A Girl and Her Space Ship

I'm reading Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue by Hugh Howey. I've read Wool 1 and 2. They're exceptionally tight and well-written creepy sci-fi. Molly Fyde is quite different. A futuristic science fiction space opera about a girl pilot who's kicked out of the Naval Academy… under suspicious—perhaps gender-related—circumstances.

Don't have all the answers yet. But as Molly travels to and arrives in Palan, I can't help but think of Luke Skywalker, and the different planets he travels to in Star Wars. Later, when Molly and her pilot/navigator (depends on the ship… whether Molly's the pilot or Cole's the navigator) meet those mechanical and interesting Glemot bears, I think of Hans Solo and Chewie.

Howey peppers his story with ideas about population control, genocide, and war in general, among other things.

A big fan of the rain, I love the storms in Palan. I'd say Howey grew as a writer, between his first book in the Molly Fyde series and the first Wool book. Not sure he grew as a storyteller, because the story he spins in Molly Fyde is quite good.

My favorite character in Book 1 is the Drenard, Alyna. My favorite quote is:

She scratched his arm and pressed her lips into a flat line. "Have you seen the girl in Albert's ship?"
"The Drenard? Absolutely. Extremely fragile, in my estimation."
"She's a slave, Edison."
"I concur. Liberated organisms do not decorate themselves in chains."

With all the metal, plasma, mechanics, and mathematical equations, this is definitely an out-of-my-comfort-zone-read, but if the idea of a girl and her space ship sounds good to you, I highly recommend it.