I love a good space opera. You add on LGBTQ+ to space opera and you can guarantee I’m going to be interested in reading it. But there’s something that needs to be said about novels that claim to be space operas: They need to be operatic. Redsight obviously wants to be operatic, but it just isn’t.

Redsight is a good book, but it’s not a space opera. It’s just a really solid sci-fi/fantasy novel about a space war between…well, that’s another thing. It starts out as a war against a pirate in a dangerous and uninhabited part of space. Then the message gets muddied and never quite gets completely back on track.

The thing is: This book is fun. We’ve got three orders of space witches with really cool powers, all following their own cultures and customs. There’s an enemies-to-lovers sapphic romance subplot that’s angsty-cute. There’s a ton of blood, gore, pain, and torture–and some of it is inflicted with consent or self-inflicted for the sake of magic. (Oh, btw, you might want to find a list of CW/TWs for this book).

A chunk of the plot of this book deals with faith and choices you make because of it. What you give up. What you endure. What you bear witness to. What secrets you hold. Who you lose. Who you choose to survive when the time comes to choose. When do you close your eyes and leap?

Had this book followed through on a few of the loose threads left dangling at the end of the book I would’ve liked it a lot more. As it is, it’s a pretty good read and a great standalone.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Dark Fantasy/Romantasy/LGBTQ Fantasy/Sapphic Romance/Science Fiction/Standalone

A really enjoyable spare opera debut from Meredith Mooring.
I really liked the world building and the style in which this book is written.
The characters were fleshed out and felt believable.
Would read more from this author :)

My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for granting me early access to this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book had been heavily anticipated by me for over 2 years now and you cannot imagine my disappointment when I realised I was going to dnf' it.
This book is very action driven in its execution and I felt like in the first hundred pages or do at least we didn't really do much character work. This resulted in me not really caring about any of the characters and I need that character bond to be able to care about the plot. Some 140 pages in I realised that nothing was really grabbing my attention here, so I decided to allow myself to put it down.

3.5 stars rounded down to 3!

If you love lesbians and sci-fi, you should probably definitely read this book.

The nitty gritty: this book was a hard one to get into - it’s not particularly long, but because it’s a true combination of sci-fi and fantasy, there’s a LOT of information thrust at you right away. It’s extremely dense and plot heavy, and while the characters are deeply interesting, significant character development is lost at the expense of furthering the plot as quickly as possible. There’s a lot of missing inferiority, and some important decisions seem to come out of nowhere because of this.

The story is very ambitious, but ultimately I think the barrier to entry is a bit too high for a standalone novel. I think Redsight would’ve worked much better as a duology (or even just a much longer standalone!) with more room for the characters and their relationships to grow.

That being said, lesbians in space!!! Truly fascinating magic system, and so much fun. The story being told largely through a blind protagonist’s POV is something that I don’t think I’ve ever read before, and it’s done extremely well.

Really enjoyable read overall, and I look forward to more coming from Meredith Mooring!

"Redsight" was a fun and fast paced space opera, but it didn't quite hook me like other books in the genre.

There were lots of things I loved about this book: The diversity was great. The protagonist of the book is blind, and I loved that she lived in a world where accessibility options seemed to exist wherever she went. I also loved learning about the differences and similarities between Korinna, Aster, and Sahar and how they dealt differently with similar constraints placed on them by the world they inhabited. I also loved the romance (though don't go into this book expecting it to be romance-focused).

I do wish we got to know some of the side characters a bit more. There were many interesting and compelling side characters, but their presence was pretty fleeting and they seemed to be there only as tools to the plot. The plot was good, and I liked the worldbuilding, but at times I was a little confused about what was happening or why something worked. The ending of the book, while satisfying, felt a little rushed.

Overall, I'd recommend "Redsight" to fans of space operas and science fiction, but I'm not sure it was my absolute favorite book of this type.

3.5 stars.

