Scan barcode
whattamess's review
2.0
MacHalo Buddy Read Because, that's how we roll.
Space unicorn, UP UP AND AWAY!
This one wasn't a big hit with the MacHalos. Fussy bunch of girls we are.
I didn't think it was all THAT bad. Wasn't all that good, either. T.J. Berry had some good ideas for the plot and some pretty funny stuff. If the story would have ended at the 62% mark, I would have given it 3 stars. The writing was not an attention grabber. I would be overcome by a feeling similar to waiting for a fly to land. You know...that in between moment where you're waiting to swat that fly so you can get on with your day.
I also wasn't too keen on how Jim and humans were portrayed. T.J. Berry worked too hard in making Jim and humans assholes that it was overdone. Overdone assholes HA! *ending joke*
Space unicorn, UP UP AND AWAY!
This one wasn't a big hit with the MacHalos. Fussy bunch of girls we are.
I didn't think it was all THAT bad. Wasn't all that good, either. T.J. Berry had some good ideas for the plot and some pretty funny stuff. If the story would have ended at the 62% mark, I would have given it 3 stars. The writing was not an attention grabber. I would be overcome by a feeling similar to waiting for a fly to land. You know...that in between moment where you're waiting to swat that fly so you can get on with your day.
I also wasn't too keen on how Jim and humans were portrayed. T.J. Berry worked too hard in making Jim and humans assholes that it was overdone. Overdone assholes HA! *ending joke*
amaganquiltscrafts's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
bioniclib's review
4.0
An excellent satire of humanity and the, well, inhumanity we humans seem to be infinitely capable of. Lots and lots of action. In fact at some points I was exhausted by everything that was happening. Unsurprisingly that also meant it was really violent. Sometimes, I had to skim ahead because the author went into a little too much detail.
It was also very accepting of all lifestyles. One of the man characters is trans, another is married to a dryad, the eponymous unicorn is actually half-unicorn and half BIPOC. So it was a little surprising that the character married to the dryad was also in a wheelchair. At first I thought it was another example of the acceptance widespread but then it something happened to cheapen it. I'll hide that under the spoilers below. But before I go, I just wanted to say, it was a fantastic book and I can't wait to read the sequel.
After Jenny is given come a Gary's healing blood, she starts to feel sharp pains in her previously paralysed legs. I didn't like that. I know not all disabilities need be permanent but making her badass AND in a wheelchair only to introduce the possibility of "fixing" that injury cheapens the advocacy of having a character in a wheelchair. It makes people using wheelchair permanently see themselves at first only to feel excluded when the twist happens. Of course, those are my thought as an able-bodied fellow. I can't speak for all wheelchair users.
The ending, too, was good. I loved out the little grey men trope was extrapolated and the Pymmies are all-powerful. And when they learn that Bala and humans aren't coexisting well, they seperate them; therebye robbing humans of faster-than-light travel (since the ships are powered by unicorn horns).
It was also very accepting of all lifestyles. One of the man characters is trans, another is married to a dryad, the eponymous unicorn is actually half-unicorn and half BIPOC. So it was a little surprising that the character married to the dryad was also in a wheelchair. At first I thought it was another example of the acceptance widespread but then it something happened to cheapen it. I'll hide that under the spoilers below. But before I go, I just wanted to say, it was a fantastic book and I can't wait to read the sequel.
Spoiler
After Jenny is given come a Gary's healing blood, she starts to feel sharp pains in her previously paralysed legs. I didn't like that. I know not all disabilities need be permanent but making her badass AND in a wheelchair only to introduce the possibility of "fixing" that injury cheapens the advocacy of having a character in a wheelchair. It makes people using wheelchair permanently see themselves at first only to feel excluded when the twist happens. Of course, those are my thought as an able-bodied fellow. I can't speak for all wheelchair users.
