I am thankful to netGalley for letting me e-ARc of the house of styx. OMG it was a wonderful read. I so so loved it. I don't read a lot of sci-fic but this one was exceptional. I was totally hooked. It was so different and unique. I kept thinking: wow the author is so genius.
It involves science (chemistry, Physics and Biology), mathematics, arts (a different kind of arts but still, arts). I totally loved the chemistry related stuff as chemistry is my subject. The house of styx is full of knowledge and wisdom.
Quotes:
'Family comes first....
...A rage didn't tower. A loss cast no shadows. A heart couldn't ache.
The quotes from the book made me ponder many things.
It wasn't just based on imaginary things. It showed flaws in humans in a precise way. Each character had her/his own part in the story. The book clearly portrayed that everyone struggles with different aspects of life which happens in real life as well.
The politics was so scary (atleast to me). I was so so nervous and scared the whole time. Taking advantage of others, the selfish nature of humans, the compromises, the hypocrisy, the sacrifices etc, everything was there in the book.
I was so so annoyed with Noelle, Theresse and Emile but I think I understood Emile a bit later in the novel. My heart broke for Marthe. Marthe is my favorite. Pa's sacrifices for his family made me shed tears. Pascal and Pascale's struggle (OMG it was full of emotions).
the cliffhanger in the end....I want to know what happens next.
The books is a rollercoaster of emotions, get ready and buckle your seatbelt. Highly recommended.

The House of Styx promises to be a lush, action-packed science fiction novel about humanity colonizing the planet Venus and their struggle to survive, farming oxygen and other essential nutrients that they need to simply exist. Venus is difficult, to say the very least, and la colonie exists in the clouds, where everything is rationed and controlled to make life as easy as possible in an impossible place. But when the D'Aquillon family is told to abort their child with Downs or lose medical support for their entire family, they leave as a unit and live in the lower levels of the atmosphere where it's even more difficult to survive.

And the world-building of The House of Styx is definitely what it claims to be. Every detail of the world is fleshed out and considered and described, to the point where the world and the planet seems like its own specific, individual character. So much attention to detail went into the description of life on Venus, its struggles, its class system, its infrastructure. This is definitely the author's biggest strength.

Unfortunately, for me, it came through as the book's biggest weakness as well. While the world and the atmosphere were lushly described and so much detail was paid to them, the characters didn't get the same treatment, and I found myself struggling to feel anything for any of them even though I really wanted to. This novel promises disability representation and trans representation, and both of those made me excited to read this book. Unfortunately, by the time I got that far, I felt almost too bogged down by the world description and just didn't feel connected to any of the characters.

The first 25% or so of the book was a chore to get through and it's likely that if I had been reading this as a library book or something I'd picked up at the bookstore, I would have put it back down. I know some readers are used to having to wait before they can really sink into a story, but I also know that a lot of readers will try the first 100 pages or the first couple of chapters to see if a book is their style or not. The first quarter of this book almost feels like an entirely different book, so it feels necessary to put a "stick it out" warning on this review.

Thank you the publisher and to NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately I don't think this book was for me. I don't often read science fiction but if i particularly like the sound of a premise, I will try it. This time, it didn't work out for me.

I want to start off by saying I loved the setting and every aspect of the world building. It was a struggle to follow the setting and the details for the first few chapters but as time goes on and the science behind everything is fully explained, it feels a lot more plausible and organic.

However I feel there was too much focus on the personal quirks of various characters, some of which was rather over the top, and got in the way of the story at times. Because of this, rather than a solid sci-fi it seemed more like a soap opera set in Venus.

I also didn't realise this was the first in a series. I wasn't entirely happy with the conclusion of the story, this may be different if I'd known from the start that it was going to be part of a series. But at the same time I don't feel interested or motivated enough to read the next book.

Nonetheless, Derek Kunsken's writing was always clear and had a certain poetry to it that I really liked. I think if I was to read this again, going into it with a different mindset, I might enjoy it a lot more.

Overall, I would rate this book 2/5 stars.

This is not my kind of book. Good Science Fiction books are deeply rooted in Science and amplify it via fiction. Now this book is a very creative story on planet Venus, but the world it describes is hard to follow. All the French names and nouns make the book feel translated from French, and the translation may has not been optimal and needs a lot of editing. I read German and English, but pretty much avoid any translated works of fiction. The books seems not only foreign as far as the place of the action, it also feels foreign in the words, names and descriptions. As if the author did not have sufficient vocabulary in English.

Sorry.

The House of Styx is the first novel in a new series. A science fiction novel which explores the hard perilous lives of the colonists of Venus. French-Canadian settlers live not on the inhospitable surface of the planet, but in floating habitats in the middle and upper atmosphere. The D'Aquillon family are the main protagonists, scratching out a dangerous living., without even the recourse to medical support from the colony. Farming the plants floating in the atmosphere and scavenging materials from the surface. It's an extended family, with young engineer Pascal being my favourite character.

Skilled world building, well plotted storyline and great characterisation. I particularly liked the description of the living habitats, floating plants and the challenges of the hostile environment. There's political intrigue, family dynamics, and interesting characters including a man with Down Syndrome, whose continued existence is the reason the rest of his family don't have access to medical resources.. There is a sensitive exploration of gender, sexuality, disability, mental health and drug use.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of this series when it's published! Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC copy of this book.

I first want to say thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book. The House of Styx is my first introduction to Derek Künsken, and it certainly won’t be the last time I read him.

As a biochemist, immunologist and educator, this book just flowed through my mind with such ease wanting to be taken in to this world. The first thing that grabbed me about the book was how effortless his descriptive prose was. Künsken describes the environment of Venus so well it just keep pulling me in. I was not bothered by the intermittent "French" words as some may have. Having the knowledge of "French" allowed me to flow through this book with ease. The book felt so real that I could really believe this type of thing might not be far away.

What really makes this novel shine are the characters. The loss the D’Aquillion’s have experienced in their time on Venus is palpable to a reader as does the ruthless environment they work to domesticate. Künsken does a brilliant job. I almost cried a few times reading this story, and the massive cliff-hanger, I was so shocked and had to check that I had not missed something to the book.

I highly recommend this to SF fans and those who maybe teetering on the edge of SF. I cannot wait to see what happen as the secret the D’Aquillion’s have found is probed even further.

There's parts of this book that I really adored. I thought it had some fascinating ideas that it propounded to do with the setting, and the world-building was marvellous in parts, but it got perhaps too bogged down in the creation and not so much in the characters and their drive. The characterisation was lacking severely, and while there were some touching moments (especially between siblings), they didn't connect with the rest of the story. It felt like this was trying to broach into the epic annals of Dune whilst balancing being a family saga- I just don't think it struck that balance quite as well as it could've.

I do have to give props to the author for some fairly solid queer representation throughout the book, and the exploration of trans identity was pretty good too. It's not a representation that we get to see very often, and so it was really nice to see a book that went into that. I did feel like the French was a little shoehorned in, and it didn't really fit the rest of the book particularly well. I feel like there was a wonderful opportunity to take it a bit further- and there was such a sad disconnect there. I can understand that there was a point to be made regarding the lack of termination of the child with Down's Syndrome as well- but it felt a little clunky in its making and the meaning got a bit ambiguous.

More than anything, I just hoped for a bit more from this, and I didn't get it. It was a disappointing state of affairs, and there were just so many missed opportunities in this book that I wish the author had taken.

The idea of humans colonizing Venus is an intriguing one, and the author has done a fantastic job in imagining just how arduous it would be.

The story follows the D'Aquillon family, relegated to living below the clouds, eking out a living by using trawlers to harvest materials from the atmosphere, which they sell on the black market. The family lives in a harsh environment, and has suffered tragic losses, and each has a burden to bear.

There are some incredible scenes that are wonderfully described - you can feel the claustrophobia of the bathyscaphe as it descends to the planet's surface amid the rising temperatures and increasing pressure; the exhilaration of flying in a winged suit high above the clouds, when Pascal sees the sun for the first time; the pain and fear as acid rain drips through a torn suit, where every second counts.

The story builds up, layer by layer, and you soon find yourself invested in the characters and their fates. Broken and flawed, struggling to find their way however they can, I loved the character development throughout the book.

A great start to a the series, I look forward to reading the next book. Highly recommend. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

The House of Styx.
Where do I begin?! This book blew me away. The writing was beautiful, the characters amazing and oh Venus!
It's a science-fiction work of art based on colonizing Venus and the enormous trials that come with that, but also the strength found in unexpected times and what it means and takes to be a family.
I cannot recommend this book enough

Really great book. Get a copy. Now.

I've read several works from Kunsken and I think this is my favorite. The characters are just so unique and dynamic. Each one is something else. No one is a duplicate of another. And the heart-wrenching twist at the end still has me feeling emotions days after I finished reading the book.

The Good: Characterization, plot development, science fiction elements. The plot flowed very well from start to finish yet kept me guessing about how it would end, even if I figured parts of it out. The sci-fi elements were amazing. A little over my head, but I'm not a scientist. Even so, Kunsken did a great job of explaining those elements to the average reader.

The less than good: Only thing I don't think worked for this book is the half-hearted external adversary. However, this isn't a bad thing in my mind because Venus provides plenty of challenges to the main characters, so much so that the planet itself is more than enough for the antagonist, especially as the book comes to a conclusion. So, not a bad thing in my mind, but something others might find off putting.

The other Good: Kunsken delves into gender identity with this book and it's well done. Only once or twice did I feel like I was being preached to about gender identity. The rest of the time, I was just learning. I'm so grateful for this book, and the lengths to which Kunsken went to get it right.

Great book. Get it. Now. I can't say that enough.

📖 Review: House of Styx by Derek Kunsken
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐💫 3.7 stars

The House of Styx centers around a family of French Canadian colonists d'aquillon (exploring multiple pov), living in a dangerously unforgiving cosmic scape of plant-like trawlers, bathyscaphes and dirigibles, among the clouds of venus. Their life depends on the power they can harvest from storms. But what happens when during a routine visit, they discover something that questions everything they were taught to believe about their world? Featuring themes of political intrigue, love, betrayal, survival, loss, grief and family drama. I was pleased to see an array of lgbtq+ representations, disabilities (down syndrome - Jean Eudes and 'undercover' aspergers - Pascal'e') and mental health conditions. Kunsken uses the characters to explore and sometimes question morally grey areas coinciding with themes of belonging- which further piqued my curiosity (being an aspie myself). Beware though it's an emotional roller-coaster!

Written in an almost poetic symphony of descriptions and setting, glorifying antiquated machinery within a darkscape. Whilst creating a hauntingly, beautiful brooding darkness, contrasting sometimes blatant and gritty language. I was intrigued by the group of long suffering artists (poets, sculptors and acid tattooist - performing sometimes tribal like rituals) struggling to find their way to belong. There is also an undertone of inter-galactic refugees/asylum seekers.

It sings to the hearts of sci-fi lovers, scientists (Quantum Physics), engineers, mathematicians and geologists (astral, cosmological, geoglical exploration and adventure) and anyone feeling like an outsider. Sometimes I found the scientific descriptions difficult to understand when paired with the high page count and therefore felt lost at points. However the metaphorical and intricate descriptions created a lucidity which enveloped me and I felt I became part of the story. Thank you to Rebellion Publishing and Netgalley for sending me this book. 😊

#rebellionpublishing #netgalley #houseofstyx #scifibooks #lgbtbooks #recommendedreading #bookstagram #instabooks #arcreview #arc #booknerd #bookshelf #book #bookish

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this advanced readers copy from Net Galley. The cover and title caught my eye, and my science fiction reading of late has been minimal. This was a pleasant surprise I must say.
The good: solid characters for the most part that are easy to keep track of, each with distinct personalities. Great world building - I have no idea how scientifically accurate any of this is, but Künsken writes so convincingly that living gasbags with habitats hanging beneath them in the sulfuric rains of the upper and mid atmosphere seem more than plausible, they seem as fact.
Great pacing and intrigue and the main plot is captivating and builds our knowledge of the world that's been built here as we go along with the tale. After the first half dozen chapters the understanding of the politics on Venus becomes clear as we see it in action. The story really picks up speed with the shorter chapters in the latter quarter of the book and becomes breakneck near the end. It's a great ride.
The bad, or at least not as good: the first few chapters were a lot of tell and little show. Infodumps galore and not subtle. I get the desire to get into the story and away from the setting by explaining everything at the start, but it's too much too fast - either that or I've become too used to Steven Erikson not telling me anything at all and letting me figure it out on my own.
The transgender aspect of this book didn't quite seem to mesh for me - I'm not the target audience I suppose, but it seemed tacked on to me, almost like the author wanted to tick one more box, just to be sure that enough subjects had been brought up. It doesn't really add anything to the story so far, though if there is a sequel I expect this will change.
The end is rather abrupt and there's no sense of resolution. I presume again that this is because a sequel is forthcoming, though there's no indication of that in the text itself.
The Quebecois. As a non-French speaking Canadian, the French passages, though small, were a problem for me. The curses I got, and some of the words I remember from grade 9, but I think I lost a bit of understanding and it tended to break by engagement when I hit such a passage. That said, with a rudimentary understanding of French the opposite would likely occur.
Overall, this book is worth reading just for the world building. Venus is often overlooked by science fiction and by the public while many suggest is humanity's best chance for a colony world. While I have my doubts an independent Quebec would be the nation to settle it, I do think that Künsken makes an excellent exploration of the possibilities that Venus presents.
4/5

This one was out there, but so much fun! I hope to see the sequel sometime in 2021 and not in 2022. If so, it’s worth the wait!

I have to admit that this was a struggle to read at times. The habitats of the people choosing to live on Venus and the lives they lead are fascinating, but the personal relationships and drama that come along with it took away from story and felt like fluff.
The science and explanations, as well as the mysteries discovered on the planet were the only reasons I finished this book. I don't even know if the ending was actually the ending, or if the author plans to continue writing more. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone due to how much interpersonal narration that is that was boring and felt canned.

I was surprised to read in other reviews that readers had issues picturing the setting of House of Styx, because for me that was the part that first drew me into this book; then again, I've always had a love for planet colonies as settings, and especially on hostile worlds. Boy did this ever deliver!

The central part of the novel is part heist, part exploration tale, and it pulls together our characters as they fight for their discovery. There's a lot of information here, too - it's almost too much at points, but readers with the patience for detail will absolutely find that patience paying off. I won't spoil anything, but although there's a resolution, there's absolutely room for a sequel as well.

A strong start to a potential series, one I'll definitely be back for.

Pascale and his family live in the atmosphere of Venus. Venus is a harsh planet and the people who live there live in constant dread of her sulfuric atmosphere and storms taking their loved ones. This story has a family that has dealt with the death of their mom, a child with Down's Syndrome, a son that is confused about his gender identity , a sister who has been sent to deal with the government assembly of Venus, and a father that has seen the wrath of Venus. With all of this going on this story is filled with the descriptions of Venus's sulfuric poisonous atmosphere and the many electrical storms that make Venus's atmosphere the most demanding in our Solar System. A good sci-fi story that explains the way life would have to take place on the second planet from our Sun. I only wish that there was given a reason why people chose to leave Earth to go to live in an atmosphere of a planet in which living on land is not an option. Other than this I enjoyed this book with its new twist of living on a planet choice other than Mars.

The House of Styx is my first introduction to Derek Künsken, and it certainly won’t be the last time I read him.

The first thing that grabbed me about the book was how effortless his descriptive prose was. Künsken describes the environment of Venus so well it took my breath away. I felt I was there with Pascal and the other D’Aquillion’s, and the Québécois colonists, as they worked in their beautiful - deadly - home, soaring through the cloud-filled atmosphere.

Künsken’s take on planetary colonization is the essence of adventure, where humanity pits itself against nature with ingenuity and science every second of every day. In fact, it felt so real that I could really believe this type of thing might not be far away (unlike interstellar space travel and technology that feels like magic).

But most of all, the thing that makes this novel shine are the characters. The loss the D’Aquillion’s have experienced in their time on Venus is tangible as the ruthless environment they work to tame. The dynamics of family play out against the greater dynamics of the colony’s politics as resources are not infinite, and every day is a struggle to survive.

Künsken does a brilliant job weaving a hard SF in amongst the perils of survival on a world hostile to human life, and the fragile personal politics of humans and corporate interests.

I teared up many times reading this story, and Künsken leaves you on a massive cliff-hanger, I was so shocked when I read ‘The End’ I had to go back to check that this was book 1.

I highly recommend this to fans of Hard SF, and I cannot wait to see what happen as the secret the D’Aquillion’s have found is explored further.

Full Review to be posted on Good reads.
What i liked:
The world and the scifi parts were great to read about. Reminded me of why I enjoyed Dune, where the world itself seems like a character in the story. If you like that, you would probably like this book.
Most of the actiony scenes on themselves because of the context were also great to read through.
The MC and its family Relations were fairly interesting while not revolutionary. But enough to keep me interested.

What i didnt really like:
The pacing felt off often a little fast then slowing down to the slowest form possible. The Middle for me, dragged a lot and If i hadnt to finish the book for the Review, i probably would have given up around the middle pages.
Because i liked the first character to be introduced Pascal and his family, i didnt really care for the other povs in the story and the side characters which also made it hard for me to finish.

In the end, an ok read that i feel readers of Dune and similar scifi would enjoy.

Key to understanding this wonderful SF novel by Derek Künsken is the dedication at the beginning to his Québécois relatives, and the remark that “The exploration of Venus by bigger nations had never amounted to much more than seeing Venus as a dead end on the road to colonising the solar system.”

Künsken notes wryly that “The decision of la colonie to separate from Québec had come a bit suddenly for everyone, including the séparatistes. A scorned Québec had been happy to cut its losses on the expensive colonie.”

This sets the background for a shaggy dog story of the colony’s hand-to-mouth survival in the harsh and unforgiving Venusian environment, where “No one had loved the love goddess, and Venus had no soul because no one loved her. And les colonistes had no souls because they had no world.”

However, the infrastructure and essential commodities for such a colony to survive are owned, mined and produced by a financial superstructure comprised of various banks, with the colonists being the petite bourgeoisie. You can see how Künsken transmutes the elements of colonialism into his SF setting, but he is way too savvy a writer for this to become pedagogical.

Apart from the theme of Venus being the runt of the solar system in genre terms (it does play a key role in the first couple of Expanse novels by James S.A. Corey), Künsken also deconstructs the very concept of colonisation itself, which often has a Western or Imperialist slant, especially in American SF:

Farming in the heights or scavenging in the depths, choices no different from the ones facing the teeming, nameless billions who’d scraped the ground for most of Earth’s history, never walking more than thirty kilometres from where they’d been born. His parents had crossed hard vacuum to reach a world where most of them would be subsistence farmers.

And what a world it is. Künsken’s evocation of the Venusian ecosystem and how to survive there reads like a lavish and riveting David Attenborough nature documentary. Although he has clearly done his homework, the nuts and bolts of the actual science are cleverly hidden in the background of the story.

The reader is mesmerised by the sheer fight for survival of the D’Aquillon family as it painstakingly harvests water and oxygen in the depths of Venus’s atmosphere, living in huge dirigible-like craft, and also harvesting precious metals from volcanic ash in the lowest levels … where the family has a date with destiny as it makes a truly astonishing discovery (definite hints of Arthur C. Clarke here.)

Above all of this riffraff (but still quite a way from the level of the banks) are the habitats of the political elite in the upper Venusian atmosphere, who rule and scheme among the families in order to subjugate and control them.

What made me love this book so much, apart from the impeccable world-building and Künsken’s sheer technical chops as a writer, are the wonderful characters, whose lives and loves and struggles make them achingly and so frustratingly human. Here in particular I am thinking of the teenage Pascal and the fraught journey of self-discovery he makes (to say any more would be to spoil this treasure chest of a novel.)

They all tested themselves against Venus, each according to their gifts, all in the process of becoming something else, something better. They might die. They each had lost loved ones to the clouds. And although Venus would resist them, although Venus herself did not know she was beautiful, they would show her.

I've read other books by this author, and liked them. He's got a good imagination and writes well. This book has interesting characters and the setting is unique, and of course the plot is important, and after a slow start it was enjoyable. I'm not a fan of incomplete endings, but otherwise it was a good read.

Thanks very much for the ARC for review!!