Book Review: The Vacuum of Space, Space Janitor Book 1, Julia Huni
Science Fiction: The Vacuum of Space, Space Janitor Book 1, Julia Huni
We can be honest here. The world is kind of depressing these days. There is not a lot of good news out there, and for many of us that has impacted our reading. It’s hard to find the head space for a thoughtful book, a challenging mystery, anything non-fiction. We keep getting pulled back into the real world: working from home or risking infection as “essential employees,” caring for children, worrying about other family members. Reading is just not as easy for us as it was a few weeks ago.
When I first heard about the Space Janitor series, I wasn’t sure what to think. It is billed as a “Funny Sci-Fi Mystery.” I have read a few funny sci-fi books, a few sci-fi mystery books, but one that checks all three boxes? So I downloaded a sample to my Kindle app.
You know, there’s a reason they let you download samples. I got hooked. Hard. I ended up inhaling the first book, and am eager to move on to the rest of the series.
Triana Moore is a janitor on a space station. Her job is to monitor the robots that do the actual cleaning. When one of those robots finds a dead body, Moore gets pulled into a mystery that may reach up to the highest levels of the station, both figuratively and literally. She is drafted by a station security officer to aid in his investigation. How she navigates finding the killer, handling her emotions around the very shiny investigator, and dealing with her mother keep Triana quite occupied throughout the book. Not so occupied, though, that she can’t wryly comment on the action and her emotions as they occur. And not so occupied that she can’t eat any and all chocolate or pastries that come within her grasp.
I do not think this book (or likely its sequels) will win any of the big sci-fi awards. I don’t care. This was just the escape I needed during this time of life. Rather than facing the (bad) news of the day, I desperately needed to read about a young woman addicted to “Ancient TeVe” space shows and trying to avoid her mother at all costs.
Author Julia Huni gets bonus points for the constant references to pop culture space shows. I can’t pretend I caught all of them, and at the end when Triana explains one of them I actually did a face-palm. Fans of the show “Firefly” will recognize the use of the word “shiny.” Several other shows also get a nod in the book. I won’t spoil the fun of finding them, but there are a lot of them, some direct and obvious, others less so.
Triana Moore is a witty and fun protagonist. She is smart, resourceful, and awfully funny. Her sidebars about love and relationships and food and her friends and so many other things are delightful. The plot is decent, but the adventure is really just letting Triana be Triana. For total escapism and a chance to leave the world outside for a while, this space janitor cleans up.
Book Review: The Vacuum of Space, Space Janitor Book 1, Julia Huni