You Sexy Thing

Written by Cat Rambo

Narrated by Vivienne Leheny

Just when they thought they were out …

TwiceFar station is at the edge of the Known Universe, and that’s just how Niko Larsen, a former admiral in the grand army of the Holy Hive Mind, likes it.Retired and finally free of the continual war of conquest, Niko and the remnants
of her former unit are content to spend the rest of their days working at the restaurant they built together, the Last Chance.

But some wars can’t ever be escaped, and unlike the Holy Hive Mind, some enemies aren’t content to let old soldiers go. Niko and her crew are forced onto a sentient ship that is convinced it is being stolen, and must survive the
machinations of a sadistic pirate king if they even hope to keep the dream of the Last Chance alive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781705016848

Cat Rambo

Cat Rambo (they/them) is an American fantasy and science fiction writer whose work has appeared in, among others, Asimov's, Weird Tales, Chiaroscuro, Talebones, and Strange Horizons. A graduate of the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, where they studied with John Barth and Steve Dixon, they also attended the Clarion West Writers' Workshop. They are currently the managing editor of Fantasy Magazine. They published a collection of stories, Eyes Like Sky And Coal And Moonlight, and their collaboration with Jeff VanderMeer, The Surgeon’s Tale and Other Stories, appeared in 2007. They live and write in Washington State, and “Cat Rambo” is their real name.

Reviews for You Sexy Thing

[tornadox-962417 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Cosy space opera about a group of former mercenaries who left the military to run a restaurant. After an attack, they take refuge in the bioship, You Sexy Thing. Shenaniggins ensue.

It doesn't quite reach its target in terms of comedy (Hitchhiker's Guide and Space Opera do set a very high bar). There were times when i know i was supposed to laugh...and didn't. But it did have lots of un-humanlike aliense. Enjoyable; i'll probably read the sequel.

[glennis.leblanc · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Hive Mind doesn’t like to let soldiers leave but if they are dedicated to an art then they are allowed to retire. Niko Larson and the last of her unit are running a high-class restaurant on a space station and on the day a well-known critic is to arrive and rate them all hell breaks loose on the station. They grab a ride on a ship and the AI is convinced that they are stealing it thanks to the wrong password given as they boarded it. The crew ends up under the control of the worst enemy of Niko, who has planned this to get her under his control and exact revenge for being the only person to escape him before.

I enjoyed the book and hope there are more in this setting.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss

[bookappeal · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great world-building and character development plus wide diversity within a group of beings who choose to be a unit. Plenty of potential for a sequel!

[quondame · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A fun space opera as the diverse multi-species staff of the restaurant who had retired from military service with the Holy Hive Mind escape with a food critic on the racing bioship You Sexy Thing. Only things are more complex than they seem and the ship has a mind which is not entirely its own.

[shrike58 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

File under: Are you not entertained? Actually, I was. However, this tale of found family in space seems a little slight, if this winds up being the only novel set in this reality. On the other hand, if more is forthcoming, I'm there for those books.

