I liked the main character, a totally bad-ass female mercenary obsessed with personal combat armors. She's not always the brightest bulb in the box, but she's really good at what she does. Since the story is told in first-person, we see everything from her point of view, and her voice is sarcastic and entertaining. The tone of the setting reminded me of Star Wars, in the sense that the emphasis is on the adventure and alien species, and not on the practical difficulties of space travel. There's even some sort of mystical power/energy. The result is a fast paced and fun to read military SF novel, although rather than big space navies we get to see an individual mercenary in action, working as bodyguard to a peculiar space trader.

Light and enjoyable read. ( )

Entirely fun, romantic space romp featuring a tough, bossy lady. ( )

Here's the set up--kick ass merc with more ambition then sense at times signs on with a Cursed ship in order to kickstart a career that will eventually lead to the most elite unit known. Merc doesn't ask too many questions at first (except 'really? this is a cursed ship?'), but as mysteries start to pile up to life-threatening levels, merc has a choice between their ambition and their life.

The merc? A late 20something female who works hard (top of the line customized armor, customized weapons, skills that make most men weep), plays hard (I think she could outdrink an elephant) and isn't above insubordination to get her job done correctly.

The ship? A hunk of junk that maybe offers more space then most merc outfits, but falling apart at the seams is a pretty accurate description of it.

The crew? A crazy captain, unbelievable ship's cook (who's sexy but impossibly strong), impossible ship's doctor and a creepy kid with serious OCD issues.

The job? Work security detail on a ship with one sworn enemy of humanity, a cook who can out strong-arm Devi while fully suited up, a flighty mechanic and oh yeah that pesky little thing of the captain running schemes within schemes and possibly using his security detail as cannon fodder.

The reward? Manage to stay a live for a year and just maybe Devi will get an opportunity to join the Devestators--an elite armored unit that serves the Sacred King himself directly. Of course she'll need her sanity intact for that too.

This is very clearly hard scifi. There's a lot of technobabble, science babble, alien babble and world babble to make any scifi nerd happy. And I admit that sometimes I got lost in the talk. Here's the thing--Devi is just as (if not moreso) engaging and relatable as Bach's alter-ego's wise-cracking thief Eli Monpress. Whether she's waxing poetic about her beautiful weapons (which all have names--Sasha, Mia, Phoenix), lovingly caring for her armor suit, puzzling out the mystery of Rupert (which trying to fight her inappropriately timed lust) or wondering if her sanity is worth her life's ambition, Devi is AWESOME.

She's stubborn, impractical and justifiably arrogant and I love her to pieces. I want to hang out with her (even if I'd probably wind up dead). I want to hire her to protect me (even though I would likely wind up in debt to my ears AND dead). And I really want to go drinking with her (even though I would likely wind up with alcohol poisoning then dead). She doesn't ignore the fact she's putting her ambition above her common sense or caution. Nor does she make excuses for why she does what she does. She apologizes--if she's truly in the wrong (which is only determined by her).

And then of course there's everyone else. The rest of the cast are entertaining, though I wasn't half as interested in them as Devi. Maybe Ren, since she represented a huge chunk of the puzzle and definitely had interest in Rupert.

So bring on Books 2 and 3 - somehow I think Devi can handle it (even if she doesn't think she can). ( )

Let’s say that I was slightly entertained. It’s a pulpy space adventure – and I don’t have anything against the genre, on the contrary, it is just the thing when the mood is right. But I do like my pulpy space adventures to be better written than Fortune’s Pawn, to have more interesting characters (preferably behaving like adults at least some of the time), and to NOT have so much soppy, soppy, soppy romance thrown in.
Three stars, because I am feeling generous today – AND I’ve read worse, AND I did get a couple of chuckles out of this.

P.S. If you are looking for entertaining space opera, I recommend you read Tanya Huffs “space marines” (yay) series that starts with |Valor's Choice instead of this one. These books are also pulpy space adventures, but they are “smarter” pulp, and they don’t put on airs.
( )

Overall a decent Science Fantasy Romance with a big emphasis on romance.
Don't expect any kind of hardish Sci-Fi in here.
Most things are much closer to magic than actual Sci-Fi but there are a few Sci-Fi details that are surprisingly well thought-out which is kind of a waste if everything else contains no shred of scientific accuracy.
The story mainly alternates between 60% romance drama and 30% action interleaved with a bit of plot here and there.
The main character has depth and is relatable even in her flaws. Everything surrounding her is much thinner but there is a hint of more depth which hopefully will be expanded upon.

You have to be able to accept a whole lot of plot convenient stupidity of the supporting cast as well as an incredible number of coincidences to enjoy the story. But it didn't bother me nearly as much as I might have expected knowing this beforehand.

Sadly the ending was very disappointing. The book ends on a complete story progress rollback so the next book will basically start again where the first one started including the romance.
It's cheap and lazy and not in line with the overall writing quality of the rest of the book.
Maybe the beginning of the second book will revert this rollback but I don't think so.
It very much looks like the author intends to basically just rehash most of the first book again as filler, and I don't have the patience for this.
If you don't have anything new to tell, don't write a second book.
Needless to say, I will not read the next book. ( )