Condomnauts

by Yoss, David Frye (Translator)

“Yoss (Super Extra Grande) is an eminent Cuban SF writer who also fronts a heavy metal band; his iconoclastic spirit and rock-and-roll aesthetic are on full ingenious display in this daring, rollicking, and joyous novel…. This extended dirty joke is also an impressive science fiction novel with much to say about sex, culture, and what it means to be alien.”  —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

In the 24th century, Josué Valdés’ rise from an orphan in the slums of Rubble City, Cuba to one of the galaxy’s most accomplished explorers was nothing short of meteoric. On the streets, Josue raced cockroaches for cash—until he discovered his true-calling: as a sexual ambassador for humanity and the Nu Barsa colony.

Every so-called “condomnaut” knows that diplomacy and trade deals depend on sexual pacts in the galactic community—and every encounter becomes a close encounter. While some condomnauts have been raised and genetically enhanced to meet the needs of any tentacled insectoid in the galaxy, Josué is a natural whose ego could eclipse the big dipper. Our intrepid condomnauts travel light years across the galaxy and discover that old rivalries—and prejudices—are never far behind. When the first extragalactic beings arrive in the Milky Way, and with them the potential to negotiate for extraordinary new technologies, Josué must call upon every ounce of his talent to seal the deal for his colony and all of humanity.

Indirectly investigating current sexual mores, Cuban science fiction rock star Yoss plays upon stereotypes while making it clear that under Communist Cuba what is daring is not always funny and vice versa. Following the success of Super Extra Grande and A Planet for Rent, Yoss brings us another uproarious space adventure with Condomnauts, a wildly inventive and unapologetic tale that would make even Barbarella blush.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Adult, Humor, LGBT, Aliens

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Born José Miguel Sánchez Gómez, Yoss assumed his pen name in 1988, when he won the Premio David Award in the science fiction category for Timshel. Together with his peculiar pseudonym, the author's aesthetic of an impentinent rocker has allowed him to stand out amongst his fellow Cuban writers. Earning a degree in Biology in 1991, he went on to graduate from the first ever course on Narrative Techniques at the Onelio Jorge Cardoso Center of Literary Training, in the year 1999. Today, Yoss writes both realistic and science fiction works. Alongside these novels, the author produces essays, reviews, and compilations, and actively promotes the Cuban science fiction literary workshops, Espiral and Espacio Abierto.

Reviews

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Josué is a sexual ambassador for humanity, highly trained to interact intimately with all types of beings. He is a combination of a diplomat and a courtesan, despite having his own sexual preferences (male, human.) He is in danger of losing some business to a new type of sexual ambassador, which are hybrid human and AI machines more able to morph into different types of being. One of his colleagues has gone through surgery to breathe underwater.

When the first extragallactic beings arrive, everyone has to work together to preserve advancements in space travel or risk losing it completely and be trapped on earth in the 24th century.

The book is a bit rambly, but if you're in the right mood for it, it's quite entertaining and funny. I definitely read it as a tongue-in-cheek laugh rather than realistic science fiction (and you should too.)

[Harry Jahnke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the concept of this book and I really enjoy the way it was written. It was very reminiscent of Heinlein in that sort of "Hey, I'm the cool narrator and I'm just the coolest guy and here's my cool story" kind of way. I only have one nitpick with this book and it's that I don't think it's sexy enough. The concept is simple enough: the way we make first contact with aliens in the future is by having sex with them (which actually makes a lot of sense if you think about it). However, whenever we're about to enter a sex scene, the narrative cuts away. Granted, not everyone is a pervert like me and may not want to see how a man and an octopus creature make love but I certainly am and I certainly did. The book is still really good and worth reading, don't get me wrong. It's just a nitpick.

[Erica · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the pointless and repetitive expository story of a machismo-minded beta male sex worker whose job simultaneously grants him fame and shame.

Kinda like this?


Probably more like this, though.


