Summary
Scorpia Kaiser has always stood in Corvus’s shadow until the day her older brother abandons their family to participate in a profitless war. However, becoming the heir to her mother’s smuggling operation is not an easy transition for the always rebellious, usually reckless, and occasionally drunk pilot of the Fortuna, an aging cargo ship and the only home Scorpia has ever known.
But when a deal turns deadly and Corvus returns from the war, Scorpia’s plans to take over the family business are interrupted, and the Kaiser siblings are forced to make a choice: take responsibility for their family’s involvement in a devastating massacre or lay low and hope it blows over.
Too bad Scorpia was never any good at staying out of a fight.
My thoughts
Well, this book is quite a mind-fuck, and of a variety I hadn’t read before.
Fortuna doesn’t have much of an overly exciting plot, not in the first half anyway, and thus heavily relies on its characters. If you don’t click with them, you won’t be having much fun with this book. And here is where the mind fuckery starts. The two main characters are “unlikeable characters” at their finest, calling them anti-heroes the understatement of the year. AND YET I couldn’t help but have all the feels for them, with them, because of them. It was mind boggling to feel sad and/or pissed for them when something bad happened to them but at the same time knowing full well that they kind of deserve it? I can’t remember ever having such mixed feelings about the POV characters of any book which was only made more intense by the great character development.
This book is peak disaster and tragedy siblings and I loved it. Add a mom to the mix who is anything but a caring parent and you’ve got the formula for a fucked up family right there. These siblings will do everything and anything for each other, hell, kill the whole universe if that’s what it takes, but at the same time have really messed up relationships and could need a few sessions of group therapy. While I love my found family on space ships stories, it was refreshing to read about an “actual” family, people related by blood, especially when such a disaster family such as this one.
As for the plot: as I said, there isn’t overly much happening in the first half (which didn’t bother me, personally) but once it gets going, it’s one hell of a ride. There is this one moment when shit hits the fan and from then onwards it’s quite action packed and I always love me good battle in space/on a spaceship (especially when disaster bisexuals are involved).
Smuggling, family drama, disaster bisexuals,… there’s lots to love in Fortuna and I had more than a little bit of fun reading it. Already speculating about some hints dropped during the end, I’m hella excited about the sequel for sure.
