2.75 stars
Moss'd in Space is a cozy sci-fi novel about an enthusiastic engineer, her peculiar companions, and an organic life-support system composed of moss. Torian, solar-engineer-turned-pilot, desperately wants to save her sister, Celise, from a chronic respiratory illness. Consequently, she spends her savings on an alien starship and launches into the galaxy, naively believing that a meritocratic, terraformed planet with clean air will allow her and Celise entry. Spoiler alert: it doesn't. The rest of the story thus follows Torian as she attempts to save her sister, manage her not-so-romantic feelings for an aloof criminal, and make friends with an spiteful plant.
Moss'd in Space is not a bad book. It satisfies its genre relatively well, providing a character-driven plot without major tension, violence, or action. Moss'd in Space, too, does not request much from the reader: details are repeated multiple times, the plot is not inherently complicated, and any emotional depth is spelled out extensively. Unfortunately, the "cozy" genre may simply not be for me.
I hesitate to declare my incompatibility with an entire subcategory of literature, especially because I have enjoyed cozy sci-fi in the past. Becky Chamber's Wayfarers series, for example, was incredibly entertaining, and I'm quick to recommend A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet to any sci-fi newbie. Regardless, Moss'd in Space is, undoubtedly, a good representation of its genre, and I did not love it.
To be more specific, I must acknowledge that Thorne writes entertaining characters. Moss's dialogue was occasionally hilarious and often mildly amusing, and I enjoyed Torian's quirks. Nevertheless, if you are going to write a sci-fi novel with multiple alien species, you must expand on the biology and characteristics of each species. My absolute favorite part of the Wayfarers series was how extensively Chambers described her creatures, dedicating entire passages to life-cycle details and physical descriptions. Thorne, however, often fails to discuss more than basic anatomy when differentiating each alien species. As the reader, I wish I was entrusted with more information; I found myself wishing I could look at Thorne and say, "Thorne, I understand America is in a literacy crisis, and I understand that sci-fi can become very overwhelming very quickly, but I promise I can handle greater specification! I promise I won't implode! We don't have to repeat the same few details over and over!"
Also, side note, what age range is this book in? Barnes and Nobel categorized it as adult, but I struggle to view it that way. Amelia and Torian's "romance" was straight out of YA fiction, and some of the dialogue was impressively cringy. None of the characters, too, genuinely felt like adults. Unfortunately, the cozy genre requires well-developed characters, and Moss'd in Space's characters consistently fell short for me (with the exception of Moss, of course).
I know that many readers absolutely loved this book, so I'm inclined to believe that my dissatisfaction is a reflection of my own preferences rather than the author's failures. I think that I just need more from a sci-fi novel than Thorne was willing to provide here.