Red Star Hustle

[alobear]

Based on other things I'd read by Sam J Miller, I certainly wasn't expecting what I got from Red Star Hustle. It's set in a future with spaceships and wormholes and nanotech and professional mech fighting and clones and massive security forces corporations that have way too much power. It's utterly ridiculous, with an over-the-top style and bizarre story elements that kept taking me by surprise. But it's also got found family vibes up the wazoo, two viewpoint protagonists with distinct voices that got me deeply invested in the story, an unhealthily intense romance that still had me rooting for those crazy kids to make it work, and a lot of emotive backstory and character trauma that absolutely made me cry. One of the main themes is addiction and recovery, which is handled really well and in a lot of depth - and I always appreciate stories that acknowledge the mental consequences of what happens and show that the story can reach a satisfying conclusion whilst still showing that life doesn't usually contain neat endings. Really awesome.