Space Junk

Space Junk #1

by Andrew Bixler

The debut novel from author Andrew Bixler, Space Junk is a sprawling sci-fi adventure full of space, scrap, and videotapes. If you're a fan of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Cowboy Bebop, or Heavy Metal, Space Junk might be just the book you've been waiting for. Then again, what the fish do I know?

Adam Jones is just another broke scrapper combing his little slice of space for the semi-valuable trash that litters its dark corners. He spends most of his days inside his junker, the Asteroid Jones II, drinking beer, watching ancient horror movies, and evading debt collectors. But life for Adam gets a lot more complicated when he discovers a mysterious object that attracts the attention of powerful and bumbling forces from around the universe. With the help of his wily grandfather and a mysterious feline stranger, Adam risks life and love in pursuit of financial freedom, even as the rest of the universe threatens to reduce him to space dust.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

458 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 23, 2019

About the author

Andrew Bixler hails from the same hometown as The Beav. He writes fiction, hundred proof, takes your roots out. He is also co-host of Big Orange Couch: The 90s Nickelodeon Podcast.

Reviews

[Beverly Fuqua · Rating 1 out of 5]

Opening line of dialogue: “Oh sure, ther’s been wars that stretch’t on fer hunerts a years, ‘cross multiple galaxies,” Spez sneers. “Chit, Ponce Ra-leigh hisself fought in bigger wars ‘an this.”

Nope, uh-uh, not going any farther than that.

[Jessi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kinda wish I could give it a 3.5, but I'll round it up to a 4 because it was actually pretty good overall. Easy to read and made me legit laugh out loud a few times. Some reviews are talking about how they couldn't get past the first chapter because of the way the characters talk, but I was fine with it cause I'm from the south and it was just reading in a Southern accent for me LOL! I just love the idea of aliens having a Southern accent. The cover art is also sick af. Overall a fun read!

[Kiah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining enough

Overall it was entertaining if a bit pointless. If the author had cut out all the instances of characters either talking about, getting, opening, drinking, or finishing a beer the book would have been shorter by half.

[Will H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I enjoyed the book. The story overall felt complete by the end (clearly there is more to the saga) . I believe the author does a great job of tying up loose ends of every character you meet and they don't feel wasted or filler as each has some purpose.

Each chapter is broken up into scenes that are easy to follow which provide a perspective of multiple sets of characters that will occasionally overlap. At times those chapters will repeat dialogue as the author provides insight into what the alternate character in that moment was thinking but continues a continued progression.

For some the first chapter is going to probably dissuade folks. I would recommend approaching the initial chapter with a mindset that you are being introduced to the world through the eyes of backspace individuals. The slang can make it difficult to follow but it will click.
These specific characters did give me a laugh as I started thinking of their perspective as watching an episode of Mystery Science Theater.

There are some elements that I did not specifically care for.
While there is world building you do get thrown into an existing world with little to no context of its time or space. Occasionally I was left wondering what the what when ships or characters were described which I let go of as that time/space is made more clear later in the book. However at times I questioned if this was a reality or just following characters within a game world.

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review:
“Space Junk” is a fun, exciting read for any Sci-Fi adventurer. The story is full of quirky characters, a crazy mixed up story, and meaning of life kind of stuff. What else could you ask for? The story begins with two rival empires fighting to their mutual destruction. The debris they leave is fodder for space scavengers. The more junk you haul the better chances a getting something of value. It is a competitive world, one in which Adam Jones is struggling. Story is that there is very valuable box, aka, black gold, among the debris. The military wants it, bad guys want it and a bunch of high schoolers want the adventure. Needless to say Adam Jones wants it badly. It would solve all his debt problems and set him up for the rest of his life. That is if he lives through what going to happen. If you are looking for a break from the crazy stuff happening around us read this book. It will take you to another place and time and remind us that what we have isn’t so bad after all.

[Garry Whitmore · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the time I've been inputting reviews into Goodreads this is only the 5th book I've given up on reading. For me, this book just got more and more difficult to continue with the longer I read. It's meant to be humorous, but the humour escapes me. I found little to like or empathise within its characters. The setup and situations just seemed old hat to me. There just wasn't anything within it to grab my attention and pull me in.

I must stress this is just a personal assessment I fully appreciate the time and effort that goes into writing especially novels. So all power to the author. Clearly looking at other reviews many have found this a humourous enjoyable romp, alas I did not. Therefore my advice is, if it appeals give it a go.

[Barcie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readers will either love this farce featuring the madcap adventures of a ragtag team of space junkers, or they will hate it. It's actually well-written and quite clever at times, but is also extremely kooky (Glorp Burgers made with clone-meat patties; a .oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo23 buttcoin fee to park your spacecraft; lots of zany aliens, everything from a snotty-nosed pink dude to a 6-armed gila-man; crazy lingo: "Fish and chit!" Adam yells. "Chit, man. How the fish did they find me out here?"). Other reviewers have compared "Space Junk" to Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" or Mel Brooks' "Spaceballs," and I'd have to agree. It's likely best appreciated if read when high.

[Hikes in Rain · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway, for which I am very grateful. The following is my unsolicited, unbiased review.

What a fun read! Crazy, insane, and totally nuts. Odd, unusual and occasionally unbelievable characters, who are hard to keep up with, since we're mostly sane. It's a fascinating mashup of all the crazy stuff we read earlier: Hitchhiker's Guide and others. Totally unbelievable, so suspend all belief and just have some fun.

There are a few typos and misused words, but it was easy enough to bypass them. Honestly, this was the most entertaining book I've read in a long time.

[Nick Durazo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is some good chit

Gotta be honest, I'm not much of a reader, but after hearing about this on the Big Orange Couch podcast I figured I could at least support an indie author who brought me so much joy on the podcast. What I didn't expect was to truly enjoy this novel! All the characters were fleshed out well which made it easier to make it like a movie in my head. The plot had plenty of twists and turns and never got boring. There's plenty of humor and pop cultural references sprinkled in which - as someone around the same age as the author - provided some nice Easter eggs. Glad I took the leap of faith on this one and can't wait to read More Space Junk!

[Hugo S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Space comedy!

This book read like something written for a Mel Brooks parody to a space saga, where there is a scene during an all out battle and a soldier who just died gets to heaven or a version of the afterlife and relieved to have made it and is sent right back to the place where he just came from, anyway, there is plenty of action and funny stuff in this story to last me for a while that I'm ready to resume reading more serious stuff but this was a nice distraction, 5 stars for a good independent comic effort.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good read! I am not always able to follow fantasy world-building that well, which I thought initially could be a problem, but I was glad to find I had no problem at all keeping up with this universe and its characters. Another good sign: I had a busy week I took off from reading and found myself thinking multiple times throughout it that I wanted to get back to this book. For me, it spoke to a familiar sense of driftlessness life can sometimes take on, but with optimism, and offered frequent laughs out loud. Look forward to continuing the series!

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you liked The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, then you'll probably like this.
It was a bit more crazy, weird than THGTTG. It did have a couple off-putting points; in my opinion, too much beer. Also, I had to skip any parts with Spez and Tobi; their conversations were so incomprehensible that it killed the flow of the story.
Great ending though. I'm interested to see where book 2 goes.
Also hoping for more Pants Team Pink, lol!

[Aaron Wright · Rating 1 out of 5]

I won a free copy from a goodreads giveaway. I'm sorry I did.

Maybe someone would enjoy this book, but that person was not me.

I, admittedly, did not get far into it - I found the author's decision to write the space trucker dialogue in a caricature of a southern accent to be so off-putting and the characters to be so flat that I had no real interest by the time I got 10-15 minutes in.

[Laney Mitchell · Rating 2 out of 5]

As one who watched the majority of The Simpsons episodes on their original air days, I did enjoy the references prevalent in the first half. Alas, that was mild amusement amid a muddy plot and little payoff or resolution. I know there's a sequel, but I am 8 sure if I will bother to slog through it.

[Robert Megill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slow, some of the characters “voices” are annoying and playing off of stereotypes. Does not feel like the description of Hitchhikers Guide and whatever else it mentioned, unless those were slowed down greatly with molasses. Pointless scenes/parts.

Had high expectations with the description than just crashed down into a junk planet.

[Jenna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was very nearly a DNF but I DNF'd my last read and I didn't want to quit 2 books in a row so powered through the last 25%. Liked the character of Adam and the world building was fun but really didn't like Team Pants Pink and it kept going back to them and there was a lot of repeating the same scene from a different POV which didn't really work for this book.

[B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weird and fun

This story was a trip. It was so goofy, but it didn’t quite reach Hitchhikers Guide level insanity, which was perfect. I had a lot of laughs and went to buy some beer. Loved it.

[Richard Lang · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh...

Can't say much about this - except that it was over hyped. If there was intended humor it didn't register; the characters were two dimensional and I couldn't find a scrap of plot.

[Ken Finlay · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Space Junk" is a treasure hunt featuring redneck truckers in spaceships.
It relentlessly tries to be funny and fails most of the time.
It attempts to be chaotic but isn't.
It's a bit like a bad film that, watched while drunk enough, seems hilarious.
I was sober reading it and pulled the plug 13 chapters in (thankfully they are short chapters).
1.5 Stars, reduced to 1 Star.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to follow and nothing actually happens in the end. I was optimistic at the beginning but by the end I was just glad to be done with it. I won't be continuing with the series after this one, it's just not for me.

[Everett Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining

Fun to read! Never can tell what will happen next. Forget logic, just a fun book to read. Still don’t know . . . You need to read the story to . . . Whatever

[Jim Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's ok

I read this about ten books ago and remember nothing about it. But I did finish it, stories I don't like I don't finish.

[Roly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just breezed thru this book. Onto the sequel now. I loved this book. Had a feel akin to watching anime or reading Manga. A lot of folks complained about Spez and Tobi at the beginning but if you watch anime you’ll understand the vibes of their comedy laden throughout a somewhat serious adventure. Love the comedy, I love how the scrappers collect VHS tapes and all sorts of 80’s/90’s memorabilia as if it were a rare Pokémon the nostalgia is endless.

Pants Team Pink kicks ass! Adam, Daizy, Silas. Those little weird blobs from the afterlife akin to the ones in Pixar’s “soul”.

Love the pacing etc, my only gripe might be revisiting certain events from different perspectives back to back to back. But I get it. It’s a tv show layout with layers, versus a movie which tends to be more linear due to less time on screen. But I digress, it’s like the summary said on the page advertisement I saw, if you love Cowboy Bebop, Han Solo etc. then this is the book for you.

[Zane Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great cover art and an enjoyable read!

[Marc Hilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book for all age groups who like strange, familiar and colorful characters somewhere in space.

[Melody]

DNF at 5%

[Taylor kemp · Rating 4 out of 5]

A goofy, light-hearted space adventure. Made me laugh a few times. Excited to read the sequels!

[Charity · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5