Dim Stars: A Novel of Outer-Space Shenanigans by Brian P. Rubin

Plenty of his classmates were drafted into the Fleet when the Forger War broke out, just like he was. But none of them became galaxy-famous war heroes when they were still teenagers. Dash hadn’t aspired to much before the war started, so he wasn’t sure how to aspire to anything at all once it ended.

Oh, this book! You simply must give this book a go! It’s charming and wonderful!

Firstly, it must be pointed out that this book has a jaw-droppingly cool cover. Better still, from the start, Dim Stars pulls you right in and is great fun! The humour is seriously great! Like,

“We’re one ship on an asteroid filled with who-knows-how-many people who want to shoot at us, which will be jumping into—if I’m not mistaken—another dimension in four minutes.”

Due to the fact there’s a first mate aboard who is a talking Octopus, coupled with the gorgeous cover, my brain instantly imagined an animated version of Dim Stars that was basically Below Decks meets Final Space for the first chapter 😉

Not unlike my beloved Mooncake, Squix, the Octopus in Dim Stars, is the first mate aboard the once-famous Captain Dashiell Drake’s ship and travels the galaxy with him. All comparisons instantly faded, however, as I was quickly immersed in the universe and the world-building is great! You can tell Rubin spent a lot of time fleshing everything out.

Escaping homicidal armored alien invaders was bad enough. Having to exercise while doing it was even worse.

The main characters are Kenzie and Dash: fourteen year old Kenzie’s just bought a place in Dash’s crew so that she can stick it on her CV. Dash is once-famous, ‘hero of Gantoid IV and intergalactic adventurer’ and now using his old fame to pay the bills with Squix by offering places to cadets for a fee. When Kenzie gets a chance to fly with Dash, she ends up on an adventure neither were prepared for.

What I like most about this book was how easy it was to slip into the universe Rubin created. I often have trouble imagining sci-fi books in my head, but not this one! This one just felt like the world enveloped you.

Rest assured this is a super fun debut and fans of sci-fi, adventure and action should check out Dim Stars! I can’t wait to see what Brian P. Rubin publishes next!

Thank you so much to the author for sending me a copy of this book!