3.5 stars - rounded up for casual queernormativity AND the normalization of polyamory in a functional, practical, and totally believable way.

I feel like we didn't get quite enough of the events surrounding our main plot. It felt kind of like a bigger problem appeared out of nowhere that just happened to align with what our characters were already doing. I also wanted quite a bit more of Triz confronting her anti-mod prejudice - it comes up like twice with Triz getting shot down for it but not really internalizing why her prejudice is wrong.

It felt like we were supposed to get a novel but a lot of the extra weight was stripped away. That being said, I would 100% read that novel, returning to this world and these characters and even this conflict. I felt like we ended a chapter rather than the whole book. Though I guess that is often the problem with novellas.

Basically: badass queer military scifi novella where the main character isn't actually in the military and isn't secretly an amazing fighter - instead using ingenuity, the experiences of her sordid past, and an unlikely ally to save the day. Without compromising her character for the sake of heroics.

3.5⭐️ – This was a fun and quick read. The plot is pretty basic. On a three-day leave after a huge victory in the war against the Cyberbionautic Alliance, Casne is planning to celebrate with her best friend and partner Triz. Yet, instead of being honoured as the hero she is, Casne is accused of war crimes, with evidence Triz and Kalo – another Fleet pilot, Triz’s ex and Casne’s sometimes – are convinced is fake.

Even though Local Star is a novella, the worldbuilding is rather extensive and it only took a couple of sentences for me to feel transported to a different universe. The story is centred around Triz, a guttergirl turned mechanic who is still not sure she really fits in her own life, with Casne and Kalo never too far.

Triz has been asked to join Casne and her wife Nantha’s marriage and while she loves them both, she’s not ready to make it official. Her reluctance results from her insecurities but mainly from not wanting to be the third in a triad: she’d rather join with another partner. Whether Kalo will be the one or not remains to be seen, but he’s clearly interested in giving their relationship a second chance.

Around them are a couple more Fleet officers as well as Casne’s quadparents (some male, some female, some non-binary), one of whom is a bit quick to believe his daughter could be guilty.

Besides the world-building, the best part of this story is how normal and self-evident polyamory is. Triz’s interrogations are valid, especially given her background. She struggles with what her place would be in a marriage to Casne and Nan just as much as she struggles with her place in Casne’s family, who more or less took her in when she was rescued from an impossibly rough childhood. The only time she’s really comfortable is when she’s working on a ship.

As usual, I focus on the characters and their motivations, as much as I can without spoiling, but there are many other layers to this story. The Cyberbionautic Alliance, for example, questions transhumanism. Triz’s insecurities and her relationships with Kalo and Casne speak of self-acceptance, growth and forgiveness. This novella is a lot more complex than what the cover and the plot hint at. Complex but fun.

I received a copy from the publisher and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

A quick read that was a fun space tale with some lgbq relationships that were just part of the story and not forced in any way. They relationships were just there and the society around them was well developed.

The story seemed to lean towards a trope or two only to to a quick turn and run off in another fun direction.

A fun lite snack of a book.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I loved this little space opera novella so much!! Triz is a guttergirl who lives in the wrenchworks. When her partner, Casne, comes back from a victorious battle, she thinks things are looking up. Then invaders attack the hub and Casne is framed for committing treason. Triz doesn't know what to do and the only person willing to help her is Kalo, her ex.

This was so much freaking fun! I enjoyed every second of this book. The normalized polyamory made me so happy. I want my own triad or quadfamily to just have giant group hugs all the time. Once the action starts going it doesn't start with this book. Full of thrills and cute ships, I highly recommend this book!

Local Star by Aimee Ogden is a wonderful space opera Sci-Fi novel published by Interstellar Flight Press (thank you to them and NetGalley for the ARC!) with gallons of intrigue, sci-fi antics and queerness. The representation is just as fantastic as the fast-paced and joyfully convoluted narrative.
The story primarily follows Triz who is a guttergirl (read: a space-mechanic, of sorts) as she is swept into a scandalous and highly volatile plot. She has a girlfriend named Casne and rekindles her relationship with ex-boyfriend Kalo (who is the most interesting character, in my opinion, and is very fleshed out as the novel progresses), with the three of them forming a polyamorous triad.
Ogden wonderfully explores how polyamorous family units operate through the use of supporting characters and background details, normalising this entirely in a Sci-fi setting. The concepts of quad-families and platonic families are explored in such a great and casual way.
My only complaint with this novel was the depth of the world-building with very little time for the reader to adjust or really learn what anything meant before being given yet more information. The first chapters especially were a little hard to get into due to this and I felt like I had to keep flicking back a few pages as to know what was happening or who was where.
Ultimately, if you love space operas, drama, crime and queer families then this is the perfect book for you!

