Persephone Station

September 7, 2020
Leicht’s sprawling, frenetic science fiction take on The Seven Samurai founders due to an overcrowded plot and characters that lean heavily on cultural stereotypes. The shape-shifting Emissaries are indigenous to the storm-wracked planet Persephone, colonized 150 years ago by the human Serrao-Orlov Corporation. When rogue Serrao-Orlov executive Vissia Corsini attempts to seize Persephone to co-opt Emissary technology, Corsini’s former friend, burned-out nonbinary crime boss Rosie Ashmore, sends trans, disabled, former marine Angel de la Reza and her crew of skilled mercenaries to protect the planet. Alongside Kennedy Liu, an illegally created clone drawn to Persephone by an online plea for help, martial artist Angel and her crew must destroy Serrao-Orlov’s claim to Persephone, save the Emissaries from the threat of genocide, and solve the mystery behind a rogue AI. Despite fast-paced, no-nonsense prose, this first foray into science fiction from fantasy author Leicht (Blackthorn) is overcrowded with an abundance of low-impact, short-term conflicts, unnecessary twists, and convoluted backstory. And though the gender diversity is well handled, the novel’s anti-colonialist themes are undermined by the depiction of the alien Emissaries, which falls into uncomfortable noble savage tropes. This pop culture amalgam reaches for the sky, but comes up short. Agent: Hannah Bowman, Liza Dawson Assoc.

November 1, 2020

Persephone is a small planet that has been bought from the church by Serraeo-Orlov Corporation for mining rights. There are ancient ruins of a civilization, but the planet is thought to be uninhabited except for a lot of deadly plants and wildlife. There is, however, a sentient species living out in the deserts that an ex-monk-turned-crime-boss in the company town of Brynner seeks to protect. Through corporate assassinations a new CEO comes to power who knows of the beings, known as the Emissaries, and the advanced technologies they possess, but she wants to exploit the Emissaries instead. Rosie, the crime boss, hires Angel and her crew of misfit ex-marines and friends to protect the Emissaries against the Corporate Military. Will anyone survive? VERDICT This enjoyable and thrilling read features excellent worldbuilding and lively characterizations. The engaging crew and well-drawn plot will have readers hoping this will become a series.--Cynde Suite, Bartow Cty. Lib. Syst., Adairsville, GA

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2020
In this earnest space opera, an ensemble of badass women and nonbinary and queer characters fight corporate overlords on the semilawless planet Persephone. A century ago, the Emissaries, hidden beings indigenous to Persephone, gave the gift of prolonged life to Rosie, a nonbinary cleric-colonizer, and Vissia, now head of the corporation that owns the planet. Despite and because of that gift, Vissia's bent on exploiting the Emissaries until nothing is left. Rosie, now a crime boss, enlists Angel, the expelled former student of an all-female martial arts academy, and her team of revivified United Republic of Worlds soldiers, to protect the Emissaries. Unless they can be convinced to reveal themselves and join the URW, making the corporate claim on Persephone void, the odds are not in their favor. With clear nods to Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven, complete with an AI ship named Kurosawa, this has all the makings of a great SF adventure, but it doesn't have the depth to pull it off. With too many sluggish infodumps and a broad diversity checklist to hit regardless of authenticity, the narrative gets tangled and many threads get lost. So much so that a story trying to champion Indigenous autonomy makes "the benefits of assimilation" the final goal. Rosie, however, is a bright spot. Their gender-fluid nonbinariness is just one part of a delightfully complex, genuine, and amoral character who could make this novel worth your time. Readers willing to overlook the endless exposition may enjoy some diversity that's often missing in SF.

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January 1, 2021
This space western follows a group of mercenaries hired to defend the previously unreported indigenous inhabitants of the planet Persephone from the Serrao-Orlov corporation. Angel de le Reza and her crew of former marines, all of whom suffer from their frequent deaths and revivifications, are caught in the power struggle between their crime boss employer Rosie and psychotic Serrao-Orlov executive Vissia Orsini over the fate of Persephone's population. As Angel and company attempt to fulfill their contract to defend the mysterious Emissaries, their story becomes intertwined with that of Kennedy Liu, a sentient AI in disguise as a human who has come to Persephone for her own reasons. Leicht presents a well-developed future setting full of characters with diverse cultural backgrounds and sexualities while also creating a tight narrative complete with brutal and effective action scenes. With a plot reminiscent of the various cultural variations on the Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven (Angel's ship is even named Kurosawa), Leicht's latest (after Blackthorne, 2017) will appeal to anyone looking for a dusty, dangerous sf adventure.

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