Space Opera Fans discussion

The June 2021 Limited Pick is Striving for the stars by Taniko K Williams. Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

Official description:
Striving for the stars is a trope-tastic, coming of age space opera, for young adults and the young at heart.

Aristeia has always dreamed of one day leaving the desolate planet she calls home. The daughter of a recycling centre engineer. She spends her days salvaging in the scrap yards, hoping to save enough credits to fund a move to a more populated planet.

After uncovering an old flight simulator among the scrap, Aristeia finds herself with a new goal. To become a pilot and claim the stars for her own.

When her estranged mother, an admiral in the United Astrum Federations space fleet, presents her with the opportunity to achieve the one thing she wants most. Aristeia jumps at the chance to take the entrance exams for the fleet's most elite academy. Only if she passes her exams and basic training can she hope to join the pilot training program and one day reach the stars.

I got super excited about this book and started early! I loved it

I just finished this book and really enjoyed it. Although, as the first installment of a series it didn't have much "action", it kept me thoroughly engaged from beginning to end. Here is my review.

I had been on something of a space opera slump. Nothing in the genre that I started or looked at got me excited ... for months now. Then I read this book and enjoyed it so much that I was hungry for more. I ordered the next in this series but it doesn't come out until January, so I started reading Mutineer which has been on my Maybe list for years. I'm not enjoying that as much as I liked Striving for the stars, but hopefully it will get me back into the genre.

Aristea reminded me somewhat of Theo Waitley in Fledgling, though of course a little older. But she has something of the same confident personality, while still being vulnerable.

I enjoyed the story! Good characters! It kind of reminded me of Lowell's Solar Clipper series with the day to day interaction.