Station Six by S.J. Klapecki is a queer science fiction novella with big ideas centering a fight against capitalist exploitation. The concepts in this novella were fascinating and deeply relatable in our increasingly exploitative world; while futuristic, it’s really not that far off from present-day situations playing out in the world today. It’s refreshing to see a trans character whose transness is both centered and not - it impacts their life but does not serve as the focal point of their struggle.

However, what the novella had in rich ideas thinned out when it came to the execution. Characters feel underdeveloped and more archetypes than fully realized individuals. Max is dragged along from situation to situation with little agency; though lack of agency against the overpowering machinations of capitalism is definitely a theme of the book, it took almost until the very end for Max to come to any meaningful decision about their role. And with how little the science fiction elements came to be a part of it, I almost wonder if the novella wouldn’t have been better served and punchier by playing out a contemporary setting.

All that being said, this is still an interesting novella with an important political backbone of union solidarity, worker’s rights, and the ongoing fight against an inherently oppressive capitalist system. As this is a debut, I would definitely be curious to read more of Klapecki’s writing in the future.

Thank you to AK Press and Edelweiss for an advance review copy. All opinions are my own.