Thank you NetGalley and Solaris for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

TW : blood, violence, sex

I appreciate having a main character with a disability and not being somekind of know-it-all Mary-Sue. The worldbuilding is a bit heavy but this whole universe is fascinating. Still, it was way too violent for me at a point where I felt oppressed while reading. I believe it can be considered as a compliment for the author, but it's not what I was looking for as a reader. It was way too brutal for me. I must say though that I enjoyed the world and the queeriness.

This book has a lot of individual pieces going for it that should make a really cool total but ultimately it just fails to come together coherently.

There are three main POVs, each priestesses worshiping a different one of three main deities. I would say the Redseer (Korinna) is the main POV, with Sahar and Aster taking up the other two spots.

I found Korinna deeply, deeply unlikable. CW for some of her actions around 20% which I just could not get over, but also the character feels very inconsistent in motivation, pacing, description. Everything in her chapters is constantly gory and blood soaked for reasons that aren’t really explained. She is blind but describes the face of Aster not only in detail, but about 1000x. I also felt like the fact that she was blind felt a bit like an oversight. Her chapters were no less physically descriptive, which would have been a cool feature, and her perception of tactus essentially removes any need for accommodation. She spends the first half of the book just sort of going along with whatever and then suddenly changes in the second half for no clear reason.

Sahar was interesting but super repetitive. She had very little characterization except “wants to be an engineer” which she talks about over and over and over. There is no showing of her motivations; her chapters are all hitting you over the head with them. No subtlety.

Lastly, my favorite POV: Aster. Is Aster manipulative and honestly an awful love interest? Yeah, definitely. Very age/experience related dubcon, lots of toxic concerns (can the sapphics get a single healthy relationship in a book?!). BUT, her motivations were interesting, her relationship with her crew was endearing, she was moving the plot forward and eating people. Love that for her. I really did want her to just eat Korinna whole, I’ll be honest.

I think if this book centered on Litia/Aster and cut out some of the other elements I might have loved it. But as it was, it felt hard to connect with the characters, hard to figure out why things were happening, and hard to care about the plot. A lot of the worldbuilding didn’t make sense if you stopped to think about it for too long but the plot moves quickly enough to gloss over most of that.

3.5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my review copy.

I enjoyed this complex space opera book.

This book is heavy on bloodletting and gore around blood so please check the content warnings first.

Lot of intertwining of a vast scale and I found it relatively easy to keep track of all the plot points.

The way redseers navigate and use their power is interesting to read about and I would have liked the same depth given to the other abilities in the book.

The MC is blind and it is interesting reading from the pov of a blind character. I know the author herself is blind.

It was a shame we hardly spent time with Sahar (and an enitre order of witches). The attraction between Korinna and Aster felt like it was partly a "fated" relationship, but I did love the internal monologue of Aster caring for Korinna

I am enjoyed how fast paced this book is (even though I started it on the 13th of feb, I was unable to find time to read.) And for a debut, I'm excited to see what the author writes next.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

After trying for a couple weeks to finish this, I just can't get past 40 percent and am gonna DNF this one to make room for other things on my to-read list. It isn't bad, just didn't manage to grab my interest and I could never get lost in the story and didn't feel very much for the characters, and can't imagine that really changing after reading nearly half the book.

The premise is cool though, and the author really thought out the world-building and the religious aspects with the three goddesses/witches and their powers, though it was erring on a bit too complicated and I sometimes felt that things didn't make sense.

However, it was super interesting to have one of the main characters be blind and come from living on a ship/world where basically everyone else was blind, too. The differences in her everyday world were cool to read and think about, and I have never read a book like that.

Of course I also was interested in this as a sapphic romance, but as of 40 percent, I did not get the crush that Korinna has on Litia, like whaaaat it came out of nowhere and didn't make me want to read more about them. The characters in general I felt I couldn't really connect with, and they sometimes did things that I felt were quite out of character for them.

I actually think I wish this had been a fantasy rather than a sci-fi because I think I would be more invested, and maybe it would feel like it made more sense to me. Overall though just not my cup of tea but also not bad, and maybe someone else will love it!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!
Full disclosure: I was unaware of the role the author played in the Cait Corrain drama, and would not have requested this ARC had I known. That being said, she has apologised for it and seems sincere. I will still be giving this book an honest review as per the NetGalley agreement.

This is an action-packed standalone space opera. The worldbuilding is extensive and detailed, and of the three POVs, my favourite was Litia/Aster. I also loved the depiction of the magic system, which was brutal and gory (in Vermicula's Order, anyway), as well as the lore behind it, which was fascinating, although I may be biased, as I just love lore in general.

That being said, I do have some issues.

For all that the worldbuilding was exposited numerous times throughout this book, I still do not fully grasp this world. This may be my fault as I am kind of stupid, but this could also be the book's fault, for being too confusing. I also never fully understood tactus, which is the magic system in this book. As far as I can tell, tactus appears to be like the Force? Basically telekinesis and healing. But the way it is used seems to differ between each Order, without explaining why it is so.

I never fully cared about the protagonists. Korinna didn't seem to have much of a will or plan. She does have a goal, but for the first half of the book, she just goes along with whatever she is told to do. Eventually she does learn to become more independent, but it felt unrealistic to me, like there was no natural progression, she just suddenly began making decisions. I feel that Sahar was not well-developed, like she has no personality other that being stoic. At times, I feel like she makes decisions purely to further the plot, or to get the cast wherever they need to go, even though those decisions seem to go against her character's logic. However, Aster was my favourite character among the three. She has to deal with being pursued by the Galactic Imperium, while attempting to restore her goddess, a process that has taken over a millenia. I appreciate how dedicated she is in completing her goal, while at the same time not being a total dickhead in trying to achieve it. She's a good captain to her crew, and her crew respects and supports her back <3

I also don't really vibe with Korinna and Aster's relationship. It felt kinda instalove-y and Aster seems pretty manipulative of her at times. As a whole, they are nice to each other and genuinely seem to care about each other.

Overall, I liked the story, especially the ending, which I think was very fitting for all the characters, and also wraps up the book nicely.

I know I’d love this book based on the description, but I didn’t realise how much this story would captivate, disturb, and thrill me. This is a gorgeous space odyssey full of sapphic romance and blood. I wish the cover had been more elevate to better convey the complexity of this story. I also wish the plot was as captivating as the worldbuilding. Nevertheless, one of my favourite reads this month!

Content Warnings: Blood, Gore, Body Horror (Mainly relating to skin and fingernails, constant graphic descriptions all the way through), Sexual content, Murder, Torture, Medical Content, Toxic Relationships, Child death, Cursing, Slavery

Thank you Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a rough one. Honestly if I didn't write down notes, I probably wouldn't have been able to make a review because it was so forgettable I was forgetting things as I read.

Somehow the book manages to constantly lore dump but explain nothing (I still have very little idea what tactus is, the core main concept of this *entire* universe it seems) - Sometimes it was used interchangeably with blood, sometimes it seemed separate. I also don't believe it was ever actually *really* explained why using tactus rips one cult apart and not others. Also couldn't get that good of a grasp on many other core concepts like the whole "unseeing, unburning, unfeeling". I got unseeing, unfeeling I don't really get the "feeling" part, and unburning I was just incredibly confused on. Like, what? Burning what? "Unlightened" or something would have been closer. Just a ton of really core things like that were just very under-explained and just not very intuitive.

The characters where honestly a mess. There's far too many different characters and the multi-POV just kind of confused things. There's 3 total POV characters, with 1 of them having a different name/title seemingly for every single one of their chapters while the other 2 just have their name as the chapter title. That really did not help with trying to work out who was who at the start. Near the end it was far too confusing as everyone piled in and I was just left wondering "am I meant to care about this character?" because except for the main couple characters, since there's so many side characters each one barely had any page time at all and due to that were quite flat.

