Book Review: Space Pew Pew by David Badurina

Review by Zachary Forbes

May 14th, 2025

We're back to book reviews post SFINCS competition, and what better way to start than with David Badurina's absurdist space opera adventure, Space Pew Pew.

Summary:

Alex Aurora and his partner in crime, an android named Toshiro, are retrieving medical supplies from a battle-worn planet, in hopes of trading them to an Euclidian arms dealer named Symon, in exchange for a hint of where Alex may find his birth family. The deal goes awry, and the duo find themselves on the run with increasingly well-known galactic bounties on their heads.

Before long they meet a woman named Andromeda, who helps them narrowly escape capture in exchange for a way out of her own dire circumstances. The strange part is--Alex has seen this exact woman before...in a half-conscious dream at death's doorstep.

They set off together, pulling a few more people into their 'crew', and finding even in a vast universe there are still many intertwining elements from each of their lives.

The Characters:

Almost immediately, I got the sense the characters would be the most prominent element of this story. So I'm going to start here, with a lens on a few significant ones.

Alex Aurora -- The protagonist of the story, and captain of the aptly named Sotally Tober. Alex is a man of vices. He obsesses over one particular musical celebrity, drinks like a maniac with little mind for circumstance, and really really wants to have sex with Andromeda. But more than that, Alex is without roots. We meet him with the only objective of finding where he comes from and connecting with a family. Despite this, one of the first decisions he makes slows him from reaching this goal in order to protect someone. In this way he is complex. Clumsy, yet noble when it counts. Perhaps a reflection of who we, as readers, hope to be under our own flawed shells.

Toshiro -- The sassy companion, and judgemental foil to Alex's nonsense. Toshiro takes on a particular personality early on in this story, and the author commits to this bit for the long haul. Sometimes it's a lot, but sometimes it hits right when you forget about it, and you're shell-shocked with real world cringe-inducing terminology. All of Toshiro's dialogue is also in caps-lock, which I found an interesting decision by the author. I'm still working out how I feel about it, as most of us have been trained to see ALL CAPS as a sign a character is yelling. In some ways this enhances the humor, especially during arguments or bickering. It also serves to make Toshiro's dialogue very distinct. Which is a mark of good dialogue, albeit I believe the author achieves this with pretty much every significant character in the book.

Andromeda Calypso -- The obligatory princess. And I don't mean that in a bad way. It actually serves the absurdist nature of the story, I think, to play with and subvert a princess love interest, while still arriving at a similar dramatic purpose to the classic stories in the end. Andromeda has a fierce personality, and her relationship to the rest of the crew ebbs and flows in how motivated she is to care about them. One scene early on did scare me, as it was implied much of her development with Alex had occurred during transit off-screen. But that character development does still take place, only aided by the implication that this crew has spent many days cramped up playing board games with a frustrated android.

Boom Boom -- As a sci-fi writer myself, I've spent many long hours pondering the question: What character could I possibly create to match the lovable brilliance of a talking alien raccoon with weapons like in Guardians of the Galaxy? It turns out the answer to that was a race of space-faring Capybaras, who only speak in four-word sentences. And yes, they are unashamedly capybaras. Not some coincidentally similar alien substitute. Boom Boom in particular is a legendary fighter amongst his species with an addiction to violence, which is explained in a deep philosophical manner despite the comedic limitations of his dialogue. The use of capybaras also perfectly capitalizes on the 'meme era' of which this story takes much of its humor. Serious world-building decorated with silly aesthetics. You may be able to tell already, but this was perhaps my favorite idea the author implemented.

The World-Building:

We traverse a number of locales in this story, each with their own personalities. From the war-torn battlefield to the tight space harbors to the capitalist space hub to the unlivable hellscape. There are distinct personalities to these places, which in-turn reinforce our understanding of the characters which are tied to them.

The most fleshed-out of these planets is Theta-Sixteen. This is where we see much of galactic culture, in the form of celebrities, markets, and government surveillance. This planet is also utilized for poking fun at real-world culture, almost blending our perceived expectations of a science fiction setting with the irony of the millennial generation.

The Tone:

I get a lot of Spaceballs vibes from this book. More often than not, if something can go wrong, it almost certainly will, in the most painful and spectacular way you can think of. The over-the-top nature of these blunders works to capture the reader in a moment of contained 'wtf' humor, but also serves to increase tension over the course of the story.

There are things that come into this world as a joke, such as what are essentially 'speed-force' pills, which could prove extremely useful during certain circumstances, but are humorously limited with a high enough chance of giving the user an excruciating death.

Yet for all its nonsense, this story hits all the necessary dramatic beats. As mentioned before with the princess, the author utilizes classic conflicts in tropes with his own twists that manage to poke fun while also understanding the tropes' significance.

I like to say drama is much easier to write than comedy, as the most bare bones dramatic plot will still leave the reader/viewer feeling they have experienced something. And David does utilize the dramatic, even from the beginning, with some endearing character moments specifically between Alex and Toshiro.

Overall:

Space Pew Pew is a literary sci-fi spoof, but one that's done with the framework of an actual story in mind. By the end you feel your investment in these characters has been worth it, and towards the very end the stakes feel entirely real. I can say for certain I've come out of this story with distinct pictures of each character and the role that they play. That is not something you can say for every story you come across. Bobnog Cognog, as they say.

Thanks for reading this review in full. If you like my analysis style, definitely head to the 'Home' tab above and subscribe to our newsletter. We're hoping to put out posts like this more frequently. Or find me on substack @zachforbesbro