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Suddenly Space Pirates #1
Suddenly Shanghaied!
Nick North hates high school. Awkward and friendless, Nick spends his evenings playing medieval computer games and taking his pet cat to restaurants. When a mysterious, black-sailed pirate ship crash lands next to his apartment building, Nick quickly discovers there are worse things than having no social life. Like getting shanghaied by plucky alien princesses. Or falling in love with quietly troubled first mates. But hey, what are the odds that Nick's childhood illness is the key to the treasure his new nuisances are avidly looking for? Or that their presence on his planet might literally mean the end of the observable world?
270 pages, Paperback
First published October 3, 2015
4 people are currently reading
224 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 5, 2016
a year ago i had this epiphany like holy shit, this woman could make me read anything (ive read ELEVEN rose christo books so far.) so when i found out last night, right before going to bed, that she published a new novel, i bought it immediately.
my huge grin faded after reading a few pages. because this book is ridiculous. just... fucking weird. and then, i dont know what happened, maybe i embraced it, maybe my explicit imagination helped, but the vivid scenery made me feel like i was on a pirate ship. in space. visiting planets. exploring new cultures. i just couldnt stop reading. SPACE PIRATES. FROM DIFFERENT PLANETS. there are so many incredible elements, i was wondering how on earth rose had come up with them.
the lack of plot bothered me a bit. so this pirate ship, ss suddenly can only visit dying planets. which i somehow find fascinating. and they're pirating all over the place. thats it. thats the plot. but its new, wild, daring, challenging.
and then, there, of course, was the romantic plot. i mean it wasnt a surprise since the summary lets us know who they are and you know that there is going to be a thing between them. they barely have exchanges during the first hundred pages or so. but the tension is there, stabbing your eyes with a fork. you cannot not root for them. you cannot not wish for them to have more scenes together. you want more, you want them to interact, you're dying for them to look at each other. it's that kind of an otp.
i loved how deep the characters were and i loved that we got to read about their backstories. sure, everything felt weird, names, the so-called plot, some of their dialogues, but it was wholly new. it was so beautifully crafted, it just swallowed me whole. and the way rose named her countries, planets and everything else? wickedly imaginative. i mean, she makes it seem so easy.
another thing i loved. every. single. character. is gay. except for the captain, who is bisexual.
i mean. I MEAN. this book is ridiculous. and i dont know if my friends would love it. but i did. i know how ridiculous it is. but for heavens, it was fun.
my huge grin faded after reading a few pages. because this book is ridiculous. just... fucking weird. and then, i dont know what happened, maybe i embraced it, maybe my explicit imagination helped, but the vivid scenery made me feel like i was on a pirate ship. in space. visiting planets. exploring new cultures. i just couldnt stop reading. SPACE PIRATES. FROM DIFFERENT PLANETS. there are so many incredible elements, i was wondering how on earth rose had come up with them.
the lack of plot bothered me a bit. so this pirate ship, ss suddenly can only visit dying planets. which i somehow find fascinating. and they're pirating all over the place. thats it. thats the plot. but its new, wild, daring, challenging.
and then, there, of course, was the romantic plot. i mean it wasnt a surprise since the summary lets us know who they are and you know that there is going to be a thing between them. they barely have exchanges during the first hundred pages or so. but the tension is there, stabbing your eyes with a fork. you cannot not root for them. you cannot not wish for them to have more scenes together. you want more, you want them to interact, you're dying for them to look at each other. it's that kind of an otp.
i loved how deep the characters were and i loved that we got to read about their backstories. sure, everything felt weird, names, the so-called plot, some of their dialogues, but it was wholly new. it was so beautifully crafted, it just swallowed me whole. and the way rose named her countries, planets and everything else? wickedly imaginative. i mean, she makes it seem so easy.
another thing i loved. every. single. character. is gay. except for the captain, who is bisexual.
i mean. I MEAN. this book is ridiculous. and i dont know if my friends would love it. but i did. i know how ridiculous it is. but for heavens, it was fun.
June 18, 2016
This is one odd book. I mean - this is one odd book even by Rose Christo's standards. Don't get me wrong - I love this author to pieces but... uhm.
Never mind the nevermind. As it happens I was strangely charmed by this book, as it so often happens with this author. It's a Rose Christo book alright - the broken children are there, the crafting of a new familiy is there, the guilt, the pain, the heart-wrenchingly tender moments (and I live for those in her stories).
There are some of her books where I lament the lack of editing but this strange, strange thing - I wouldn't even know where to start editing.
From a technical point of view there are a lot of rifles hanging on the wall that never get shot and there is a total disregard for the constraints of time and space and honestly, after a few pages I was ready to drop this but...
I honestly have no idea whether I should or rather could recommend this to anyone. But I finished it and I kind of love it.
I'm aware that this a terrible review but that's what she does to me. And, you know, that is for the most part the reason I think she is a great writer - warts and all - she leaves me speechless.