Way in the future, humans are one of the newer races to travel around in space. We're all confined to our galaxy because none of the Milky Way's denizens have perfected long distance space travel but as soon as someone from outside makes contact, we're totally going to learn their technology so we can go to distant places and ditch this two bit star system.
Here's what happens when two races meet for the first time: Each race sends forth an ambassador and the ambassadors have sex. Or whatever constitutes sex. Because that is a good way to create open and friendly relations with people you don't know!
Apparently, the galaxy runs on bonobo norms.
Anyway, you know the best galactic sexxer, or condomnaut, as they're lovingly referred to - the creation of that endearment is up for debate and we get to read about several theories concerning the term - is going to be the one who gets the information from the advanced foreigners that will someday show up in our little corner of the universe.


For some reason that I don't understand (the reason is explained later and while I suspected as much the entire time, what with being a woman who has been talked into doing stuff guys want but maybe I don't, I still didn't really get it) this all works out fine, everyone's good with this, and there is now a career class comprised of highly-empathetic sexpert space ambassadors. Our main character, Josue Valdes, is one of those ambassadors and he is very good at his job (though not the best) He's not so good at sexing in his personal life, though; after being traumatized in childhood, he cannot stomach the idea of having sex with a human female, it is the grossest and he won't do it. So it's probably good that his girlfriend whom he doesn't like but is sexually attracted to, but with whom he has not "gone all the way," is a mermaid. And since he isn't going to encounter humans for the first time in his job, he'll never need to sex up a human female, anyway. Still, it's a big hang-up that must be explored regularly throughout the story, especially in light of his obsession with the redheaded human female who works on his ship and his hatred + lust toward her boyfriend.

The reader gets to enjoy Josue's thoughts on everything, including examining the memories of his terrible childhood in Cuba and his bootstrap-pulling ways that got him where he is today, until the end of the book where something finally happens: Outsiders show up.
Who will get to sex them first?

This all may sound delightful to you and perhaps it will be.
I'm sure I would have better enjoyed the story, despite its reliance on old tropes and tired science fiction clichés (can you really call anyone in space "alien"? I mean, if you're all out there together, everyone away from their home planets or gas clouds or what have you, no one is an alien. Or everyone is an alien. It's not humans and aliens. This pisses me off more than it should, I know, but my teeth almost ground down to nubs every time I read "the aliens" in reference to other Milky Way citizens), were it not for its exceptional fatphobic, sexwork-shaming, condom-hating content. And bad editing.

If it's meant to be satire, it fails because it's not well-written enough to be anything other than exhausting. It's like a high-level self-published treatise by a teenage boy trying to come to terms with his sexuality. I wasn't a fan.
1.5 stars.


By the by, the weekend after I finished this, I took my dad to see the ¡CUBA! exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. I found out that, unsurprisingly, my early childhood education was wrong and Cuba was not what I had been lead to believe. Perhaps also not surprising was that the room full of notable Cubans, including authors, did not feature Yoss.

I realize those aren't authors. I wasn't fast enough to wrench this away from the group of kids who came to poke at the faces of artists.

Oh, and for those of you who are all, "I just want to read this for the hot interspecies sex!" yeah, don't bother. You know how much I hate sex and romance onpage and let me just tell you, the banging in this novel was anything but. Soooo booooooring, such wasted potential.

I can't recommend this but you should go ahead and read it anyway because it may be far more enjoyable to you.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was expecting something fun, maybe over the top, definitely "out there." This was a disappointment.

I'm never sure, when a work has been translated, how much of what I struggle with is because of a cultural difference (would this be considered Very Good in its home country?) or because of the translator (although that's not applicable in this case: the story format as a whole was problematic, not the sentence flow or vocabulary feel).

Essentially, this story takes place over the course of a couple of days of activity (with some down time between the important days). Unfortunately, we don't spend much time in the action. We mostly hang out with the narrator, who is standing around waiting for things to happen and, while standing around, mentally recounts the various events in his life that have lead to this day and upcoming activity. All this makes it a very slow read. I cannot think of anyone for whom I would recommend this.