[spaceandsorcery · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

With such an intriguing title and the information that one of the story’s characters is a sentient bio-ship, it was inevitable that You Sexy Thing would end up on my TBR, and that I would have fun with it. It’s a quick read, and maybe a little on the light side as far as background and characterization are concerned, but since many elements in the story seem to indicate this novel might be a series starter, I will take this book as an introduction and keep hoping that some stronger developments will come along in the following installments.Niko Larsen and her team now manage the Last chance restaurant on the remote Twice Far space station, but they once used to be soldiers enrolled by the Holy Hive Mind, a political/military conglomerate focused on expansion (think of a somewhat milder version of Star Trek’s Borg): to stay out of the HHM’s clutches, Niko and her people must demonstrate that their venture is an artistically successful one, and therefore the promised arrival of famous food critic Lolola drives them to excel in their culinary offerings, so that they might be granted a prized Nikkelin Orb to show their value as a renowned eating establishment. Even the best-laid plans are subject to unforeseen events, though, and a set of peculiar circumstances sees our heroes trapped aboard the sentient ship You Sexy Thing, bound for a prison planet with no possibility of changing course. What ensues is a series of madcap adventures including a detour toward a pirate enclave and the arrival of a stasis-bound princess whose care has been entrusted to Niko by an unknown sender.The various narrative threads that form the novel’s structure might seem a little confusing, but fortunately they combine into an engaging plot that remains interesting from start to finish. If the characters are not explored in real depth, their interactions are quite fun and their mutual relationships offer many intriguing angles that, in turn, help to better focus on this variegated universe. Niko Larsen (and later on princess Atlanta) are the only humans in the group, since the rest of the crew is of alien origin: Dabry, once Niko’s XO and now the restaurant’s chef, is a four-armed humanoid; the twins Thorn and Talon can morph into lion’s form and are possessed of the same unquenchable energy as feline puppies; Gio is an evolved apelike creature who can communicate only through hand gestures; Milly is the pastry chef and looks like an avian; Skidoo (my absolute favorite!) is a squid-like being and - last but not least - Lassite is a reptilian mystic with the ability to perceive the future. What makes these alien creatures interesting is that they are quite believably alien in mindset and behavior, not only in appearance, and what’s more important is that they have created a family-like bond whose basis might have been born in the mind link that bound them during their military service, but is now the product of many shared experiences and the affection and care that those experiences consolidated among them. Of course once the group is onboard the You Sexy Thing, another character comes to the fore - the ship itself: as a bio-ship, the Thing possess the ability to adapt and change its environment according to the passengers’ requirements, and it’s also able to interact with them, but we soon understand that the previous owners did not take many steps in expanding the Thing’s capabilities. Thanks to the time spent with Niko’s crew - starting with Dabry and his culinary performances - the Thing understands there is more to its existence than it was able to perceive before, and the ship initiates a process of growth and transformation that is a true joy to behold.[...] they had interacted with [the Thing] as though it were another person, there in the room with them. All of its owners had treated it simply like a thing, and before the ship had always thought that was the norm. Now it knew there was a different way.Where the book falters a little, however, is in the presentation of the antagonists: the pirate overlord comes across almost like a caricature, his focus on revenge and torture is presented in such a way as to create a dissonance with the story’s previous tone, while the insistence on the “evilness” of the character seems to deprive it of any realistic connotation. On this subject I have to admit that the choice of inserting a character’s death as part of the pirate’s “dastardly plot” introduced a jarring note in what had so far been an adventurous/humorous narrative mood: this death brings serious consequences for the group and adds a more dramatic layer to the story, but I’m still struggling to envision it as an organic part of the plot.The novel’s world building needs some stronger foundations as well: apart from learning about the existence of the Holy Hive Mind, of a large Empire (to which princess Atlanta is one of the designated heirs), of the pirate conglomerate and of the space bound society of the Free Traders, we don’t know much about this universe and I for one would have loved to learn a few more details - that’s where my hope that there will be other books about Niko & Co. makes me look more favorably on this novel.Still, to close on a positive note, I have to say that I liked very much all mentions of cooking and food: story-wise they are part of the bonding process of the group in their new life, and of the group with the Thing, but on a personal level I enjoyed them because I do love to cook and to experiment with new recipes - one of the reasons I felt a great connection with Dabry and his fascination with ingredients :-)In the end, I had fun with You Sexy Thing and that’s what I was looking for when I picked it up, but still I would have liked to find more in this story: should the author decide to write more adventures featuring Niko Larsen, her crew and the adorable Thing, she will certainly find me there glad to follow them.

[andreas6wpv · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Slow start, plenty of cliches and standard elements. Entertaining the second half. Meh.

[kevn57-163679 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

4 1/2 stars
I really enjoyed this book, it seemed to be a bit of a slow start in the restaurant but

once they made it to the ship I understood what they meant with the tagline, "Farscape meets The Great British Bake Off in this fantastic space opera" The living ship that was bound by rules and programing is a subject I'm always interested in.
Throw in the space pirates and you're bound to have some type of adventure. I wasn't thrilled that escape only came from a failed betrayal, can the crew trust Milly in the future. I also would have liked if Niko had played some part in the escape, or at least had thought to include Petalia.

Dear Niko:

I’m glad that you made it away alive.

I’m working on a menu of my own, you see.