Never mind the nevermind. As it happens I was strangely charmed by this book, as it so often happens with this author. It's a Rose Christo book alright - the broken children are there, the crafting of a new familiy is there, the guilt, the pain, the heart-wrenchingly tender moments (and I live for those in her stories).
There are some of her books where I lament the lack of editing but this strange, strange thing - I wouldn't even know where to start editing.
From a technical point of view there are a lot of rifles hanging on the wall that never get shot and there is a total disregard for the constraints of time and space and honestly, after a few pages I was ready to drop this but...
I honestly have no idea whether I should or rather could recommend this to anyone. But I finished it and I kind of love it.
I'm aware that this a terrible review but that's what she does to me. And, you know, that is for the most part the reason I think she is a great writer - warts and all - she leaves me speechless.
September 6, 2018
I have no idea how to rate this, so three stars seems safe.
I'm not really sure what to make of this one. It has a lot of good ideas, but it felt like Ms. Christo was writing this by the seat of her pants. Sometimes, that works. Sometimes, you get this. The plotting is a mess if there's even a plot to speak of, and the world-building is more or less non-existant, yet it still manages to have plotholes. Maybe? Because the last scene of the book suggests that some of this wackiness might be explained in the next book, which if I read it, it won't be right away. (I did read the sample of it and it does look like it might start to fill in some blanks but there's still a lot of WTH moments throughout, which if plotted better or given any kind of explanation at all wouldn't be quite so disorienting.)
The language also threw me, and it took me until about 75% of the way through to figure out why - the characters read and act way too much like the kids in the Gives Light series. In fact, I started to think of this book more as the kids from Gives Light putting on a space opera in a round robin kind of way, which made the hodgepodge feeling of it somewhat less annoying. I could even figure out who was playing who: Skylar is Nick, Raphael is Jason, Zeke is Miles, Annie is Patience, the shaman's daughter is Rune. The captain and the doctor are older, and I couldn't quite shake the feeling that the Doctor was a Doctor Who ripoff. The captain is... Raphael's uncle I guess.
Christo does the characters well, and that's about the only saving grace here. You do start to feel for them and this really messed up situation they're all stuck in. Once she gets down to giving us some reveals (at past halfway through the book) it does start to improve. It just never really improves enough to make up for the first half or the continued sense that this was all thrown together like a blindfolded kid playing Pin the Plotline on the Book Donkey.
It is certainly original, but it's in desperate need of editing to make it more coherent and flow together better.
I'm not really sure what to make of this one. It has a lot of good ideas, but it felt like Ms. Christo was writing this by the seat of her pants. Sometimes, that works. Sometimes, you get this. The plotting is a mess if there's even a plot to speak of, and the world-building is more or less non-existant, yet it still manages to have plotholes. Maybe? Because the last scene of the book suggests that some of this wackiness might be explained in the next book, which if I read it, it won't be right away. (I did read the sample of it and it does look like it might start to fill in some blanks but there's still a lot of WTH moments throughout, which if plotted better or given any kind of explanation at all wouldn't be quite so disorienting.)
The language also threw me, and it took me until about 75% of the way through to figure out why - the characters read and act way too much like the kids in the Gives Light series. In fact, I started to think of this book more as the kids from Gives Light putting on a space opera in a round robin kind of way, which made the hodgepodge feeling of it somewhat less annoying. I could even figure out who was playing who: Skylar is Nick, Raphael is Jason, Zeke is Miles, Annie is Patience, the shaman's daughter is Rune. The captain and the doctor are older, and I couldn't quite shake the feeling that the Doctor was a Doctor Who ripoff. The captain is... Raphael's uncle I guess.
Christo does the characters well, and that's about the only saving grace here. You do start to feel for them and this really messed up situation they're all stuck in. Once she gets down to giving us some reveals (at past halfway through the book) it does start to improve. It just never really improves enough to make up for the first half or the continued sense that this was all thrown together like a blindfolded kid playing Pin the Plotline on the Book Donkey.
It is certainly original, but it's in desperate need of editing to make it more coherent and flow together better.
December 30, 2016
sometimes you just need a silly, fun book in your life ok
you may think the premise of this book sounds weird, which: fair. but it's weird in the best way! behold: this book has
- space pirates
- QUEER space pirates
- no really, everyone's gay
- except for the captain
- he's bi
- we also have poc rep
- and mentions of aliens with a different gender system than ours, which i appreciated, even if our main chars seem all to be part of our gender binary (so far?)
if you arent already sold on this book just from hearing the words POC QUEER SPACE PIRATES, 1) stop being so boring, and 2) this book reads a bit like your favorite crackfic: sure the writing leaves something to be desired at parts, but the characters are crazy likable, there's emotional moments hiding between all the silliness, it features the found family trope as its main theme, and it seemingly has no plot... until you get to the plot twist at the end and your mind is blown. 3.5 stars, will def get my hands on the sequel asap.