[Gerhard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay. This was really weird. Not ‘weird’ in a polite HP Lovecraft kind of way, but bat-fuck crazy weird. Does it work? Not really. The entire way through the book I was scratching my head as to exactly how the Condomnauts initiate First Contact with non-humans, only to have Yoss provide a handy summary of their evolution, now on the fourth generation, nearly at the end. Mmm, that would have worked much better upfront. Also, sex and science fiction often mix as well as oil and water. Throw in satire, and you have a very difficult balancing act. There are some great ideas here, such as gays and perverts in general gravitating naturally towards Condomnautery, and being lauded as a result. Also, that cockroach-racing scene is pure brilliance (not to mention how it ties in with the ending). But none of the characters are very appealing, and bizarrely there really aren’t any sex scenes per se. Still, Yoss is certainly a unique voice and vision, which is always welcome in SF.

[Stacia]

I enjoyed Yoss' other books Red Dust & Super Extra Grande, but I couldn't get into this one. It veered between campy fun & serious/depressing childhood survivor background info with an off-ramp visit to fatphobia, among some other things. I read about a fourth of it & then stopped. Meh.

[Tracy]

Intriguing premise but meandering and dull with some kind of misogynist undertones. DNF on page 42.

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, why wouldn’t you want to read a story with a cover like that, a title like that and an author like that. Yoss is someone I’ve heard of, but never read until now. Now being the time our library decided to finally, finally go international and started expanding their international digital catalogue. Why this is the only Yoss’ book they chose one might never know, but hey, maybe they were unable to resist the initial appeal either. So I didn’t read the plot description, just went right in. To be honest, kind of expected bizarre or new weird based on a title, but this was very much a work of science fiction, albeit it…differently spiced. Presumably with Yoss’ own distinct blend of fun and sex politics under the many suns. The basic idea is that in the future Earthlings finally made contact with an advance culture of extraterrestrials, who granted them an ability to hyperjump, making space travel and colonization possible. Ok, not granted, per se, traded. From then on such trades became a done thing and, oddly enough, each has to be consummated by a trained Contact Specialist such as Josue Valdes our intrepid protagonist. Yes, seriously. It’s a very sexy (or not, depending on the aliens’ appearance) sort of trade based future. One Josue is well suited for, although not one his impoverish childhood in Cuba’s projects might have ever prepared him for. Except that it did, although in the most unusual sort of way. So it’s a very odd novel, really, but intriguing, interesting and strikingly original. All the things one might want in their speculative fiction. Yoss’ is very good at world building and his characters are not just fun, they are also well developed and dimensional. It’s also all kind of funny, not quite laugh out loud, not quite darkly humorous, somewhere in between. But the man definitely got some comedic chops. Almost on par with his obviously excellent overactive imagination. Again, all the things you’d want for your speculative fiction’s author. The novel was a somewhat odd read, it’s heavily narrated, at times surprisingly dense for such a lighthearted story. And very heavy on science fiction. But then again, it read easily enough and was lots of fun. I especially like what was essentially the ending plot twist, revealing some things about the alien allies, sort of throwing some logic in there to explain all the weird interspecies copulations. Plus Josue isn’t without his charms as far as protagonists go. So yeah, this was fun. I’ve had fun with it. Also quite possibly my first read by a Cuban author, so yey for international reading. And a good introduction to the excellently pseudonymed Yoss. An author I’d definitely read again, should the library continue to swing that way. Recommended.

[TraceyL · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so incredibly excited to see that another Yoss English audiobook was released that I dropped everything and listened to it. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this one nearly as much as the previous two I've read. The actual premise was fun and interesting. Basically in this story all alien species seal trade agreements with sex, so there are humans who jokingly call themselves Condomnauts whose job it is to get it on with aliens - no matter how gross or dangerous they can be. But I kept getting lost when it came to the actual story, and by the end I just wanted the story to be over. If any other English audiobooks get released I will still pick them up and hope for the best.

[Bbrown · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are thousands of alien civilizations in the universe, and they all make first contact with each other by having sex. That premise, along with the title Condomnauts, is pretty attention-grabbing, right? And the book itself is more than an attempt to shock, it has a solid setting and an okay plot. Unfortunately it treads a lot of the same ground as Yoss’s shorter work Super Extra Grande, especially with the narrative voice. Even the setting, of a universe so crowded that you can barely make a hyperjump without running into a previously undiscovered (by humanity) alien race, has a little of its shine worn off by Super Extra Grande’s similarities: it doesn’t feel as novel as it should.