The relationships are something that bothered me throughout this. There's no chemistry there, and it's honestly quite an abusive relationship. Not only is one centuries older than the other, with that much more knowledge of the world and the other being brought up sheltered, brainwashed and naive, the constant "break and make up" bullshit (to the most extreme levels) was absolutely wild in a really bad way. Again, no chemistry at all, not even any time passed. It was quite literally deeply in love at first sight and nothing else.. Can we please stop having sapphic relationships portrayed with absolutely abusive power dynamics as if they're super romantic and awesome like what the fuck is this trope trend??

The story felt really all over the place as well. Plans kept changing, and honestly even after reading it I still don't even know what the goals of the characters are. They kept changing on a dime and no one really stuck to what they wanted to do at first, or second, or even third. I genuinely have no idea how we even got to the ending because everything was just so convenient. The characters had to do basically not a single thing to progress to whatever their imaginary goal was because they overcame obstacles with no consequences or effort.

More on tropes, I never could understand this trend of using the chosen one trend to attempt to push a message of "people call you weak but you're actually just really strong, work hard and you'll show them how much you can grow!" when the characters holding that message just effortlessly get given god-like powers and are "the strongest anyone has ever seen". This book somehow even manages to take it even further, stronger than gods she becomes it gets honestly quite dumb.

The representation wasn't the best. I honestly was expecting some more from the blind representation but half the book you wouldn't even guess blindness was part of things if you were flicking through it. Tactus in the world sort of(?) replaces sight for redseers but not really. It seems like their sight is just very blurry (though sometimes I think it was described as a black void? also a very confusing concept honestly) and they use tactus to read and "feel" the world around them. But even if very low on tactus and very weak, somehow that doesn't really change much and navigation and all sorts is just like, no issues? There's also a ton of very detailed visual descriptions during Korrinna's POV which was very confusing. POV chapters are meant to be like, from their point of view. And sometimes it is, describing blurred views and such. But most of the time it seems like it's just describing a sighted person's view of the world - even taking the magical powers of tactus into account.

I won't spend too long on this topic but I got concerned about what I was reading when the first like, 20% of the book was just "shady religion that's kinda a cult secretly harvests blood - especially from children - to gain stronger powers to stay in power and control". I'll let you decide how to take that. In this universe, the magic is tied to blood, so blood sacrifices and more, are a constant strong theme. Mix that with the conspiracy shit and secretly taking blood from children and it's just a little too close to real-life conspiracies for my liking.

This took me far too long to read. Despite so much action happening constantly, it was just so incredibly slow paced due to the constant lore-dumping slowing it all down dramatically. I didn't know about the author's connection to Cait when requesting it or when I started reading it. But I'm honestly not surprised. I've really gotta get better on doing more research when requesting books, I just unfortunately got sucked in by both queer and disabled rep - something that's not overly common to have at the same time in books from what I can find...

A solid 3.5 rounded up to 4. I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

A fantasy-sci-fi with a cool premise and a female-centric cast, Redsight, at least for me, fell a bit flat, but it would be a good book to transition someone from YA to adult fantasy.

The best thing about this novel for me was the disability and queer representation. I will admit I skimmed the last hundred pages because I wasn’t engaged. The resolution/denouement after the climax was pretty obvious, and everything wrapped up very quickly.

The book starts out strong, though, with an interesting premise and a relatable character who has been controlled by her order. She is also a person with blindness caused by her magic. What’s great about her depiction is that there’s a common misconception that to be considered blind, you can’t see anything but blackness, so this really corrects that idea. The book also features lots of people of colour and a sapphic romance, which is great for diversity in the genre.

The main character, Korinna, is initially likable in that she’s very sympathetic, but her goals and motivations are all over the place. One day she wants to be a gardener, the next she wants to be a pilot. One day, she’s ready to forgo all for her insta-lover, and the next, she’s ready to escape. There’s also a bit of a “chosen one” dynamic happening for her in that she’s had her power tampered down for years and then as soon as she’s allowed to use it, she’s the best in the order and they want her to be the next leader (despite having no training in the latter). This felt very YA to me.

