SPACE OPERA, HERE I COME!

I like to think I've read most genres but here's a sub-genre I wasn't familiar with and virgin me plunged right in.  The title is KAIJUNAUT by Doug Goodman. It was recommended to me and I was pretty much hooked from the get-go. 

I'm someone who doesn't read a lot of Science Fiction, but I've read enough to know good from bad. Space terminology isn't my strong point--Star Trek was about it for me, with warp drives and tricorders.  What I'd found curious about Star Trek was that I always understood what those things could do. KAIJUNAUT is like that in that there's a pile of space tech terms and somehow, this author wrote in a way that I could understand what the tech does. There's a glossary of the terms at the back, which I didn't know about, and didn't need!

This story is fun.  I grinned a lot throughout. The writing is clever and intelligent writing, the characters unique and interesting (and it's hard to make 5 characters unique in the way they talk, act, and their interests, but Goodman pulled this off.) 

Future astronauts in space investigating a new planet, one full of surprises. By the end I had become a space opera fan.  Unusual monsters (and I hadn't run into this type of monster before in any of the SF books or films I've seen.) The pace is fast, the plot hangs together, the writing is excellent.  What's not to like?  

Recommending this one! Here's the amazon link:

KAIJUNAUT