Gary Cobalt is half unicorn. He's been held prisoner, enslaved, and his horn has been constantly ground down because of its properties allowing for faster than light travel for spaceships. Gary makes his break from prison and all he needs is a ship, preferably his, but any will do, so that he can get cleanly away. But Gary's luck is all bad. The only pilot with a ship is Captain Jenny Perata ... the person who put him in prison in the first place.

Gary must work together with the worst possible person and he place a great deal of trust in her as she protects him from others on the ship as well as alien races looking to enslave the Bala (the race of unicorns).

This is a raucous, fast-past space opera/fantasy. There is plenty here that makes this a light, fun read. The whole concept of the half-unicorn, his horn that grows back and has ship-fueling properties. It's a lot of fun.

On the other hand, however, there is more than little bit here that just falls flat as well. Primarily, I found the humor here forced and infantile. This passage, for instance, has nothing to do with the story and clearly author T. J. Berry includes it just because she thinks it's funny:
<blockquote>“I thought they were just being festive,” stammered Cheryl Ann. “Lots of people like rainbows. I like rainbows. Leprechauns like rainbows.”
Jenny burst out laughing.
“Well, you know, that was in fact the name of the bar… Lesbians and Leprechauns: A Bar For Rainbow Lovers,” said Jenny. She couldn’t help the cheeky comment. Not after what had just happened.
“And for prisms,” said Cheryl Ann. “And weather forecasters.”
“Hey, since you mention weather forecasters, what do you call oral sex with a meteorologist who has a vagina?”
“What?” Cheryl Ann looked genuinely curious.
“Cumulolingus,” said Jenny.
They both laughed until their stomachs hurt and tears ran down their faces.</blockquote>
There are moments that catch the reader off-guard and are funny ("Jenny smelled the distinctive odor of elf semen.") but for the most part the humor would have done better if it came out a little more naturally.

There is also a strong sense to this reader that the book is padded to make a specific length. There isn't a lot that happens after the initial confrontation. We get a lot of repeat 'Gary's in danger Jenny needs to help' action and it gets a bit boring and confusing.

While I will certainly read the next book in the series (I already have it on my Kindle) I can't give this a very strong recommendation.

Looking for a good book? <em>Space Unicorn Blues</em> by T. J. Berry is a space opera/fantasy/farce that relies a little too heavily on juvenile humor to keep what could otherwise be a fun fantasy really interesting.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

What a crazy adventure of a book! If you're looking for something gut-wrenching and genre-bending, this is the book for you!

I thought I'd like this one, but I really just couldn't get into it. I just couldn't finish this one, unfortunately.

There's quite a lot to appreciate about "Space Unicorn Blues," although for many readers its temporally proximate publication to Catherynne Valente's blockbuster hit "Space Opera" is bound to affect its reception and appreciation. In tone as well as substance, however, these books are dramatically different from each other, even though they share a loose fantastical approach to science fiction; where "Space Opera" is a fundamentally optimistic take on the future and the aftermath of war, "Space Unicorn Blues" is ... not. T.J. Berry is more interested in exploitation as a central tenet of her novel, specifically exploitation of the body by way of corporate profiteering. The military-industrial complex is on the ascendant, and Berry does little to gloss over the horrifying bones of that possibility.

The concepts here are smart, the language incisive. Berry draws her characters as richly complex and diverse individuals, with round backstories and deep damages. Readers looking for representation and conversations about disability, religion, and race will find something to love here. But it's worth noting here, as the book makes clear throughout: This is a deeply, fundamentally, and entirely depressing book. It just so happens to feature unicorns and pixies. As fodder for the machine of capitalism. Yikes. In summary, this is an interesting read but not one to lean on if you need a mood boost.

If I'm being completely honest I didn't think I was going to like this book as much as I did. The goofy premise drew me in and I was curious in a positive way, but I was also a little skeptical because that kind of goofiness can go both ways. It's either going to work well, or fall flat.

I'm happy to say that with Space Unicorn Blues it really works.

The story and world have a lot of goofy, tongue in cheek elements, but the overall product is heartfelt, sincere and serious in the themes it wants to tackle. The themes of colonialism, racism and forgiveness are front and centre in the novel, and they're never the butt of any of the jokes.