The other two characters, Aster and Sahar, I found more interesting, but the one I really was interested in learning more about - Sahar - only gets a few chapters in the entire book. It seemed like her POV was included simply to explain one plot point. Aster was all over the place. She’s supposedly 1000 years old, but she acts like a young person who doesn’t really know what she’s doing. Her magic abilities were really fantastical - a bit too illogical for me.

The three women also had a similar narrative voice that kept them from feeling entirely distinctive.

While I thought the concept was super cool - the merging of magic and spaceships - the worldbuilding was a bit light for me. It wasn’t complex enough, politically, between the three orders and then the rest of the government. I wasn’t sure why the main government cared so much about the Umbra, I didn't get where these goddesses came from, initially, or how a ship that was capable of sustaining one million people required a witch to fly it rather than just a complex AI. I would assume that a ship that size, with that many internal structures and integrated systems, would require artificial intelligence to keep it all running. If that were the case, and perhaps I missed this (or maybe it wasn't clear), what is the magic for? Was it for FTL travel?

I did think that the descriptions of how Korrina and the others controlled tactus was well-done and easy to picture, I just wasn’t sure how it slotted into the worldbuilding as a whole. The rest of the writing was clear and easy to follow, but there was some repetition of concepts and emotions.

In truth, I think there might have just been too much going on in the one book - it could have been two or even a trilogy, and it just needed some things explained more and others trimmed down.

This was an interesting chosen one set in space. Sapphic storyline written well. I enjoyed the beginning more then the ending but I think that was due to my personal preference (I love a school setting).

Not going to lie, it was a bit of a shock to my system to jump back into high science fiction after contenting myself for so long in the more modern character-centric genres. However, Redsight felt like an embrace from an old friend—harkening back to politically wrought speculative fiction classics like Frank Herbert’s Dune series or Neuromancer by William Gibson, but with a queer edge and feminine perspective.
As a reminder, I define “high” science fiction not as an indication of quality, but rather a very specific mode of development that revolves first and foremost around extensive world building. While the characters in Redsight were unique and interesting, it was the political intrigue and the absolutely colossal theology system that really stole the show. This was a narrative world built from the ground up on foundations of fictional religious and government systems, and they make sense. Within the context of this world, those political structures and how they interact with one another fully encapsulates both the conflict and the motivation for the narrative—a true story of war and rebellion, to say the least. To create a world so in-depth that it becomes a character unto itself is no easy task, but Mooring has managed it. Not to mention the fact that the gods of this world are a physical presence and not some moral ideation, yet the plot still feels distinctly science fiction as opposed to blending into fantasy.
A caveat, however. Pacing-wise this does feel a little slow in the beginning, probably because the world building is so extensive and heavy. So if you are someone that has trouble with cold-starts, be aware of that going in. Ultimately, I think if you are a scifi fan who loves to fully immerse yourself, this is certainly a story you can do it in. My only hope is that we get a sequel.

Imgur link goes to Instagram graphic scheduled for Feb 20th
Blog Link goes live March 5th
To be discussed in February Reads pt 1 on Youtube

**TL;DR**: Though this didn't make a lot of sense it was still interesting enough for me to read through. I'm also unsure as to the audience for this, a YA tone with very dark moments.

I’m going to be honest. This one was confusing, and it takes a lot for me to say that. Redsight follows a young woman who has always been the weakest of her Order, the Red Witches who navigate space ships. She abruptly finds out that her weakness is false - engineered by another priestess to keep her safe, and she gains immense power as she is assigned out to pilot a warship against a ‘pirate threat’ in the Borderlands of space.

