Review: Wistful Ascending by JCM Berne

Blurb:

A superhero space opera for grownups.

For fans of Invincible and Marvel Cinematic Universe films.
If Thor and Harry Dresden combined in a transporter accident.

The il’Drach have conquered half a galaxy behind the civilization-ending Powers of their mixed-species children.
Half-human Rohan, exhausted by a decade fighting for their Empire, has paid a secret and terrible price for his freedom.
Now retired, he strives to live a quiet life towing starships for the space station Wistful. His most pressing problems are finding the perfect cup of coffee and talking to a gorgeous shuttle tech without tripping over his own tongue.
A nearby, long-dormant wormhole is opened by a shipful of scared, angry refugees, and the many eyes of the Empire focus uncomfortably on Wistful.
As scientists, spies, and assassins converge, reverting to the monster the Empire created is the surest way to protect his friends. And the surest way to lose them.

Review:

This was fun but also had depth with the characters and plot. The writing was phenomenal, incredibly engaging. I am usual one for quieter, darker reads with more morally gray-black MCs, but this was almost peppy and I still found that I quite enjoyed it.

That’s not to say that it didn’t have its dark moments, it did, but the PoV character’s voice/personality didn’t linger long on those. There was a solid amount of humor, and two characters in particular had particularly good banter. 

If you’re looking for tightly written, excellently choreographed action scenes, look no further. I’m not sure it can be done better than this at least at the scale of one on one+ person fights. That was absolutely the best part of this book for me and what kept me reading through areas where I admittedly might have DNFed a less engaging book. 

The world/system was also quite fun and I loved the way that the concept of telekenetic powers were woven into other aspects of the world like living ships. 

While I had a lot of fun with the book, in a few points the story was a bit weak. What various species know or don’t know about other species was occasionally used to forward character dynamics in a way that I didn’t find convincing.

Given that this was offered up in a discussion of old-school comics, I did kind of go in with more of that expectation than what I got. This had more modern vibes with the atmosphere, voice, and especially the MC’s emotions, motivations, and reasoning—which I think will mesh with most readers. I was kind of expecting more of a morally gray anti-hero MC, but the MC’s moral failings, if one can call them that, are largely genetic. 

There is a good deal of overlap with old-school comics though, mostly in content. Again, the action was phenomenal. I can’t overstate that. And plot-wise there was a lot going on but executed with an almost casual efficiency. 

I really enjoyed this whole vibe, writing, and the story. The strong writing really overshadows the minor flaws, and I highly recommend this if you’re looking for something that’s just good fun.

Subgenres: Science Fantasy, Superhero

Romance: Side Plot

Spice: No

Premise: Superhero + Russian Space Bears + political/species conflicts

Highlight: Excellently choreographed action scenes

Vibes: Peppy with dark moments, character focused

PoV: 3rd Limited, single PoV

Tense: Past

Time Period: Future, space stations