I’m back with the The Storytellers on Tour today with a Book Blitz for Dim Stars by Brian P. Rubin and I’ll be sharing my first impressions of the book so far. Thanks to the author for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!

Don’t forget to scroll to the end of the post to enter the GIVEAWAY (International) for the chance to win a signed paperback copy of the book!

Goodreads: Dim Stars
Publisher: Critical Eye Publishing
Publication Date: 20 October 2020
Genre: Young Adult Sci-Fi

Kenzie Washington, fourteen-year-old girl genius, signs up for a two-week tour as a cadet on the spaceship of her idol, Captain Dash Drake. Too bad Dash, who once saved the galaxy from the evil Forgers, is a broke loser and much less than meets the eye. But when an intergalactic evil appears and launches an attack, Dash, Kenzie, and the ship’s crew escape, making them the next target. On the run and low on gas, Dash and Kenzie encounter cannibal space-pirates, catastrophic equipment failure, and a cyborg who’s kind of a jerk. Kenzie is determined to discover the bad guys’ secret plan. But for her to succeed, Dash needs to keep his brilliant, annoying cadet from getting killed …which is a lot harder than it sounds.

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Brian P. Rubin has written articles and blogs for City Pages, Geek Magazine, Machinima’s Inside Gaming Daily, ReadWrite, Looper, and Grunge, among several others that both time and the Internet have forgotten. He even wrote questions for Trivial Pursuit, none of which actually wound up in the final game. So that’s cool. His first novel, Dim Stars: A Novel of Outer-Space Shenanigans, was published in 2020. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with his family.

Author Socials:
Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

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My first impression of Dim Stars has been really positive so far! I already found myself laughing from the first chapter—Squix makes a hilarious first impression, and from that point on I knew I was going to love this crew, their adventures and the trouble they’d get into. The crew is an odd mix of quirky humans and aliens and despite them finding it difficult to get along initially, in times of chaos, they work well together as a team! We have:

• Captain Drake: jaded war hero down on his luck (i.e. broke AF) and currently scamming “short-cutting” his way through life. he’s slightly aggro and plays nice sometimes, albeit reluctantly.
• Squix: the Gremlin’s first-mate, a highly-anxious octopus. doesn’t have much of a filter and is hilarious! absolutely precious and must be protected at all costs.
• Kenzie: a young genius who reads a lot and knows things most people don’t. she worships Drake and she regularly quotes his book (even to him). has good intentions that sometimes result in Bad Things Happening™️ but is determined to use every experience onboard the Gremlin beef up her Academy application. never gives up!
• Jo: a teenager of the rock alien species. “social media” obsessed and is constantly scrolling through her feed. finds very little funny, hardly smiles, can be very sarcastic.
• Vor: jo’s brother who no longer has a mouth (because he uh… etched it one too many times?), a sweet boi, loves to watch tech work and also loves to take everything apart.
• Doctor Bill: originally the built-in load-lifter in the cargo bay who was re-programmed to be the… resident doctor of the Gremlin (you know, so Drake doesn’t have to pay to keep an actual doctor on staff 😂).

The writing flows well and it’s easy to get sucked into the story and world-building, plus there’s an easy humour in the story that I’m really enjoying. Safe to say I have been laughing a fair bit! The story is set in an interesting galactic world with a wide-range of alien species, many of whom are still of unknown planetary origins, and all of them have their own cultures and customs. It’s pretty interesting and thankfully not at all overwhelming! I think this is a world that is rich in potential should the author want to write more space adventures.

The story really picks up at around the 20% mark and it’s fast-paced action from that point on! Did I mention that there are SPACE PIRATES too?! I honestly can’t wait to get back to this story because shit keeps going wrong in the funniest ways and I want to know what happens next! 😃

Have you read Dim Stars or is it on your TBR?