A review by emily_mh
Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings

adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Hutchings did not place the reader inside the most interesting perspectives she had to offer, and this book suffered for it. I would have been much more interested in following the Fortunate Five as they realise they save the universe in the future, but we get next to none of this as the POVs are limited to the ship from the future, which while interesting (as these people are meeting famous historical figures), would have been hugely enhanced by the Fortune Five POVs. How cool would it have been to follow these characters as they adjust to the knowledge that they are the chosen ones in a universal war?
Admittedly, one of the future POVs is revealed to be a Fortunate Five member but this is super last minute so we don’t get a lot of exploration here, AND no one believes that the Five they put together is the original Five anyway, so there was no sense of magnitude, which I’ll get into more later
. This is my biggest criticism of the book, as there was just SO MUCH potential that Hutchings left untapped. 

It was really weird to me that at no point did anyone on either ship think that their present was how the history of the Fortunate Five actually played out. They all thought that something had gone wrong with the timeline, and that they had to imitate the Fortunate Five as accurately as possible so that the future could still happen. And the people from the future ship think this being fully aware of how sanitised and patchy the history of the Five are; like, perhaps that’s because all THIS happened, which would be unmentionable in history textbooks?? It’s made pretty clear to the reader, in my opinion, that we are seeing the true history of the Five unravel, and it was beyond cool (and very clever) seeing how everything came together. But it would have taken it to the next level if the characters THEMSELVES had realised that this was the original Five they were dealing with, and not some cobbled-together replica. Seeing especially the future ship members realise the magnitude of their actions and the realisation of their involvement would have been beyond satisfying and interesting for the reader. 

Hutchings was inconsistent in writing her characters. At times they felt searingly human (like in Jereth and Leeg's flashback POVs, and in Shaan’s); at others, it was like she forgot to write in emotional reactions to highly emotional situations. For example, the terror of being stranded OUTSIDE OF SPACE TIME. I can think of nothing more existential than that, but it felt like the characters viewed it the same as being trapped in a desolate area of space. There are some other examples I could give, but I want to avoid spoilers. 

Sometimes the plot felt too slow, as there were quite a lot of scenes where characters were talking instead of doing, and sometimes the talking didn’t feel like it was going places. But Hutchings nailed the scope of the plot. I was concerned she was going to put too much in, but she focussed on what needed to be focussed on. I’m being intentionally vague to avoid spoilers! 

I have kind of highlighted mostly negative things here, which is unfortunate because I did like this book. I really enjoyed reading it. Like I said, the way things came together was satisfying and clever, there were some really fantastic character moments, the plot scope was perfect, and despite it being slow at times, I was really engaged. I think I feel disappointed because I had such high expectations, and I also feel like there was so much potential that just wasn’t reached. 

Rep: four POVs, two queer 
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