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A review by an_alaskan_fairy_tale
Stray by Andrea K. Höst
5.0
I posted this same review on the Touchstone series as a whole, but since it won't spoil future books you can take it as a firm endorsement of the first book as well.
Read this immediately. It's that good. I've read the series twice now and both times found myself completely absorbed into this world. Cass is a great character, whose humor is really the thing that made me fall in love with her and with all the other characters viewed through her lens. Though she manages to pull the same zero to hero transformation that is so popular with hero(ine)s, in this series it feels fresh and un-formulaic, since she never loses the self-deprecation that reminds us she is human.
I also really love that this series pulls so much from different forms of pop culture - anime, gaming, books, celebrity culture, and others that I'm probably forgetting - to create this new fictional world. It makes it that much more tangible.
Finally, though I started with the superficial (that this is an amazingly fun adventure story), I have to say as well that this book holds up as good sci-fi: i.e., like the best sci-fi it's a fascinating look at aspects of our world through the lens of an imaginary one. One of the major themes is how important communication is to being seen as intelligent and capable of making decisions for yourself. In this way Cass's experiences are comparable to those of indigenous people or even immigrants trying to make their way in an unfamiliar culture. There are others in this vein, but I think I'll let you have the fun of discovering them for yourself.
Read this immediately. It's that good. I've read the series twice now and both times found myself completely absorbed into this world. Cass is a great character, whose humor is really the thing that made me fall in love with her and with all the other characters viewed through her lens. Though she manages to pull the same zero to hero transformation that is so popular with hero(ine)s, in this series it feels fresh and un-formulaic, since she never loses the self-deprecation that reminds us she is human.
I also really love that this series pulls so much from different forms of pop culture - anime, gaming, books, celebrity culture, and others that I'm probably forgetting - to create this new fictional world. It makes it that much more tangible.
Finally, though I started with the superficial (that this is an amazingly fun adventure story), I have to say as well that this book holds up as good sci-fi: i.e., like the best sci-fi it's a fascinating look at aspects of our world through the lens of an imaginary one. One of the major themes is how important communication is to being seen as intelligent and capable of making decisions for yourself. In this way Cass's experiences are comparable to those of indigenous people or even immigrants trying to make their way in an unfamiliar culture. There are others in this vein, but I think I'll let you have the fun of discovering them for yourself.