The book has a lot of diversity, which seems to me at least to be very well researched. The main characters are a mixed race asexual man and an indigenous disabled lesbian war veteran just to name two examples. The characters could have easily become just a collection of various token diversities, but they're fully fleshed out with flaws and weaknesses. It felt like they were real people and I loved that.

About two thirds of the way in the story dragged a little bit, there was some repetition with characters meeting up and having pages filled to re-introductions. I think that could have used some more editing.
Also one character felt a little out of place with the rest of the cast, because they came across as one dimensional and stereotypical. Considering the amount of detail and love given to pretty much all the other characters, this one stood out to me like a sore thumb.

Overall I still very much enjoyed the book and would recommend it.

I was expecting wacky hijinks and zany space adventure fun, and instead this is a rather slow, serious slog of a book. It's really well written and great if you like a slow pace and a serious tone to you space sci-fi novels, but with a name like Space Unicorn Blues I was really looking for something a little more snappy and faster paced.
I love the amount of diversity in this book. There are characters of various races, with various disabilities, and with various sexual orientations and gender identities. FINALLY!

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than in the cast of Space Unicorn Blues by T.J. Berry. This book features a motley cast consisting a magical unicorn-man, three humans, and a team of spaceship-dwelling dwarves. Also, the pilot wants to kill the unicorn. While the characters of this book certainly stand out, the plot also takes unpredictable turns as it careens down seemingly the simplest of plots: get from point A to point B.

All of the inhabitants of the Space Unicorn Blues universe comes from fantasy, but they’re also aliens. The creatures of human myth – such as unicorns – really have been aliens attempting to contact humanity. However, the humans have discovered that the aliens have special powers: most importantly than unicorn horn can power faster-than-light spaceships. In a highly inventive volume, fantasy crashes into science fiction and creates chaos.

Surprisingly enough, it all knits together pretty smoothly. Unicorns can heal nearly any wound and their horns (once shaved off) can be thrown into engines and used as fuel aboard stoneships. Other mythological creatures have superpowers, too. Dryads control nature, fairies can fly, dwarves are master mechanics, and the Greys (you know, those aliens you see in most alien movies) act as all powerful administrators. Yes, unicorn horn is just tossed into the ship’s fuel tank, but only aboard special vessels called stoneships, which are rocks with ecosystems inside that act as a kind of living engine.

Our hero, Gary Cobalt, just wants to live in peace, but a totalitarian intergalactic human government has strict rules about unicorns and other mythological creatures’ rights. Gary is half-unicorn, half-human (his mom got pregnant by magic) so he has a horn and hooves, but everything else looks human. Gary finishes up his ten-year prison sentence for murder, and immediately goes on the run from government officials who want to exploit his horn by teaming up with murderous thugs Jenny Perata and Cowboy Jim who framed him in the first place.

Weirdness coats this story like fudge on a sundae. Sometimes it gets to be a bit much. Veteran fans of space opera (especially the late Iain M. Banks) should devour it. I have many food similes when I write before breakfast. Unicorns eat bones, by the way, and that’s how their horns grow. Gross, right? Throw in the fact that everyone in the universe either hates Gary or worships him, and the result toes the line with melodrama. But, hey, that’s space opera, kids. Genre fans will love the wonderfully sugary strangeness here, but some might find it off-putting.

Pick up a copy of Space Unicorn Blues for the strangest read all summer, but be warned that it’s pretty immersive. Everything about Space Unicorn Blues feels incredibly well-built and solid. It’s a delight for space opera junkies, but fans of harder sci-fi might find it a little too silly.

There were a lot of things to love about this book. An uncommon paranormal creature! Unlikely allies! LGBT+ characters! A disabled character! POC characters! Space adventure! But it ended up being not right for me.

I think the biggest problem was that I was expecting a fun, action-packed space adventure full of shenanigans and misfits, but this was slow-paced for most of the story and more serious and harsh than fun.

