A fairly short Science Fiction story that really reminded me of the original Star Trek series.

The characters were well developed.

The story moved along at a good pace with bodies being found at regular intervals.

A bit more back ground about the characters would have been good though.

A good quick read.

DNF
I tried to read this and lost interest. I ended up DNFing this novel; however, I do still want to try to finish reading it at some point in the future! I just don't think that now was the right time for me and this book.

[Initial reaction on twitter] Four Bodies In Space just used the phrase "her unfortunate heterosexual longings" and yep, that's it, that's the show.

(I THINK this is a Star Trek TOS pastiche, at least for the first half? It would explain why it appears to be f/f Kirk/Spock, and also the low-key Misogynists In SPAAAAAAACE.)

The original crew of the spaceship are described as "a series of downcast pale white boys with brown hair." I understand, this roasting may continue.

[Review on Lesbrary] Luna Harlow's <em>Four Bodies in Space</em> reads like a queer pastiche of Star Trek: The Original Series. Stop me if you've heard this one: our protagonist, Commander Solaris, is a very emotionally-restrained biracial scientist with psychometry and pointed ears on a ship run by a dramatic captain and the cult of personality he's gathered around himself. Their mission: escort diplomats of different species across the galaxy so they can make advantagous trade deals. Captain Jennifer Li is both brilliant and charismatic, and the person tasked with investigating when the guests and crew are murdered en route.

I'm not saying that this reads like someone's genderswap AU, but it does happen to ring some bells!

The world-setting reads like the a future extrapolated from the sixties as well, like highlighting that the crew is "a series of downcast pale white boys with brown hair" at the Captain's request, a man married to a woman twenty years younger than him (who flings herself at the protagonists...), or a secondary character asking whether Solaris is frigid or easy based on racial stereotypes, and yes I did have to read that with my own two eyes in this, the year 2020. I assume that the background misogyny has been carried over so it can be engaged with in future books, but it's not really dealt with here. On the flip side, I did enjoy the way that the references to bizarre events were brought up, because all of the "Oh, I remember this mirrorverse episode!" was worked into the story quite naturally, and treated as normal hazards of the job! I enjoyed that a lot. I <em>did</em> think that the writing of the initial section was a little stilted until the book switches to Jennifer Li's point of view and I realised that it was just Commander Solaris' narration. There's a beautiful level of deadpan snark in her descriptions, which works great with the tropes <em>Four Bodies in Space</em> is using. Like, at one point she describes the competent (female) second-in-command subsuming her life into the (male) captain's as "unfortunate heterosexual longings" and I was IMMEDIATELY sold. So there is a basis for my idea that these tropes are here on purpose!

The actual mystery plot is quite flimsy. There are some leaps of logic that were a little hard for me to follow, and some of the denouement doesn't hold together if you're reading it as a mystery. But if you're reading it as the lead-in to the inevitable partnership between Solaris and Li, it all works hangs together fairly well! I will say that some of that inevitability is <em>predictability</em> as well – the beats of how their relationship forms will not surprise you! But it's fun, and it's a solid set-up to a series, so I'll be keeping an eye out for future installments.

[Caution warning: sabotage, murder, racism against fictional races, misogyny] [This review is based on an ARC from Netgalley]

<em>Susan is a library assistant who uses her insider access to keep her shelves and to-read list permanently overflowing. She can usually be found as a contributing editor for Hugo-winning media blog Lady Business, or a reviewing for SFF Reviews and Smart Bitches Trashy Books. She brings the tweets and shouting on twitter.</em>

Tags: Susan, Luna Harlow, sf, mystery,

An interesting story, short but full of plot.
The main characters were interesting but I perhaps felt the lack of their development based on the length of the novel.

Good, solid opening to a series. We’ve seen it before, a cool, calm second in command (pointy ears anyone?) who’s got powers of psychometry and a smooth talking, blue blood captain about to take over a beautiful state of the art spaceship. The story feels a little choppy in the beginning as life falls apart on the original ship, off camera murders and political intrigue involving alien and humanoid species but the main characters are strong and the story quickly recovers. It’s a very short read (novella) and really just an intro to the different parties but there’s promise of a good tale to come. I hope the author doesn’t wait too long for the next installments. Btw, I’m a sucker for this kind of dialogue: "I believe you like card game metaphors," she said. "Let me inform you that you've played your best card in a losing hand."

Thanks to Net Galley for the opportunity to preview this book. A novella, actually, that has interesting characters, but the plot just stops. I would suggest it needs a stronger ending. Still worthwhile.

I'm usually not a big fan of novellas or short stories because I never feel quite satisfied when I read them but my love for space operas and mysteries outweighed by ambivalence when I requested this novella. I'm glad I did too. It was really good! The story is basically a murder mystery set aboard a spaceship that's transporting an ambassador and his wife and several other diplomats to another space station. There was a lot of material, and diverse characters, packed into 82 pages. I can honestly say I felt very satiated at the end and I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

I do want to note though that I came across quite a few grammatical errors in the copy I read. Hopefully these were ironed out in the final published book.

This is a good compact story, although I'm not a fan of leaving so many things hanging. Good mystery elements and good story telling.

I really appreciate the copy for review!!

Agatha Christy in Space

This book started full of a truckload of well-worn clichés, making it read like Agatha Christy in space. The first murder, particularly. The first two chapters were just cringe worthy with their typical set up. But, instead of the infamous Hercule Poirot appearing to analyse the scene, we have the Spock-like Solaris.

Luckily this character is partly what eventually made the book interesting. Once I got past all of the clichés bouncing from each wall, there was a reasonable story there waiting, with a handful of well-written characters, in between further clichés. It was enough for me to eventually ignore the continuing clichés, and not cringe too much at the ending, to actually enjoy the story.

Solaris is analytical, but has a curiosity that makes her occasionally dance across the line towards insubordination. Good job that others find her intriguing enough to let her misdemeanours pass, especially considering that she appears to lead them in the right direction towards solving the puzzle.

This Poirot-Star Trek cross is good fun, if you can cope with all the clichés (I hope my continued mention of clichés doesn’t turn into a cliché). There’s enough there that I’d definitely be happy to continue the series.

Final rating: ★★★★☆ – Really liked

*Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

I will read anything space, it's one of my most favourite genres, but unfortunately this one wasn't for me. This is a very short read with a lot happening in such a short time. I got lost in the beginning with all the different races and characters, I was having trouble remembering who was who. I'm not used to reading novellas, I need a lot of character and world building to fully immerse myself and enjoy a book. If this were a full length novel I may have felt differently but this book/series just isn't the right fit for me.

This was a pretty quick but really enjoyable read.    For a novella,this one racks up an impressive number of bodies as well as setting the stage for a continuing series.  There's a lot in it and with all that Harlow has to accomplish in 82 pages, some things are a bit superficial but she deftly moves the story along at a pretty brisk pace and seeds enough hints and inferences that hooks the reader in.  

There's definitely a Star Trek (original) feel to it which I particularly liked - fun and just a bit campy.  A science vessel is ferrying diplomats to a space station and during a reception, the lights go out and one of the ambassadors is murdered.  Things move forward at pretty breakneck speed with Commander Solaris unofficially investigating and applying her logic and reason to determine how, why and who while more bodies pile up.  I was a bit doubtful that with all the murder and mayhem, things wouldn't have been a bit more paranoid and chaotic on the ship - it's not like there was any doubt that the murder was among them - but what the hell.  I was enjoying it.  Once the ship docks at a space station, the investigation continues with the addition of newly promoted Captain Jennifer Li getting involved. Although the who, why, how are answered so you won't be throwing the book across the room, there are more questions than answers .  I fully expect that the events of Four Bodies in Space will be expanded in the larger series. In fact I'm looking forward to it.

Solaris definitely has the feel of a Spock-like character - logical, unemotional and separated from the rest of the crew due to her alien ancestry.   Harlow has added a bit more to the reserved science officer - hinting at a complicated past and  redacted personnel record as well as some interesting psychometric abilities.   I rather enjoyed her as the main character and look forward to how Harlow will start peeling back the layers as the series progresses.  We don't get as much of Li in this book as she isn't introduced until halfway through the story, but you can tell that she'll be a perfect foil for Solaris and she has her own mysterious backstory.

My only quibble with this one is the run on sentences and naming convention for the ships.  They were a bit odd and off-putting at first, but I got dragged into the story pretty fast, so either I got used to them or the sentence structure improved.

Four Bodies in Space is book one of the New Voyages series and I'm definitely looking forward to reading the next installment to see where Harlow's taking us next.  

Thank you to Netgalley for an advance copy for review.