The ending, too, was good. I loved out the little grey men trope was extrapolated and the Pymmies are all-powerful. And when they learn that Bala and humans aren't coexisting well, they seperate them; therebye robbing humans of faster-than-light travel (since the ships are powered by unicorn horns).
b00kh0arder's review against another edition
5.0
ARC provided in exchange for review. Review will appear on the Nerd Daily & then here closer to publication date.
b00kh0arder's review
5.0
When humanity finally left Earth behind for the outer reaches of space, they might’ve expected to encounter little green men but certainly not unicorns, pixies or elves. Known collectively as the Bala, they are a group of species who take the forms of just about any mythological creature you can think of. Despite having observed and even visited humanity over the centuries, they extended the hand of friendship, offering to help them adapt to their new lives in space. Did humanity accept the gesture in the spirit it was intended?
Well, with our track record in meeting new cultures, what do you think? A century passes, and the Bala have been hunted, enslaved and exploited with near fanatical zeal, especially once it was found out that individual Bala parts had useful properties. Gary Cobalt is half-unicorn and has just been released from prison. With their horns that enable faster-than-light travel, unicorns have had it particularly rough. No longer incarcerated but still not free, Gary’s first goal upon being released is to try to reclaim what was taken from him—his ship. Unfortunately, he almost immediately runs into the two people he never wanted to see again: Captain Jenny Perata, the woman who took his ship and imprisoned him, and her co-pilot Cowboy Jim, the man whose wife Gary was imprisoned for murdering…
With an important summit on the horizon, the fate of both humanity and Bala seems to rest in the hands of a group of misfits who may kill each other before they can learn to work together.
As you can probably tell from the above synopsis, this book is completely and utterly bonkers. And it’s brilliant. The story hits the ground running with Gary taking part in a rigged game to win back his ship—a game that involves challenges such as risking the gaze of a parrot that will show you your own death, and surviving a bite of ‘singularity pie’, the heaviest dessert in the universe—and it doesn’t let up from there. The story is essentially a romp: Jenny and Gavin have been employed by a mysterious Order to deliver a package to the Century Summit where humanity will be judged by the Pymmie, the race of immortal omnipotent aliens and judging by their physical description, Mulder and Scully would probably recognise, who enforced the truce between humanity and the Bala in the first place. It’s time sensitive and they only have 24 hours to make the delivery. Cue obstacles strewn in their path at every turn, each more potentially dangerous than the last.
But Space Unicorn Blues is more than just a superficial adventure story, there’s a real emotional core to the story and depth to the world and its inhabitants. Everyone is flawed. Some, like Jenny, recognise their mistakes and are desperately trying to make up for them; others, like Jim, refuse to even acknowledge them and just double down—with potentially disastrous consequences. Humanity doesn’t come off particularly well. They are largely represented by a government ironically known as the “Reason”, whose reasoning is the old colonial ideology of “Manifest Destiny” which has even, rather chillingly, been turned into something of an affirmative. They regard the Bala purely as property to exploit and harvest, and so the parallels to things such as big game hunting and the ivory trade as well as colonial slavery are obvious, but they emerge naturally from the text, with little to no sledgehammering.
It’s also not just physical mistreatment they’re subjected to but cultural mistreatment as well. Gary’s stoneship (think an organic Death Star), the Jaggery, for example, is in actuality a complex biome, full of flora and fauna that work together to make the ship run, with controls that are as organic and intuitive as the rest of the ship. When Jenny first took over, this was all cleared away to make it more like a human space craft (something that, we find, the ship has suffered for) and even now still tries to operate it through a jerry-rigged human technological interface.
However, there are some seeds of hope. Half Bala like Gary and relationships like the one between Jenny and her dryad wife show that there’s a possibility humanity and the Bala could one day coexist. Where the story leaves us at the end of the book shows us that day is still a long way off. Whilst the narrative objective is achieved, there are enough unanswered questions and tantalising loose ends that it’s obvious this story is not yet finished.