Then there were the characters. The blurb makes it sound like Gary is the protagonist, but it felt like Jenny’s story. It seemed like most of the book was her POV, she had the most development, and she was the one who drove the story forward. Unfortunately, I didn’t like her. I couldn’t bring myself to like anyone, aside from Gary and Boges (a dwarf who lived on his ship). The things they had done were too terrible and selfish. Jenny was eventually sorry, but it took her until the end of the book. And although I liked Gary, I never got a feel for his personality. I get that he was disenchanted and traumatized, but I needed something. I never even knew what emotions he was feeling. To be fair though, it is realistic for people to not be sorry, to avoid emotions that make them uncomfortable, to get so beaten down that they just let things happen to them, etc., so while the characters may not have been likeable to me, they were still believable.

I will also give the book credit—if ever there were a team of unlikely allies, this was it. This was as unlikely as unlikely allies can get. But they were maybe too unlikely for me? Jenny and Jim spent years keeping Gary captive and torturing him. I was frustrated with how, upon getting back on his ship with them, he just kind of let them boss him around again and was even willing to put his own safety and freedom at risk to help/save them. And honestly I wasn’t comfortable with Gary becoming friends with Jenny after everything she did to him, even if she had changed.

But hey, something positive now! I liked the half-unicorn aspect! And he was *literally* half unicorn. He had the upper body of a human, but the legs of a unicorn, plus a horn (or rather, a space on his head where a horn should’ve been, since his was cut off). Unicorns also had their own beliefs and ways of life, and little inclusions of those things were interesting.

I also loved the diversity/inclusivity. Gary was asexual and Indian on his mother’s side. Jenny was a lesbian and used a wheelchair. Ricky was trans. It all seemed like good rep. And although the characters on the ship didn’t always get along, they did respect each other in regards to these things (aside from Jim, who was supposed to be a jerk). Also, the prejudice against the non-human species was a continued theme throughout the book.

Another great thing was the world-building. The areas of space, the planets, the different species, the way way the ship worked, the backstory for how things got to be the way they were, etc. were well thought-out. The stoneship, and how it was a living thing, was especially creative. I also liked that all the alien species weren’t too human-like. Even little details about different types of drinks made the world more interesting.

The writing was good too. I have no complaints there.

I also want to mention that this is the first in a series, so there are story threads left open to continue in future books.

So overall, this didn’t end up being the fun, action-packed book I thought it would be, and it wasn’t quite right for me, but I did like the unicorn aspect, the inclusivity, and the world-building, and I think other people might enjoy it more than I did.

3 stars. It’s not my usual type of sci fi but the story grew on me. Initially I wasn’t really into half-unicorn Gary and the magical spacebeings but the story settles down about a third of the way through and delivers plenty of action and interesting insights. Jenny Perata is awesomely badass and Ricky Tang is also great so I could’ve read way more about them.

When humanity finally left Earth behind for the outer reaches of space, they might’ve expected to encounter little green men but certainly not unicorns, pixies or elves. Known collectively as the Bala, they are a group of species who take the forms of just about any mythological creature you can think of. Despite having observed and even visited humanity over the centuries, they extended the hand of friendship, offering to help them adapt to their new lives in space. Did humanity accept the gesture in the spirit it was intended?

Well, with our track record in meeting new cultures, what do you think? A century passes, and the Bala have been hunted, enslaved and exploited with near fanatical zeal, especially once it was found out that individual Bala parts had useful properties. Gary Cobalt is half-unicorn and has just been released from prison. With their horns that enable faster-than-light travel, unicorns have had it particularly rough. No longer incarcerated but still not free, Gary’s first goal upon being released is to try to reclaim what was taken from him—his ship. Unfortunately, he almost immediately runs into the two people he never wanted to see again: Captain Jenny Perata, the woman who took his ship and imprisoned him, and her co-pilot Cowboy Jim, the man whose wife Gary was imprisoned for murdering…

With an important summit on the horizon, the fate of both humanity and Bala seems to rest in the hands of a group of misfits who may kill each other before they can learn to work together.

