Overall rating: 4.5.
Skeleton Crew has some of the best world building I’ve read, and it’s not a genre I normally read. I was captivated by the lives of the Geroo – furry aliens that are slaves in all but name – to the dragon-like Krakun. Kanti’s growth from near invisible, struggling Geroo, to someone confident and courageous was a fun ride. As I read, I kept trying to think of similar reads, and Anne McCaffrey’s Doona or John Scalzi’s Fuzzy Nation are probably the closest (but those both have human MC’s).
The narrator was fantastic. I’ve never listened to Piers Ryman before, and he gave Kanti’s story more gravitas than the cartoon cover suggests. I’ll have to find more books narrated by him (no more are available in this series yet).
A word of caution, this is not a children’s book. There is adult (albeit alien) content – although minimal, and not unexpected during the course of the plot.
Gre7g Luterman also interweaves the main ship wide plot with Kanti’s struggles seamlessly. Really, the only weakness was the insta-love, and even that relationship made me smile at times, but I’m knocking off half a star because it’s always all about the romance!