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| Trade paperback, 310 pages Published 2020 (originally 2019) Acquired April 2020 Read May 2020 |
This is a fantasy novel with space opera trappings. Basically the premise of its world is: what if Korean mythology was true... but it was the future and humanity had colonized space? Thus we have a fox spirit main character, and once she goes aboard a Space Forces starship, she meets tigers and demons and dragons serving among a predominantly human crew. The ship runs on flows of luck energy; if there's a ghost aboard, it loses battles because of the bad luck. That worldbuilding, the way the novel mixed fantasy underpinnings with sf tropes, was probably my favorite part of it.
It fits into the Star Wars archetype: Min is from a backwater planet and yearns for more. When she finds out her brother (in the Space Forces) has been branded a traitor, she follows him into space, using her fox powers to charm others and disguise herself. The beginning of the book is a bit one-thing-after-another in a way I found relentless: Min accidentally falls in with police she must play along with; she escapes from into working at a casino; she escapes from there into an under-attack spaceship; and so on. It all felt a bit too constructed, and there was little room for reflection. Things even out, though, once she disguises herself as a Space Force cadet, and makes friends that she must systematically lie to in order to continue her investigations. Her on the ship was my favorite part of the book, and where I felt it got the most interesting. In the end, things wrap up with a series of reversals-- not all of them expected, which was good-- but of course you'll be unsurprised to learn that Min triumphs. I didn't think it was great, but I did think it was fun, and unique.
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