As you can probably tell from the above synopsis, this book is completely and utterly bonkers. And it’s brilliant. The story hits the ground running with Gary taking part in a rigged game to win back his ship—a game that involves challenges such as risking the gaze of a parrot that will show you your own death, and surviving a bite of ‘singularity pie’, the heaviest dessert in the universe—and it doesn’t let up from there. The story is essentially a romp: Jenny and Gavin have been employed by a mysterious Order to deliver a package to the Century Summit where humanity will be judged by the Pymmie, the race of immortal omnipotent aliens and judging by their physical description, Mulder and Scully would probably recognise, who enforced the truce between humanity and the Bala in the first place. It’s time sensitive and they only have 24 hours to make the delivery. Cue obstacles strewn in their path at every turn, each more potentially dangerous than the last.

But Space Unicorn Blues is more than just a superficial adventure story, there’s a real emotional core to the story and depth to the world and its inhabitants. Everyone is flawed. Some, like Jenny, recognise their mistakes and are desperately trying to make up for them; others, like Jim, refuse to even acknowledge them and just double down—with potentially disastrous consequences. Humanity doesn’t come off particularly well. They are largely represented by a government ironically known as the “Reason”, whose reasoning is the old colonial ideology of “Manifest Destiny” which has even, rather chillingly, been turned into something of an affirmative. They regard the Bala purely as property to exploit and harvest, and so the parallels to things such as big game hunting and the ivory trade as well as colonial slavery are obvious, but they emerge naturally from the text, with little to no sledgehammering.

It’s also not just physical mistreatment they’re subjected to but cultural mistreatment as well. Gary’s stoneship (think an organic Death Star), the Jaggery, for example, is in actuality a complex biome, full of flora and fauna that work together to make the ship run, with controls that are as organic and intuitive as the rest of the ship. When Jenny first took over, this was all cleared away to make it more like a human space craft (something that, we find, the ship has suffered for) and even now still tries to operate it through a jerry-rigged human technological interface.

However, there are some seeds of hope. Half Bala like Gary and relationships like the one between Jenny and her dryad wife show that there’s a possibility humanity and the Bala could one day coexist. Where the story leaves us at the end of the book shows us that day is still a long way off. Whilst the narrative objective is achieved, there are enough unanswered questions and tantalising loose ends that it’s obvious this story is not yet finished.

Combining the character diversity and interaction of Firefly and the absurdity of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Space Unicorn Blues is a brilliantly original sci-fi novel, with enough to make you think as well as being thoroughly entertaining. It also contains the best weather-forecaster-oral-sex joke ever—it may actually be the only one, but it’s still the best! Roll on the next instalment!

I have some mixed feelings about this very complicated and bizarre book.

Gary is half unicorn, half human and has just been released from prison when he gets pulled into a plot to deliver mysterious packages across the universe. Will he be able to let go of old grudges to complete the mission?

There was some good in this book, in spite of the 2 star rating. The <b>world-building</b> (or rather, universe building) <b>was complex and interesting</b>. It was a strange mix of science fiction and fantasy. Not only is there space travel, but typically fantastic creatures exist across the universe. The author obviously had put a lot of thought into the politics and cultures within the world. While things sometimes were confusing or a little too convoluted, for the most part, the universe was built well and was interesting to read about.

The <b>diversity was also well-done</b>. For the most part, it wasn't too heavy handed or down-played. Characters are accepting of their (and others') identities - except for the bigoted villains, of course. And there was a lot of diversity - different races, sexualities, and gender identities.

But....even with all that, this book had some serious issues. Below are some <b>SPOILERS</b> because I cannot stop myself from talking in-depth about the problems in this book.

The biggest issue I took was the <b> poor development of characters</b>. While the author obviously had some ideas about how characters were supposed to be, often the actions of the characters didn't fall in line with the overtly-mentioned aspects of their personalities.

Take Jenny, for example. Throughout the book, Jenny is shown to be a take-charge kind of person who never stops fighting. She always has a plan and is never afraid to fight for those she loves. This is all mentioned explicitly and shown implicitly throughout the book. However, at the beginning of the book, we are told that Jenny has spent the previous 10 years waiting around for Gary to get out of jail. She's bummed around doing small jobs, but couldn't do much else because she didn't have a ship. With everything that we're shown about Jenny's character throughout the book, this doesn't make any sense - she just sat around doing nothing for a decade and then she's ready to be a go-getter once again?