There is the start of a fun story here, but I think the length was too short to fully capture all of the elements the author was trying to include - family relationships, romantic relationships, an investigation, and some action sequences, plus all the world building. There was so much going on that no single aspect got the attention it needed, so it was hard to feel as connected or deeply invested as I would have liked. I also felt that many aspects were uneven or inconsistent over the course of the story.

One of the most frustrating things, for me, was that I was really looking forward to a queer polyamorous romance, but neither the existing relationship between Triz, Casne, and (especially) Nan, nor the previous relationship between Triz and Kalo was explored fully enough for me to understand the relationship dynamics and feel the chemistry between the characters. This is especially disappointing because I learned after finishing the book that it's meant to be inspired by Much Ado About Nothing (my favorite Shakespeare), but Triz and Kalo's relationship had none of that humor or spark, nor did Triz feel particularly Beatrice-like.

I also think in general I was expecting something a bit lighter and more humorous, and the fact that some parts did seem to be headed in that direction made the parts that were heavier (some of the family dynamics, Triz's insecurities, Triz's prejudices around body mods) feel a bit jarring. I think it would have been possible to navigate between a lighter tone and these weightier topics, but not at this length with so much else going on. The prejudice around body mods was especially hard to swallow, because of the ableism in this attitude, which I didn't feel was sufficiently examined - this aspect could have been left out, and still kept the larger discussion of the different attitudes towards tech, which was much more interesting.

The lack of commitment to being either a light adventure or a heavier story also made a lot of the plot hard to accept - there were a number of elements that I could have gone along with if I didn't have to take them seriously or if the world-building was grittier to justify them. However, what the story gave me was a generally pleasant world where many of the events felt overly dramatic and things were Very Bad as convenient to the plot, which constantly challenged my suspension of disbelief.

Local Star by Aimee Ogden presents itself as a wonderful and unique space opera with a polyamorous representation. The plot is actually quite interesting, with a complex construction of the world in which it is set, and the characters are all peculiar and well diversified - not only the main ones, but the surrounding characters are well written as well. Overall, I enjoyed the reading quite a lot, but I admit I had some difficulties in settling into the story, and I got lost several times in the first two / three chapters. When it says "fast-paced, action-packed adventure", it really means it. The author introduces up to the beginning of the story so many elements and words unknown to the reader, and the pace is so fast that at times I was confused by the narration and the dialogues. In this regard, I would have preferred the glossary at the beginning of the book rather than at the end, in order to familiarize myself a little with the terms before starting the book.

As specified in the book description, Local Star deals with polyamorous relationships and features a broad spectrum of LGBTQ+ representations: heteronormativity simply does not exist in this universe, and in addition to same-sex relationships and polyamorous family units, there are several genderless and non-binary characters that are referred to using their genderless pronouns (E, Eir, Em), which makes it all very inclusive. A big thumbs up for the author!

In conclusion, the book is quite pleasant and the author's writing style noteworthy and well structured. I probably would have appreciated it much more if Local Star had been a longer book with a more detailed introduction to the universe in which it is set and a slower description of the context and the events, instead of an extremely fast paced novella. As it is, I found it too quick, and I had a lot of trouble getting used to the general context, only to find myself at the end too soon.
However, the reading was enjoyable and the plot unique, so my final rating is 3,5 stars.

(Thank you NetGalley and Interstellar Flight Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!)

Thank you NetGalley and Interstellar Flight Press for the ARC!

This was a super fun read! It felt like watching a movie but in a book - while I'm honestly not usually a movie person, this time I appreciated that. In the beginning of the book I couldn't quite figure out who was who (and what everyone's relationships to each other were) or what the structure of the society and the Hab looked like, but as I kept going I eventually figured it out (which is similar to my experience watching movies). This novella felt like it used more of a "show" than a "tell" attitude, which ended up working well once I figured everything out.

