Space Opera Fans discussion

The Feb 2024 Limited Pick is Astray by Jenny Schwartz. Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

Official description:
Nora Devi is a xeno-archaeologist with a complicated past. She has buried more secrets than she’s dug up. Widowed in the recently ended twelve year war between Capitoline and Palantine, she now makes a living as an independent tagger in border space.

Captain Liam Kimani could be credited with ending the latest royal war. Instead, he’s blamed for it. Dirty commoners aren’t meant to lay their hands on royalty.

He has no regrets.

When Liam and his crew of the battlecruiser RC Genghis Khan are exiled to Capitoline’s border they discover that life in unexplored space can be more dangerous than war, and that their best chance of survival lies with a mysterious, elusive tagger.

The only problem is that Nora’s secrets might destroy the precarious stability of the entire Human Sector.

Astray is a fast-paced, enthralling space opera of lost societies, ancient aliens, rugged warriors and semi-legal pirates.

I read this book in 2021 when it first came out, but don’t remember anything about it. I gave it 3 stars and didn’t buy the sequel. My review said “Readable but not as light hearted as the Space Deputy series.” It’s possible that if I hadn’t expected something like Space Deputy that I might have enjoyed it more.

I’m going to at least start rereading Astray.

I’m about 23% in. I’m surprised that I’m not remembering the plot and only vaguely getting wisps of memories of some of the characters. I’m not sucked into the story but it will do until a new book distracts me.

I read this book earlier this month and I enjoyed it. Not five stars, but a solid three. Here is my review.

I finished Astray. It’s readable and held my attention enough to finish it but for some reason I am just not invested in the characters, and find myself uninterested in buying the sequel.

I am reading the sequel and really enjoying it. It's better than the first one. Lots of complications and surprises. Lots of world building, politics, backstory, and character development. I'm about halfway through and there's not too much action yet. But there's plenty of foreshadowing.

I just started reading it. No great expetations, but I like reading new books. I'm at 13%.

Betsy wrote: "I am reading the sequel and really enjoying it. It's better than the first one. Lots of complications and surprises. Lots of world building, politics, backstory, and character development. I'm abou..."

In several sagas I've read the first book is kind of an introduction, and the seguels are often better than the begining...

I'm not sure why, but this one just doesn't appeal to me.

John wrote: "I'm not sure why, but this one just doesn't appeal to me."

....but I've decided to give it a try and have downloaded a copy, which I hope to start next week.

I've finished Astray, which in the end I enjoyed a lot more that I initially expected. Like some of the others in this thread, I rated it 3 stars.

It was a good choice, and I'm glad I read it, and will possibly read more in the series later in the year.

I have read the rest of the series, except the last one, which I will probably start soon. I enjoyed them all. Again, not five stars, but a solid three. I'm not sure I will reread them.