What also confused me was Jenny's feelings toward Bala - or magical creatures. Jenny is in a relationship with a magical tree/druid creature. However, it is told many times that Jenny (while in this relationship), took Gary (our half-unicorn character) captive for years and mistreated him. This discrepancy felt odd to me - why would Jenny be okay with Bala in some instances, but feel justified in taking one as a slave in others? If this discrepancy had been addressed head on, I would have felt better about it.. But it's never mentioned. And we're just told that, in the 10 years she did nothing, Jenny changed and now feels more sympathetic to Bala and their plight. But why didn't she feel that way the whole time she was married to a Bala who was losing rights and constantly on the run from the authorities? It made no sense.

Jim is another character I took issue with. His character makes little sense and entirely functions as a villain. He is very clear about his hatred for Gary throughout the entire book, but is okay moving forward with a plan to bring Gary on board and helps moves this plan along. It is only when Gary is back on board that Jim is shown to have a problem with Gary and starts doing little things to antagonize him. Why would Jim go along with this plan at all if he hated Gary? And if he chose to go along with it in spite of hating Gary, why wouldn't he try to kill Gary on sight?

Along those same lines, the author seemed to be unsure about whether Jim was supposed to be a quirky, but likeable character, or an evil villain. There are a lot of characters who are written to show both their good and bad characteristics, but Jim's character was not written well to show this balance. Obviously, most people have some good and some bad in them. But Jim's character felt disjointed when he was obsessed with grilled cheese in one paragraph and turning in Bala to the authorities in the next. It didn't feel like the same character. Also, grilled cheese isn't a personality trait and I wish the character of Jim had been fleshed out more than being 1) useless, 2) obsessed with grilled cheese sandwiches, and 3) evil.

And with that in mind, here is what confused me most- why are Jim and Jenny still hanging around together? Jenny is clear about thinking Jim is useless and sketchy. Jim gets irritated with Jenny. Jenny knows that Jim hates Gary. Why would Jenny invite Jim to help in a mission to rescue Gary with all that in mind? And why would Jim accept? On top of that, Jim and Jenny supposedly hung out for 10 years doing almost nothing or reconnected after 10 years to do this job - which makes no sense. Ten years is a long time - neither of them found any new connections or realized their incompatibility in that time? What's keeping them together - a love for Jim's deceased wife? Their relationship makes no sense, especially as it becomes more and more clear that Jim isn't useful on board and that Jenny doesn't trust him at all.

The <b>writing is often unclear</b>. It took me a long time understand the cultures and the universe because things were revealed just a little at a time, but in a very confusing and disorienting way. For the first 1/3 of this book, I really had no idea what was going on (partly because the first 5-6 chapters are a contest taking place in a bar that has no real impact on the rest of the story).

Overall, this is a fun book for people who enjoy silly sci-fi stories. But if you want good character development, don't pick up this book.

I went in with low expectations as it sounded a bit silly but the adventures of Gary, Ricky & jenny are a wonder to behold. Completely surprising, there were no moments where I felt I knew what would happen next. I totally loved the dwarves.

I don’t actually think I even checked the reviews or whatnot on this book before I was all up in NetGalley’s request button.

Unicorns. In. Space. Guys. I mean, the title of this book itself sounds like a Cowboy Bebop episode, FFS. Who doesn’t immediately request that?!

Certainly not me. :D

This one was interesting right out the gate. This book takes place in the future of our own universe, but it turns out that the first aliens that humanity ever met was a species, or a group of species called the Bala. They are, more or less, unicorns, elves, fairies, dryads, centaurs, and so on. This is an absolutely brilliant way of incorporating all kinds of fairy tale and fantasy creatures into this sci-fi world. Even the stereotypical little grey aliens with huge black eyes and probey tendencies aren’t missing from this story. But, the Bala can apparently interbreed with humans, or at least some of them can, so we get things like half unicorns, which are a little like fauns – human-esque with two equine legs, and, of course, the horn.