This Story is a super short, super fast read!
It is more of a novella than a book IMHO.
The story centers on a psychically gifted alien character named Solaris.
Solaris is a science officer on an older, but elegant ship.
They are transporting members of another species than ar unable to communicate verbally, and mayhem ensues (no spoilers).

Solaris herself was well-written, as was maybe one or 2 other characters, however there were a lot of characters, and many of them were not well developed given the brevity of the book. Many also had very generic names like Richards and Johnson, and it was hard for me to distinguish them, and remember who was who.

I also felt that for a book about space and being in space there was very little descriptive language about the beauty of space, the starts, the darkness, the velvet deep, etc. Not enough attention was given to the backstory of the main character for me, sometimes we hear about the beauty of the home world, etc., but not here.

So I think there is room to round this out more, and make it a better book, but maybe that is planned for future volumes, as this is marked Volume 1.
I did like how quickly the action moved, and how decisive some of the characters were.
Thanks to NetGalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.

Diverting scifi mystery novella!

Content warnings include: murder, violence, xenophobia, unconsensual kissing, mentions of: past war, PTSD, physical therapy, death of a parent.

I enjoyed this short read.
The characters were interesting and the murder mystery kept things exciting, and there were just enough aliens to satisfy me, even if I wish they had played more important roles. The plot is entirely focussed on said murder mystery with a hint of politics. There is no romantic subplot, though Captain Li is very openly queer, while Commander Solaris doesn't seem to have any interest in... well, any sort of interaction, really.

The worldbuilding was sufficient for the story, but there could have been more, especially since it was clear there were much more things going on in the background. A lot of politics and past events both on a personal and grander scale were hinted at but not further elaborated.

I especially enjoyed reading from Commander Solaris's POV. She is not human, but mostly humaoid, though I couldn't tell which parts of her were due to her being alien and which were a personal trait. She is psychometric, meaning she can see an object's past or person's memory through touch. She also reads like she could be on the autism spectrum.

Overall this had the feeling of an introduction to the setting and the characters, specifically how the two protagonists, Commander Solaris and Captain Li, meet and end up working together.

I'm looking forward to seeing more of these two, and I hope the next in the series will answer some of the questions I had!

Four Dead Bodies is an exciting start to a new series with nearly limitless potential. It is a murder mystery in space but that is just the tip of the ice berg. It has a very Star Trek feel which I am super excited about. I fell in love with Commander Solaris almost imediately, her analytical thinking and staightforward way of interacting with other characters was superb. Captain Jennifer is kind and dedicated and I can't wait to see more of her in the stories to come. The romance was minimal and I hope to see more of that in the next installment. I feel the cover is a little misleading and does not do justice to the awesome story I read. I loved the characters and world building so much and was so pleased with this story. Harlow has opened up a fasinating new universe and I can't wait to explore more of it.

A murder mystery in space with an aloof but intriguing MC who snaps out zingers with surgical accuracy? And *get this* is either ace or the demi-est demi who ever lived? Sign me up!

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this Australian author. Her other works fall more on the paranormal spectrum and feature MF and MM relationships, but I was hooked from the start! I really think this author needs more exposure.

This novella is set in space, first on a ship and then on a hotel-like station but the focus is on the characters and their actions as the murder investigation unfolds. The story is light on the technical side, which is fine given the length. We get glimpses into the history leading up to the murders, which are targeting a squidlike race that have bad history with humans. There is no infodumping and each piece of the puzzle emerges in a natural way, woven into the dialogue and storyline along with tantalizing tidbits of information about the MC herself.

And this is what sold me on this story and left me howling a Darth Vader-like NoooOOoo!! when I realized this is not a full-length novel (but it is listed as the first in a series so I do have, dare I say it: a new hope?).

Solaris absolutely stole my breath. She is tall, dark, and mysterious. She is not human and the story is mostly told from her POV. The author perfectly captures her quirky, emotionless voice in a way that is uniquely inhuman but at the same time immensely appealing. We don’t find out what she looks like until partway into the story and I have to admit I made up a picture of her in my mind that was surprisingly not far off. She has a mental ability where she touches something or someone and she can mentally download a history of that object or person which, as you might imagine, makes her hesitant to casually interact with people.

There are only hints that Solaris is attracted to women, and no romance is present in this installment, however the appearance of a certain unashamedly woman-loving Captain Jennifer Li foreshadows good things for us WLW crowd.

I really enjoyed this first installment and I hope there are more to come!

Rating: 4.5 stars