Sally's Reviews > Fiasco

Constance Fay's Fiasco was anything but - it was an exciting read, complete with twists, betrayals, and surprises, not to mention a healthy amount of romance and humor layered atop the adventure.

Cynbelline Khaw is a young woman who has already lived more than most of us do in a lifetime, having become a space-faring bounty hunter to escape the pressures and expectations of a family broken by the abduction of her cousin. Best known for a bounty that went bad, resulting in a bunch of dead slavers, she's a legend to some and a monster to others. When she's offered a small fortune to accept a new bounty that may allow her to find justice for her cousin at the same time, she knows it's a mistake, but there's no way she can refuse.

Her mission reunites her with the crew of the Calamity, although she was pretending to be somebody else then, so nobody recognizes her now. Except, that is, for Micah Arora, the sexy medic who can literally smell trouble. It's a ragtag crew who neither trust her nor like her, and their mission will bring her right back home to the family she hasn't seen in years. It's hardly the ideal situation, but it's the conflicts beneath the surface that fuel the story.

Fiasco is a bit of an odd book because it shifts tone and content rather dramatically on more than one occasion. There's a mystery and an adventure to be explored; shockingly tragic reveals that leads into family drama; a slow-burn romance that doesn't really spark until the last 100 pages; a darkly comical heist thriller; and a heroic mashup of all of the above that carries through to the end. None of that is a complaint. I loved the surprises, loved not knowing where this was going, and loved how all the various threads ended up coming together.

While you certainly don't need to have read Calamity to enjoy this, I felt like the crew was painted a bit thin here, so having that background likely would have defined them a bit better. And, sure, I would have loved more time with Vuur, the tiny metal-eating would-be-dragon, but those are my only complaints. What matters is that Cyn was more than strong enough to carry the story, and the way the plot shifts around the Abyssal Abductor had me riveted to the end. Superb!


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