First up, I thought I was getting a science fiction with this. This is pure Fantasy, with the trappings of some science fiction on it. Do not get fooled. I don’t really have a problem with this, but what failed it for me was that it didn’t make a lot of sense even as a fantasy. Magic, even if it’s *magic*, needs some internal logic. This didn’t have any of that and the story hinged on the magic. There is a lot of it. Korrina bleeds (and a lot at that) almost nonstop while doing her job for 12/16 hours and at one point is described as having ‘lost all her skin and being nothing but muscle and tendons’ but still just needs some time and heals. How are we supposed to feel any tension or worry for this character? Additionally another PoV character we have eats planets and stars. Just… for a big meal every few days. We’re not given any clear description of how, simply that she steps out of an airlock, transforms, and chows down. Where do all these planets and stars come from? You know how long it takes those to form? And what does she turn into?

There are a lot more examples of this throughout the book. The odd religions and the way the author never seemed to know the timeline of her history, or if she did she didn’t explain it well. There was a lot of telling us, not really showing us. Yet I did finish this. The writing was compelling, I was interested in the ideas, but frustrated by the lack of execution. Either this needed to be trimmed massively, or it needed to be expanded into several books with a lot more explanation.

Finally, two notes. The first - Please can we stop with the near immortal, millennia old being ‘falling in love’ with the naive 20 year old. It’s disturbing and unsettling. The second - ‘forcing’ someone to murder a child (even one vat born and ‘recycled’) doesn’t make me like them. Nope. Sure doesn’t.

2.5 very blood fingernails that keep disappearing out of 5

I was really excited for Redsight when I started it. In the beginning it was a little confusing, to much exposition at once but it was interesting and made you want to learn more about this mysterious world. What was a little weird was how incosisten I found the writing quality to be. In parts it was amazing and then it couldn't hold my attention at all in the next paragraph.
Unfortunately the majority of the later half of the book was more in the second category. I just couldn't concentrate on anything, it didn't hold my attention and honestly? I was just bored. Add to that that the main character does a 180 degree switch the second she steps of her home-ship and other incosistencies in characterisation, no interesting interpersonal relationships and worldbuilding that never get's any clearer and I was just glad to be done with the book in the end.

I was really excited for Redsight when I started it. In the beginning it was a little confusing, to much exposition at once but it was interesting and made you want to learn more about this mysterious world. What was a little weird was how incosisten I found the writing quality to be. In parts it was amazing and then it couldn't hold my attention at all in the next paragraph.
Unfortunately the majority of the later half of the book was more in the second category. I just couldn't concentrate on anything, it didn't hold my attention and honestly? I was just bored. Add to that that the main character does a 180 degree switch the second she steps of her home-ship and other incosistencies in characterisation, no interesting interpersonal relationships and worldbuilding that never get's any clearer and I was just glad to be done with the book in the end.

DNF at 30%. Nothing terrible or bad about the book, just failed to hold my interest and establish engagement for me. The religious cult setup can be fairly hit or miss for me and the worldbuilding simply didn't click with me. I'm not the right reader for this one.

Redsight gave me the feeling of watching Star Wars for the first time again---except queer and dark and bloody. It's set in space and packed to the teeth with technology but this is a fantasy novel to the core. I loved the unique magic system and the idea of fantasy set in space. The world is clearly deeply built and every snippet of dark and bloody lore was fascinating. It's true that there were parts that didn't make logical sense, but myths rarely do, and this book read like a story from mythology. The prose is gorgeous and incredibly immersive and the short chapters made this a fast read which I enjoyed. The 3 PoVs were distinct and lovely in their flawed portrayals and I loved watching these 3 women find themselves and eachother.
I will say that the pacing felt a little wonky and rushed in the middle which made some important character development moments feel stilted. There was definitely one big turning point where an important character was captured that felt extremely out of the blue and lacked the buildup it needed. By the end I still felt there were a couple of minor plot threads that were never addressed - which given the style of this book is perhaps intentional. This is an extremely ambitious book that tries to do a lot in quite a short space and I honestly think it would have benefited from being a series and allowing events to unfold at a more natural pace and spend more time in this gorgeous ruthless world. That said, I still really enjoyed the premise and concept of this book and I was utterly drawn in.