I enjoyed the adventure of it all! Although I pretty quickly figured out who was shady and who wasn't, the book still took a bunch of surprising turns and I was never bored. I also liked the casual way we got to see the different parts of the Hab, especially the scene where Triz goes to sort through her thoughts in the music-chamber. I loved the different relationships we got to see, even as we didn't necessarily spend a lot of time (in such a short book, how could we?) delving into each super deeply - Triz's relationship with Casne and Casne's quad-parents, Casne's relationship with her quad-parents, everyone's dynamic with Kalo- I felt like each had enough flesh to feel real and dynamic.

Triz's development over the course of the book, especially in her self-worth and in taking risks and being brave for the ones she loves, was a journey I enjoyed seeing. I did wish that Nantha's character was more fleshed out, and I missed her presence, whether physically or just via a call or message, in the end especially. Also because I've seen confusion in some reviews, while the MC has two established (poly) f/f relationships at the beginning of the book, the main romance we see on page is between her and her male ex, so if you're specifically not looking for m/f romance, this isn't necessarily your book, but I loved it and absolutely count it as a queer relationship/romance.

All in all, this was a fun and engaging book! I loved the queer and trans and poly normative world, and although it could also have gone deeper into this, found the framing of the use of biomods by the Ceebees vs. the Fleet as super interesting. There's definitely an analysis to be made about Ceebees not only destroying environments but also how their beliefs and society play into disability and ableism as exists in our world today - an analysis I won't make myself but am curious about. I think it's also important to note for anyone going in, especially who uses assistive/adaptive tech, that the MC's view on it in the beginning are not representative of the perspective of the book as a story or as a whole.

Final thought: can it be space opera if no one gets caught in a garbage shoot?

Note: I didn't realize there was such an extensive glossary at the end, and honestly it would be nice if ebooks especially would just have a little note in the beginning if there's a glossary at the end, or have it at the beginning, because when you're not rifling through physical pages you just won't know it's there until you've already finished the book (as I did).

An enjoyable space romp full of good representation. It felt a little heavy on the jargon -- a common problem in sci fi especially -- but if context ever fails you the glossary can fill in the gaps. A good examination of transhumanism as well.

i received an ARC in exchange of an honest review, all the opinions are mine.

***
i'm not gonna lie, the first thing that caught my attention and made me want to read this book was the polyamorous factor since there's little to no representation in media, unfortunately. i'm not that into space as a setting but it was a good opportunity to step out of my comfort zone so i decided to give it a try.
i liked the characters, they are very well written and although i couldn't really connect with them it was interesting to witness their journey.
for me it's one of those books that you either really like or you can't get into it at all but, ironically, i am stuck in between. i think it's easily a one sit read if it catches your attention, but things got in the way and it took me some time to finish reading it. that, alongside the fact that sf isn't really my cup of tea, could be why it didn't leave a big impression on me, but i enjoyed reading it nonetheless because it was definitely something new and interesting.

I did struggle to finish this book, however I believe that was my fault in terms of my current life and lack of adoration for high sci-fi's. However, with that being said, there is so so many amazing things about this read. The world is such an interesting place in this book, and even though I am not a sci-fi fanatic, I really did enjoy imagining this universe. The character's got more intriguing as the book went on, although I did struggle to get behind the main character, and of course, one of my favourite plot points of this read was the polyamorous relationships; they were so normalised and adorable at times, however I do feel like not all people in the relationship had the same amount of love for each other (I'm trying to keep this as spoiler free as possible) and that was frustrating for me.

Overall, although this was not my type of read, it had poly rep which is rare, a really fascinating premise and I'd recommend to lovers of this genre!!

I loved the concept of the polyamorous relationships in this book! I was really excited to see where those go. Unfortunately, sci-fi is not a genre I read regularly and this was very heavy on the sci-fi elements and language. I think if I had had a physical copy to pick up and come back to regularly, I would have finished it and really enjoyed it, but I kept getting a little lost in the terminology and vocab of this world and I didn't end up finishing it.

I'm going to give it 3 stars even though I didn't finish it just because I really appreciated the representation that I was able to experience in the parts that I did read!

