REVIEW : Poe’s Outlaws: A Queer Space Opera The Meaning Wars Book #4 – Michelle Browne

Reviewed by Ulysses Dietz

Member of The Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team

“We all dream of flight, even those who cannot fly—but none should be chained to the ground.”

I have really enjoyed Michelle Browne’s galactic space opera, The Meaning Wars, even though I’ve only read installments 3 and 4. I read the last, Poe’s Outlaws, because I enjoyed the previous one so much.

What we have, in a fairly distant future, is a galactic civilization made up of many species of sentient beings – including humans, who are still based in what is called the Sol System, which now includes its various colonies on places like the Moon, Venus, Mars, ‘and Pluto.

And, once more (always?) the humans are a problem. The humans persist in controlling, stratifying, exploiting, and oppressing those in their species who do not “measure up” to artificial standards of moral conformity and behavior. Every other species in the galaxy shakes their head at this human failing, which has now – through religio-political manipulation and restriction of voting rights in the colonies – grown to the level of endangering intra-galactic trade and prosperity.

This is where our heroes come in: Sarah and Crystal, longtime friends; Toby, Sarah’s cousin; and Paulo, a sometime bartender and erstwhile renegade smuggler. They are all on the run, in one way or another, and they meet up at a resort called Nirvana, owned and run by a powerful family of Yterans – an ancient bird-like species with a complex, harmonious civilization.

The world building is great fun, mixing the familiar with the uncanny, the idea of exotic alien worlds as alluring as Paradise, and wretched human colonies that represent its physical and political opposite.

Browne’s characters are nuanced and intelligent, complicated people (even the non-human ones) wanting nothing more than their fair share of happiness. Sarah and Crystal and Toby and Paulo have a long journey to undertake, both as humans, and as players in this galactic drama the outcome of which remains uncertain.

It’s compelling story-telling at its best, with a strong moral undertone that links it to our own world in a very unsettling way.