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Fortuna
(Nova Vita Protocol #1)
by
Fortuna launches a new space opera trilogy that will hook you from the first crash landing.
Scorpia Kaiser has always stood in Corvus’s shadow until the day her older brother abandons their family to participate in a profitless war. However, becoming the heir to her mother’s smuggling operation is not an easy transition for the always rebellious, usually reckless, and occas ...more
Scorpia Kaiser has always stood in Corvus’s shadow until the day her older brother abandons their family to participate in a profitless war. However, becoming the heir to her mother’s smuggling operation is not an easy transition for the always rebellious, usually reckless, and occas ...more
Kindle Edition, 448 pages
Published
October 8th 2019
by Orbit
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Start your review of Fortuna (Nova Vita Protocol, #1)

Nov 06, 2019
Mogsy (MMOGC)
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
science-fiction,
review-copy
4 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2019/11/11/...
Kristyn Merbeth, AKA K.S. Merbeth, the author behind the rollicking Wastelanders novels Bite and Raid, takes her brand of riotous adventure and thrills to even greater heights in Fortuna. In this action-packed space opera about a dysfunctional family of smugglers, we journey with Scorpia Kaiser and her mother and siblings aboard their titular ship across a galaxy filled with conflict and chaos.
As the eldest daughter and th ...more
Kristyn Merbeth, AKA K.S. Merbeth, the author behind the rollicking Wastelanders novels Bite and Raid, takes her brand of riotous adventure and thrills to even greater heights in Fortuna. In this action-packed space opera about a dysfunctional family of smugglers, we journey with Scorpia Kaiser and her mother and siblings aboard their titular ship across a galaxy filled with conflict and chaos.
As the eldest daughter and th ...more

Merbeth takes the family space crew trope and does a more than decent job with it. While this book isn't nearly as wackadoo as the author's excellent debut, Bite, it does share some of the same great qualities.
Merbeth's characters are real, and not just flawed, but downright seriously troubled. It is clear she has a good understanding of relationships and their complexity, and this provides a solid basis for an engaging story.
The two POV characters, Scorpia and her older brother Corvus, each ha ...more
Merbeth's characters are real, and not just flawed, but downright seriously troubled. It is clear she has a good understanding of relationships and their complexity, and this provides a solid basis for an engaging story.
The two POV characters, Scorpia and her older brother Corvus, each ha ...more

"The moment we hit atmosphere, my nerves dissipate into a rush of adrenaline that makes me feel like I'm floating. I'm barely aware of my hands moving over the control board or my eyes roving the screens; instead the incoming information merges with my own thoughts, which flow seamlessly into responses from the ship, as if Fortuna is an extension of my body, another limb."
Fortuna is yet another book that caught my eye on Twitter when I initially saw the cover. I filed it away in my chaotic brain ...more
Fortuna is yet another book that caught my eye on Twitter when I initially saw the cover. I filed it away in my chaotic brain ...more

Feb 16, 2019
Sana
marked it as anti-library
THIS IS ABOUT A WHOLE-ASS FAMILY OF SPACE SMUGGLERS, YESSSS

The Fortuna is a small crewed freighter in the Nova Vita system, a rarity in a time of increasing tension and isolationism in interplanetary politics. The Kaiser family survives through careful planning (each child of the family has a different planetary citizenship) and various legal and illegal jobs. Scorpia Kaiser is the ship's pilot who has lived her life in the shadow of her brother Corvus. Corvus has been off fighting a pointless and brutal war for three years, but he's about to return, an
...more

3.5 Promising space opera romp with (mostly) likable flawed characters with POV alternating between damaged sister and brother. Damage done quite realistically by their own cruel mother. Most of what know is through the sib’s internal thoughts. My main complaint was the inner thoughts became too wordy and repetitive. Ending gives foreshadowing of next book that promises more aliens in the plot.

Rating: 1.7/5
Review: I think this is a new writer and I am the first one to plant an ol’ review on here. So I am thinking kind(er) thoughts and expressing in a more…voluble way.
This would have been great…IF the story line either shjt or got off the pot. The long winded and winding road that leads to a culmination in barely audible farts, left me bereft of the want I feel for characters. Take for instance, Scorpia. Well, how many times do we have to experience her stupid choices and drunkard life ...more
Review: I think this is a new writer and I am the first one to plant an ol’ review on here. So I am thinking kind(er) thoughts and expressing in a more…voluble way.
This would have been great…IF the story line either shjt or got off the pot. The long winded and winding road that leads to a culmination in barely audible farts, left me bereft of the want I feel for characters. Take for instance, Scorpia. Well, how many times do we have to experience her stupid choices and drunkard life ...more

