“Chaos” by Constance Fay

This book is everything I’ve come to expect from Constance Fay: it’s silly, it doesn’t take itself seriously at all, and it is just incredibly fun to read.

For those who aren’t familiar, this is the 3rd book of Fay’s Uncharted Hearts series of sci-fi space adventure romantic comedies. The books star the crew of the scout ship Calamity (which is also the title of the first book) as they go on adventures among the stars and find love. The first book was about the ship’s captain, Temper; the second was about Micah the ship’s medic; this time, it’s the Calamity’s engineer Caro’s turn.

Caro is mostly flying solo in this book. She gets a call from Ven, the former captain of the Calamity and Temper’s shitty ex, asking for her help rescuing someone from jail. Against her better judgement, she lets herself get talked into it, and the fact that the person she’s trying to rescue is extremely hot has absolutely nothing to do with it. So she finds herself on a prison planet run by the Pierce Family, one of the capital-F Families that controls everything and antagonists from earlier books (and from Caro’s past, personally, which we learn more about as the book goes on). There she meets the prisoner she’s trying to rescue; a research subject known only by his codename Leviathan. He’s gorgeous, and super buff, and huge; he’s also a mindless killing machine, a prototype Pierce supersoldier. Until Caro touches him; physical contact with her brings him out from under Pierce mind control, and allows him to become his own, kind self again, though with no memories of who he is. He does remember how to kiss, though.

Like I said: this book is extremely silly. It’s the story of an escape from the universe’s most absurd jail - it’s a prison exclusively for high-ranking members of Families that get into trouble, so it’s more like a spa where no one is allowed to leave than anything else. The relationship between Caro and Leviathan is utterly lacking in surprises, but it’s still fun to read about. There are surprises in Caro’s personal journey and the way the adventure plays out.

Overall, I think it’s weaker than the first two books, because it’s largely missing the rest of the found family of the crew of the Calamity. They’re not 100% absent, but their appearances are brief. I’m always a sucker for a good found family in my fiction, and I felt their lack. Though I will acknowledge that it was entirely appropriate for Caro, as a character, to try to do everything on her own here, and when they do show up Temper (lovingly) chews her out for it.

At the end of the day, this is a book that seeks to entertain and delight, and it accomplishes this with gusto.