Many of the Bala, unicorns at the very least, are quite technologically advanced. Unicorn ships are giant living asteroids with an entire ecosystem inside of it. Unicorn horns are used to power faster-than-light travel, as are a few other things, but nothing does it quite as well. And so, of course, humanity… is humanity. A coalition of humans called the Reason have pretty much taken over most of colonized space, and since a lot of the Bala have parts that are useful for anything from healing to the whole faster-than-light travel thing, the humans of Reason harvest the Bala for whatever is useful. Unicorns in particular, are routinely kept prisoner on ships as a source of fuel, their horns ground down or dug out as they grow them. Unicorns are referred to as ‘it’ – as in ‘it is a source of fuel and we claim it for the Reason.’

Gary Cobalt, our titular space unicorn (or half-unicorn in his case), is no exception to this. He was kept prisoner by a small group of humans consisting of Jenny Perata, a veteran Reason soldier, James ‘Cowboy Jim’ Bryant, a pilot with an obsession for grilled cheese, and Cheryl Ann, Cowboy Jim’s wife… and then ended up going to actual prison over what happened with them. Now he’s just been released from prison, and has come to claim his ship when it’s basically sold out from under him by Ricky Tang, the local gambling den owner… to Jenny Perata, of all the actual people in the universe.

It all goes a bit south(er?) from there, when Gary ends up on the ship with them… less a prisoner this time, but still fleeing from the Reason, trying desperately to make a delivery on time, as those were the terms set by Jenny for him to get his ship back. Help us make this one delivery, and you can have your ship. Ricky ends up tagging along as well, as they did kind of get her bar set on fire… So here Gary is, on his own ship that currently isn’t his, with the woman who tortured him, the man who hates him for killing his wife, and the gambling den owner who sold his ship from under him. Oh, and a whole bunch of dwarves who run the ship from behind the scenes, and are loyal to none but him. So at least he has that, I guess.

Gary is, admittedly, not what I thought he’d be. I expected this gruff, ex-con sort of character, but he really isn’t. He’s a good dude, just in a situation that really sucks. He’s quite nice, and often polite, especially to other Bala, but he’s even rather nice to Jenny, which was unexpected, at first, but not out of character, as it turns out. I like who Gary is. He does what is right. That’s exactly what I’d hope a unicorn would do. What is good and right. Even against people who are phenomenally deserving of less than what is good and right from this guy. Unicorns would be forgiving (to a point, which I would have reached lightyears before he did). I rooted hard for Gary, and I wanted him to win all the things.

I also wasn’t expecting to get my feels jostled as I read (though, I mean I should have known from the ‘Blues’ part of the title), but the more we learn about what happened between Gary, Jenny, Cowboy Jim, and Cheryl Ann, the more sorry I felt for Gary. As we see how humans in this world treat the Bala… man. Right in the godsdamned feels. Unicorns have it the worst, but other Bala get harvested for their parts by humans too. This story shows a future that is gritty, unjust, and sad AF at times, but also not devoid of hope, and laughter, and love. Could humans live harmoniously with another species who were literally made of stuff that the humans wanted? Well…. I truly hope that the future finds humans at peace with each other at least… but I’m not holding my breath.

I thought this story was wonderfully well written, and it was paced really well. There was always something going on that made it hard to put down, and so I ended up reading it much faster than I anticipated. Well into the wee hours of the night, and well past the end of my lunch break at work. There is a really fantastic spectrum of characters of all kinds of genders, sexualities, races, cultures, and species, each with their own abilities and disabilities, personalities, and quirks. The ending left me wanting more, and I really hope that there will be further stories in this world to get my grubby little mitts on. The whole book is unlike anything I’ve ever read before, and I loved it!

Thanks to Angry Robot books via NetGalley for the review copy!

The author blends sci-fi and fantasy seamlessly. Despite it being set in the future, it manages both to capture the horribleness of humanity as a collective (because of course we enslaved the Bala, faerie-like aliens) and inject levity into a dark situation. Somehow, they make it plausible that a disparate cast of characters, many of whom had done terrible things to each other in the past, come together as a team. I would happily recommend this to anyone, but particularly those who like slightly absurd sci-fi/fantasy.

