Five Unicorn Flush

This book picks up 6 weeks after Space Unicorn Blues ends and has all the same sass, adventure and fun as the first book!
I am now fully committed to reading anything T.J. Berry decides to write...
And I'm hoping with the way this ended she decides to write more in this series.

Thank you NetGalley and Angry Robot for this ARC.

TJ Berry returns to fine form with Five Unicorn Flush, the sequel to the much beloved Space Unicorn Blues.

Having been sent with the rest of the magical Bala to a far-off planet, ostensibly safe from humans, Gary the half-unicorn is contending with mounting problems. Humanity had spent decades enslaving the Bala, even harvesting them for their body parts... but the new planet doesn't have television. Stranded with the tech they've become used to, the Bala are murmuring about revolt- there are no coffee shops around, after all, and no cell phones to call a friend.

Meanwhile, former Reason captain Jenny is desperately trying to seek the new Bala planet, longing to be reunited with her dryad wife. The path there is bumpy, paved with cannibals and familiar faces who seek the Bala for their own, sometimes nefarious reasons.

As with the previous book, this is a rollicking good time, liberally tinged with humor. It's less serious than the first, perhaps- there's death and destruction, but the tone is distinctly lighter, even as the stakes feel almost as heavy. The point of view has switched; there's less Gary the unicorn, and far more of Jenny. While she's an interesting character who I admire quite a bit, part of me missed seeing so much of Gary's internal thought processes; something about him felt more remote in this book than it had in the previous one.

That said, Berry still does an adept job of creating a wheelchair using character who kicks ass- her chair is a tool, rather than a burden, as too many authors tend to write.

The book is fast paced and difficult to put down. If there was ever a summer sci-fi beach read, this would be it.

Ahhhh man this book was fun!

Following the events of the last book, the Bala (magical creatures, everything from centaurs to sirens to dryads) have been moved to their new planet, far far away from humanity, who have spent years harvesting them for magical parts.

Jenny Perata is aboard her bright yellow racing striped ship, the Stagecoach Mary, and is determined to find her wife Kaila, a dryad, no matter how long it’ll take. Without the requisite unicorn horn to power the FTL drive, it’ll take her many lifetimes, but she’s still going to try. On her way, she runs into a colony ship with humans aboard, and her guts tell her there is unicorn horn on there somewhere too. So, she investigates, to great shenanigans.

On the other side of the quadrant, Gart Cobalt, half-unicorn, is finding that there is some trouble in paradise. All of the Bala were brought to this planet to flee the slavery and torture at the hands of the humans, but not all of them were being tortured or enslaved. Some of them had quite nice lives back in human space and they’d really like to go back and have access to human technology and things of that sort again. When a human necromancer shows up and starts stirring some of the Bala up to go seek revenge on humanity, it gets even harder for Gary and the other unicorns to avert a Bala civil war.

I started this one late one night before bed, thinking that I could just stop, sleep, and then wake up refreshed to go to work. That was my first mistake. Before I knew it, it was 3am and I was having a lot of trouble putting this one down for that sleep thing.

Space Unicorn Blues was interesting in that it made a character who I wanted to hate likable. Jenny has a long history with Gary, and it isn’t a good one. But, nonetheless, Gary is what he is, and so while he doesn’t exactly forgive her for what she’s done, he understands that she is legitimately sorry for it. I still love Gary’s character. He is exactly what he is, but in this one we get to see far more of the Bala, especially Gary’s father Findae. It’s interesting to see how different from Findae he is.

Jenny both has no use of her legs and suffers from chronic pain as a result of a war injury, and uses a wheelchair much of the time. It’s interesting to see how she navigates space travel, zero-G, and the rather difficult task of moving both herself and her chair through airlocks, tight hallways, and other places that are just not set up to accommodate anyone without the use of their legs. Jenny faces a lot of ableism, as the Reason (the human society) does not generally abide disability.

"Jenny’s problem was never with her chair, but with a world that refused to accommodate it."