Local Star is one of two novellas coming out in the first half of 2021 by SF/F writer Aimee Ogden, who has seemingly only before written shorter SF/F fiction. It's a stand alone novella (although I really wonder if she's written in this world before) featuring a space opera setting in which polyamory and queerness is utterly normalized, with people living in triads or quads utterly normally. And I enjoyed it quite a bit, as it managed to deal with some serious themes while showing a solid space opera conflict (bad guys and fighting and war) while dealing with interesting themes of love, acceptance and more along the way.

Plot Summary: Triz came up from the gutters of her Hab, where she was rescued from the life of miserable poverty by a loving family, the daughter of whom, Casne, is one of the loves of her life. But Casne has a partner and while Casne wants Triz to officially join the two of them in a triad, Triz doesn't want to feel like the third wheel....and wants desperately to find a fourth, so they can all be a loving quad with someone special to call their own. For a time, Triz thought that might've been Kalo, but they broken up for reasons she doesn't quite understand, and he went off to war with Casne. Except now Kalo's back, and everyone's celebrating a great victory....awkwardly for Triz.

But when Casne is arrested for alleged war crimes and conspiring with the enemy, Triz will do anything to clear her name. That something will require a greasemonkey from the gutters like Triz to work with her ex and use all her background....if she wants to save the ones she loves, and to find potentially true happiness.

Thoughts: Local Star tries to do a lot. You have a space opera plot with a potential mystery (that's obvious from the start, so thankfully it's not really the main focus) with some action sequences. You have a protagonist who is lonely and wants to fit in and has to get over her own self doubt over her origins and others wanting her. You have a protagonist who also has to get over a bit of prejudice - in this case over mechanical augmenting of someone's bodies (a prejudice caused by the fact that the evil bad guys all have them) even as she's comfortable with things like transitioning (a normal part of this world as is the polyamory). And you have a protagonist who is trying to deal with the ex she clearly - to the reader - hasn't quite gotten over, even if she isn't quite sure what drove him away. It's a lot.

And here's the thing: Most of it works, such that it all combines to form a really lovely happy ending that made me want more of this world. Yeah the mystery isn't great, and the action sequences are kind of just there, but Triz is a really easy character to like and to want to find a happy ending, and all of her friends/love interests are so lovely and good natured. And everyone comes out happy in the end. Sure this book has a glossary that's almost as long as two chapters of this novella (with some fun quips in the glossary but it still feels extra), but all that did was combine with the rest to make me wish this was a full length novel, not a novella. And well, if that's my biggest complaint about a happy-ending providing story? Well that's not a complaint at all really.

Polyamorous space novella. Loved the concept of families of 3/4 or more people together. I found it a tiny bit rushed, though, and I wasn't always a fan of the mc. Triz was often too whiny and it was hard not to roll my eyes.
I felt like her relationship with Kalo was never truly explained and then just suddenly there were feelings again. I would've loved more details about him and what happened with Triz. And I also would've loved more of Nan, Casne's wife. Triz was going to join their family and become a triad union, but then I felt no connection between Triz and Nan. It was explained but it didn't felt real. How can it be a poly relationship if Triz seemed to be romantically attached only to Casne?
I wished it was longer so as to have all the details that sadly the story lacked.
It was still a fun space opera, though. And I will recommend it to fans of the genre.

I know it took me quite a bit to get through this very short book, but that's my fault only - it's been hard to focus on reading, even though Local Star is a very fast-paced, fun novella.

Ogden created a very interesting world, with its own technology and culture (especially in the romantic area, with poly relationships being the norm I guess? Since every family and every character seems to be in a relationship with multiple people), that left me wanting more. I really wish this had been longer, just so we could get a bit more details and experiences in it.

Triz is a cool protagonist, but I wish we had seen more of her life besides the events happening in the story, and her struggles with being in a relationship and struggling with an ex that's still around. Like, I enjoyed reading about her getting over herself, and doing things all through the space she lives in, but I feel like it lacked a bit of the internal stuff, especially the reasons she likes the people around her, enough to risk huge sacrifices.

Since everything is very original and new, I appreciate there was a glossary in the end, explaining once more some tech-related words and all that (even though I only noticed...after I finished the book. So it wasn't very useful.)

