Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Hall (Audrey Lane Stirs the Pot) makes an ambitious pivot from witty romance to epic space opera in this dazzling retelling of Moby Dick set in the gaseous miasma above Jupiter after humanity's exodus from Earth. The plot follows the original beat for beat as Captain A of the hunter-barque Pequod's obsession with the Mobius Beast puts his crew in danger, but almost every aspect of the world has been cleverly reimagined. The spermaceti from the Leviathan is a psychoactive cerebrospinal fluid, processed by the Olympus Extraction State to power everything in the solar system; the narrator's harpooner friend Q hails from Old Earth; captain A's replacement leg comes from the predatory Venusian pharma-state; and the narrator's relationships with both Q and A turn sexual. Hall's prose is mostly modern, but he retains some of Melville's grandiose lyricism and pays homage to his famous fact-filled tangents. The narrator, a schoolmistress turned monster hunter who opens by instructing readers to call her "whatever the fuck you like," provides detailed technical exposition about the spaceship's functions and the process of hunting the alien creatures called Leviathans, which she muses about as both biological creatures and mystical quasi-gods. Along the way, she serves up whole chapters of philosophical asides and jokes of dubious relevance. Most impressively, Hall captures a breathtaking sense of adventure throughout. This thrills. (Mar.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
In Hall's (Audrey Lane Stirs the Pot) first foray into science fiction, the only survivor of an ill-fated spaceship called the Pequod writes to honor the memory of her lost crewmates and the maniacal, charismatic captain she idolized. The narrator, who identifies herself only as "I," recounts the dire circumstances that led her to take work on a hunter ship traveling to the far reaches of space to harvest Behemoths, the gigantic alien creatures whose cerebral fluid is her society's main source of energy. The engaging first-person narrator struggles with suicidal ideation and dire financial circumstances. She is on the run from debt collectors in an all too plausible post-post-capitalist society dominated by obscenely wealthy planet-wide corporations and megachurches that preach the gospel of prosperity. Joining the crew of the Pequod is her last chance to overcome the crushing poverty and hopelessness in which she finds herself enmeshed, but she has no idea that in joining the crew she is also joining its captain's all-consuming quest for revenge against the legendary Mobius Beast. VERDICT Fans of Becky Chambers and Martha Wells and Herman Melville devotees will love this futuristic spin on Moby Dick in space.--Jessica Rigg
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Moby Dick, but make it queer SF. "Call me…call me whatever the fuck you like." This is the first line of Hall's latest, and you don't have to have a master's degree in American Lit to get the reference. Melville's magnum opus is one of those cultural artifacts that's embedded itself in the popular consciousness even if only in its most basic form. Hall, however, isn't messing around in their reimagining ofMoby Dick. In this rather long novel, the author is doggedly faithful to the original text--or as faithful as they can be given that this story is narrated by a queer woman, set in the distant future, and takes place in outer space. Like Melville's Ishmael, Hall's protagonist signs on with a ship called thePequod seeking escape from a conservative background. Unlike Melville's Ishmael, Hall's protagonist has sexual relationships that are textual rather than subtextual and also pretty hot. The worldbuilding is strong and--as is the case in the most resonant science fiction--disturbingly plausible. This story is set in a time long after Earth has been stripped of its resources. Humans have scattered throughout the solar system and reorganized into Extraction States and Pharma States. The Aphrodite Pharma State owns every part of the narrator's body that's been restored or replaced. The Olympus Extraction State owns thePequod and claims most of its crew's profits as they brave the storms of Jupiter in search of the massive creatures hunted for the cerebrospinal fluid that fuels human existence. Hall's breakout book wasBoyfriend Material (2020) and, since then, the author has published a number of wildly popular novels that range from contemporary romcom to romantasy. Readers who lovedMortal Follies (2023) orA Lady for a Duke (2022) may not find what they want from Hall here. That said, readers who appreciate a good old-fashioned space yarn will find a lot to like. An adventurous departure for a well-loved romance author. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
