The Sword and Laser discussion

From the beginning of this book I got the feeling that parts of it started out as fanfic of other properties. (modest spoilers below I suppose...)

(view spoiler)[First off the Firefly vibe is obvious. A ragtag crew, found family, operating barely within the law and sometimes outside it. Then the mechanic shows up, completely like Kaylee with exceptional ability and a late addition to an existing, tight knit crew.

And then...perhaps Deep Space Nine. They start on an interstellar base. The mechanic is on the run from the station manager following a same-sex affair with the manager's wife. Felt to me like Miles O'Brien mirror-universe style, angry at Keiko for the affair.

And then on to, well, more books than can be counted: The "enemies to lovers" trope. It's so well worn that people identified the love interest from his introduction, and pegged the book as a romance before there had otherwise been any hint.

The Valoffs could easily be Romulans: Disciplined, tough, more powerful than humans, given to strong emotions.

Anyhoo I liked it fine, but I am modestly curious if the author started out like the writer of "50 Shades of Grey" with fanfic and then went in a new direction. Well, it's fun to speculate anyway.

I've got the second book tagged in the library and will cheerfully read it when it is available. (hide spoiler)]

I definitely got a real Firefly feel as well. The Deep Space Nine connection was brought up by someone else (or maybe you in another post) and it never occured to me while I was reading the book but it really clicked for me as soon as someone pointed it out.

To riff on Tom and Veronica's discussion about the spectrum between comfortable familiarity and boring cliche, this book hit hard in the comfortable familiarity for me. It made it a cozy read and I think that really helped to bring the SF and romance aspects together because it's kind of a natural intersection for the genres.

Agree with @Matthew, this was a very familiar and comfortable read for me as well, except I was unprepared for and embarrassed by the sexy-times lol!

My initial thoughts were Firefly + Shards of Honor (Vorkosigan Saga) + Castle (TV show) but when someone else mentioned
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, I definitely agree that's in there as well.

Frankly I think you are projecting on to the book.

There is so little world building and we spend all our time in a small ship or in an Estate that we can not say anything about the societies that shaped the protagonists. This is like masking in animation and comics where you have characters with bland characteristics that you can project onto.

There is no there there.