I've always felt uneasy reading Jucha's work, and it's been hard to put my finger on why. Returning to the "Silver Ships" (and this new series is a return), after some time has provided fresh insight.
Jucha paints a YA utopia of benevolent superior beings in undiluted admiration as they correct the universe's ills. On the surface, he challenges misogyny, racism, and xenophobia, and promotes democracy, justice and equality. Yet, he does so in a completely unconvincing way. For example, as he promotes democracy he praises dictatorship (albeit 'benevolent'), as he promotes equality he embraces feminine stereotypes, as he scoffs at xenophobia he promotes human superiority. His characters are unconvincing, being all too polarised and one dimensional. The result is disquieting, and I'm not convinced it's intentional, instead it feels inadvertent and subconscious.
The resulting stories are dangerously enticing but feel worryingly subversive. It's like being mansplained too (the irony being my own maleness). His tomes would make interesting discussions for a book club.