Hard Reboot

by Django Wexler

[Quirky Cat]

Django Wexler's latest novella, Hard Reboot, is without a doubt my favorite one to date. It's the perfect balance of thrilling, science fiction, giant mechas, and LGBT goodness that I was hoping for.

Scholar Zychtykas Three, aka Kas, sacrificed nearly everything to get a chance to head to old Earth with her academy's research team. Unfortunately for Kas, things didn't go exactly as planned. Fortunately for Kas, things didn't go exactly as planned.

Within hours of landing on old Earth, Kas was bombarded with the toxic ads that eat the best anti-spyware for a snack. It took almost the same amount of time for Kas to come across a con artist, one who flipped her world upside down.

"So she'd thought, anyway. Now she was actually here an all she wanted to do was go home and stick her jacks in a vat of bleach forever."

Man, I have been craving a novel (or novella) that had a solid mecha plot. Thankfully, Hard Reboot was here to deliver. Granted, the mechas weren't always the primary focus for this novella, as Kas and Zhi were kept pretty busy just trying to stay alive half the time.

Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me go back a bit. Hard Reboot is a novella split into two perspectives. First, there's Kas. She's a capable researcher, one who was hoping to find her big break on old Earth.

Then there's Zhi; she's been trapped on old Earth her whole life. It isn't as much fun as it might sound, as the living conditions have been bad enough to force most people off-planet at this point (those that can afford it, at any rate).

Naturally, when these two characters meet up, chaos ensues. I adored their adventure, as well as their budding romance. It was laced with humor and danger in equal portions, which made it perfect in my book.

I love how different both leading characters were and yet how much they made sense in the context of each other. That might just be my bias speaking, though, as I enjoyed the chaos that came from the two of them.

Thanks to Tor.com and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Check out more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks