Review: Bonds of Brass

Bonds of Brass by Emily Skrutskie
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I’ll be honest, this is a generous two star review. I vaguely remember when this book first came out and there was some buzz because it was kinda sorta basically a FinnPoe fanfic when everyone from Oscar Isaac on down was salty at Disney for not giving that m/m ship the time to sail. In practice, while the book does draw pretty heavily on the instant bromantic humor and chemistry of Finn and Poe’s copiloting adventure out of Kylo Ren’s flagship (I admit, I shipped StormPilot too at first, but I’ve come to see them as more platonic than romantic, even if I still also headcanon Poe as bi), it doesn’t do a great job of letting that humor just run with the story. No, it tries too hard to be about some serious star crossed lovers (Ettian being from a subjugated empire and therefore a rebel against the Big Bad Empire to which Gal is heir), with politics that read pretty uncomfortably given that Gal’s people have oppressed Ettian’s…it’s like the book doesn’t quite know which story it wants to tell. At least it settles into that pattern by the end, though I still found the ending shocking more for eye rolling reasons than anything else. So at this point, I’m giving up on this series, and from what I read of the spoilers, I think I made the right call. As for FinnPoe vibes, I’ll always recommend M.K. England’s The Disasters instead.

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