Zenith by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings

Zenith by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings is the first part of the Androma Saga (which I have to admit is super hard for me to internalize since I keep wanting to say Andromeda Saga). As far as I can tell, this "saga" consists of this book and a sequel that is coming out later this month.  Calling it a saga is a bit of hyperbole, but there you go. It's a space adventure about a plucky crew of four mismatched girls and women roaming around a universe divided by war, trying to make money to support themselves while staying off the radar of law enforcement. Meanwhile, there's this boy...

This has been a controversial book because Alsberg and Cummings are big in the world of book YouTube (booktube) and it seems like the publisher really only published this book because they imagined that the booktube community would rally around the book no matter what. It has created some tension in the Goodreads community.  I had not idea about any of this controversy before I read the book, though.

Things I like about this book:
1) Two young female authors writing together. This strikes me as sort of a fun lark I would have liked to have done with my BFF when I was young.
2) There are strong female characters and more than one of them is given a backstory. Not all the female characters are perfect, but they're complicated. 
3) The leadership in this made-up universe seems fairly equitable. The king doesn't want to name his son his successor (for reasons), and he doesn't hesitate to pass his rule on to a woman. The 90s girl power punk in me cheers for this sort of thoughtless equality (thoughtless in a good way - like sex doesn't even enter the equation about leadership).

Things I didn't like about this book:
1) The world building. The authors throw around a lot of capitalized terms (Guardian, Sentinel, Moon Chew) and never really gets around to explaining them. Good authors can actually use the world around them to do some exposition and maybe someday Alsberg and Cummings will be those authors, but they aren't right now.
2) The boy sub-plot. I fell in love with a boy and he ruined my life, but now he's back and he apologized and I forgive him and all is well.  My eyes cannot roll back in my head enough at this tired trope.
3) The actual character development. I like that there are female characters, but I think Alsberg and Cummings should go back and figure out how to show character traits instead of just saying that they exist.  Our main character's nickname is The Bloody Baroness, but she's so angsty about every death that you have to wonder how she earned it. There's a thirteen year old moppet who I know nothing about except she likes to kill, paint fingernails, and has a cat-like creature as a pet. 

I wouldn't recommend this book. I think it's a fine first draft and I have no idea how it got to print in this form.  But then again, Alberg and Cummings had a built-in fan network, so I guess that's how.