This was a great adventure story! Like all fantastic stories it pulled me in right away and kept my attention until the end. And I liked the characters too, which is a big plus. The plot sort of reminded me of Revenger by Alistair Reynolds, so if you like that one you might like this one too as the situation is very similar with a crew on a ship amid lots of danger.
The one character that brings this story to life is Scorpia. Without her this book would be pretty dead. Her siblings are nice but i ...more
The one character that brings this story to life is Scorpia. Without her this book would be pretty dead. Her siblings are nice but i ...more

A slow start to a plot that picks up eventually in this space opera with two PoVs: Scorpia and Corvus, half-siblings. They're part of a family that engages in trade between planets in a system. Each planet is markedly different from the other, and there are technological remnants of an extremely powerful alien race on these planets. This tech is central to some truly horrible happenings during this story. But what makes this book so enjoyable, though initially very painful, is the family dynamic
...more

This review and others can be read on my blog, Black Forest Basilisks.
Fortuna’s premise snagged me in an instant – a whole family of space smugglers! Devastating massacres! A young, roguish captain vying for power! How could I resist? Yet, while it didn’t disappoint… neither did it impress. Advertised as “Perfect for fans of Becky Chambers and Catherynne M. Valente,” I came in expecting both a fascinating, non-conventional setting combined with a cast of truly lovable and kind characters. Ultima ...more
Fortuna’s premise snagged me in an instant – a whole family of space smugglers! Devastating massacres! A young, roguish captain vying for power! How could I resist? Yet, while it didn’t disappoint… neither did it impress. Advertised as “Perfect for fans of Becky Chambers and Catherynne M. Valente,” I came in expecting both a fascinating, non-conventional setting combined with a cast of truly lovable and kind characters. Ultima ...more

Rating: ★★★☆☆+
Synopsis
Fortuna launches a new space opera trilogy that will hook you from the first crash landing.
Scorpia Kaiser has always stood in Corvus’s shadow until the day her older brother abandons their family to participate in a profitless war. However, becoming the heir to her mother’s smuggling operation is not an easy transition for the always rebellious, usually reckless, and occasionally drunk pilot of the Fortuna, an aging cargo ship and the only home Scorpia has ever known.
But wh ...more
Synopsis
Fortuna launches a new space opera trilogy that will hook you from the first crash landing.
Scorpia Kaiser has always stood in Corvus’s shadow until the day her older brother abandons their family to participate in a profitless war. However, becoming the heir to her mother’s smuggling operation is not an easy transition for the always rebellious, usually reckless, and occasionally drunk pilot of the Fortuna, an aging cargo ship and the only home Scorpia has ever known.
But wh ...more

Stop me if you've heard this before:
A broken-down freighter with a rag-tag crew gets itself involved in shady business. Hijinks ensue, there is interpersonal drama, someone probably dies, but everyone comes out the other side stronger for the challenge. Reading the summary, what I expected from this book was found-family fluff with a side of action; perhaps a slightly edgier version of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that's NOT what this book is.
Som ...more
A broken-down freighter with a rag-tag crew gets itself involved in shady business. Hijinks ensue, there is interpersonal drama, someone probably dies, but everyone comes out the other side stronger for the challenge. Reading the summary, what I expected from this book was found-family fluff with a side of action; perhaps a slightly edgier version of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that's NOT what this book is.
Som ...more

I want to thank Orbit Books for providing me with a copy to read Fortuna in exchange for my open and honest review.
Imagine Momma Fratelli from Goonies is your mother and ship captain. Except your ship is in space, and you are part of a family of smugglers. Your family is spectacularly chaotic, and you are trying to save millions of people. Fortuna is this story told by author Kristyn Merbeth previously writing as author K.S Merbeth in the Wastelanders duology.
I have had my eye on this book for m ...more
Imagine Momma Fratelli from Goonies is your mother and ship captain. Except your ship is in space, and you are part of a family of smugglers. Your family is spectacularly chaotic, and you are trying to save millions of people. Fortuna is this story told by author Kristyn Merbeth previously writing as author K.S Merbeth in the Wastelanders duology.
I have had my eye on this book for m ...more

A great start to a trilogy from an excellent new author! I love SF and I love complicated family dynamics and I love how the Kaiser siblings react to finding themselves in an unexpectedly pivotal position. I very much appreciate the care and attention Merbeth put into the siblings personalities and relationships because they felt real, and their interactions reminded me of shenanigans with my own siblings.
There's a lot to love here, and the story moves right along and kept me fully engaged from ...more
There's a lot to love here, and the story moves right along and kept me fully engaged from ...more