Sexual ambassadors to alien races is one of those sci-fi concepts that most authors would do terribly, but Yoss pulls it off in an unembarrasing manner. There’s not a lot of depth here, though, or rather not much hidden depth, as the past, predilictions, and hang-ups of the main character and condomnaut Josué Valdés are all spelled out for the reader. He’s still rather compelling as a character, being the classic rags-to-riches success that still isn’t accepted by the high echelon of society he’s managed to force his way into. It’s an effective trope even if it’s not an especially creative one.

I noted earlier that the plot was okay, and the race to contact an extragalactic species with warp technology is serviceable enough, but it’s also a bit too clean, the characters managing to show up in the same place at the same time and all the loose ends neatly tied up. Valdés even references the circular nature of stories at the end. I wouldn’t have minded if more of the mysteries and conflicts had been left unresolved, like in Yoss’s better work A Planet for Rent, but what we get in Condomnauts is a fun romp.

If you liked Super Extra Grande you’ll probably like Condomnauts as well, they are very similar. That being said, neither come close to A Planet for Rent, which is one of the best pieces of science fiction I’ve read in the last few years. I hope we get more works by Yoss translated soon (and more Cuban science fiction in general), even if they are just more adventures like Condomnauts. 3.5/5.

[Hazel · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. The concept seemed cool, but it turned out to be just a pretext for extreme fatphobia and disturbing descriptions of child rape. Also, the plot was incredibly slow, with like 5 pages of the narrator thinking about stuff (telling not showing the worldbuilding) before you could get one paragraph of things actually happening. Very disappointing as I was looking forward to a fun and quick read from a Cuban author.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like how crowded and diverse Yoss's galaxies are, but dang the sexism, homophobia, and fatphobia took a step up in this book.

[Bill Philibin · Rating 2 out of 5]

(2.0 Stars)

I knew this book was going to be "weird" before I started based on the book description. My rating does not reflect that it is weird, it is something else entirely.

First, the good. The writing style of this book is great... vivid landscaped, well-developed characters, superb attention to detail, good dialog, and no part of the book seems to drag on, although it is a short work so the pace wouldn't really allow much slowness. I found the concept interesting (in a weird way) and was dreading that it would be another one of those campy space rom-coms (it wasn't).

Now, on to what I didn't like about the book.

The main character was "Gay". And while I love books that represent the LGBTQIA+ community, this one felt very different. Yes, it expressed sexuality as a spectrum (stating it was not deviancy), it also seemed to disparage sexual identity. Here is what I mean, and also why I had the word "Gay" in quotes. Yes, the MC was gay... but he was gay as a direct result of childhood trauma. So, not "born" gay, but "made" gay. He also briefly mentions why he is exclusively attracted to "males", but it is always more in passing. However, when mentioning "female" characters, he goes into so much more detail (sexually). In fact, his partner in the book is female... although has been genetically manipulated to "become" a mermaid. I feel his attractions to females increase as they are further removed from being human. I just can't shake the feeling that he is dehumanizing women. There are also some mentions of bestiality, but I can attribute that to trying to be "edgy" or just the general "weirdness" of the title.

I also felt that he book was also very fatphobic, but maybe I was already turned-off to the book by that point and was just looking for another fault?

Would I read another book if this had a sequel? Absolutely not.

Would I give this author another go? Yes. I have heard that A Planet for Rent is excellent, and I do plan to read it.

[George Neville-Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

A long pause but worth the return

I’d started this years ago and stopped a quarter way through. Not sure why I stopped but when I picked it up again I finished it in hours. A good read on many levels. I’m sure it’s better in the original Spanish but that would take so much longer. I guess many people might have issues with the Alien sex bits but they’re deeper than just lusty strange porn, they’re thought provoking in interesting and unexpected ways.

[Tate · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ending made this book work for me. I tend to prefer SF/F that's a little less cerebral and poetic, but this was short enough that I ended up really enjoying it for what it was.

[Booknerd Fraser · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with SuperExtraGrande, it's a bit of a ramble, with snarky asides. It's actually not as sexually explicit as one would assume, and there's a dose of satire. I think there's also a slap at the Cuban government's persecution of gays as well.