Combining the character diversity and interaction of Firefly and the absurdity of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Space Unicorn Blues is a brilliantly original sci-fi novel, with enough to make you think as well as being thoroughly entertaining. It also contains the best weather-forecaster-oral-sex joke ever—it may actually be the only one, but it’s still the best! Roll on the next instalment!
Space Unicorn Blues has been published by Angry Robot, and will be available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers. Thank you to Angry Robot for providing The Nerd Daily with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
You can also check out our interview with T.J. Berry about the book, writing, and more!
Review originally published: http://www.thenerddaily.com/review-space-unicorn-blues-tj-berry/
Well, with our track record in meeting new cultures, what do you think? A century passes, and the Bala have been hunted, enslaved and exploited with near fanatical zeal, especially once it was found out that individual Bala parts had useful properties. Gary Cobalt is half-unicorn and has just been released from prison. With their horns that enable faster-than-light travel, unicorns have had it particularly rough. No longer incarcerated but still not free, Gary’s first goal upon being released is to try to reclaim what was taken from him—his ship. Unfortunately, he almost immediately runs into the two people he never wanted to see again: Captain Jenny Perata, the woman who took his ship and imprisoned him, and her co-pilot Cowboy Jim, the man whose wife Gary was imprisoned for murdering…
With an important summit on the horizon, the fate of both humanity and Bala seems to rest in the hands of a group of misfits who may kill each other before they can learn to work together.
As you can probably tell from the above synopsis, this book is completely and utterly bonkers. And it’s brilliant. The story hits the ground running with Gary taking part in a rigged game to win back his ship—a game that involves challenges such as risking the gaze of a parrot that will show you your own death, and surviving a bite of ‘singularity pie’, the heaviest dessert in the universe—and it doesn’t let up from there. The story is essentially a romp: Jenny and Gavin have been employed by a mysterious Order to deliver a package to the Century Summit where humanity will be judged by the Pymmie, the race of immortal omnipotent aliens and judging by their physical description, Mulder and Scully would probably recognise, who enforced the truce between humanity and the Bala in the first place. It’s time sensitive and they only have 24 hours to make the delivery. Cue obstacles strewn in their path at every turn, each more potentially dangerous than the last.
But Space Unicorn Blues is more than just a superficial adventure story, there’s a real emotional core to the story and depth to the world and its inhabitants. Everyone is flawed. Some, like Jenny, recognise their mistakes and are desperately trying to make up for them; others, like Jim, refuse to even acknowledge them and just double down—with potentially disastrous consequences. Humanity doesn’t come off particularly well. They are largely represented by a government ironically known as the “Reason”, whose reasoning is the old colonial ideology of “Manifest Destiny” which has even, rather chillingly, been turned into something of an affirmative. They regard the Bala purely as property to exploit and harvest, and so the parallels to things such as big game hunting and the ivory trade as well as colonial slavery are obvious, but they emerge naturally from the text, with little to no sledgehammering.
It’s also not just physical mistreatment they’re subjected to but cultural mistreatment as well. Gary’s stoneship (think an organic Death Star), the Jaggery, for example, is in actuality a complex biome, full of flora and fauna that work together to make the ship run, with controls that are as organic and intuitive as the rest of the ship. When Jenny first took over, this was all cleared away to make it more like a human space craft (something that, we find, the ship has suffered for) and even now still tries to operate it through a jerry-rigged human technological interface.
However, there are some seeds of hope. Half Bala like Gary and relationships like the one between Jenny and her dryad wife show that there’s a possibility humanity and the Bala could one day coexist. Where the story leaves us at the end of the book shows us that day is still a long way off. Whilst the narrative objective is achieved, there are enough unanswered questions and tantalising loose ends that it’s obvious this story is not yet finished.
Combining the character diversity and interaction of Firefly and the absurdity of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Space Unicorn Blues is a brilliantly original sci-fi novel, with enough to make you think as well as being thoroughly entertaining. It also contains the best weather-forecaster-oral-sex joke ever—it may actually be the only one, but it’s still the best! Roll on the next instalment!
