Friday, October 29, 2021

"Wake Up The Dawn" by Kate Karyus Quinn

Kindle Vella cover for "Wake Up The Dawn" by Kate Karyus Quinn

Current Tags

spaceopera, fairytaleretelling, sleepingbeauty, enemiestolovers, foundfamily, sisters, fantasy

Categories

Science Fiction / Romance

Affiliate Link


Author's Description

An epic fairy tale inspired space opera about Raura, a girl who is determined to save her kidnapped sister - even if she must cross the galaxy to do so. Helping her are an eccentric young genius named Taft, and Axim, a Mechanical man known as Mecha, who begins as an enemy, but soon becomes someone Raura finds herself increasingly attracted to as a man. But she can't rescue her sister if she loses her heart to a man who doesn't have one - or can she?

Why I Chose it

This starts out with space-dwelling Raura and her family on a pilgrimage to a planet. Not the fabled lush planets of lore, but an aged and cracking dome on a planet in the middle of nowhere.

The story does a good job of subverting expectations (because yes, in this story, living on a ship seems like a much better idea). Also, the reactions of the main character are spot-on: there's an acceptance of the pilgrimage as something one just does, but she's also thinking that if she wants to find a guy not on one of the ships they travel with, now is the time. Plus, she clearly loves her little brother but she's responsible for him which is kind of a pain. And oh yeah, she and her sister are telepaths, something that will ruin their family if word gets out.

Basically some great character and world building.

[4 episodes so far, with 4 updates in the last 30 days.]

Who Might Like This

Looking for unconventional space opera with a side order of romance? This could be your thing!

Unrelated Griping

This is more of an observance than a gripe, but I've found that any story that doesn't have any thumbs-ups at all usually deserves that.  I feel bad for the authors, but... I'm not giving a pity thumbs-up that someone else might take as a sign that the episode is readable.

On the other side, people are definitely gaming the system, so a bunch of thumbs-ups aren't necessarily a good sign either.

Update: My new story (published three days ago) still isn't showing up in the "Recently Added Stories" section. I would think it was the content -- it's definitely 18+ -- but there are other stories showing up there that should have had similar flags. I'm seeing stories published after mine showing up. So who knows?

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Who am I?  Hi! I'm SF/F author T.M. Baumgartner. I also publish cozy mysteries as Tess Baytree. People who know me in real life call me ...