Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings

This was a reread for this prompt. This is such a fun book, it also made me want to go on a little sci-fi binge.

Review from 2024:

“I don’t want to accept it.”

“And yet, as with all things we lose… as with all things that break our hearts… eventually, we must.”

I adored this, I’ve read a few reviews that didn’t love the neatness of it and I totally get that, but I just enjoyed how everyone on the Jonah and Gallion needed to be in the same place at the same time to help bring peace to the masses. Is it luck? Is it faith? Both?

I will say that there isn’t a huge amount of mystery in who the ‘Fortune Five’ was going to be BUT I loved the journey. I would have liked some more insight into Charyne and Keila though. We didn’t really get to ‘know’ them, and it felt a bit like the ‘Fortunate Three’. I loved Shann, Keevan and Leeg though so the lack of character development for Charyne and Keila wasn’t a massive problem, just feel it would have added more to the overall story.

One other thing, this is listed in tags as LGBTQ and it does have queer characters but one couple are minor characters, and the two main characters (Uma and Keevan) relationships are only referenced as part of their history. So just keep that in mind if some queer space opera is what you’re after!

At the end of the day though this had all the things I enjoy in a space opera, and I had a lot of fun reading it. In a world that feels kind of hopeless this book felt hopeful. Maybe one day everything will align in real life like this story did? That would be lovely!

This is totally a standalone but a sequel would absolutely work and I would LOVE one.

One of my favourite aspects of this book is the absolute banging playlist that the author listened to when writing it. They also wrote an original song and had a friend record it. It’s a little kitchy but it also makes me want to reread every time I listen to it. The playlist is available on Spotify, but I don’t mess with Spotify, so I made my own YouTube playlist. Link is below.

The above playlist is very blurry but the YouTube to my playlist is at the following link: Under Fortunate Stars Playlist

Synopsis:

Stranded in the Dark

In the final throes of the generations-long war with the alien Felen, smuggler Jereth Keeven’s junk freighter breaks down in a strange rift in deep space, with little chance of rescue – until they encounter a science vessel that claims to be from 152 years in the future.

Engineer Uma Ozakka has always been fascinated with the past, especially the desperate peace mission that ended the war with the Felen and ushered in a new age of collaboration – a mission Keeven’s first mate Leesongronski is supposed to be leading right now.

If Ozakka is right, more than the fates of two ships hangs in the balance…