A memorable, genre-blending adventure that frequently bucks expectations.
Ramirez’s kooky SF novel follows a reunited group of mercenaries.
Billy Firebrand Jr. leads a formidable crew on a “frigate-class gunship” called Michelle. The crew consists of members like Oliver “Shotgun” Gutierrez, a “two-meter-tall bruiser” with pacifist leanings whose nickname stems from his favorite weapon. Clarence “Stick” Porter is a capable pilot who talks gently to Michelle and keeps his cool in harrowing situations. Eliza “El” Fernandez is only 167 centimeters tall and beautiful—but she can kill someone “six different ways with her bare hands and a few dozen more with a blade.” Ricky “Mouth” Watkins is a conman with a penchant for disguises. Billy, meanwhile, must contend with the fact that he is named after a fictional character that his father created— people know the fictional Captain Billy Firebrand from “banal movies and TV shows.” In the opening pages, the squad is on a mission that winds up getting them banned from the Mercenary Guild; two years down the road, Billy is running a sandwich shop, Shotgun is a professor, and El is a nun. But when Mouth gets an assignment from a princess named Anne, it is time for everyone to get back into action. Once the team is at it again, the reader is in store for flashbacks, distant places, and occasional chapters devoted to the TV version of Captain Billy Firebrand that Billy Jr. so despises. The TV Firebrand is prone to funny statements like “Make no mistake: This may be our most daring mission yet.” This reflects the overall playful tone of a narrative that comes to include aspects of a detective story and fierce creatures with “five-centimeter-long razor-sharp teeth” (one character wants to get married on a beach even though she “had only ever seen one beach in person, and its sand had gotten everywhere and really annoyed her”). While some scenes do run long (particularly when multiple pages are devoted to episodes of the TV Firebrand), the atmosphere makes for an altogether refreshing take on a journey through space.
A memorable, genre-blending adventure that frequently bucks expectations.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781964457659
Page Count: 418
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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