Skeleton Crew

The ONLY reason I gave a book like this a try is that a good friend who has similar taste in reading material strongly recommended it. He loaned me his copy to let me read the first two chapters. That was enough to convince me. I ordered all three books of the series and read the rest of the first one in one sitting. I look forward to reading the other two -- just hopefully at a more reasonable pace! Five stars. Highly recommend.

Welcome to the White Flower II, a space ship filled with geroo, a roo-ish alien race controlled by the krakun, a dragon-like alien race. The White Flower II is on the precipice of disaster. Disaster that may hinge on the actions of Kanti: a geroo living on borrowed time, who accidentally finds himself in a case of mistaken identity, finding himself in the process. This is a lovely sci-fi romp with a rich world to explore and characters to meet. The world building is exceptional and I couldn't help be engaged in Kanti's journey, wanting him to succeed despite the odds stacked against him. This tale does a great job with a slow build of tension, the spectral of the titular "skeleton crew" haunting the narrative in an effective manner. But the best part is following Kanti's journey through himself, seeing him open up to others, build relationships, and be more comfortable with himself and who he actually is, the foundation of which the rest of the series is built upon. There's additional flavor added by following Ateri, the captain of the White Flower II, put in an impossible situation, while attempting to find the balance between the safety of his crew and the wills of the ship's krakun owner.

So I finished reading all there books in Gre7g Luterman's The Kanti Cycle (Skeleton Crew, Small World and Fair Trade) and it had me hooked from the first page of “Skeleton Crew” through “Small World” till the final page of “Fair Trade” following Kanti on his journey! Poor Kanti, that geroo had such a rough life starting on the White Flower II but still managed to never lose hope even when things were at the darkest when he was on Krakuntec! What really hit the spot for me was that no matter where the protagonist went, he always had friends who kept his spirits up, they never once told him to give up, they inspired him to do better and he too also wanted improve lives of those around him. Also I loved how the art done by Rick Griffin beautifully painted interesting moments as they happened in the story. But I'm not going to spoil the story for you! No No NO!!! #SpoilerFree The only real spoiler I'll give is to both Rick Griffin and Gre7g Luterman is that I will be picking up “Traitors, Thieves, and Liars" as well as others books by them as soon as I can and start reading those as well!

I thoroughly enjoyed “Skeleton Crew” and thought Mr. Luterman did an excellent job of setting the scene on The White Flower II. Enter Kanti, a nobody geroo caught against odds with the system that threatens to expose his secret. When his only friend is killed in an accident, he has no choice but to resume his identity. Things only get more complicated from there. This book tosses the reader into the fray along side the Geroo, a race “employed” by the Krakun, giant dragons out to seize any new galactic resources they can get their claws on. It is a thrilling ride, and may leave you with more questions than answers. Kanti and the rest of the cast are flawed, likable and passionate. At its core, this is really a story about finding your place in the universe and learning to be happy with what you have. Highly recommended for anyone looking for something a little bit different.

I just read Rick Griffin's book in the same universe and was pleased to see the ship through a different lens, getting to know the backstory and life on the lower decks. Might even be better to start with this one. I liked the characters and felt for them and the plot resolution was extremely satisfying but the romantic plot was perhaps a little unconvincing to me at first.

Gre7g does an incredible job of crafting the environment of "The White Flower II," the generation ship in which the Geroo go about their daily lives. Each detail about the ship's operation and its place in the greater universe of Hayven Celestia is meticulously thought out. A wonderful change of pace from "chosen one" stories, our protagonist Kanti is a lovable and relatable character who is relatively un-special, save for a secret he holds that will enrage their Krakun commissioner, and a bit of luck that gives him a second chance at life. Furry fans of scifi will absolutely love the setting and the illustrations (also I highly recommend looking up Rick Griffin's species reference sheets for even more detail), and the characters are wonderfully fleshed out with considerations to the species specific anatomy, emotional behaviors and responses, culture, religious beliefs, and diet. I can't recommend this series enough!

This was the first book I've read that takes in the Hayven Celestia universe. Rick Griffin created some very cute anthropomorphic species in it that Gre7g brought to life in a magnificent way. The "cute" obviously doesn't include the Krakun, which anyone that reads this book will learn to despise to some degree. I liked the way the story progressed and how it was structured. It had the right amount of detail and dialogue, which made it easy for me to enjoy reading it, as I'm not fond of tedious descriptions of the surroundings that slow down the pace. The story felt a bit short to me but it didn't affect the plot and it had memorable moments (keep in mind I binge read it in a couple of days). Anyone that's interested in sci-fi, anthropomorphic animals or a good plot (or all three) will enjoy it for sure.

I enjoyed this book immensely, sci-fi is very hit and miss for me too so this is big praise. The Geroo universe, species, ship and environment were very well presented without waffling on unnecessarily. The pacing was good leaving plenty of world-building tid-bits (the stuff I really enjoy) along the way as the plot progressed. Kanti's complication was interesting and worth anticipating the resolution. The author really made me fall in love with the characters & empathize with their emotions, he is very talented at writing heart felt and gut wrenching scenes.

Without going into too much spoiler territory, this is a good read for anyone who likes the anthropomorphic animal scifi genre. As a reader of very large scifi/fantasy novel sets (Night's Dawn Trilogy anyone?) I can say that this could easily stand on it's own in a regular scifi collection. The somewhat cartoony illustrations caters to the furry fandom as a primary target audience, but serves the text well enough that it's not too distracting to people unfamiliar with the art style. The story is excellent, and I'd love to see it published also with a cover that caters to non-niche scifi readers as well (a painting of the colony ship in interstellar space would be epic). The writing is vivid and descriptive, the characters believable, relate-able, and the science fiction concepts are clever and well described in all the ways you expect in a proper scifi novel. This is the first book I've read by this author, but I'm already looking forward to the next release in this series. I've attached some pictures of the book I received through Amazon to show the book is perfect-bound and the cover is a nice semi-gloss card with slightly raised black areas and the paper-weight and printing is very high quality, yielding a nice weight in the hands, and rich black text and interior illustrations on white matte book paper. Very satisfied!