It's been a while since I read a good scifi book, and this one reminded me of how cool they can be and why I love them so much! I wished it was longer, had some more information and details, but I liked it a lot. I'm excited to read more books by Ogden, now!

"Local Star" was so unexpectedly fun! Every page had so much action, plot, and character dynamics packed in, this is a great introduction for people who have never read a space opera to get the sense of this genre, In particular, I immensely enjoyed the writing style, it flowed well with the story. The polyamory was woven in very naturally and I would've loved more exploration into the character dynamics in a trio vs a quad. The main downside to the book was there was just so much jargon and technical details without a whole lot of context (though the glossary ended up being very helpful as a guide), We're thrown right into plot and it wasn't until halfway through the book until I felt more grounded in the world.

I enjoyed this author’s queer portrayal of a science fiction world. I found the family a d romantic units completely believable. I also appreciated the portrayal of additional genders and the contrasting tension surrounding the use of body modifications, almost as this world’s phobia. I felt that the book should have been told from Casne’s perspective rather than Triz’s. Caste came across as the stronger character with a more interesting plotline. However, because of the book’s strengths, I would certainly recommend this book and read others by the author.

I really enjoyed the story and the characters. I did have a little trouble getting into it with the first chapter or two because there is a lot of explanation (learning the world, a lot of characters thrown at you at first and learning the backstory of relationships) but once you get into the thick of the plot it became a page turner. I also enjoyed that the queer relationships was just a normal part of their society. Another thing Aimee did beautifully that I just want to really shine a light on is her metaphors. They felt so true to the world and were really quite clever! I enjoyed them a lot.

I got an ARC of this book.

I got excited. I saw polyamorous and space opera (and people tagged it as queer). So I needed this book. I thought it was a graphic novel based on the cover, but it was not. That was a bit of an adjustment.

The story itself moves pretty fast. It is the basic sci-fi plot of wrongly accused, the enemy really did it sort of thing. There really is no doubts that the accused didn’t do it, I don’t feel like I have spoiled anything by saying these things. There was a lot of talk of ships and hub systems, basic generic sci-fi stuff. I didn’t even really get why this was labeled as space opera. There was nothing that was space opera to me.

The only thing that made this stand out was the polyam portion. The polyam portion read as so flat though. I wanted to care about the polycules, but I just didn’t. There were a lot of names at once and a lot of red flags. Why was the MC so insistant that she needed another partner and that no one liked her? It was so, so basic polyam problems that I was annoyed. I wanted more.

It gets worse though, the book was tagged as queer. I thought this meant I would get queer romance, but nope. The main romance that was happening on page was m/f. I lost interest real fast. It was great to have a bi/pan/omni/poly MC, but I am also really annoyed that I had to sit through what I thought was going to be a cute queer space opera for something that could have easily been read as straight basic sci-fi.

Overall, I wanted to love this book, but I just didn’t. I had to force myself to read and it was sometimes just a page at a time. It was not the book I had imagined and it was not a book I really enjoyed. It wasn’t bad, but it was not for me. I am sort of relieved to be done with it. I was getting really grumpy about little details.

Disclaimer: I would like to thank the author, Aimee Ogden, and publisher, Interstellar Flight Press for kindly providing a review copy of this story.

Local Star by Aimee Ogden is an eventful, enjoyable, and fast paced space opera. The author adroitly combines the key characteristics of an adventuresome space tale including sweeping military conflict, ultra-high-tech weapons, military justice, human colonization of space, space stations, and even biotech/bio-mod along with a comfortably complex depiction of a believably real space faring civilization. The reader participates through the viewpoint of Triz who grew up in the practically uninhabitable recycling engine of a space station. Long before the story starts, Triz was rescued by mendicants, but is still dealing with her past in this story as she repairs spaceships in the station's Wrenchworks. The society in Local Star includes a thoughtfully flexible and supportive but creative new family structure that has all of the advantages of an extended family.

The story progresses rapidly, as Trix faces everything from personal relationship challenges, to life threatening attacks, military tribunals, and space battles all of which fortunately lead to a very satisfactory conclusion. This adventure was engaging, entertaining, and thoughtful. I look forward to reading more by Aimee Ogden.