A Pale Light in the Black A Neog Novel

If I were to summarise my feelings about this book, it would be a scream. Of excitement and the pure, simple joy these characters gave me. I’m in love! In love with the whole crew of Zuma‘s Ghost, in love with this book. I might even be a little bit in love with the author for writing it! I like saying that if the characters and I are a good fit, I could happily read a thousand pages of them living a normal everyday life and still enjoy every second of it. I feel like this one might just be proof of that. Not that nothing happens! Zuma‘s crew has two things going on: one, an annual sports competition during which a win can make quite the difference in who gets what funding out in space. And two, finding a mysterious ship paints a rather large target on their backs - with adversaries that don’t plan on stopping at anything. The story mostly focuses on part one, though, which I enjoyed a lot, but mostly because I fell hard for those characters right there on page one. I think what appealed most to me was that this is very much a loving (found) family very open to inviting others into their fold. It was soothing, in a way, and in that moment just the perfect read for me. Plus, I very much appreciated the queernorm world open to polyamory, open to nonbinary genders. (Including a focus on a sapphic, an mspec and an ace lead!) Honestly, I just wanna dive right back into this world. I have one of my favs for this year already.