Otters In Space 3: Octopus Ascending

by Mary E. Lowd

Intrigue, adventure, and octopi await!

On the eve of war between Earth and Jupiter, one brave tabby cat embarks on a journey that will rock the foundation of her world as she travels between the depths of the sea and the depths of space. While Kipper seeks an audience with the octopus oligarchy, her sister Petra struggles against tyrannies and conspiracies among the dog and cat government of the Uplifted States. Meanwhile, across the solar system, the otter Jenny leads her team of pirates and scientists as they try to uncover the secrets of the ancient, abandoned Europa base.

Can the creatures of Earth, working together, stop the Jovian fleet in time?

252 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 18, 2017

About the author

Mary E. Lowd is a prolific science-fiction and furry writer in Oregon. She's had more than 180 short stories and a half dozen novels published, always with more on the way. Her work has won numerous awards, and she's been nominated for the Ursa Major Awards more than any other individual. She is also the founder and editor of Zooscape. She lives in a crashed spaceship, disguised as a house and hidden behind a rose garden, with a large collection of animals, both real and imaginary, who collectively serve as her muse.

Reviews

[J.F.R. Coates · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exciting conclusion to the series, Otters in Space gives you exactly what you expect. It's a mostly fun and light hearted tale, but it doesn't shirk back from providing some telling comparisons to today's society as well.
The world was well built, but at times some of the worldbuilding provided some detailed information about certain aspects, and then promptly ignored it for the rest of the story.
The conclusion did strike me as a little rushed, but was otherwise satisfying.
A fun read!

[David Ellery · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not entirely sure I can provide a fair appraisal of this trilogy, since my preference for showing over telling is so strong it likely impedes my objectivity, and these books really love to tell, to the point of telling you the same things several times over, and at times bordering on stating the obvious. Telling means the narrator's in charge, for me, and I'd much rather the characters were.

There are some nice ideas and touches, but also some tonal niggles and narrative discrepancies. The cast and settings are fun, but none are ever deep enough to truly engage; the characters don't grow much at all, Kipper by and large the same cat at the end that she was at the start, and the cultures aren't explored or utilised enough, the antagonist race feeling especially underdeveloped. It's too plot-driven to really flourish, and the plot is comfortably the biggest issue.

At core it's pretty familiar space opera stuff, giant evil fleet threatening earth, and a bit of a mix, sometimes feeling like it's progressing toward something, other times like it's throwing obstacles and setbacks at the protagonists almost at random, especially in this final volume, with a number of things seeming to serve little or no active purpose, and it never really coheres properly. The most frustrating aspect is that the ultimate resolution doesn't feel earned, it just comes about through a series of coincidences and a couple of developments mostly from nowhere, and is distinctly unsatisfying as a result.

These books are for the most part a pleasant diversion, but for me are let down by the knowledge they could have been a whole lot more.

[Foxglove Headmate · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really liked the octopus society and the section with jenny was really interesting, seeing the raptors who in the books so far have only been mostly faceless villains being portrayed as innocent and small. also Petra and Lucky's section was nice to read.