Local Star is a fun space opera read with great rep! Triz is a space mechanic in a polygamous relationship who is struggling with not feeling good enough for her partners and also her contentious relationship with her ex-boyfriend. However, she soon has bigger problems, with one of her partners being wrongfully arrested, and the story follows her efforts to get to the bottom of things while learning to trust and believe in the people who love her. The story takes some time to truly get into the swing of things, but once it does there's plenty of action (including vent crawling and space battles). The character development and the plot both contribute to making this an enjoyable read.

Casual queerness and polyamory, Local Star was a fun quick space operaness to it with a side of romcom.

Local Star quickly throws you into a space arena with complex world building that is never fully explained. It focuses on a big problem within the universe it takes place in, but the universe is never expanded upon in the way in which I and other reviewers had hoped. It still has a lot of untapped world building potential that could be utilized for a series/duology/etc. There is also untapped plot lines like Triz and her anti-mod prejudice, as well as the Ceebees vs. The Fleet.

The poly, queer and trans rep was great! The in book universe was queernormative and polynormative, which was refreshing and amazing to see! Some have complained that it isn't queer rep because the main relationship of the book was "het". This is confusing to me, as Triz (the MC) is explicitly queer in the novel and is in 2 different f/f poly relationships. Most, if not all, of the characters are explicitly queer, and a "het" relationship with 2 queer people in it is queer rep. It's also amazing queer rep at that!

I recommend reading Local Star if you want a quick space opera that quickly throws you into a fast paced plot with casual queerness abound!

Amazing job!

First and foremost, I was so happy to find a book with poly representation and Ogden delivered! I'm not always a big science fiction reader but luckily for me the book was much more character-driven.

The story itself was great, featuring all the fun drama without the unnecessary overly-complex relationships. It was fast-paced and really easy to pick-up. I also really liked the world-building, as it values interest over societal commentary, which you don't see a lot in Sci-fi.

The inner-conflict was a great addition, and the combination of personal and military struggles was surprisingly well done!

Really great job to Ogden and Interstellar!

Aimee Ogden’s novella, Local Star is many things. It is science fiction meets fantasy meets romance meets polyamory and is fairly well done. It is a relatively quick read that follows Triz Cierrond who was once a gutter girl who now works to save more than just spacecraft in their Hab. After an unsuccessful relationship with Kalo, Triz has moved on and found herself in a triad with characters Casne and Nantha who are already married. When Casne is accused of war crimes and the Hab comes under attack by the Cyberbionautic Alliance Triz (with the help of her ex, Kalo) jumps into action to save their Hab and her beloved Casne.

What I enjoyed most was the framing of the relationships in this book. That polyamorous relationships have been normalized and thrive in this environment. I think Ogden was thoughtful in her representation of the LGBTQIA community. Kudos!

The first half of the book read slower than I think necessary. It was bogged down with so much space jargon. But it picked up midway through.

Thanks to NetGalley and Interstellar Flight Press for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the concept of this novella and I enjoyed all the characters. I loved how practically every character is queer and polyamory is completely normalized in this world. Unfortunately, this novella kind of dragged for me because it’s so jargon-heavy without much in-story explanation, and I was constantly confused about what things were (though that might just be me, as I don’t read much sci-fi). While there is a glossary at the end of the book, I think that my rating would have been higher if it had been a novel in which the world was explained more in-depth (or at least, if we’d had more time to get used to the world). You’ll probably enjoy this one if you’re looking for a quick read and you’re a fan of sci-fi and queer books.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun, super queer and family oriented novella! I really liked it even though some of the space terms and fancy tech stuff went over my head. It was still relatively easy to digest. The characters were the highlight of this book for me.

We follow Triz as she deals with the fact that her girlfriend has gotten arrested for something she knows she did not do but she has to embark on this mission to prove this to the authorities. This lands her with her ex and they end up having to work together to prove that she’s innocent and root out who is actually the bad guy.

The queer rep in this book was fantastic. I loved the use of characters with different pronouns, the poly aspects too were super interesting. In this world, it’s common, almost needed that people end up in triads or in fours. There’s no homophobia or any of the like which was nice to see. Sometimes, you just need a good, scifi filled book that is filled to the tits with great queer characters and that is exactly what this is.

This was a good time! I’d definitely check out more work by Aimee in the future!

4/5 ⭐️

TW: violence, blood, death.

Local Star was one of those books I'd seen mentioned somewhere (probably on Twitter) and sounded like it might be something I'd like, so when it was available on Netgalley I jumped at the chance of picking it up. Yes, I am a poor bookworm and trying not to actually buy books, so both Netgalley and the local library's click-and-collect service are currently doing me proud.

Anyway, on to the book itself. This is basic nuts and bolts science fiction, set in the middle of a war with people who are intent on transforming themselves by the use (and abuse) of technology, to the point where prisoners of war have to have bits of themselves surgically removed - this might not work well for some readers, though it's not massively graphic.

Our protagonist is Triz, who works as a spaceship mechanic and whose point of view we get everything from. She's just come out of a relationship with a pilot and is currently involved in a relationship with other characters in the novella - this is a universe where polyamory is pretty much commonplace and Triz is part of a triad at the point the book starts. She is, however, relentlessly self-deprecating in terms of her own ability and the likelihood of this relationship lasting, much affected by her own very deprived background, and that gets a bit tiring when it keeps coming up so regularly. One of her current lovers then gets arrested and accused of war crimes, which Triz is adamant can't be the case, but she doesn't have much trust in Things Working Out so enlists the help of her former boyfriend the pilot to spring her from space jail.

The main point of interest for me with this novella is one that gets skimmed over, in my opinion - the whole thing about technology and self-modification. At one point it's revealed pretty dramatically that most of 'our side' have also had quite a bit of tech implanted in them for the purpose of fighting better but the enemy are relentlessly Othered for being that much more extreme. I'd have expected a bit more introspection from Triz about why it's okay when the people she loves does it but not otherwise and how ready she is to fall into bed with said people but reacts with loathing at other examples.

Anyway, in general it's an easy enough read of 180 pages or so, which only had me skimming a bit in the 'let's blow this popsicle stand' chase sequence around the rescue attempt. I'm sure it'll work perfectly for some folks but I've dropped a couple of stars because of just how fed up I got with Triz's mental processes and the lack of explanation for her getting back together with her ex.

I received a copy of this book from the publishers via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I received a free advanced reader copy through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

So I wasn't really convinced by the sketchy type cover art, but the blurb really got me. And the novella does deliver. It's short, maybe a bit too short in places, but it certainly delivers in action.

I especially liked how the scene was set, with this queernorm space station where poly is normal, nonbinary folk go round using neopronouns and being part of said poly families, and where the space station provides you with food and lodgings even if you're out of a job. The perfect queer utopia!

The main character was interesting in that she had a bit of an outsider complex and really couldn't believe she could be part of any family, so it was nice seeing her go through that. I thought her relationship/"rekindled romance" as the summary puts it, with the male love interest was a bit rushed, and I'd have appreciated if the author took a bit more time there, but at the same time it wasn't really the focus.

What was, instead, was Triz's work to exonerate her girlfriend/partner from the ridiculous charges against her, and in the process run up and down a station that's shutting down, and trying to catch up a convict and actual war criminal.

There was clearly a lot of worldbuilding that went into this and got me intrigued about the whole universe Ogden built there. I wouldn't mind reading more of Triz's, Casne's and Kalo's adventures, or even another polycule's in the same universe. There's lots more I want to see, but this was a good self contained first look into that universe, and it felt a lot like watching an episode of a star trek show in the way it all neatly resolves. Very satisfying to read, both because of just how queer it was, and for the adventure it took me on!

I mean maybe more of a 3.5 star rating.

So first off, I love all of the casual rep. This is a universe were most people end up in a polyamorous relationships, usually of 4 people but sometimes 3 or 5 (maybe more but that’s all that was mentioned). It’s almost safe to assume that everyone in this world is queer of some sorts. There was also a bunch of non-binary characters that use neopronouns so that was cool to see.

I mean I understand the basic main plot of the story - sort of girlfriend gets arrested for crime we don’t know if she’s committed or not and main character wants to break her out of prison. But other than that I really did not understand a single thing about this story. You get thrown straight into the world and it’s up to you to consult the glossary at the end to try and figure out what these characters are talking about. Safe to say I was confused about a lot of what was going on.

Lastly the main relationship. I suppose it’s a poly of 4 but it really wasn’t. You have Casne and her wife Nan. Triz is Casne’s best friend and is in the mist of joining their relationship. You have Triz’s ex boyfriend Kalo who was set up with her by Casne in hopes the two of them would join their relationship. So initially we see Casne and Triz being together and then we see Kalo and Triz being awkward exes. And glimpses of Casne and Nan and a slimmer of Triz and Nan and background of Casne and Kalo. But we never actually see the 4 of them being together.

All and all it was an interesting premise and a very well written story, but my interest kind of dwindled as time went on and I kind of expected more. Perhaps if it was a bit longer and we got to learn more about the characters I would have liked it more.

Triz is a girl from humble beginnings who won the heart of Casne, a girl from a good family and a war hero too. And when Casne is in trouble, only Triz can help her.
Although space opera is not my favourite genre, I really enjoyed this one. The plot is simple, good guys versus bad guys, but the action is breathtaking and I really liked the world building.

The worldbuilding in this story could have been a little more developed. At first, it felt as if I was missing so much information needed to connect with the characters and understand how their world functioned. This feeling did lessen as I continued reading, but I was still wishing for more background info about the characters and their relationships! If only this book had been a little longer to give us more time to get to know them.

For those just starting to read Local Star, make sure to flip to the back of your copy to read the Glossary. I had no idea it was there until I finished the story, which probably only exacerbated my beginning confusion.

That being said, I did really enjoy reading about Triz's adventure, which I won't say too much about since the story is quite short and fast-paced so I don't want to give anything away! Kalo was just kind of meh, though. This book is so heavily marketed for its polyamory, and I wish we could have seen more of their relationship rather than so much of a m/f relationship, especially since we didn't know or really care about Kalo all that much. I did love the casually queer environment!

This was a fun read! Lovers of sci-fi, especially Everina Maxwell's Winter's Orbit, should pick up this story!

Using the phrase “polyamorous space opera” and hinting at cyborg-adjacent stuff in the synopsis may as well be a magic phrase to summon me instantly. Local Star by Aimee Ogden gives us a familiar plot with a few fresh takes, particularly the diversity, and as a fan of queer space opera, it was like a well-done comfort meal: not particularly surprising, but still incredibly delicious.

This novella follows mechanic Triz, whose partner Casne comes back from the space battlefront as a war hero; almost immediately, local officials detain her for an alleged treasonous act in said war. The only person who takes Triz’s worry about this turn of events seriously is a pilot named Kalo—who is, of course, both Triz’s ex and a metamour of Casne.

There’s action aplenty, there’s great character banter, and the story progresses at a steady and appropriate pace. As a fan of sci-fi, this novella was such a treat, and I appreciated the blend of plot and character driving forces. There are some larger questions about transhumanism tackled at points, particularly in regards to Triz’s prejudice against augmented humans that make up the opposing force in the war.

Other reviewers have mentioned this novella not being ‘queer enough’, to which I wonder if I received the wrong eARC file by mistake. Triz is bi/pan/mspec, as is her female partner Casne—the novella starts by establishing Triz and Casne’s relationship. Casne also has a wife named Nantha who is transgender. And of course, Kalo has been involved with both Triz and Casne. While it’s true that a large bulk of the plot involves Triz and Kalo working together to navigate the challenges they face within the novella, I feel it’s blatant misrepresentation (and bi erasure) to say this novella isn’t queer because one M/F relationship gets a lot of attention; this is especially true since the polyamorous nature of the relationship structures within this novella are referenced multiple times and provide context for character arcs within.

Overall, Local Star was a highly entertaining queer space opera treat. This was totally my brand and I finished it in one delightful setting. Between this and Aimee Ogden’s other novella, Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters, she has become one of my authors to watch out for.

Thank you to Interstellar Flight Press and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

As with most of my book choices lately, I picked this up solely based on the cover. It’s an enjoyable and quickly-paced scifi romance novella.

After a decisive win against the Cyberbionautic Alliance, Triz is excited to go party with her newly-returned-from-the-war partner Casne – after she finishes up taking a look at her fighter pilot ex’s seriously smashed up ship. It doesn’t help that Kalo seems more interested in hanging around chatting with her than joining the party. But when Casne is arrested for treason, Triz must work with Kalo to figure out who framed her – and stop them from taking over the hab.

“Some people were suns, some were moons, and some were just rocks who soaked up others’ light and warmth. Triz was not a sun.”


The novella is told solely from Triz’s point of view, and a lot of it revolves around Triz feeling unworthy. She grew up in the bowels of a hab, scrounging for food scraps and bits of discarded trash to sell. She’s made a place for herself as a mechanic, and while most of Casne’s family has accepted her, she still feels separate and struggles with her self-worth. While Casne and her wife have invited her to join their gon (what the book calls their poly relationships), Triz struggles with worrying about how she’ll fit in, and she’s reluctant to join without bringing someone else to the triad. Polyamory is completely accepted in their society, and Casne herself comes from a quad poly family. Casne actually introduced Kalo, a fighter pilot, to Triz – and is still sometimes involved with him – but Triz couldn’t deal with how dangerous his job is. Her feelings for him are complicated and all tied up with feeling like she doesn’t truly belong, especially since she’s not part of the Fleet.

For such a small novella, there’s a lot going on plotwise. There’s Triz’s understandable feelings of inadequacy, exacerbated by one of Casne’s quadparents, who seems perfectly willing to believe Casne is a traitor. Plus, there’s the romance angle with navigating her feelings for Casne and Kalo. The part I didn’t think worked was a minor thread where Triz is extremely prejudiced against any type of body mods, basically assuming anyone with mods would support the (unmitigatedly awful) Cyberbionautic Alliance. I didn’t quite understand where those feelings came from or why she felt so strongly about it, though I felt her change of view was handled well. I also wish there had been more time to explore the dynamics of Triz and Kalo and then Triz, Kalo and Casne as a triad. I did love the whole clear-Casne’s-name plot, though, and the pacing was nice and snappy. It made it very easy to read this in one sitting (and then wish there was more!).

Overall, this is an action-packed read, and I really hope the author choses to revisit this setting in the future!

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Thanks to Netgalley and Interstellar Flight Press for gifting me an eARC of this book!

I wish I liked this book more than I did. The beginning was quite slow and at some points, it did start to pick up but overall this book wasn't really for me.

Before going into this book, I read the synopsis and was promised a polyamorous space opera and I sort of got that? Sure there were mentions here and there but not nearly as much as I expected from a book marketed as polyamorous. I just wanted more of it.

I didn't care for the main character nor any of the side characters which made it really hard for me to be invested in the story. I'm supposed to care that this character got arrested but I didn't because I barely knew her. I wasn't convinced of any of the relationships either. The plot wasn't my favourite either. The stakes never felt high and I didn't have this sense of urgency to get Casne out.

Overall, this book was a big meh for me

I wanted to like this so much, but it just didn’t work for me. The whole thing felt very... tryhard. I never had a chance to immerse in the world, and all the situational quirks came at the expense of building characters I could actually care about. Maybe with more room to breathe, this would’ve worked better, but in this length, it fell flat. (I also have no idea where the supposed Much Ado element came in, except in the broadest possibld stroke of “reuniting with ex”. Neither key character resembled Beatrice or Benedick in the slightest, though, and without that charisma and chemistry... Meh).

This is such a cute little space opera novella! It reminds me quite a bit of Star Wars with a little Firefly thrown in.

It is well written with great pacing even if the buildup takes a bit. The story really gets rolling a little bit before the half way point though. The characterization is entertaining and the world building is a great start.

It's a love story, but not forced in a way that many books and movies seem to have done lately. However, there could have been more non heterosexual relationships, but I understand the limitations with the length of the book. You get to see the most interactions between Triz and Kalo which is a bit disappointing.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book. It was a very quick read, but satisfying with a good buildup and successful execution. It was a little predictable, but not overly so. I'm not sure if the author plans to write more, but I think this would be a great setup for various stories in this universe.

Local star is a polyamorous space opera which follows Triz, a guttergirl (spaceship handywoman), her friend Casne and her ex Kalo. When Casne is accused of war crimes, Triz with the help of her ex, Kalo, must do everything she can in an attempt to save her, whilst also saving their Hab which comes under attack from the notorious Cyberbionautic Alliance (ceebees).
I picked this book up because it had polyamorous rep -which honestly is not something you see in books often. I loved how it normalised triads and quadfamilies (a family unit based around a four-person platonic, romantic and/or sexual relationship) as the norm, and it was super refreshing to see how poly relationships can also work in a platonic sense! Further, I adored how non-binary and neopronouns were normalised. For example there's a character which uses E (Spivak) pronouns and one of Casne's parents is referred to as the gender neutral Damu. Overall, fantastic LGBTQIA+ rep.
I really enjoyed the development of the relationship between Triz and Kalo, I really thought you got a sense of who Kalo was, even in such a short time frame! However, the same cannot be said for some of the other characters and relationships... The poly relationship developed by the end of the book just didn't feel right? Triz hardly had any interactions with Nan, and it almost seemed a bit like everyone had forgotten about her? I think this might be an issue with the length of the book, and I truly believe it would have benefited from being around 100 pages longer. Also, the focus on familial relationships, especially with Quelian, Casne's father, was nice to see.
A further issue is the pacing of the book (which again I think is caused by the length of it). I felt that there wasn't enough time focused actually on "main" plot point, and all of the action scenes seemed to be over very quickly, resulting in me just left wanting a little bit more. I also think the novella would have benefited from a bit more explanation of some aspects of the book, such as Triz's reasoning for disliking bodymods (why??) and the backstory of the villain (why are they the way the are? - currently it seems like they're just there for plot reasons).
Finally, the glossary at the end of the book was completely necessary and cleared up a lot of previous questions I had surrounding the new sci-fi world and some of the mechanisms. I just wish it would have been at the beginning of the book (or even mentioned at the beginning, so I knew it existed!)

Overall this book was a super quick & fun read, which I would recommend to all sci-fi fans, especially those who are dreaming of a bit more LGBTQIA+ rep (that's never found in popular sci-fi books unfortunately).

I wish I would have liked this one much more than I did. In the end, it didn't work for me.

I found that either the scope or the tone wasn't attuned to my liking. The first chapters envisioned a novel in which there was a lot to unravel (extended family relationships anxiety in polyamory partnerships, space opera setting, a breakup and the echoes of the earthquake it provided, a great cast of diverse characters, some class struggles), but Aimee Ogden decided to tunnel vision to a love triangle, which... seemed not polyam? enough?

The thing that didn't work for me about the queer polyamory love triangle was the lack of chemistry between an ex-pair. Triz and Kalo needed a little bit more of banter, or a little bit more of development, to find what was happening to them more credible. Instead, we get some tropey adventure-space opera situations, whose tone I didn't buy (why on earth if 'shitting stars' is the favorite curse, is Aimee Ogden being so pulcrous about saying that the MCs are covered in shit?), a blackmail situation that seems resolved just because... And some class-struggles that were just pinpointed as unpleasant and bad, without any pride whatsoever (it's clear that the MC is beyond relief not to be a gutter girl anymore).

I had lots of expectations to see Aimee Ogden's work in a longer form (I've liked some of her short stories), but in the end, Local Star didn't work for me. The only thing I did get is that extended family in polyamory relationships must be beyond stressful, but beyond that, I found very difficult to commit myself to the characters, the plot, the scope and the tone of this little novel.

Thanks to NetGalley and Interstellar Flight Press for providing me an eARC of this book

Ugh the characters and relationships in this are so cute and swoon-worthy. I just... I would die for this crew and do ANYTHING to protect them.

This is more or less a character story about relationships that uses sci-fi elements to push the narrative forward. You will laugh, you will cry... you will want to FIGHT some of these baddies just to protect and save the crew.

3.5 stars - rounded up for casual queernormativity AND the normalization of polyamory in a functional, practical, and totally believable way.

I feel like we didn't get quite enough of the events surrounding our main plot. It felt kind of like a bigger problem appeared out of nowhere that just happened to align with what our characters were already doing. I also wanted quite a bit more of Triz confronting her anti-mod prejudice - it comes up like twice with Triz getting shot down for it but not really internalizing why her prejudice is wrong.

It felt like we were supposed to get a novel but a lot of the extra weight was stripped away. That being said, I would 100% read that novel, returning to this world and these characters and even this conflict. I felt like we ended a chapter rather than the whole book. Though I guess that is often the problem with novellas.

Basically: badass queer military scifi novella where the main character isn't actually in the military and isn't secretly an amazing fighter - instead using ingenuity, the experiences of her sordid past, and an unlikely ally to save the day. Without compromising her character for the sake of heroics.