[Alice Kersting · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is way more fun than I anticipated! In a distant space dystopia where survival requires a reinvention of values and roles in many ways, this novella forces the reader to throw away any traditional lens or preconceived notion about the modern gender, feminism, sexuality, and the power of bodies in general. Definitely worth the read.

[Benny Putnam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good change of pace from the grand, epic sci fi that i’ve read in the past! It deals with really uncomfortable/taboo topics but i think it contextualized them within the story well, and the witty and irreverent tone somehow navigated those topics in a surprisingly mature and self-aware way, not promoting or sensationalizing them. the ending was funny and im glad it came full circle for Josué lol. A short and super entertaining read!

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, that was amusing and it had a hell of a payoff. There's a couple of weird sections where ideas and even exact words are repeated, but, this is an interesting world, concept, and tone and well worth the read.

[solo · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF on page 42. the tonal whiplash is what did it for me. the story of the childhood crush who was murdered and raped straight into the scene where he gets to have sex with her adult body through an alien species that he names after her. man what?

also a ton of telling and not showing. nothing but exposition happens for like 30 pages and then actual action is maybe 4-5 pages worth of reading. creative world/universe building but so much yap. It kind of flows in between exposition and what is currently happening so it is easy to get lost. you get all the names, species, and info at once. am i supposed to take notes for later? i was simultaneously interested and bored.
also if you're reading this for the erotica aspect, it doesn't deliver in that department either. scenes are very short and meh.

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. It looses half a star because I am not convinced an editor ever took a look at it. I found several wrong words (including a name) and one whole paragraph was duplicated.

Even so, this book was surprisingly not what I expected (which I adore). I was expecting a light hearted raunch fest filled with weird alien sex and tentacles, and to a certain extent the book does deliver that. What it really was instead was a poignant and triumphant redemption/save the galaxy story. It was also funny in an unexpectedly ironic way.

I admire a book that manages to surprise me, and this one did. Well done Yoss!

[Sean Kottke · Rating 2 out of 5]

An intriguing premise for a short story (or a story cycle), expanded into novel form, the label "undisciplined" wouldn't normally seem fitting for a novel that clocks in at just under 200 pages, but it's the one that came to mind most while reading this. I've loved Yoss' short story work, but this is the second longer form piece that didn't work for me. There's a ton of exposition, related in the free-wheeling, casual style of a person who lives in the world of the novel speaking to someone who also lives there. Since there's world-building across Yoss' fiction, I'd think that eventually there'd be a multiplicative effect, but for me it's been diminishing returns, and the sneaking feeling that I should have been taking notes from the beginning. The idea of a corps of space exploration specialists recruited from the ranks of the "sexually deviant" (by conservative society's definition) to engage in First Contact with species through sexual congress - creating a symbolic moment in which each species chooses not to regard the other as alien - is kinkily fascinating, and the Cold War allegory that extends throughout Yoss' work of Earth caught in the middle of other planes' grand narratives and ulterior motives is further developed. The overall shaggy execution, though, makes what should be a romp into a more tedious read.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's were several stops and starts before I got into this book, but I managed to get through and am overall pleased with having read it. This is a book I would have loved to have dissected in my undergraduate Gender and Sexuality in Sci-fi class. Though problematic in areas, I think it brings up some interesting questions about sexual and race politics that become even more interesting in the scope of a galactic community.

The novella(?) chronicles the adventures of Josué, a Contact Specialist, or rather sex ambassador (hence the slang term condomnaut), for intergalactic and interspecies trade deals between races. Josué "negotiates" with different aliens and reminisces about his childhood in the slums of Cuba following the mysterious Five Minute War (a war alluded to have occurred between China and the US that seems to have wiped both superpowers off the map.) The plot seems to drag a bit until the halfway point with the possibility of encountering a race for the first time from outside the Milky Way and dealing with a surprising turn, in my opinion, regarding the Qhigarians, the aliens who gifted the rest of the galaxy with hyperspeed travel and instituted the practice of contact specialists.

[Bouchra Rebiai · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little skeptical about this book because I was afraid it would be too weird, like the one I read just before this one, Earthlings by Sayaka Murata.