Tubal Last


I'm hoping from this that the author is planning to continue the series, I can see that happening in a number of ways, with Niko defeating the Hive Mind and freeing all those enslaved, or future battles with Tubal. But I'd hope for just a few books where the crew could just be free traders and all the adventures that could have in this diverse universe that Rambo has created.

[tottman_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Farscape meets The Great British Bakeoff is a very apt description for You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo. Niko Larson is a former military leader for the Hive Mind who left to start a restaurant on TwiceFar Station. She took with her a multi-species selection of her former crew and they are on the verge of success in the form of a coveted Nikkelin Orb restaurant award. A threat to the station forces them to escape on board the sentient ship, You Sexy Thing. They escape with only a few possessions, including a crate addressed to Larson that happens to contain Atlanta, the heir to the Paxian empire. They find themselves unwillingly headed toward the clutches of a pirate king holding a deep grudge against Niko that he’s been nursing for years. Their quest for a successful restaurant now becomes a quest just to survive!Cat Rambo has created a lovable cast of eccentric characters along with an adventure worthy of them. The character-driven narrative lets the excellent world-building unfold in the background as you experience it by watching how it has shaped and continues to drive these individuals. This includes the sentient ship which is exposed to new ways of thinking, and cooking, by its interaction with the crew. The plot moves forward at a steady clip with plenty of action, humor and surprises along the way.You Sexy Thing is a lot of fun with a group of characters that you enjoy spending time with and a brisk plot filled with action, emotion and humor. Looking forward to seeing more in this universe!I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher.

[firstreader-313058 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Niko Larson, a disgraced Admiral in the military of the Hive Mind, and her team have retired to TwiceFar station far away from…well, everything. They’ve opened a restaurant, the Last Chance, in order to save enough money to buy a ship of their own. Things are going well until a rumor spreads that a well-known food critic is coming to their restaurant. On the night the critic arrives, so does the mega-wealthy owner of the “You Sexy Thing,” a huge bio ship, who only wants to share a meal with the food critic. What could possibly go wrong? There are explosions, and the team finds themselves running for their lives.The writing and plotting talents of Cat Rambo are on full display in this book. Her cast of characters, with the exception of Nico, are aliens, each with their own personality and each developed enough to have the reader falling for all of them. There is also a sentient ship that wants more than being owned by a narcissistic entitled rich man – lots more – and who grows with the help of the team members. The world building in this book is stunning because you can put yourself on TwiceFar and “Thing” and actually feel the floor and walls of the ship as they pulsate with life.Even if you haven’t read any YA books or don’t like SciFi novels, put this book on the top of your to-be-read list because of the author’s writing, her world building skills, and the characters she’s created. In other words, don’t miss the opportunity to read a book that will keep you up past your bedtime to read just one more page, one more chapter, or the rest of the book to see what happens to the Last Chance owners.My thanks to Tor Books and Edelweiss for an eARC.

[ladycato · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received an advance copy of this book through NetGalley.The summary for this book pitches it as Farscape meets The Great British Bake Off, and that's both amusing and apt. You Sexy Thing is a fluffy space opera romp through a far-future packed with various alien beings and unique places. Against this backdrop is an ensemble crew of (mostly) former soldiers who achieved freedom from the collective that once owned them by proposing that their true calling and cultural duty is to have a restaurant. That works out pretty well until the past catches up with them--especially beleaguered crew-leader Niko--when a mysterious box arrives at about the same time as a galaxy-famous food critic. When the station is attacked during that fateful meal, they take refuge on a sentient biological ship, the titular You Sexy Thing. From there, it's time for crew bonding, space pirates, and teaching a spaceship how to cook, because why not?In case you couldn't tell, there's a definite element of whimsy throughout the book. I'm here for that. I just finished up some of K.B. Wagers' more intense and dark space opera books, so I was ready for a frolic through deep space. I'm a foodie, so I loved the food aspects, and the diversity of the cast is fantastic. My favorite is the most disliked character in the crew, the prophesying alien priest Lassite, who definitely gave me the vibe of Raistlin Majere, one of my all-time favorite lit characters. This particular exchange cracked me up:Lassite appeared in the doorway. "Permission to speak of doom, captain?""Permission denied," Niko snapped.The end of the book sets things up for a possible series but this would be a solid read on its own. No cliffhangers involved, just a space frolic with banter and pirates and cooking galore.