Space Unicorn Blues has been published by Angry Robot, and will be available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers. Thank you to Angry Robot for providing The Nerd Daily with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
You can also check out our interview with T.J. Berry about the book, writing, and more!
Review originally published: http://www.thenerddaily.com/review-space-unicorn-blues-tj-berry/
reneg's review
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
emilyinthewoods's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
timinbc's review
3.0
Maybe this just isn't my style at this point in life. It certainly isn't my first wacky space opera, and in a world where Groot is willdy popular, how can I complain if a mostly-human falls in love with a tree?
Gary has a decent personality, and is an acceptable character from the drawer marked "this is the character that things happen to".
Diversity is present and smoothly handled.
+1 for unicorns being asexual; that frees up the author to avoid some otherwise almost obligatory scenes.
Ricky is just Pratchett's CMOT Dibbler, but with attitude. The Pymmie are quite like Crowley and Aziraphale from Good Omens, cracking wise while they stop time and shift planets.
The whole Jenny storyline is just implausible. Not to mention her being the hero of Wossname, AND meeting far too many people who were also involved.
I deduct a point, as I always do, for the classic "how long was I out?" scene. Can we not JUST ONCE have the awakening character ask, "What happened?" or "Where am I?" or "What day is it?" or "Did we make it?"
Of course Gary's, sigh.
Jim. Grrr. HOW Long were they together and no one ever even TRIED to explain, and he never asked? Credit though for having a character who's consistently a jerk.
Wenck was bad, from the Bwah-hah, I'm SO evil drawer, and his minions worse, to the Imperial Stormtrooper level. And they are presented so woodenly that it is incongruous to find more than one of them being quite decent really.
Biggest problem for me is that this hasn't decided whether it is a rollicking space opera full of "I am Groot" characters, or an actual story with dilemmas and moral issues. The Ricky Tang bar scene should have had Bugs Bunny in it, but later on people are saving each other heroically. I admit that a very few authors have mixed humour and social concern successfully (GNU, STP), but for me this one is only partially successful.
I'll probably skip the sequel, because I can live without finding out how the horn got moved at the end. [grin]
Gary has a decent personality, and is an acceptable character from the drawer marked "this is the character that things happen to".
Diversity is present and smoothly handled.
+1 for unicorns being asexual; that frees up the author to avoid some otherwise almost obligatory scenes.
Ricky is just Pratchett's CMOT Dibbler, but with attitude. The Pymmie are quite like Crowley and Aziraphale from Good Omens, cracking wise while they stop time and shift planets.
The whole Jenny storyline is just implausible. Not to mention her being the hero of Wossname, AND meeting far too many people who were also involved.
I deduct a point, as I always do, for the classic "how long was I out?" scene. Can we not JUST ONCE have the awakening character ask, "What happened?" or "Where am I?" or "What day is it?" or "Did we make it?"
Of course Gary's
Spoiler
dad is a king,Jim. Grrr. HOW Long were they together and no one ever even TRIED to explain, and he never asked? Credit though for having a character who's consistently a jerk.
Wenck was bad, from the Bwah-hah, I'm SO evil drawer, and his minions worse, to the Imperial Stormtrooper level. And they are presented so woodenly that it is incongruous to find more than one of them being quite decent really.
Biggest problem for me is that this hasn't decided whether it is a rollicking space opera full of "I am Groot" characters, or an actual story with dilemmas and moral issues. The Ricky Tang bar scene should have had Bugs Bunny in it, but later on people are saving each other heroically. I admit that a very few authors have mixed humour and social concern successfully (GNU, STP), but for me this one is only partially successful.
I'll probably skip the sequel, because I can live without finding out how the horn got moved at the end. [grin]
bibliophile80's review
4.0
From podcast Writing Excuses. Loved it. Delightful characters, intriguing plot, very well-written.
kat_sanford's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5