Despite all of the things that Jenny has done in her life, both good and bad, I couldn’t help but cheer for her. She’s so snarky and has a comeback for everyone, and she absolutely doesn’t let anything (or anyone) hold her back. The ship AI in Jenny’s ship, the Stagecoach Mary, is also snarky AF. She knows Jenny pretty well, and does her best to see a couple of ‘Jenny Perata plans’ from start to finish, despite them being Jenny Perata levels of crazy.

There was plenty going on in this one. Not only is Gary meeting new and often strange creatures on the new Bala planet, Jenny is doing everything from being possessed to getting blown out an airlock in her underpants. So, there’s lots of action, and plenty of it is absolutely hilarious. I have a lot of stuff in this book highlighted just for making me laugh. It’s funny in all the right places, but it’s also serious when it needs to be, and takes on some serious and deep situations. There were times that my feels got suitably jostled. I feel for Gary, especially, who heals from almost any wound, but still suffers PTSD from all that was done to him. Gary is the most unicorn of the unicorns in this one, despite being only half.

So all told, I think it’s pretty safe to say that I liked this one just as much as I liked the first book. Perhaps even a little more! It was brilliant!~ I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Thanks to the author as well as Angry Robot via NetGalley for the review copy.

This is a really fun space opera with a dark, thoughtful and deeply political vein running all the way through it. A daredevil wheelchair using space captain, an elderly bisexual necromancer pretending to be a quarter of his age, a whole bunch of humans trying to sabotage their own fleet so they don't commit genocide, and a royal family of grumpy, grumpy unicorns.

Honestly, it's very hard to describe this book without sounding completely unhinged. Read it for yourself!

PS: I didn't read the first book first which is probably a terrible idea, but I got the gist pretty easily of what had happened in Book 1. Still kind of wish I'd read that one first, though. Learn from my mistakes.

I was super excited when I found T.J. Berry's Five Unicorn Flush on NetGalley. I loved book 1 - Space Unicorn Blues and couldn't believe that it was a debut as it was such a great concept, well written with great characters. You can read my review here. I liked it so much it made my top 5 of 2018. This second instalment starts not long after the events of book 1 when all of the supernaturals (the Bala) were teleported away to a new planet far, far away from the cruelty of humanity. The story starts on board the Stagecoach Mary with Jenny Perata at the helm of the ship desperately searching for her wife, a dryad who has gone missing with the rest of the Bala. While Jenny creeps through space on an aging spaceship and no unicorn horn to fuel it Gary, my favourite space unicorn, is on his new home planet. Not everyone is that happy with Gary or his father from taking them away from all the 'creature' comforts they have gotten used to...even if those comforts led to the torture and death of many of their kin. Two more characters from book 1 are also searching for the new Bala home planet - Biao who is hiding his magical lineage from the humans and the very human, Will Penny. Forces are drawing the humans to Gary and his kind in the back drop of a civil war between the Bala.

Sometimes the second book of a series can be a bit of a let down or not as exciting as the first. Not in the case of the The Reason series. The scenes with Jenny Perata on and off the Stage Coach Mary were really amusing and Jenny is a great, broken heroine. Gary wants to do the best for his kin but can't seem to live up to anyone's expectations, including his own. He is torn between wanting to save his kind and saving humans and this creates the tension that supports the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed Five Unicorn Flush despite another massive cliff hanger ending. Berry has the ability to write a gritty but humorous story that keeps you guessing what is going to happen next.

NOTE: I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest, unbiased review.

I’ve been excited to read Berry’s The Reason series for over a year. So excited that I kept it reserved for a time when I could kick back and relax to really enjoy it. Alas, that never happened and here I am a few months past the release of the second book. And let me tell you, it was well worth the wait. Five Unicorn Flush is brimming with imagination that provides solid characters, a fascinating universe, and a promise of a brighter future. Berry writes in an accessible, exciting style, expertly balancing insightful storytelling and delightful space opera thrills and chills. It manages to be a deep look at the bonds of slavery and the struggles of the enslaved to start over, while also filling the pages with explosive battles, death-defying acts, and constant action that continues to reveal new and exciting things about this universe. To say I’m impressed with this book would be a huge understatement. I enjoyed every minute of it and only wish I hadn’t wasted so long getting into it.

