The empire made them soldiers. The void made them rebels.
Lina Bho captains a beat-up transport at the galaxy’s ragged edge, running aid missions with veterans who’d rather fight than follow orders. She left the United Earth Marines behind, with its politics, its prejudice, and the boot she wore too long. Her Chief, Zuri Josmith, keeps the platoon sharp and the Captain honest. She’s also the only woman who’s ever made Lina want to take orders.
A black hole is swallowing their star system. No one is coming.
When Lina discovers the United Earth deliberately stranded nine billion people to wipe out a rebel stronghold, she turns her crew against the government that raised them. Pirates stalk her vessel; alien predators nest in her cargo hold; and her hired guns look to her for a plan she hasn’t finished writing.
They’ll fight their way out or die as the Black Hole Guns.
A jump-capable freighter at the sector’s edge is their only ride out. Between Lina and escape sits a pirate captain with a personal vendetta, alien cyborg predators, and her own unraveling mind. Zuri can hold her together or hold the crew together. She can’t do both.
This sapphic military sci-fi features a found family crew, morally gray characters, and a second chance romance with power exchange. It contains graphic violence, explicit language, and adult content. Check the copyright page for details.
In my efforts to read more queer fiction AND more sci-fi, Black Hole Guns For Hire by Friday Strout arrived just at the right time for me. Described as Aliens but with lesbian space marines, this is the story of Lina Bho, captain of The Galley: a collection of ex-Government soldiers and mercs doing cargo runs across a sector of space rife with pirates. In fact, the story begins with an ass-kicking as The Gallery is taken over by pirates and the crew fight to get it back.
The real problems begin, however, when they discover a black hole in their neighbourhood that’s devouring everything in its path that the Government didn’t tell anyone about, because coincidentally, it happens to be the neighbourhood of the Anti-Federalist Alliance rebels too. No one is coming to help Lina and her crew, which means they need a plan to get out of that system fast. Oh, and the pirates are on their tail and attempting to re-capture their ship. If that’s not enough problems, someone smuggled a xeno creature on board too.
All in all, Lina is under a lot of pressure to save the crew she’s come to think of as family, including her Chief and past fling, Zuri Josmith. She has a daring, if impossibly difficult plan in place. The story then switches between Lina and Zuri’s POV’s as they prepare their ship and crew, and also the third POV of Tyson Connor, head of the Guns, who represents your typical meathead space marine bro. We meet the other crew members, and there’s a lot of comradery and banter between them, and a found family vibe. In fact, their interactions were one of my favourite parts of this book. Black Hole Guns For Hire is undoubtedly a sci-fi military story. I have to be honest, I normally don’t get on well with military fantasy because I don’t care for battle tactics and soldiers doing soldier things, but it worked for me here. The dialogue and military lingo all felt authentic and worked at building the culture of the ship and crew. It really captured that gritty 90’s sci-fi movie dynamic and made me feel like I was there on board The Galley.
Of course, I’d call this a progressive 90’s sci-fi movie, as our main character Lina is trans femme and falling for her lesbian Chief. I especially appreciated the scenes where Lina talks about her transition and how that affected her military career. The story takes us through flashbacks to establish their relationship, and then later we have some adult scenes that definitely wouldn’t look out of place in a 90’s sci-fi flick. This is gritty military action in space, however, so there’s no real soppy moments but it definitely feels raw.
Black Hole Guns For Hire is a shorter novel that I think could have benefited from more page time. Around the half way point, the crew visit an abandoned space station and some horror elements kick in, which I would have loved to see more of. With the comparison to Alien, I was expecting more horror and more clashes with xenomorphs, though there’s definitely enough action. The ending for me also felt a little abrupt and seems to be setting up the sequel, so I’m hoping these plot threads get resolved then.
Final Words
Black Hole Guns For Hire is for those who love 90’s pulp gritty military sci-fi, but want it queer.