Gary is in trouble. He’s just got out of prison, only to discover his spaceship, the Jaggery, is under the control of a mildly sadistic hustler who wants him to complete three death defying trials to get it back. Dangerous as they were, the first two turn out not to be a problem, but the third is proving trickier: sure, removing one’s hat in public wouldn’t be an issue for most people, but Gary is a half-unicorn, half-human in a world where the fae are actually peaceful aliens called Bala who have found themselves warred upon, enslaved and persecuted once humans finally discovered space travel, and Gary’s horn happens to be made out of one of the most reliable FTL fuels in the galaxy. To top it all off, Gary’s only hope of getting out of this situation without being re-enslaved and forced to endlessly grow rocket fuel out of his head is through cooperating with Jenny Perata, a human war hero who happens to have tortured and abused Gary on his own ship ten years ago, before getting him thrown into prison in the first place.
As you can see, that’s quite the opener for a space opera, and it only gets more intense as Jenny, Gary and the rest of their crew find themselves racing across the galaxy to deliver a mysterious package to a centennial conference where a third, more powerful alien race is going to judge humans and Bala on how well they’ve been able to cooperate over the past century. Unfortunately, humanity has developed a selective racial memory about this, and is convinced it is going to be judged on its “progress”, a metric which is apparently not incompatible with the torture and murder of six planets full of sentient beings. Outside the main narrative, there are glimpses of a society almost like the Hunger Games’ Capital in Space Unicorn Blues, where the use of Bala bodies and abilities as consumer products is entirely normalised and fashionable. This gives the story an even more desperate feel, as Gary’s options for safety get narrower and narrower in a corner of space that humans have totally screwed up.
It also means this mostly fast-paced action narrative is carrying a lot of baggage, both in terms of the cultural treatment of the Bala (which effectively amounts to ethnic cleansing, and involves some atrocities of which the potential enslavement of Gary is far from the worst), and in terms of the history between Gary and Jenny. Because, yes, the former abuser becomes a sympathetic POV character, and is portrayed in such a way that makes it hard to reconcile her perspectives and actions with what we know she’s done to Gary, and other Bala, in the past. This was a choice I questioned a great deal in the middle of the book, where the characters are so focused on survival that it doesn’t come up and it seems like the narrative might just forgive Jenny for locking Gary up in his own room, excavating his skull for horn-fuel, and getting their ship stranded so that the only option for survival requires the death of another crew member (unicorns regrow their horns by eating special bugs or, in a pinch, animal bones). In the end, though, Jenny doesn’t get an easy “out”, with her choice to own up to her past and what it means for the behaviour of humanity contributing to a rather sub-optimal ending for her (though one that’s wide open for a sequel). I suspect the way that Space Unicorn Blues handles characters with histories of torture and abuse will be a red line for many readers, but I don’t think its done carelessly.
Space Unicorn Blues has some great diverse representation, at least on the human side: Jenny is Māori, lesbian and uses a wheelchair; Ricky the hustler is trans and from a Chinese family, and Gary’s human mother is Indian. There is a white man on the crew, Jim, who is effectively a bundle of tropes associated with gross white male privilege, but is kept around because he’s useful for getting the ship through checkpoints without scrutiny; this characterisation might be a bit on the nose for some readers, but I honestly can’t fault it! Unfortunately, like much fairytale-derived SFF, the fantasy elements don’t embody the same diversity as the humans: it’s very much a “European with a couple of brief nods to other cultural traditions” mythology which, coupled with the non-European cast and the background which assumes all humans identify the Bala as belonging to “their” legends, puts elements like unicorns and dwarves into an undeserved position of cultural universality. It’s less glaring than, say, the Europe-with-a-dash-of-Asian mythological colonisation of North America in the October Daye series, but still a bit of a disappointment in a book which does so well on other metrics. It’s a problem compounded by the fact that the sense of Bala culture is the weakest part of the worldbuilding – all we really get is that these were largely peaceful, disparate groups of people who fell to human aggression despite being significantly more technologically advanced at the time of First Contact, because humans are The Worst. It feels obnoxious to whine that Berry hasn’t done enough to justify the inclusion of unicorns in her book which is literally predicated on being a mash-up of sci-fi and unicorns, but, again, this is a weakness that I’m sure she has the skill to improve on in future instalments, based on other aspects of the book.
All in all, I liked Space Unicorn Blues a lot. As a story about a motley crew racing across the galaxy to escape the clutches of an evil regime, it’s excellent, and Berry has done a great job of creating a spacefaring human diaspora that feels real and diverse, as well as integrating heavy subject matter in a way which is reasonably sensitive without overstraining the fast-paced narrative. I’d love to see stronger depth and diversity of worldbuilding in future instalments, but as a debut novel Space Unicorn Blues remains an impressive and highly enjoyable read.