I liked the concept behind this book, where society seems to have changed so drastically, it's an almost 180-degree turn from society as we know it today. Contact Specialists, people who are employed by authorities to make "contact", or rather, "sleep with" aliens in order to seal trade deals, are the trendsetters.

It was a little hard for me to stomach this idea, but I've gotten pretty good at reading opinions that oppose mine, and even learning to "see" things from other people's perspectives, so I didn't stop reading. However, I did pace myself.

I found the universe this book was set in quite interesting, and I'd definitely read another book set in it. I particularly would like to get answers to the questions the main character had towards the end.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Earth has had a nuclear holocaust, and the population is reduced to less than one billion. They'd be in poor shape, but contact has been made with aliens, and humans are now a spacefaring race. First Contact protocols are already in place among the many species, and they include sex. There are many thousands of species, and Earth is working its way through meeting them.

Josue, a Contact Specialist, grew up dirt poor in a bad section of Havana, and has trauma and enemies from his childhood. He's small, not particularly buff or sexy, but he's good at sex with aliens (less so with humans, and men only). His greatest ambition, and that of every contact team of every species, is to be the first to encounter a species from another galaxy.

I really like Yoss's writing; this is the second book of his that I've read, and I will continue. It's hilarious in a snarky way, but is not just for laughs; it has an actual SF/space opera plot that moves along at a good pace and has a satisfying conclusion.

[Eneas Núñez · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars
Deuce Bigalow - Galatic Gigolo.
Would I have enjoyed this book more if I would've found it spanish? Definitely
Is it a fun book? Definitely
Could've been better? Abso-f**king-lutely

The main problem with the book is the separation of plot and worldbuilding. Yoss brings us into this unique galaxy where sex is the way species make first contact to a peaceful and fruitful relationship. If you would extract all the pages dedicated to worldbuilding, the novel would've been 50 pages long. I get falling in love with the world you create but the lack of a more complex plot makes it feel like a book that was born out of a night joking with friends.
I really liked the author though and I will definitely read more from him

[Virrvarr · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was pretty sure to begin with that this would not be to my tastes, and I was right. The concept is somewhat interesting; what of instead of fighting or talking, new contacts were made by fucking. By human men. Creatures that all somehow have vaginal structures. The headquarters of condomnauts is a dick. Wow.

I read this as an audiobook and Marco Guerrero's narration was great. However I am not very interested in dwelling in people's sexual trauma history, no matter how much they define the protagonist's life and choices, and consequently then those of entire humanity.

The world-building was interesting, and I would have liked to hear more of it. But I guess Jose's dick history was more relevant to the story at hand.

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fucking (pun entirely intended) fantastic.
In the far future, humanity has joined the galaxy's other space-faring races -- and been indoctrinated into a pattern of Contact (first or otherwise) that requires consensual sexual intercourse in the spirit of trade and mutual satisfaction. It's a silly idea but Yoss goes to town with it, pulling off a reveal that in retrospect I might've seen coming but that is a delightful ending nonetheless. The book could've benefited from a bit tighter editing, in my opinion, to trim up some of the middle section's expository bloat, but it's under 200 pages and it's a smart sci-fi novel so who really minds?

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the future we will meet and greet aliens by having sex with them, a very bizarre premise that feels like a retro 60s novel. The male human Josué Valdés is willing to have sex with anything except a non GMO human woman, so unlike 60s SF where silly sex novels only allowed for straight protagonists, this is much more varied. Also, unlike those old novels, this one is a bit tongue in cheek so it avoids that horrible trope that novels about sex must be serious. An interesting read and I think my first novel by a Cuban SF writer.

[Madeline Piper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m personally obsessed with this book. It’s very introspective and naughty in the wettest way.... I was always careful to hide it under my journal when I wasn’t reading it. It’s a slow build - Yoss doesn’t skimp in the introspective throughout style of inviting and building the world... erm Galaxy. I love it. If your looking for a book to break up the monotony of books ‘trying’ to be good (sorry writers you’re not the next Lee or Rowling) this is it. It’s fresh and refreshing and delightfully horny. A dream read.