Thursday, March 23, 2023

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Dim Stars by Brian P. Rubin

 


Dim Stars is a Young Adult Space Opera novel by Brian P. Rubin, which was self-published in 2020. The novel is one of this year's semifinalists in the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC2 - my reviews of these books can be found here) and is one of six books my team and I have been assigned to read and Judge to see if they will make the finals. The first few semifinalists that I read were real good contenders, so I had some high hopes for Dim Stars, especially as it began with a tone that made it sound like it would wind up being another wacky hijinx humorous/comedic space opera, like some of my favorites from the earlier rounds of the competition.

However while Dim Stars does have a humorous tone and some weird quirkiness, it largely is instead something else: a take on a classic story - the young teenager who looks up to a hero and wants to be like them, only to meet up with them and discover that person is a cynical somewhat jaded take on what they thought the hero was...and where the two of them wind up having to work together, and for the hero to discover real heroism alongside them, in order to save the day. That's what we have here, with teen Kenzie - super capable, and yet also naïve and lacking in interpersonal skills - joining the crew of her idol Dash, who supposedly saved the galaxy years ago from the alien forger menace....except Dash now is just a bitter older freighter pilot struggling to get by. This combination is fine, but basically never takes the trope to new or interesting directions, and the humorous bits and pieces of the setting aren't significant enough to make much of a difference there. As a result, the book failed to live up to my expectations - it's fine, but rather unremarkable and not quite what I hoped for in a semifinalist.

----------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------
MacKenzie "Kenzie" Washington is this close to her dream: to work directly as a junior cadet for her idol, Captain Dashiell "Dash" Drake. Years ago, Dash's heroics turned the tide in favor of the Interstellar Alliance by leading to the miraculous defeat of the mysterious alien Forgers, beings that marauded with destruction throughout the galaxy. That same Forger War was the one in which Kenzie's mother disappeared, and Kenzie has always idolized Dash - having seen the movie about him, and having memorized his autobiography and learned to live by its credos. Kenzie is sure that - while she's always had trouble with other teens her own age - her skills in hacking and quick thinking will impress Dash and earn his recognition, and will lead to her following his footsteps with the Alliance.

But Dash is not who Kenzie thinks he is - Dash is just a middle aged human man, trying to get by with his Octopus first mate as a freighter pilot in a galaxy that is no longer quite so impressed with Dash's story after all these years. Dash is left with few credits, a few tricks to try and avoid paying some necessary fees, and an older ship that might break down at any minute. If he couldn't draw a few junior cadets through his name to work for him as unpaid (and indeed paying-him) crew, well he probably would be stuck and unable to keep going. The last thing Dash needs is a person like Kenzie, who hangs on his every word and keeps trying to do things that she thinks will improve matters, but will only mess with his barely managed equilibrium.

But when Kenzie and Dash accidentally stumble upon - of all things - a renewed Forger invasion, one which seems to be helped by human conspirators, Dash, Kenzie, and the other cadets and crew find themselves desperately on the run together. And somehow it falls to them to save the galaxy - a grizzled washed up veteran who isn't all he's cracked up to be and a young teen tech wiz with no social skills - from a defeat more total than anyone could imagine....
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Dim Stars begins the story with a humorous incident, in which Dash is trying to clean up octopus ink that his copilot Squix accidentally squirted on a wall, and then has to deal with stink from an infestation of critters on the ship. But while the story features humorous and occasionally Douglas-Adams-y quirks (a cargo of stink-emitting critters becomes relevant for their stink being used a couple of times for example, or a warrior switching sides because of a love of pasta), it never really fully commits to the bit - these quirks show up here and there, but never in such quantity for the book to be a full on comedy, and really just feel underwhelming as a result. To me at least, the result just isn't that funny, despite the book kind of trying to be. Similarly, the book early on has to deal with the problem that Kenzie, one of our two viewpoint protagonists, is kind of really grating, especially for a more experienced reader who can see where her naivete is utterly wrong and how her overeagerness to assume that she's constantly being tested - and that she should improvise - is going to result in problems for Dash. The book takes about 20-25% of its runtime to get into its main plot, and until that point, the Kenzie-Dash interaction just feels cringey and played out.

Fortunately, once you get past that point, the book settles in and Dim Stars starts to generally work as what it is, even if it never really takes a turn that is unique, all that fun, or even interesting at all. Rubin does an excellent job showcasing Dash and Kenzie's differing reactions to events falling apart around them, and the renewed galactic threat of the Forgers causes them all to be in trouble. For Dash that tends to be trying to be conservative and getting out of there, but for Kenzie that tends to be trying to find out what's going on and to save the galaxy. And the conflict between the two, especially when the truths about Dash's past are revealed (any experienced reader will foresee that reveal coming), works quite well to keep the plot moving at a pretty nice pace once the plot kicks into gear. Add in a universe that may not quite work to be funny but is still somewhat diverse and interesting in its physics and species, and well you've got a solid space opera.

So yeah, Dim Stars is solid. But is it any more than that? And here's where this review once again turns kind of negative, because Dim Stars never does take that leap like I hoped. I've seen the embittered jaded maybe not all they're said to be hero meets idolizing young super talented teen story many a time - its almost an old fashioned type story at this point. And Dim Stars doesn't really take it in any new directions, it just plays the hits largely, so you'll see a lot of "twists" coming if you have any reading experience at all. If it's a young reader's first introduction to such a story arc, I suppose Dim Stars will work out better, but even then, there just isn't all that much here to wow a reader and make them super excited. This book works as a stand alone, but has a sequel hook in case the author might want to write a follow-up, but what's here doesn't justify to me even looking at such a sequel, to say nothing of recommending Dim Stars. There's a lot of books out there these days, and Dim Stars is just another one of the pile, which to me makes it not worthy of making the Finals (but of course my fellow judges may feel differently....)


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