you may think the premise of this book sounds weird, which: fair. but it's weird in the best way! behold: this book has
- space pirates
- QUEER space pirates
- no really, everyone's gay
- except for the captain
- he's bi
- we also have poc rep
- and mentions of aliens with a different gender system than ours, which i appreciated, even if our main chars seem all to be part of our gender binary (so far?)
if you arent already sold on this book just from hearing the words POC QUEER SPACE PIRATES, 1) stop being so boring, and 2) this book reads a bit like your favorite crackfic: sure the writing leaves something to be desired at parts, but the characters are crazy likable, there's emotional moments hiding between all the silliness, it features the found family trope as its main theme, and it seemingly has no plot... until you get to the plot twist at the end and your mind is blown. 3.5 stars, will def get my hands on the sequel asap.
November 27, 2016
Space Pirates!! It's like Christo took all the funny, silly moments she showed us in her Gives Light series or The place where they cried, decided she was going to do everything she wanted and not give a damn about opinions (No boundaries! No genre conventions!) and then added spoonfuls of plot, sadness, feels and characters. I don't know how it worked but it worked and it was fun.
September 30, 2016
Absolutely loved this! Character wise this was one of the most entertaining reads. The romance was tame but soooo sweet.
The plot is a bit all over the place, honestly. I also found the writing style a bit odd / overly simple at times.
But it was so much fun to read :)
Freaking space pirates!!!
I'm dying to pick up the second installment !!
The plot is a bit all over the place, honestly. I also found the writing style a bit odd / overly simple at times.
But it was so much fun to read :)
Freaking space pirates!!!
I'm dying to pick up the second installment !!
July 1, 2018
It’s so fucking bizarre and no one else but Rose Christo could pull this off and make me read the whole thing and love it.
September 2, 2017
Awesome book, entertaining and charming, and now I HAVE to read book 2, because it ends in a cliffhanger. That is the only reason I took away 1 star. The ending was very abrupt.
June 16, 2017
This is the first book in a quirky series about space pirates (and it's Kindle Unlimited for now) written for a young adult audience while still subtly addressing serious issues like grief, loss, background homophobia, disabilities, being different from the norm, acceptance, building non-blood-related family. It's also a humorous adventure tale about space pirates! How do a disparate group of adolescent and "young adult" (you'll understand why that's in quotes when you read it) individuals build a family while living aboard an old-fashioned pirate ship in space?
The author, Rose Christo, wrote another amazing fictional series, Gives Light, for young adults that mainly takes place on a contemporary Native American reservation. The setting for the Suddenly series is certainly different from the realistic seriousness of the Gives Light series, but I think Christo is still addressing many of the same themes like being different from the norm, loss, grief, homophobia, building your own family in both series.
First it seemed a little bit silly in a Pipi Longstocking kind of way, but try to have fun with it because this is a solidly written and well-edited tale. Yes these are some eccentric characters but they're also charming and endearing. Her characters are more complex than they first appear and there is more depth to her writing than the story setting might suggest. Getting to know these special people and learning their stories and the worlds they come from is a joy. Which is good because it's more of a character study with bursts of adventure. Some other reviewers complained about a lack of plot. There is actually a slowly developing plot; it's just not the primary focus of the story. So obviously this story style is not for everyone but I've fallen in love with the series.
The author, Rose Christo, wrote another amazing fictional series, Gives Light, for young adults that mainly takes place on a contemporary Native American reservation. The setting for the Suddenly series is certainly different from the realistic seriousness of the Gives Light series, but I think Christo is still addressing many of the same themes like being different from the norm, loss, grief, homophobia, building your own family in both series.
First it seemed a little bit silly in a Pipi Longstocking kind of way, but try to have fun with it because this is a solidly written and well-edited tale. Yes these are some eccentric characters but they're also charming and endearing. Her characters are more complex than they first appear and there is more depth to her writing than the story setting might suggest. Getting to know these special people and learning their stories and the worlds they come from is a joy. Which is good because it's more of a character study with bursts of adventure. Some other reviewers complained about a lack of plot. There is actually a slowly developing plot; it's just not the primary focus of the story. So obviously this story style is not for everyone but I've fallen in love with the series.
January 9, 2018
I cannot get enough of these books! Such a gripping story and lovable characters. I don't want it to end but I also can't wait for book 4!
December 18, 2021
DNF ... it's to bizarre, addictively so ... but it wasn't for me.
May 18, 2016
Dude it's space pirates.
But in all seriousness, Christo is quickly becoming a favorite author and this book is quite a break from her other series. It's fantastic and fun and full of heart.
But in all seriousness, Christo is quickly becoming a favorite author and this book is quite a break from her other series. It's fantastic and fun and full of heart.
March 30, 2017
This book was a lot of fun, and I'm excited to read the sequel!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews