Serena’s Review: “Full Speed to a Crash Landing”

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Book: “Full Speed to a Crash Landing” by Beth Revis

Publishing Info: DAW, August 2024

Where Did I Get this Book:

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Ada Lamarr may have gotten to the spaceship wreck first, but looter’s rights won’t get her far when she’s got a hole in the side of her ship and her spacesuit is almost out of air. Fortunately for her, help arrives in the form of a government salvage crew—and while they reluctantly rescue her from certain death, they are not pleased to have an unexpected passenger along on their classified mission.

But Ada doesn’t care—all that matters to her is enjoying their fine food and sweet, sweet oxygen—until Rian White, the government agent in charge, starts to suspect that there’s more to Ada than meets the eye. He’s not wrong—but he’s so pretty that Ada is perfectly happy to keep him paying attention to her—at least until she can complete the job she was sent to pull off. But as quick as Ada is, Rian might be quicker—and she may not be entirely sure who’s manipulating who until it’s too late…

Review: I’ve had a bit of a mixed reading experience with this author’s books. I read her YA science fiction novel, “Across the Universe,” years ago and really struggled with it. But then, more recently, I absolutely loved “Night of the Witch,” which Revis wrote collaboratively with another author. Given the strength of my more recent experience, I’d been eying this upcoming novella for a bit before the publisher reached out about potential coverage, and I was decided!

And I’m happy to report that the positive trajectory continues, and I very much enjoyed this short, science fiction romp of a ride! The story is told in the first person which places a lot of pressure on the strength of the narrator to carry the story. And Ada was well up to the task! At first, she had the potentially of falling into the trap of “snark machine” without much substance to back it up. But as the story continued, it became clear that Ada was not a super reliable narrator, leaving the reader to the enjoyable task of attempting to piece together what was really going on as the story progressed. I also enjoyed the presentation of the other crew members, as seen through Ada’s eyes. Again, the use of first person was very successful in presenting these characters through a limited character’s view point, with Ada’s first impressions needing adjustment as she comes to better understand those around her.

I also really enjoyed the plot and action of the story. This is a novella, so there’s a lot to crunch into a fairly small page count. Not only do you have the romantic elements (more on that later), but there was entire adventure to get through, with numerous high stakes scenes. The book starts off in the middle of one of these tense moments, with Ada stranded in her broken down ship with only minutes-worth of air left. And from there, the story quickly bounces into even higher stakes as the salvage crew gets to work. With such high stakes and so much fact-paced plotting, it was sometimes easy to miss the more detailed world-building that went into the story. But whenever I came up for air, I would look back a realize just how fully fleshed out this universe, and the life of a salvager like Ada, felt.

I also, overall, liked the beginnings of the romance, though I will say that this was perhaps one of the weaker elements of the story. While Revis does show much restraint in only marginally moving this “relationship” forward (this is all that would make any sense given the fact that the entire book takes place over a few days’ time), it still felt like a bit too much at times, too close to insta-lust. But I was so well-satisfied with the fact that the envelope wasn’t pushed too far on this point, and the fact that the next book is coming out in a few months’ time, to complain too much.

The only thing that really stood out was the manner in which the book wrapped up. After the primary action is concluded, and Ada is off on her next adventure, the book concludes with several pages’ worth of epistolary material, mostly Rian’s reports on the events of the book and various messages he sends piecing together more information on Ada itself. While all of this information was interesting and crucial to enlightening Rian (and the reader) to some of the details of Ada’s life and plan, it did read as rather clunky and tacked on.

Overall, I really enjoyed this read! I blew through it in a single sit-down and am anxious to get to the next book! Readers of adventure science fiction (and those patiently waiting for more romantic science fiction to come out and catch up to the romantasy boom!) should definitely check this one out.

Rating 8: Jam-packed with adventure and intrigue, with a healthy dose of romance sprinkled on top, I can’t wait to jet off on Ada’s next high stakes adventure!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Full Speed to a Crash Landing” can be found on this Goodreads list: [ATY 2025] Science Fiction or Fantasy by a Woman