I unfortunately could not finish this book.

Space Unicorn Blues is a unique spin on sci-fi that mixes in supernatural creatures. Unfortunately however I quickly realized that this was not for me. I would like to say upfront that this had nothing to do with the writing style in itself. I thought what I had read was very well written. The one thing that appealed to me beyond that was that our main character was a half-unicorn who was also asexual. There was also a character in a weelchair.

The story however was making less sense to me, I was very confused and I had to make myself pick it up to read it. I also was not feeling our main character having to return to his abuser as that is what the story seemed to be suggesting. It would have continued to be a struggle and that would not have bode well for my review at the end. As I leave it now I am still interested in picking up a book by this author in the future.

Thoroughly enjoyable while also being deeply uncomfortable. Manages to present a spacefaring romp with a small group of unique characters that will appeal to fans of Firefly, while skewering various types of bigotry and establishing a unique version of FTL travel and space colonization. I look forward to the sequel. The only reason I won't recommend it for purchase in my library is we're too small to have enough members of the likely audience. But I may buy personally...

Unicorns...IN SPACE! Well, a half unicorn at least. The premise of this book makes me think of if A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet were a B-movie. And I loved it. A group of individuals have to fly through space in order to deliver a package at the Century Summit--a big meeting that happens once a century; it's a big ordeal. And of course, this is a group of ragtag individuals.

There are unicorns, fairies, dwarves, necromancers, etc. Or, Bala, for a catch-all term. Turns out these "fairytale" creatures are just aliens who've popped in to visit from time to time. When humans started leaving Earth (after forming an alliance known as The Reason), they discovered planets populated with these bizarre beings once thought to be merely myth. The Reason managed to conquer most of the Bala worlds, treating their inhabitants as third-rate citizens, even slaves.

The way everything was explained and shown in the book felt flawless. This is one of those plots and backgrounds that sounds, frankly, silly. It's one that could have easily gone into the, "This is too much" category. But it didn't. The absurdity of the general idea was balanced out by the inner workings of the story. It addresses relevant issues, such as the need for diversity, but does so in a fresh way. The cast has diversity, but they are not defined by their diversity. For example, there is a woman who's paralyzed from the waist down; she's also a lesbian. But her sexuality or disability are simply parts of her--not the whole thing.

This book did other things very well.

I think the pacing is done very well. The book has an episodic feel to it while not ignoring the overarching plot. It moves fast while still leaving room to breathe. For example, there are many flashbacks where we learn more about different characters' backstories. These moments helped the book to not feel too rushed.

The characters all had different personalities that made them feel real. Even the minor ones, such as the Reason officers and officials we meet. My personal favorite was Gary, one of the main protagonists and a half-unicorn trying not to be recaptured and treated as a fuel source slave. He is perseverant, takes no nonsense, and is willing to help others. He shows that he is also willing to give others a second chance. There's just a depth to his character that really translates well onto the page.

There were little nods here and there to popular tales, which were fun to spot. All in all, this is a book whose title pretty much sums it up: Space Unicorn Blues. It's loads of fun but doesn't shy away from difficult topics, and it does so excellently. My only small qualm is that I wish we could've seen a bit more from the different places we visit. I felt that some of them blended together--aside from big landmarks. Or maybe that was the point? Either way, this book is another must read from Angry Robot Books.

[I received a digital ARC from Angry Robot Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]

This wacky space romp is not for everyone, but fans of Terry Pratchett, Jim Butcher, and Firefly will love travelling alongside Gary on his quest to prevent a magical genocide.