Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R19D...Engaging Space Opera.I thoroughly enjoyed Crystal Rain, the first installment of Tobias Buckell's Xenowealth series. That book introduced us to John deBrun and Pepper. Pepper was presented as the most dangerous man in existence; deBrun was presented as extremely competent. The pair are shipwrecked on the fallen and lost human colony world of Nanagada. Buckell bases Nanagada culture on the culture of the Caribea...

Humans are second-class citizens in the galaxy, technically free but realistically under the control of the aliens of the Satrapcy, who control the wormhole network and also have ways of controlling minds. But Nashara is an agent from a sealed-off human world who carries a weapon.... one that might be humanity's only shot, as the Satraps may be switching from a policy of repression of humanity to one of extermination. Ragamuffin is part of Tobias Buckell's Xenowealth universe. It's technically t...

Ragamuffin is my book from Grenada for the Read The World challenge. It’s a science fiction novel about a universe where humans share space with various other species and can travel from world to world via wormholes. Some of them come from a world which was settled by people from the Caribbean, hence the title and a certain amount of West Indian-inflected dialogue.It was quite entertaining, I guess; I’m not really much of an SF fan. I read a lot at one stage because my brother used to read them,...

I love a space opera, but the science bits were a bit hard to wrap my head around in this one, particularly the novum of the lamina, which is a kind of data interface--it's obviously a very complex thing but it made the first few chapters a hard read. It might be that it translates better as visuals, not text. Once the plot gets going, though, it was a swift read, with compelling characters--even the side characters who start off antagonistic are worth being sad for. (I feel an Etsudo/Cayenne sh...

As I mentioned in my review of Crystal Rain , I enjoyed reading Tobias Buckell's debut novel, but I enjoyed reading the sequel, Ragamuffin (Tor, 2008), even more. This may be because Buckell has grown as a writer or it may be because Ragamuffin is more a traditional galaxy-spanning space opera, one of my favorite subgenres. But another reason is that there are more prominent libertarian themes in Ragamuffin than there were in Crystal Rain, enough that it was a finalist for the 2008 Promet...

Entertaining sci fi novel. Nothing too crazy or unique but what it does it does well. It has some interesting concepts. I read it while travelling and it's a good, short novel for that.

Buckell's sophomore effort is a mixed bag, with a medley of characters that span the cosmos. You will be wowed on this journey. And then you will be confused. There is a lot going on here.Maybe I missed the inter-galactic bus here by jumping in at book 2 (Crystal Rain is the predecessor), but I don't think so. The book lacks clear labeling as to being a sequel, and it is apparent in its writing that the author wished for this to stand on its own.As a whole, it starts strong, alternates in qualit...

This is the 2nd book in the Xenowealth Series by Tobias S. Buckell. In most series the 1st book is the best and they go down hill from there. In this case the 2nd book, Ragamuffin, is much better than the 1st book, Crystal Rain. I'm not saying that Crystal Rain was a bad read because it was in fact a good read. This book is just much better. In this one while the humans trapped on the planet New Anegada a.k.a. Nanagada are dealing with their new found freedom from the alien Teotl the rest of hum...

Couldn't make it through this one. And it wasn't even the full piece. I wanted to like Tobias S. Buckell, I really did. He's a well-known blogger, and he's popular among the other writers I read. But I just couldn't get my head around it. Just couldn't care. Some girl escapes an enclosed city to go into space. I never get a grasp on what world she's in, what she's trying to do, or why I care. The people around her do things for seemingly no reason. This is one of the things I don't like about sc...

THRILLING!

Do you enjoy space opera with a little Caribbean flavor? Do wormholes and rum sound like the perfect mixture for a good time? If you are like me (and let’s hope you are not, that could be messy), you likely have no standard in which to answer these questions. I could count on one hand how many Caribbean-flavored space operas I’ve read, and still be sporting a closed fist at the end. Yes that’s right, zero Caribbean space operas for me. I suddenly feel so sheltered.Luckily, Tobias Buckell decided...

4.5 to 5.0 stars. Superb sequel to the excellent Crystal Rain by Tobias S. Buckell. Absolutely loved it. Terrific characters (Pepper is just great), outstanding world-building and alien cultures and, best of all, a well written, really good story. Highly recommended!!Nominee: Nebula Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (2008)Nominee: Prometheus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (2008)

I found myself wishing someone would make Ragamuffin into a movie. Or rather, a mini-series, because making it a movie would require remove about three quarters of the plot, but I think most of it could fit into a mini-series. It's got a very cinematic quality. Nashara, the protagonist, does not indulge in a lot of introspection. When faced with problems, she generally responds with the extremely precise application of violence, or perhaps more accurately, forcefully applied kinetic energy.It co...

When I read Crystal Rain in 2008, I thought it was one of the freshest science fiction novels I had read in a long time. It was an exciting adventure story taking place in a well-developed culture. It explored the idea of what would happen if a human colony got cut off from all the other human colonies. I liked it so much, that I did put Ragamuffin on my mental to-look-for list. I finally checked a copy out of the library and sat down to read it. Sadly, I was quite disappointed. You know how a b...

Sequel to Crystal Rain, more interesting but also less coherent than its predecessor. Here the story zooms out from Nanagada to the wider universe, where humans live under the not-so-benevolent dictatorship of the Satrapy. Nashara has been designed as the ultimate weapon against the Satrapy, and she's trying to join forces with the Ragamuffin, the space pirates who represent one of humanity's last independent forces. A few problems: first, the new characters introduced in part one and the older

Just as fast paced and exciting as book 1. However, if you're expecting the story to pick up anywhere near where Crystal Rain left off, you're in for a shock. The story starts in a completely different place (literally) and introduces us to the (much) larger universe. Then about one-third of the way through it takes a sharp left turn and brings us back to familiar characters and locations. And it all works better than I thought it would! The cover art is fantastic, as is the scene it depicts.The...

Really enjoyed this one, even if it felt a bit disjointed at times.I've once again read the second book in a series, without having read the first.Will be going back to find the first one when I can.Nice piece of world-building here, or rather "Universe-Building". Some very cool characters here.Well worth the read.

Another one where the ideas were super interesting, but the plot confused me and I never get really engaged in the story.

"Bring me guns," Pepper said. "Lots of guns."

Aw, darn. I didn't realize till looking here on goodreads that this is #2 in a series. I even own #1, sitting somewhere in the TBR boxes. So - I have to admit that perhaps some of my issues with the book might be cleared up by having read the first book first. It's space opera.It is an action book. It goes at a mile-a-minute, and something totally new is happening every 3 pages. There is no pausing for explanation, introspection, or anything else.It's in 3 parts.The first part deals solely with