Book Review: ‘Floating Hotel’ by Grace Curtis
I read Grace Curtis’s debut, ‘Frontier’, last night and I really enjoyed it. I reviewed it right here! But I loved ‘Floating Hotel’ and it got my second five-star rating of 2024.
I’m really hitting my sci-fi era at the moment - I’m currently making my way through the ‘Red Rising Saga’ and ‘The Expanse’ series - and this was a really lovely change of pace in the sci-fi realm. It reminds me more of Becky Chambers’ style of sci-fi with a strong focus on character and world and found family with less action. ‘Floating Hotel’ hit the spot for me and I adored it.
The Grand Budapest Hotel in space, Floating Hotel is a hopeful story of misfits, rebels and found family, perfect for fans of Becky Chambers, Martha Wells and Aliette de Bodard.
Welcome to the Grand Abeona Hotel: home of the finest food, the sweetest service, and the very best views the galaxy has to offer. Year round it moves from planet to planet, system to system, pampering guests across the furthest reaches of the milky way. The last word in sub-orbital luxury - and a magnet for intrigue. Intrigues such as:
Why are there love poems in the lobby intray?
How many Imperial spies are currently on board?
What is the true purpose of the Problem Solver's conference?
And perhaps most pertinently - who is driving the ship?
At the centre of these mysteries stands Carl, one time stowaway, longtime manager, devoted caretaker to the hotel. It's the love of his life and the only place he's ever called home. But as forces beyond Carl's comprehension converge on the Abeona, he has to face one final question: when is it time to let go?
I love a book that tells a story of a group of people one character at a time, an ensemble cast, if you will, but it’s not an easy feat. Grace Curtis nailed it. I was invested in every single POV and all of them added and built on the main plotline and mystery, each adding in their own history and experience to what’s really happening on the Abeona.
One of the main themes of ‘Floating Hotel’, other than found family and home, is the crimes and oppression of capitalism and corporation. I’m noticing this a lot as I journey through sci-fi and they seem to go hand in hand with the pushing of humanity’s crimes and our trail of destruction out into the galaxy once we’re drained Earth of all of her resources. It escalates the problems that already exist under a capitalist society: housing, jobs, poverty, displacement, oppression of the lower classes and minorities, and the insatiable greed of those in power at the expense of everyone else.
This is a novel that thrives on the slow accumulation of knowledge and putting together the puzzle pieces so I’m not going to say anymore about the plot, just know that the entire novel is magic. ‘Floating Hotel’ is one of my favourite books of the year so far; it’s found family, anti-capitalism, character-driven sci-fi at it’s best.
‘Floating Hotel’ by Grace Curtis will be released in the UK on 21 March 2024 by Hodderscape.
Thank you to NetGalley and Hodderscape for the review copy.
