You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo: review

3/5 stars on Goodreads

You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo

You Sexy Thing is sci-fi set in a distant universe in far future. You Sexy Thing is also a biomechanical, sentient spaceship with a sense of self-worth and infinite curiosity and desire to learn new things. When a group of ex-soldiers turned restauranteurs led by Captain Niko Larson accidentally end up on it, it seizes the opportunity to improve its existence. After some twists and turns, everyone ends up happy.

Except the reader.

I picked up this book expecting a space adventure, comical or action packed—or both. What I got was very little of either.

The book begins with seven chapters of setting a stage, which is then abandoned and never returned to again. After a brief burst of action, most of the book is spent on the spaceship waiting for something to happen. At around 60% mark something finally does, and the book takes a turn into fairly graphic cruelty, only to return to inaction. A few loose ends are tied, the stage is set for the follow up, and then the book ends.

What the reader gets is a token of a plot, a hint at a backstory and an attempt to tie the two. The action scenes are over in a paragraph or two of rather emotionless telling instead of taking the reader on an adventure. The rest of the book is spent in the heads of a cast that isn’t very interesting, done in a distant third person narrative that hops from head to head every two or three paragraphs, with a few if any cues as to whose head we’re in. At no point are the characters driving the plot. They’re merely on a ride like the reader.

What saves the book from being a total disappointment is the attention the author has put into creating her aliens. I was tolerably amused by them until I realised that it was all I was going to get. Niko and the spaceship were able to carry the book on their own. The rest were just fillers, and didn’t merit the time we spent in their heads, even if I liked most of them.

I was especially disappointed with Atlanta. She was the most introspective of the lot, yet the reader isn’t given even a hint of suspicion about her identity. And the reason for her being with the crew turned out to be stupid and completely unconnected with the plot. She, like the rest of the characters, didn’t have a single reason for being there.

If there’s a follow-up, I hope it’s about more than the promised travelling around the universe cooking, and I hope the author will concentrate on a couple of characters to make most of their stories. But I probably won’t read it either way.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.