Book Review - CassaStar

CassaStar by Alex J. Cavanaugh
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

SciFi is a definite love of mine. At first I thought reading about a war in space would be difficult to finish, but now that I have read it through, I realize there are many wars in space I enjoyed in the past (Star Wars, Leviathan Wakes, watching Expanse and Battlestar Galactica). CassaStar does not carry with it the subplots that are present in the other tales but it was still captivating.

I enjoyed the book. It was not difficult to follow with a straight forward plot, clear character arcs, and constant action that kept my attention. Words were not wasted at all. It would have been nice to see a little more description and worldbuilding, but I felt there was nothing missing. The style of this book required a quick pace and perhaps anything additional would have slowed it too much.

There were a few minor annoyances with editing, but none that took away from the meaning of the story. Sometimes it was a pronoun switch (he for his) or a missing word and sometimes the phrasing was repetitive. Occasionally I got lost in a POV switch (which could result from the two character's names being too similar-Bassa and Byron) but none of this prevented me from understanding the content.

My favorite part was the MC, Byron. I felt like I knew him and I connected with his struggle. His situation was unique, yet followed the arc we expect from a hero origin. I would certainly read more about this character.

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