits, his simmering relationship with Miriam, and his friendship with fellow runner Felix. It’s slightly less effective, though, in an extended digression told from the perspective of John Praetor, a police officer from Earth who’s come to enforce the law on Xochipili because of the promise of a big payday. Luckily, the plot quickly returns to the runners and their richly drawn world with its own complex culture and struggles. As the story bounces deftly from SF to action-oriented thrills and eventually to a kind of transcendent mysticism, Flakus maintains a strong narrative voice and a clear vision, and shows deep care for these characters and their relationships along the way. The result satisfies all the expectations of the genre while feeling wholly original and exciting. Readers who enjoy exciting actioners set in unique but still recognizable futuristic settings will find a lot to like here.
A thrilling SF tale driven by likable outlaw heroes.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2025
ISBN: 9798893247756
Page Count: 95
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
A cleverly titled, cozy SF romance that marks Thorne as a writer to watch.
After purchasing a dilapidated, century-old starship called the Destitute, Torian Razner discovers that the moss covering it is, in fact, a deeply sarcastic sentient computer with abandonment issues.
Torian’s sister, Celise, is dying. Determined to save her life by getting her to a distant planet with air she can breathe, Torian ignores her former captain Amelia Perrosk’s warning that it’s an impossible task (along with any romantic feelings she might have for Amelia). Using the only ionite bars she has to her name, Torian purchases an ancient, moss-covered alien starship that appears to be on its last legs, so to speak. She hardly expected the moss to be a sentient computer or for it to hold a century-old grudge against its former alien captain. Moss quickly proves itself to be acerbic, intelligent, and rightly angry after being having been left behind for 100 years by its former captain. The two form a reluctant and surprising alliance, Torian proving to Moss that not all captains are “dog-turd fungus,” and they both gradually evolve into the best versions of themselves, human or otherwise. It’s obvious from the early pages that Thorne has crafted a story tailored to fans of Becky Chambers’ Monk & Robot series and Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries. Falling somewhere between the two, this is a delightful mashup of romance, found family, and a touch of violence as Moss grapples with its feelings about its former captain and the unexpected kindness that Torian shows. Sweet without being overly saccharine, it’s a book for readers who want the adventure that comes with the vastness of outer space without its harsher realities.
A cleverly titled, cozy SF romance that marks Thorne as a writer to watch.Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414144
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bramble Books
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
A disarmingly heartfelt space adventure that dares to suggest genocide might be a bad business.
When a bunch of corporate assholes mark their planet for destruction, a garage band of colonists must defend their home world with the power of rock.
Slightly sidestepping his frenetic litRPG—literary role-playing game—doorstoppers, here Dinniman takes on capitalism, propaganda, xenophobia, and violence as entertainment. Thankfully for readers, it’s all wrapped in the usual profane, adolescent humor, and SF readers will have a ball. A couple of hundred years after they left Earth, the inhabitants of the interstellar colony of New Sonora weren’t expecting much in the way of new threats, especially after a mysterious illness killed almost everyone between the ages of 30 and 60. That disaster left only the young and the old on the populated planet, where farming is enabled by highly accelerated AI and people are generally cool with each other. But when drummer Oliver Lewis stumbles across a foul-mouthed killer mech piloted by a child, he realizes that something’s definitely fishy. Earth, it seems, has classified the New Sonorans as non-human and scheduled their destruction as a paid, five-day combat game. Apex Industries, led by lead mercenary Eli Opel, has reverse-engineered Ender’s Game and is turning loose its players with real bullets and bombs on the population of New Sonora. The resistance is a weird bunch, led by proto-slacker Oliver; his little sister, Lulu; and his ex-girlfriend, documentary filmmaker and burgeoning revolutionary Rosita Zapatero, as well as the other members of Oliver’s band, the Rhythm Mafia. Thankfully, they also have Roger, the last functioning AI on the planet, though Oliver’s grandfather permanently programmed it to nannybot mode as a dying joke. Call the book overlong—the battle scenes often feel like watching someone play a videogame—but the humor and the execution are cutting without being mean and there’s almost always a point.
A disarmingly heartfelt space adventure that dares to suggest genocide might be a bad business.Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2026
ISBN: 9780593820308
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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