Five Unicorn Flush: 01/03/21

Five Unicorn Flush by T.J. Berry is the sequel to Space Unicorn Blues (2018). Gary Cobalt and his father are exiled to a distant planet with all the other Bala. Meanwhile Captain Jenny will do anything to find the Bala prison planet and reunite with her dryad wife. But it might be a slow, life long process as there is only one remaining, functioning FTL drive and it belongs to the Reason.

Like the first book, this one has everything I like about The Last Unicorn, the Discworld series, and the Hitchhiker's Guide series, all under one cover.

The plot is intricate and fleshed out with details that are simultaneously ridiculous and totally believable. FTL travel works by unicorn horn (which there isn't any because of the Bala exile). The earliest slow-ships were so poorly planned that the surviving ones have resorted to institutionalized cannibalism. Rockships are hollowed out asteroids, manned by dwarves.

It's also a universe with queer representation. Not just the humans. The Bala too. Asking about and respecting one's pronouns are normalized. It's done organically as part of character and world building.

I don't know if a third one is planned but I would definitely read it.

Four stars

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