Book Journal: Astra Lost in Space

One of the reasons I enjoy going to physical bookstores (even after getting a tablet with an e-reader app that I like using a lot) is that it's very easy for me to just randomly find interesting books by wandering through the store. Which is exactly how I found Astra; I decided to pick up one of the random space-themed manga I saw in a Japanese bookstore a while back, and then realized I needed to get the rest of the series after I had time to read it.

It starts out as a very nice survival story - the main characters are thrown into deep space after a routine camping trip to another planet goes badly, and they have to come up with a clever plan to survive and get back home. In the process, they have to explore several planets - and as the story develops, the whole thing turns into more of a mystery story featuring not just the characters on the ship itself but the entire world they live in.

Which in many cases is a recipe for disaster. Transitions like that can be hard to pull off without disappointing either the people who liked the first genre or people who liked the second. In this case, though, I thought it was very skillfully done; the end result is a satisfying mystery with some very interesting twists that also manages to be a serious survival tale.

I also think the (relatively short) length deserves a note - because while I do like franchises that keep giving me more of the characters I've come to love, short stories that make their point and call it a day deserve credit too.

I really liked reading this one, and I highly recommend it to any science fiction fans.