First and foremost, thanks to author J.C.M. Berne for providing me with a free electronic copy of Wistful Ascending in exchange for an honest review.

A great match for readers who enjoy witty SF, with a little romance, good guy with a not-so-pretty-past trope, lots of action, some found-family vibes, and not emotionally heavy SF. There are great little references to other fantasy/SF in media that readers should enjoy as well.

Our protagonist is a super-human with Superman-esque powers, a Hybrid, born of a human and non-human parent who was born on Earth and has an ugly former life as a soldier. He's now living in the outer rings of the solar system, and the novel takes the reader through the exchanges with and arrival of a number of different actors and new species on the station where our protagonist now works towing spacecraft to/away from the sentient AI station.

This story moves right along, but includes a number of quotidian details, so I wouldn't quite call it fast paced. Given the story doesn't feel overly emotionally heavy, this was a nice break from some other SF I read that can tend to have heavier themes that require deeper emotional investment on the part of the reader. I'm hoping many readers find themselves enjoying the witty retorts, action-packed scenes, and balance of different themes and tropes in Wistful Ascending - can't wait to see what Ronan, Tamaralinth, the kaiju of the nearby planet who don't like anger, our sentient AI, and others get up to as the series progresses. 

I will say that a couple of scenes/transitions between them felt a bit disjointed for me as well, but I think that was the author's style/the way Berne chose to move the story along. Just a bit different, and not my personal preference.