The Kaiser family is my new favorite space family.
I read Fortuna as an eARC from NetGalley, so thank you for the opportunity to read and review this novel.
Space. A family of smugglers. Political drama. How could I resist reading Fortuna with this sort of content?
Fortuna follows the story of the Kaisers, particularly the eldest two, Scorpia and Corvus, who follow in their Momma’s footsteps to be ruthless smugglers. After a job goes south, the Kaisers must decide once and for all how far they are ...more
I read Fortuna as an eARC from NetGalley, so thank you for the opportunity to read and review this novel.
Space. A family of smugglers. Political drama. How could I resist reading Fortuna with this sort of content?
Fortuna follows the story of the Kaisers, particularly the eldest two, Scorpia and Corvus, who follow in their Momma’s footsteps to be ruthless smugglers. After a job goes south, the Kaisers must decide once and for all how far they are ...more

In brief: Scorpia Kaiser is a screw-up, the family pilot, and out to prove she has what it takes to take over smuggling operations from Mama. Corvus Kaiser, exiled from his family to fight a war he doesn’t believe in, is finally coming home. Then a smuggling deal goes massively south and suddenly, what was going to be a difficult time becomes much, much worse. First of a trilogy.
Thoughts: For a book that starts with a drunken crash landing, this did not go anywhere close to where I thought it wo ...more
Thoughts: For a book that starts with a drunken crash landing, this did not go anywhere close to where I thought it wo ...more

Sci-fi adventure with complicated family dynamics
I was really frustrated with the first half of this book - it moved slowly and I absolutely hated one of our narrators, Scorpia (her brother Circus is the other). But once the main event finally kicked into gear, both horrible and fascinating, I couldn't put that book down. So in terms of pacing I guess you have to be patient and remember this is a planned trilogy, though there is a satisfying narrative arc in this book.
A little more on Scorpia, w ...more
I was really frustrated with the first half of this book - it moved slowly and I absolutely hated one of our narrators, Scorpia (her brother Circus is the other). But once the main event finally kicked into gear, both horrible and fascinating, I couldn't put that book down. So in terms of pacing I guess you have to be patient and remember this is a planned trilogy, though there is a satisfying narrative arc in this book.
A little more on Scorpia, w ...more

https://wittyandsarcasticbookclub.hom...
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest opinion. This book is available now.
Oh dear. I wanted to like this book, I really did. I’m a big fan of smuggling in stories in general, and especially in space (blame the incredible show Firefly). Unfortunately, this book was a giant resounding “meh” from me.
I can’t pinpoint anything really wrong with the book, it just didn’t keep my attention. The characters weren’t all tha ...more
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest opinion. This book is available now.
Oh dear. I wanted to like this book, I really did. I’m a big fan of smuggling in stories in general, and especially in space (blame the incredible show Firefly). Unfortunately, this book was a giant resounding “meh” from me.
I can’t pinpoint anything really wrong with the book, it just didn’t keep my attention. The characters weren’t all tha ...more

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest opinion. This book is available now.
Oh dear. I wanted to like this book, I really did. I’m a big fan of smuggling in stories in general, and especially in space (blame the incredible show Firefly). Unfortunately, this book was a giant resounding “meh” from me.
I can’t pinpoint anything really wrong with the book, it just didn’t keep my attention. The characters weren’t all that engaging, and Scorpia annoyed me. She w ...more
Oh dear. I wanted to like this book, I really did. I’m a big fan of smuggling in stories in general, and especially in space (blame the incredible show Firefly). Unfortunately, this book was a giant resounding “meh” from me.
I can’t pinpoint anything really wrong with the book, it just didn’t keep my attention. The characters weren’t all that engaging, and Scorpia annoyed me. She w ...more

PROS
-I enjoyed the characters and the family dynamic that was in this book. I had not read anything like it before.
-Good world building, or should I say universe building. I'm really fascinated by this universe and cannot wait to read the next to books to explore it even more.
-This was a great plot and I never knew what would happen next.
-Enjoyable writing style!
-Also LGBT rep!
CONS
-I'm not sure how many years this takes place in the future but I felt like the technology wasn't very advanced.
-Thr ...more
-I enjoyed the characters and the family dynamic that was in this book. I had not read anything like it before.
-Good world building, or should I say universe building. I'm really fascinated by this universe and cannot wait to read the next to books to explore it even more.
-This was a great plot and I never knew what would happen next.
-Enjoyable writing style!
-Also LGBT rep!
CONS
-I'm not sure how many years this takes place in the future but I felt like the technology wasn't very advanced.
-Thr ...more

It's a good one, but I couldn't finish because my personal life was hell at the moment. I can't pick it up again to read now; I need new stories to get comfortable with, get used to the activity of reading itself. But I'm going to reread this before the end of the year.
...more

