Sunward by William Alexander

TL;DR: The ending on this came out of nowhere, and I’m so confused.
Source: NetGalley – Thank you to the publisher!!

Plot: Swiss Cheese. There are so many holes and dangling loose bits by the end.
Characters: I liked the characters and the dynamic here.
Setting: Zooming around the galaxy to save a little bot, it was a fun setting if not super detailed.
SciFi/Cozy: There was some light scifi that we never got fully explained and I would hesitate to label this as Cozy.

Summary:

Captain Tova Lir chose a life as a courier rather than get involved in her family’s illustrious business in politics. Set in humanity’s far future, hiring a planetary courier is essential for delivering private messages across the stars.

Encouraged by friends, Tova begins mentoring baby bots, juvenile AI who are developmentally in their teens, and trains them how to interact within society essentially becoming their foster mom. Her latest charge, Agatha Panza von Sparkles, named herself on their first run from Luna to Phoebe station. But on their return, they encounter a derelict spaceship and a lurking assassin, igniting a thrilling chase across the solar system.

Tova and Agatha’s daring actions leave Agatha’s mind vulnerable, relying on Tova’s former AI pupils for help. As Tova starts gathering her scattered family around her, she is chased through the solar system by forces who want her captured and her family erased. This debut science fiction novel by National Book Award–winning author William Alexander is a must-read for fans of Becky Chambers and Ursula K. Le Guin. Lovers of poignant science fiction, where the bonds of found family, the evolution of AI, and the building distrust of centuries of bias, come together in this visionary look at humanity’s future.

Thoughts:

What happened here? I’m so disappointed by the ending of this. Sunward had such a great premise. Captain Tova is attempting to save the life of the child bot she is fostering and training and ends up bringing together previous bots she had trained. There is some conclusion here but so much was said or done and then completely left in the dust. From the start I really liked the idea of bots being fostered for a time with a non-bot to train them. Tova is interesting, but reads a lot like any other modern ‘cozy book female lead’. She’s quirky, anti-social to a degree, and prone to talking to herself. That would be totally fine if we weren’t left going “What about everything else?” in the end.

This truly felt like an unfinished novel. There is a bare hint of a romance, there are teases to more bots, and more worlds. There is a huge ‘we don’t go here, but oops she went there’ moments that are just ignored. Reasons are given but not explained for huge plot events. There are no big repercussions for anything that happen. We might get a hint at what could be but our characters skate around any big risk.

It almost feels like someone thought ‘cozy’ meant invisible plot armor. Cozy is low stakes, but things happen and characters deal with things. Where here we are shown things, meet people, and we have so much potential but it’s all avoided by the magic of plot. Tova avoids any consequences or any big change. I finished this feeling like I was missing a huge chunk of the book. Where was the rest? This had such potential for a 5 star, and now I’m just frustrated.