This was my first foray into this universe so my impressions don’t take previous plot points into account. There are a few spoilers below, so stop if you don’t want any of the fun ruined. Now on to a few of my favorite things:

A SOCIETY OF MAGICAL BEINGS

In this regard, I’m floored by Berry’s ability to take the many fairy tale creatures of bygone myths and create fully sentient beings with complicated cultures, societies, and habits. It’s clear their lives prior to freedom were horrible and, though this freedom was much desired, they continue to struggle with fitting in side by side. There remains a significant amount of prejudice between species and hardheaded thinking when planning the future of their new planet. There’s so much going on in these scenes and we see the individual hardships each species has experienced. You get to know the Bala better as a whole because of this thoughtful narrative.

EXPERT JUGGLING OF CHARACTERS

A true space opera should have a large number of characters constantly bouncing around into ever increasing shenanigans. Berry does this expertly, giving us multiple protagonist focal points. We see Gary, our lead unicorn, struggling to maintain order on this new planet. We see Jenny getting into horrifying-yet-hilarious murky waters as she tries to find her wife. Their storylines provide the majority of the action and excitement. Not knowing their backstories, I was equally enamored with each character, though I get the feeling there are some definite dark pasts I’m not fully aware of. As a side note, the AIs are top notch, providing hilarious commentary throughout. I LOVE a good AI.

GOODBYE TECHNOLOGY

Now that the universe has essentially come to a halt (thanks to the lack of fuel for their FTL drives), we see everyone forced to evaluate their lives. Gone is the access to hundreds of planets and cities. For the Bala, all technology has disappeared, forcing them to go into an almost fairy tale-like existence on this wild planet, as a couple of the characters angrily note. The struggle to move beyond the comforts of modern society permeate every page. We see the Bala warring against each other to get back to their previous lives. We see stranded ships resorting to horrifying means of survival. We see whole planets turning on themselves, erupting into riot chaos. It really makes you think about our current world and how screwed we’d be if the lights all shut off. That sense of everyone being stranded adds an underlying anxiety to the book that provides ample fuel for the character’s basest fears.

The Bala are a race commonly referred to as 'Space Unicorns.' They have tremendous healing abilities and their unicorn horns are the only known means to power faster-the-light-speed ships. So of course humans have hunted the Bala nearly into extinction. It's pretty hard to hunt something to extinction when it can practically resurrect itself with its healing powers ... but the intergalactic beings known as 'Reason' are doing just that.

Gary Cobalt is one of the last known Bala and he has taken a small group of remaining Bala to hide out on a remote planet to try to stay out of sight of the Reason. But there's dissent among the Bala which could completely derail their chances of staying alive.

Cowboy Jim is a pilot with the Reason, flying the last FTL ship and he's searching for the Bala so as to enslave the entire race.

Only one person can possibly bring peace to the galaxy, but is Captain Jenny up to the task?

As with the first book, I really like the way author T.J. Berry takes a kind of goofy idea (unicorns in space) and makes a fast-paced space opera that really catches the reader's attention.

In the previous book, I felt that there was action just for the sake of making something happen, rather than driving the story forward. That wasn't the case so much here. This time I felt that there was enough plot to drive the action.

It may seem a little strange that one of the driving forces of the book is a political action, but the pending civil war - among a group of enslaved and hunted beings - is really fascinating. As a reader I immediately took a side and couldn't understand the opposing views. Which had me thinking about current politics.

There is still plenty of humor here, but it is the growth of the characters that really makes this book worth reading. The assortment of characters, and the unique issues that each has (a unicorn with PTSD, a pilot in a wheelchair, LGBTQ issues), really helps this book stand out as character-driven space opera.

Looking for a good book? <em>Five Unicorn Flush</em> is the second book in the "Reason" series by T. J. Berry and is better than the first and shows that this is developing into a fun-to-read space opera series.

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