DM News:Book Review: Moss'd in Space

[James Thomson]

I am on record here as being a big fan of Rebecca Thorne’s work. Her cosy fantasy tetralogy, “Tomes & Tea”, is such a delightful romp, and her distinctly less cosy “Gilded Abyss” series is basically the fall of Rapture from Bioshock with a different kind of Big Daddy. What’s not to like? Not to mention all the puns that physically hurt.

 

So, when I heard her next book was going to be a cosy sci-fi adventure mixing the whimsical tone of Becky Chambers’ “Wayfarers” series with a side order of Martha Wells’ snarky Murderbot—two of my all time favourites—the only logical conclusion was that she was writing this new book just for me, personally. Which is probably bad from an overall sales perspective, but I can’t deny I’m pleased with the result.

 

Torian Razner, like many of the disenfranchised members of her society, lives on a decaying space station orbiting a quite pleasantly terraformed planet. Said planet would rather that those poor people stay far away, thank you very much. 

 

The ailing life support systems on the station are damaging her sister Celise’s lungs and Torian wants to get her somewhere with decent breathable air. She has a plan, and all she needs to enact it is her very own spaceship. Sadly, all she can afford with her meagre savings is a beaten up and abandoned one, so old it’s covered in moss.

 

It turns out that moss actually runs the life support systems for the ship, and it is very much aware that it has been abandoned. Indeed, it has sat there for over a hundred years thinking about only that, and is not the biggest fan of humans in general, particularly its past and present captains.

 

Adding to the mix is Torian’s own former captain and former maybe something else, Amelia. Things start out complicated, and get less (and more) complicated as the book goes on, though their relationship is not exactly the focus in the way Reyna and Kianthe were in the “Tomes & Tea” series. I hope that we get to see more of the two of them in the future, particularly since the book ends on something of a cliffhanger. You wrote a sequel already, Rebecca, right? You can tell me, I won’t say anything.

 

This is a fun adventure, full of found family and the author’s usual style of humour. There are definitely stakes, despite the cosy nature, but many problems are solved by actually talking to each other like sentient beings. Something we could all perhaps learn from!

 

Definitely a breath of fresh air, and highly recommended to bryophytes everywhere.

 

You can find this and other Rebecca Thorne books in our ebook store!

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