4.2 / 5 ✪
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com...
Fortuna is the space opera debut from Wastelanders author Kristyn Merbeth. This one has been on my radar for a while, only partly due to its absolutely beautiful cover. Two siblings, separated by time and space, reunite at the turning point of all things.
Scorpia Kaiser once stood in her elder brother’s shadow. But when three years prior, he abandoned their family to fight in the war on his home world, she hoped this would change. Three years, and ...more
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com...
Fortuna is the space opera debut from Wastelanders author Kristyn Merbeth. This one has been on my radar for a while, only partly due to its absolutely beautiful cover. Two siblings, separated by time and space, reunite at the turning point of all things.
Scorpia Kaiser once stood in her elder brother’s shadow. But when three years prior, he abandoned their family to fight in the war on his home world, she hoped this would change. Three years, and ...more

The cover is so pretty and I wanted to like it so much. But there's just too many things about this that annoyed me.
Number one, for a book with a whole system full of inhabitable planets, the author sure did make the world feel small. Each planet seems to be condensed to a single community with particular defining traits. One planet has a president that represents the entire planet. I'm sorry, what? Can you imagine having a president of Earth? If it's something like only small parts of the plane ...more
Number one, for a book with a whole system full of inhabitable planets, the author sure did make the world feel small. Each planet seems to be condensed to a single community with particular defining traits. One planet has a president that represents the entire planet. I'm sorry, what? Can you imagine having a president of Earth? If it's something like only small parts of the plane ...more

I've had a run of bad books lately, and unfortunately this is another one. The worldbuilding in this one, while not outstanding, is adequate, and the setup could have been interesting. But the characters did this book in about halfway through.
I don't demand that my characters be likable. An unlikable character, if well-written with clear motivations and shades of grey, can be compelling. None of these characters meet that bar, except possibly for Corvus, and in the end he wasn't enough to overc ...more
I don't demand that my characters be likable. An unlikable character, if well-written with clear motivations and shades of grey, can be compelling. None of these characters meet that bar, except possibly for Corvus, and in the end he wasn't enough to overc ...more

2.5 stars
I wanted to like this book. I really did. However, about the only thing that I can say that sums this book up for me is "meh". It was a real struggle to get through because it was just so boring. There were a couple of neat ideas sprinkled in, and I realize that it's supposed to be a character driven narrative, but the characters were really uninteresting. I won't be reading any other books in this series.
That cover though! Right? ...more
I wanted to like this book. I really did. However, about the only thing that I can say that sums this book up for me is "meh". It was a real struggle to get through because it was just so boring. There were a couple of neat ideas sprinkled in, and I realize that it's supposed to be a character driven narrative, but the characters were really uninteresting. I won't be reading any other books in this series.
That cover though! Right? ...more

Read this review, and other Sci Fi/Fantasy reviews at The Quill to Live
I know it’s not exactly the best way to get excited about a book, but I was immediately attracted to Fortuna, by Kristyn Merbeth, when the eighties synthwave cover was revealed. When Orbit threw in a blurb likening the work to that of Becky Chambers, I was done for. No need to complete the chokehold with a synopsis about a family of space smugglers, but it was there anyway. Fortuna is a great book with a rollicking character- ...more
I know it’s not exactly the best way to get excited about a book, but I was immediately attracted to Fortuna, by Kristyn Merbeth, when the eighties synthwave cover was revealed. When Orbit threw in a blurb likening the work to that of Becky Chambers, I was done for. No need to complete the chokehold with a synopsis about a family of space smugglers, but it was there anyway. Fortuna is a great book with a rollicking character- ...more

I want to thank Orbit Books for providing me with a copy to read Fortuna in exchange for my open and honest review.
Imagine Momma Fratelli from Goonies is your mother and ship captain. Except your ship is in space, and you are part of a family of smugglers. Your family is spectacularly chaotic, and you are trying to save millions of people. Fortuna is this story told by author Kristyn Merbeth previously writing as author K.S Merbeth in the Wastelanders duology.
I have had my eye on this book for ...more
Imagine Momma Fratelli from Goonies is your mother and ship captain. Except your ship is in space, and you are part of a family of smugglers. Your family is spectacularly chaotic, and you are trying to save millions of people. Fortuna is this story told by author Kristyn Merbeth previously writing as author K.S Merbeth in the Wastelanders duology.
I have had my eye on this book for ...more

Fortuna tells the story of a smuggler family in a human-settled planetary system. The family's leader is a ferocious, uncompromising woman, who seems to have calculated even the brith planets of her children to best benefit the family business. The story is told from the point of views of the eldest, perfect son, Corvus, and the second eldest, alcoholic fuck-up, Scorpia. Scorpia is bitter that Corvus left them with no word to fight in the war in his home/birth planet, Titan and has been gone for
...more
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Goodreads Librari...: One Merbeth | 5 | 21 | Feb 11, 2020 11:46AM |
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Nova Vita Protocol
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