Quick Take
- Narration: Abby Craden is a strong match for Storm Redfield’s sharp, irreverent voice, handling the humor and the combat sequences with equal confidence.
- Themes: identity and cyborg humanity, LGBTQ+ found family in space, action and sharp wit
- Mood: Fast, funny, and unapologetically weird in the best way
- Verdict: A propulsive second installment that rewards readers who loved the first book and offers enough momentum that new listeners can find their footing quickly.
I came to the Alpha Red Series late, picking up Once Upon a Lucky Star before I had finished the first book, and found that I did not need to have everything sorted before the story grabbed me. N.D. Shar writes with a pace that does not wait for you to catch up, which is either a feature or a bug depending on your tolerance for being thrown into an established world mid-motion. For me it was a feature. By the third chapter I had enough context to care about what was happening, and the momentum never really let up after that.
I finished this one on a Tuesday night when I should have been doing several other things. That is the most honest recommendation I can offer for a book in this genre.
Our Take on Once Upon a Lucky Star
Storm Redfield is 161 years old, a Navy Commander, and one of the more idiosyncratic protagonists in contemporary LGBTQ+ science fiction. The synopsis does not undersell the premise: space travel, alien warriors, a one-eyed Cyclopean who sounds like a British lord, an AI therapist with a tendency to blush. Shar is playing in a genre that rewards invention, and she delivers it consistently. What keeps the book grounded, despite all of this, is that Storm is genuinely funny and genuinely damaged in ways that feel earned rather than decorative. The cyborg identity thread, the tension between Storm’s human feeling and her engineered capacities, gives the action stakes that go beyond physical survival.
The rescue mission at the center of this installment, Storm trying to recover a young girl taken prisoner by slavers, provides the book with both its moral backbone and some of its best action sequences. The girl herself is described by one reviewer as quite the handful, and that is accurate. She complicates the mission in ways that are both plot-useful and characterologically interesting, forcing Storm into situations where her tactical competence is less relevant than her capacity for patience and connection.
Why Listen to Abby Craden Read This Book
Craden was clearly the right casting choice for Storm. The character’s narration is first-person, present-tense, and relentlessly self-aware in a way that requires a narrator who can sell the humor without telegraphing the punchline. Craden does this consistently across the full six hours. The banter between Storm and Stella, which one reviewer described as hilarious and addictive, lands because Craden differentiates the voices enough that you always know whose wit is being deployed at any given moment. She is also credible in the combat sequences, where the narration needs to carry physical weight alongside the jokes, which is not a combination every narrator manages.
Where the Series Formula Holds and Where It Bends
The Alpha Red Series is firmly in the pulp science fiction tradition, and Once Upon a Lucky Star does not pretend otherwise. The plotting prioritizes momentum over intricacy, and some of the secondary characters are sketched rather than fully rendered. If you come to this expecting the layered world-building of Ann Leckie or Becky Chambers, you will be looking for something the book does not offer. What Shar offers is propulsion, humor, and a protagonist whose contradictions are genuinely interesting. That is a different kind of accomplishment, and it is enough to sustain a series through multiple volumes.
The LGBTQ+ elements are woven into the story naturally rather than foregrounded as its primary selling point. Storm’s identity and her relationships exist within the world of the twenty-third century as unremarkable facts, which is itself a kind of representational choice worth noting.
Who Should Listen to Once Upon a Lucky Star
Readers of the first Alpha Red book will want this immediately. Those new to the series can start here without catastrophic confusion, though they will enjoy it more with the first book’s context intact. The ideal listener appreciates sharp genre science fiction, is comfortable with explicit adult content, and responds to a protagonist whose competence and vulnerability arrive in roughly equal measure throughout the narrative. Literary fiction readers accustomed to slower, more reflective work will likely find the pace and tone a poor fit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Once Upon a Lucky Star be read as a standalone, or is the first Alpha Red book essential?
Shar provides enough context that you will not be completely lost, but the character dynamics and backstory are richer if you have read the first book. Start with book one if you have the option.
How does Abby Craden handle the first-person narration for a 161-year-old cyborg protagonist?
Craden finds a voice that is world-weary and sharp without tipping into parody. She manages the tonal shifts between humor and combat effectively, and the alien supporting characters are clearly differentiated.
Is the LGBTQ+ content central to the plot or part of the broader world-building?
It is integrated into both. Storm’s identity, her relationships, and the social dynamics of the twenty-third century world all reflect queer sensibilities without isolating them as a separate theme.
How explicit is the content in this installment?
The synopsis references kinky sex with an alien warrior, and the book does not shy away from adult content. It is not erotica, but it is not sanitized either. Adult readers comfortable with explicit material will not be surprised.
