Space Brooms!, by A.G. Rodriguez

1 Apr 2025

The Book

Space Brooms!
Pages: 352
Age Group: Adult
Published on 25 Mar 2025
Publisher: Angry Robot Books
Genres:
Sci-Fi

Synopsis:

A fun, sci-fi romp where custodian – or space broom – Johnny Gomez teams up with smugglers and is thrust into an unforgettable adventure. Great read for fans of Stringers by Chris Panatier.

Everyone aboard Kilgore Station is living their best life. Everyone except for Johnny Gomez.

While humans, the augmented, and aliens of all shapes and sizes enjoy exotic cuisine on the dining deck, or gamble away their credits on the entertainment deck, Johnny is elbow-deep in oily, black, alien excrement. A ‘space broom’ custodian for the entire station.

This was obviously not the life Johnny dreamt of. Ten years ago, he travelled to Kilgore, the farthest space station in our solar system, in search of fortune like everyone else. Some people are just luckier than others.

Yet his meaningless, uneventful existence is immediately turned upside down when he happens upon a tiny glass data-chit, hidden amongst the alien poop he must clean up. Unbeknownst to him, every nefarious creature in the solar system will soon be after him to claim it for their own.

With the help of his augmented roommate, a pair of smugglers and a mysterious and beautiful stranger, Johnny fights off thugs and sails as fast as possible to earth’s moon, Luna, in effort to sell the chit to the Obinna Crime Syndicate. But with assassins and mobsters on their tail, the trip is anything but a cakewalk. And Luna itself proves to be nothing like a safe haven, when Johnny’s painful past finally catches up to him…  

My Review

Space Brooms! is a fun and rompy sci-fi adventure novel, written by A.G. Rodriguez, and published by Angry Robot Books. A kinda cozy story full of friendship, found family and action, with a creative worldbuilding, following Johnny Gomez after he finds a data chit that might mean the way to get out of the job he was stuck on the Kilgore station if he manages to survive and get it to the adequate people.

Johnny originally left Luna looking for bigger horizons, adventures and new prospects; but after ten years working on the custodial staff at Kilgore Station, cleaning and desinfecting after all kinds of alien, he's trapped into a life without prospects. All changes when he finds a data chit; after he's rescued from a beating by a pair of spacefarers, Hooper and Liliana, and together with Lissette (a woman he always daydreamed about), they start a journey headed towards Luna looking to pocket a hefty sum in exchange of the chit. Only if they are not attacked or robbed of it first.

While this is a bit of the classical adventure story, Rodriguez draws more into the side of the characters, resulting into a really well-fleshed cast that forms the perfect ragtag band: not only Johnny, who has to work in his self-confidence, but each one of the crew has its own strengths and weaknesses. It was also heartwarming in part to see the interactions between Johnny and his uncles, reflecting a Latin family with its own quirks and all.

In terms of pacing, the book is a little bit slow in the first part, but after we are outside of the Kilgore Station, it becomes faster and funnier; not only we have time to explore how the Solar System has evolved in this setting, but to live a few difficult episodes that put our characters between the stone and the wall. The ending was kinda expected, but it suited well with the kind of story Rodriguez is trying to tell.

Space Brooms! is a great example of how to write a rompy and fun sci-fi adventure while putting extreme care at the characterization aspect; A.G. Rodriguez has talent for the genre, and I wonder if this won't be the start of a long series of adventures!

The Author/s

A.G. Rodriguez

A.G. Rodriguez

AG Rodriguez is a Puerto Rican American, multi-genre author specializing in Latino/a/e/x stories and characters. He is the multi-genre author of the debut novel STONE FEATHER FANG from Deep Hearts YA, a fantasy reimagining of Taíno mythology and Puerto Rican history. He holds a MFA in Creative Writing and has penned three published short stories along with four full-length manuscripts in the past ten years. They all have sequels planned, if he can just stop coming up with new projects to work on. He currently resides in the Land of Enchantment where the beautiful mountains and never-ending skies inspire all his work.