"The Vela" is a stellar collaboration between giants of sci-fi: Yoon Ha Lee, Becky Chambers, SL Huang, and Rivers Solomon. Seamlessly blending their unique voices, they craft a universe rich in political intrigue and cosmic wonder. This narrative powerhouse captivates with its depth and imaginative prowess. Essential reading for space opera aficionados.

This is the kind of book I finished wishing I liked it more. Because objectively, it's a successful collaboration project and a great story, with an awesome podcast production narrated by Robin Miles. But sadly it didn't pull me in the way I had hope. I'm not sure if it was the authors all merging their writing styles and eliminating their unique voices or the episodic nature, but I always felt a bit removed from the story and the pacing didn't quite work for me. Still, I think this is one of those cases where it's more me than the book, and I would definitely recommend a listen! I think I'll move into the second season when I'm ready to just sit back and enjoy.

Despite my tinge of disappointment, <i>The Vela</i> was an entertaining read. A doomed solar system who have drawn too much from their sun; outer planets already dead and inner planets pushing back the refugees in hopes of buying more time. A varied cast of characters, all vying for some sort of security and with different loyalties - people they're trying to protect. Our two main characters, Asala the jaded mercenary and Nico the young hacker filled with hope, bounce off each other well, with plenty of opportunity for banter. Despite all the pieces in play and the way they fell together over the course of the season, it never got too confusing, and indeed felt a bit inelaborate compared to other space operas I've read, which is probably a good thing considering the nature in which it's told. That doesn't mean though that there weren't surprises along the way.

This book reminded me powerfully of all of the things I love about scifi; the space opera, the worldbuilding and all the potential in it, and this in particular had so many meaningful real world parallels that I adored. I was amazed all while reading this, and I was never not fully engaged.

I actually went in pretty much blind. It was fun letting the story lead me wherever it wanted. The story takes place in a system on the brink of death. The planets on the outer rings are suffering, literally freezing to death, while the planets on the inners rings who are responsible for the mining continue to profit from it. The situation has created a refugee crisis, -Asala, is a refugee, having been sent off world by her family more than 30 years ago, and she's seeked out a life as a soldier/sniper in the inner rings.

After this, the worldbuilding and characters didn't take very long for me to grasp at all. It's just really great to take these huge, universe-altering plots and put them in the hands of normal people, and see how things spin out from there. I could only read the first chapters, but I'm definetely going to keep on reading the full story.

Speaking of the authors! This was really masterfully written and crafted by all of them; I read Becky Chambers and Rivers Solomon before. I've wanted to read something from Yon Haa Lee forever and it gave me the chance. Crafting the same story from different writers mustn't be easy, and it shows. But that's part of the cham of the story.

I'm a fan of these writers' individual works, and that made me like this book even more. A clever & fast-paced read.

This serial has four things I really liked:

1) Great writers collaborating in a cohesive and well done narrative,
2) Well done, many layered, characters,
3) A surprising and fast paced plot that never gets boring and
4) Food for thought of extreme, utmost importance. Many of the questions this story asks could be translated to our current world situation and how we handle world problems like refugees and climate change.

This serial packs a punch. I liked how it made me think about a lot of important things and I recommend it to anyone who wants to get out of their comfort zone while reading a very entertaining science fiction story with fast paced action.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I did not love this one as much as I hoped to. Perhaps having so many authors writing one story just did it work as well as they thought it might. As a Becky Chambers fangirl, I have to say that her chapters stood out. She really knows how to evoke an emotional reaction/connection.

A big thank you to the authors, the publisher, and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC.

An exciting, distressing, dystopian sci-fi story about colonialism. Having multiple authors for the component parts of this novel worked surprisingly well, but having as many character perspectives and stories included as there were worked less well, causing it to be a little fragmented/disjointed.

I didn’t realize this was a podcast/audio drama when I requested it. I just saw Rivers Solomon and was 100% on board for whatever it was. When Serial Box became Realm, I listened to and was intrigued by the first episode, so I was glad to have the opportunity to read the rest of the series in print format, though I’m sure I’ll revisit the audio if it ever comes off of the premium option and onto Realm’s free, ad-sponsored programs.

This book has a little bit of everything I enjoy. Sci-fi with a mystery. Nonbinary rep. Morally gray areas and political intrigue. I enjoyed the worldbuilding, the rich history of the characters, and their adventures in a confined space, searching for a mysterious ship that holds secrets about the fate of the universe.

I don’t want to say too much more and give anything away, but if you’re a fan of Rivers Solomon and want to tuck into a space adventure with twists and turns and mysteries, definitely check this series out, either on audio or by reading the print version.

A+ for the concept but the implementation was a bit disjointed and lacking for me.

The plot twists and turns didn't easily connect, plus author changes potentially made this a more difficult read rather than enjoyable.

3.5 stars. I have mixed feelings about this book, but most of those feelings are good? As it often is whenever I come back to scifi after a long break from it, this reminded me powerfully of all of the things I love about the genre; the space opera, the worldbuilding and all the potential in it, and this in particular had so many meaningful real world parallels that I adored. My mind was whirring all while reading this, and I was never not fully engaged.

I actually went in pretty much blind, which I found really enjoyable, though not everyone would. The broad stroke are: the story takes place in a system on the brink of death. Years of mining have taken a toll on the sun, and it's about 100 years away from dying. The planets on the outer rings are suffering, literally freezing to death, while the planets on the inners rings who are responsible for the mining continue to profit from it. The situation has created a refugee crisis, with thousands upon thousands fleeing the dying worlds, and most of the inner worlds being ambivalent or downright hostile to them. The main character, Asala, is a refugee, having been sent off world by her family more than 30 years ago, and she's eked out a life as a soldier/sniper in the inner rings.

The plot starts with the micro and grows in scale to encompass the whole system in fascinating and surprising ways. It's been a while since I've read deeply involved scifi like this, but the worldbuilding and characters didn't take very long for me to grasp at all. It's just really great to take these huge, universe-altering plots and put them in the hands of normal people, and see how things spin out from there. It worked really well in the beginning, where I just devoured all the political workings, all the gradual reveals. Coming down to the end, as the scope of everything just got bigger and bigger, it started to feel like things are were happening out of control, and all the big reveals and revelations were coming too fast; so fast they stopped really having an impact, no matter how shocking they were. The authors wanted to do a lot, and near the end, the narrative started suffering for it imo.

Speaking of the authors! This was really masterfully written and crafted by all of them; I've only ever read Solomon before this, but they're all obviously juggernauts of scifi and they know what they're doing. This was serialised; 10 episodes in all, shared up amongst the four writers. I thought that each writer would be handling a different set of characters, but that wasn't the case. Asala was the main POV (along with a few important secondary POVs) and they all wrote her. This didn't work super well for me? The first episode was written by Huang, and I absolutely loved it, and loved Asala as written by her. And since that was my first experience with Asala, every other writer's interpretation of her felt... slightly off? Not by much, not anything that's terribly noticeable, but I did notice, and it made the story feel a bit disjointed. Unavoidable, with a work that's been serialised like this, but I thought I'd mention it, as it did curb my enjoyment some.

But there is undoubtedly a LOT to enjoy here. I was super impressed with all the culture here; all the stories and nuances about the different worlds. The was an emphasis of written and oral history as told by plays and poetry that reminded me very favourably of <i>A Memory Called Empire</i>. I really loved our main characters, especially Niko; they were so freaking brave, and I understood every decision they made, even if I didn't always agree. This shines a spotlight on humanity at its worst, but also its finest. And the ways authors do that through scifi is always very rewarding to me.

I definitely enjoyed this a lot, even if that enjoyment waned coming down to the very end. I don't know if I'll read the next season, but it's definitely intriguing enough for me to want to give it a try.

Content warnings: death, murder, injury, gore, genocide

Okay. Hmm. I don't have a lot to say about this one, as I ended up DNF-ing it. I'm honestly really shocked - I have read (and loved) work from three of the four writers of this one, and Yoon Ha Lee and Becky Chambers in particular are favourite authors of mine. But. For whatever reason, I just could not get into this one. I think it just wasn't a good fit for me, and I see that other people have been really enjoying this, so I guess it's just one of those things! I'm very sad, though. Can't be helped! We can't all like everything~

Set in a solar system with a long dying sun, for decades refugees have been increasingly fleeing the outer planets for the inner system, as the outers become uninhabitable and frozen. A ship overloaded with refugees, The Vela, goes mysteriously missing, but a number of power players in the system are oddly interested in its disappearance. Asala is a skilled mercenary, while Niko is the child of the President, widely viewed as naïve and privileged, but an accomplished hacker in their own right. The two make an unlikely team on a mission to locate the lost ship, searching among the seemingly endless refugees.

Absolutely loved this story! it has a really brilliant Big Dumb Object trope setup, with no idea who or what on the Vela makes it so important, but everyone who is anyone seems to be looking for it. The writing & characterization was surprisingly cohesive given the jumps between authors. I enjoyed the diversity in queer/trans/non-binary characters with no apparent prejudice in world, particularly with a nonbinary protagonist (I would say the main protagonist here) it can be very obvious when an author doesn't commonly use they/them pronouns, but I think most if not all of these authors have experience with this and it shows. The refugee narrative we get is also quite incredible, not only seeing a refugee experience from outside, but also the personal experience of a refugee, the trauma, loss of family and culture. The story also had some major twisty turns, and good god that ending, this is a definite must read for fans of The Expanse or The Collapsing Empire.

This book tells the story of Asala, a soldier for hire, whose current mission is to find and rescue <b>The Vela</b>, a missing ship from Hypatia, a dying planet. We also follow the youngest son of the President, Niko, who is going to accompany Asala in their first mission.
The characters were really powerful, each of them following their own path. Asala has to confront her past, but Niko is the own who really evolves from a näive kid to a strong person. The story is organically diverse. The non-binary characters are the main focus, alongside the women, and that is completely normalized and celebrated.
As far as the plot goes, the splits in the story in the format of episodes were interesting. They felt complete in themselves, but also made me want to read the next episode. It wasn't the most intriguing plot but it was okay. My favorite chapters were definitely the ones written by Becky Chambers.
I would definitely recommend this story if you are a fan of sci-fi stories tha feature discussions on humanity and on listening to different points of view!

A diverse and beautifully-written scifi - which is only to be expected, with such heavy-hitting authors! I'm kind of amazed I haven't seen more love for this - it's going right on my favourites shelf!

Asala Sikou is a mercenary working for the president of Khayyam, a rich and powerful planet from the inner system. Asala herself is from Hypatia, a dying planet from the outer system. She had to flee Hypatia when she was still a child and since then, Asala tried to erase her days on Hypatia from her memory.

Everything changes for her when she’s ordered to rescue The Vela, a spaceship full of refugees from another dying planet, with the help of Niko, the child of Khayyam’s president. Asala is not exactly looking forward to her new mission. First of all, she doesn’t want to babysit Niko and she doesn’t particularly want to help the refugees. The entire system is dying, saving one ship is not going to change that.

However, Asala soon realizes that her new assignment is not an ordinary rescue mission. The Vela is at the center of a power struggle between different political alliances and the ship may contain someone or something that may save the dying system – and change the course of humanity.

The Vela is a serialized novel written by four fantastic authors: Yoon Ha Lee, Rivers Solomon, Becky Chambers and S.L. Huang. Yoon Ha Lee’s Machineries of Empire is one of my favorite trilogies, Rivers Solomon’s The Deep made my favorite list of 2020, I loved Burning Roses by S.L. Huang and I also tend to like Chambers’ books. So, saying that I was excited for the Vela is the understatement of the century.

However, while I enjoy each of the authors’ individual works, I have lukewarm feelings about The Vela. It does have interesting elements: one of the main character Niko, is non-binary and their gender identity is never questioned by any of the characters. I think it’s important to have such a representation in stories and to normalize non-binary characters. The Vela is also at its heart a story about the refugee crisis caused by climate change. Humans are slowly dying because the system’s sun was mined to death by a planet and now, it’s not hot enough to warm the galaxy. Planets are becoming too cold for humans, they can’t grow food anymore and their tech is falling apart.

The planets first affected by the dying sun were at the outer edge of the system but, planet after planet, people have to flee to the warmer regions of space that are closer to the sun. Of course, the planets from the inner part of the system don’t look kindly upon the waves of refugees and some, like Gan-De, destroy all the refugee ships trying to land on their territory.

To be honest, I didn’t think the setup for the refugee crisis really made sense. We are supposed to believe that a system of dozens of planets allowed one planet to sabotage the galaxy without doing anything to prevent that. Knowing humans and their tendencies to go to war for (much) less than that… It’s hard to believe that such a situation makes sense. I could have looked passed that if I had enjoyed the story or the characters but… I was also disappointed by these aspects of the story.

Let’s start with the characters. I liked Asala enough even if she had no personality to speak of and that she was basically the perfect representation of the “badass woman who appears cold at first but who has a big heart” stereotype. The second main character is Niko and… I found them even less interesting than Asala. Niko is supposed to be a super talented hacker with a heart of gold but, they just annoyed me. First of all, for someone who is supposed to be so clever that they managed to hack and destroy robots and AIs created by Gan-De, a planet known for its tech, in a matter of minutes, Niko makes a ton of dumb mistakes. I get that they are still young but, I couldn’t trust their abilities when they were so naive and gullible.

Finally, I didn’t think the story was anything special. I appreciated the themes of The Vela but the execution was boring and made a bit awkward by the weird transition between the episodes. It also didn’t help that the various authors’ writing style were very distinct, which created an overall uneven reading experience. I don’t remember this being the case when I read (and very much enjoyed!) Machina, another Serial Box title.

I can see why some readers would enjoy The Vela but it didn’t work for me, I won’t read the second season and I don’t particularly recommend it.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. My thanks to Serial Box and Netgalley for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

A relevant SciFi story by an amazing cast of authors with strong protagonists that took a bit to get rolling and never developed the way I expected it to.

Content warnings include: violence, death, refugee crisis, military leadership, injury, climate emergency.

When I saw The Vela‘s author lineup in combination with it being a SciFi book, I knew I just HAD to read this. It admittedly took me a while to get into the book, but I think that was more due to outside circumstances than the book itself.

Each chapter is written by a different author, so that each of the four wrote at least 2 chapters. I found the switches between authors seamless, and to me it seemed like it truly was written by one person, not four!

The Vela starts of strong, and intrigues immediately in the both its characters and its plot. Asala is fascinating and a wonderful protagonist: an orphan refugee and military veteran, now mercenary in contract with a wealthy planetary leader; competent and gruff, but with a heart much softer than she wants you to believe. There’s also Niko, child of said planetary leader, young and idealistic, with a conviction and passion for justice and a hand for programming. Niko is also nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, and Asala is a trans woman (possibly lesbian), which was another huge plus for me!

I found the core situation around with the plot revolves relevant and harrowing: the solar system’s sun is dying due to humanity sucking it dry, causing the outer planets to become too cold to live on, thus creating droves of refugees that the inner worlds do not welcome with open arms (some more overt about their lack of care than others).

On a smaller scale, the mission of Asala and Niko to find a missing refugee ship, the Vela, was interesting too. There were a lot of political entanglements that nicely offset the fast-pace and frequent action-sequences, making the plot a balanced mix.

The book is more plot-driven than anything else, but it truly were the characters that made it come alive. Aside from Niko and Asala, there were a couple more POV characters that occasionally got sections written from their perspective. Every single POV character, as well as most side characters, have their own agenda and their own goals, and often had opposing stances on the same issue and different amounts of information on the current situation, which made the POV switches always intriguing.

Despite all the praise, I must say that I found the book a bit aimless at times. There were high stakes from the start, but it often wasn’t clear what the stakes were for or where things were headed. The story could have gone in a variety of directions from its starting point, and while it was cool to see where it would be headed, a bit more structure would have helped. (My theory is that this was due to the book being written by multiple authors)

Either way, I found this book relevant and exciting. I do recommend it, and I liked the ending in particular, even if it was a cliffhanger. I’m looking forward to book 2!

So, you have this online serial, right, science fiction stories with all the political intrigue and space opera goodness that you can desire, written by four of your favorite authors. That’s The Vela by Yoon Ha Lee, Becky Chambers, SL Huang, and Rivers Solomon. Four authors, one story, and they all bring their individual styles and voices to the characters of Asala and Niko. Asala is a mercenary from a dying planet who is hired to find a ship called The Vela. With her is Niko, the child of an inner-planet leader who uses They/Them pronouns. It was lovely to see gender nonconformity represented within the pages of these stories, and I'd love to see more of it naturally built into the world building. Speaking of, I was impressed with the world and the interactions between the main characters. I am looking forward to the next set of stories!

SO excited for this book and very happy that I finally got to read it.
I really liked the theme of this book and loved seeing what different writers brought to the story (I know a few from before and definitely want to check out more work from the others now, too!). The plot is pretty relevant and the representation is very diverse with a lot of lovable characters. I'd also really recommend this book to anyone who wants to get into sci-fi but isn't sure if it's a genre for them, since this book wasn't very heavy on the science but more than enough to give one a general understanding.

This is a good book. I really enjoyed it and how it moved along at a great pace. The characters are well developed and the story is packed with action and adventure. The authors do a great job delivering a story with a solid plot and interesting subplots. Will look forward to the next book in the series to continue to follow the characters. Left the reader with somewhat of a cliffhanger, so hope it won't be too long for the next one!!

The Vela is a (fairly) new serial story that can be purchased in seasons from Serial Box or in collections from Amazon. As a concept, the idea of serials is interesting: the book is written and released one chapter at a time. Instead of having a single author, serials are often written by a group, with a different author handling each chapter. We have also actually covered a serial that we really enjoyed called Bookburners – you can find the review here. The Vela: Season One is written by a group of authors composed of Yoon Ha Lee, Becky Chambers, SL Huang, and Rivers Solomon. All of these authors are individuals whose work I have previously greatly enjoyed, some of whom appear on our yearly best-of lists. This made it surprising when I didn’t really like The Vela.

The Vela is a science fiction drama that reframes how the rich treat the poor through an interesting futuristic lens. The narrative takes place in an original solar system, but to explain it more easily I am going to use ours analogously. So science has progressed, all of the worlds of the solar system have been colonized, but faster-than-light travel is impossible. Mercury and Venus were terraformed early, and they’re home to the wealthiest individuals. Meanwhile, Uranus and Neptune are more problematic and result in a poorer way of life. Then the wealthy of Mercury start to mine the Sun for Hydrogen. This goes on for a long time without issue, until they realize too late that they are diminishing the power of the sun. By the time they figure it out, the people of the furthest planets have essentially had their death warrants signed by the 1%. The planets are cooling and soon will reach lethal temperatures. Given the limitations of space travel, only a few can escape on refugee trips inward – while most will have to sit and freeze to death. The story focuses on a single refugee ship, The Vela, that somehow gets lost on its way towards safety. Our protagonists set off on a humanitarian mission to find and save it, but they find a lot more than they bargained for.

The story starts strong with some very interesting ideas, and I was extremely invested from page one. One of the best things The Vela does is capture the human condition in these refugees and those who are left to die. It is an impressive glimpse into the minds of people in a truly awful position, and it did a great job of reminding me of refugees in the actual world and how we need to help them and how the actions of a single group can have far-reaching implications that we don’t consider. However, while the premise and atmosphere were both fantastic – the story, characters, and writing didn’t really come together.

First off, the story doesn’t really live up to its grand premise. The pacing is a bit clunky, plot points are fairly predictable, and there is a lot of time spent chasing MacGuffins. Some of my favorite parts of the story are the extremely beautiful moments told through diaries and interviews of people doomed to die. They are deeply touching and crystal clear fragments of human experiences – but they don’t actually push the narrative forward. It results in alack of direction that hampers the investment in what is happening.

Second off, the characters feel a bit flat. We have two major POVs, Asala and Niko, and a smattering of minor POVs. Asala is a mercenary hailing from one of the dying planets on the fringe of the solar system. She is contracted to find the Vela, and through her we are supposed to get a glimpse into the psyche of these poor doomed people. Niko is the privileged child of one of the leaders of an inner planet. They join the mission out of a crushing amount of guilt for what their people have done, and a desire to make the world a better place. These two make an interesting duo, but they don’t feel like they have a lot of depth and personality beyond what I have already listed. I did like some of the secondary characters a lot, like the authoritarian dictator who is pulling together her planet after a brutal civil war, but they just don’t represent enough page space to make up for the momentum lost by the two leads.

Third, the writing of the four authors doesn’t blend together well. In Bookburners, I could barely tell when a different writer swapped in. In The Vela, it was extremely evident who was writing at any given time. The different authors have very different foci and voices, and it builds to this inconsistency in the narrative that pulls the reader out. I really liked each of the writers individually, but the end result was a sum that was less than its parts.

The Vela has a strong premise, and it certainly isn’t terrible, but it fails to meet the high standard I have for the authors who wrote it. Each of the authors is fantastic on their own and does a great job creating these pockets of quality work, but the combined product feels uneven and poorly blended. I am mildly curious to find out what happens next in The Vela, but it would take a strong recommendation from someone I trust to get me to pick up Season Two at this point.

Rating: The Vela: Season One – 5.0/10