Where do I start? Reading Vol. 1 was absolute blast to read through! It felt like I was a reading a manga and gave me a sense of nostalgia too. The writing was phenomenal! The descriptions of the book’s lore & concepts were spectacular and vivid. The characters were dynamic and real. I found myself emotionally connected to all the characters, especially the antagonist as well. I felt like a companion to their story, watching it unfold. The book also explores the relationships the characters have with each other. The more I read, the more gritty & gut wrenching it became. This book is subversive and queer as hell. I definitely recommend this amazing sci-fi novel. Kira has made a wonderful book!
Amazing writing, dynamic characters, intriguing plot line, vivid descriptions. This book has everything a reader could be looking for, but that's not why I love it. The emotional connection I had with the characters felt like a gun shot wound, and I mean that in the best way. It touches on feelings that we are often scared to look at, let alone put into words and I adored ever moment. This book is subversive, gorgeous, gut wrenching, and feels more personal then book I've read from a larger publisher, and the authors input makes it feel like taking a journey with a companion rather then braving the complex world of Constelis Voss alone. This book is the best example of why "industry standard" isn't the best approach to writing.
Excellent quality print for the price and looks gorgeous framed on my bedroom wall. This particular piece seems to breathe with motion by the colorful array around the subject. The X's scattered around their mouth and chest suggest silence and obscurity of the self. While the character's hair is short, the swath of yellow in the foreground gives the illusion of long hair blown forward by the wind. Prone hands drip magenta like blood, vacant gaze and posture implying a dissociative state. This piece is among my treasured favorite prints that I have purchased.
The colors came out very well and the canvas wrap and backing are solid and I’m very happy
It’s been a long time since I read a book in one sitting, and it happened again with COLOUR THEORY. This book hooked me from the first sentence, and Alex is so relatable and badass I swear I want to get a tattoo of him. This book is vivid, gritty, and it’s queer af; to say I'm in love is an understatement. If you haven't yet, pick the whole series immediately. Trust me.
Though Empty of Nothing can be read and appreciated without its greater context, it is nevertheless an essential addition to the Constelis Voss universe. Kira Leigh’s short prequel gives us important insight to the inner workings of Alex’s mind prior to the events of Colour Theory. For those familiar with the existing story, the sudden shift in setting was jarring in a deliciously horrific way.
Alex, now an unnamed narrator, is trapped in a hellish, white-walled complex filled with those who are Empty, seeking to fill their Lack. On the shoulders of their jumpsuits is stenciled what they are missing. One reads, ‘Empty: Water’ and seeks another whose ‘Empty: Dry’ will complete them. Those who are coupled are permitted to leave the facility, those who are not must stay. Alex is designated as an ‘Empty: Nothing.’ Because ‘Nothing’ cannot be a fulfilled Lack, he is stuck in the complex. The only other option is to become Violent and to be expelled from the facility through a tube that shoots its passengers up to the unknown surface above.
Alex and Olive struggle against the Didacta, an all-seeing computer entity that monitors their every move. However, it is an unfeeling creature and provides necessary information for our protagonists as well.
Empty of Nothing is a delicious morsel of story, an appetizer before the main course of Constelis Voss. Colored with Alex’s characteristic piss and vinegar and Olive’s optimism, this addition to K. Leigh’s post-apocalyptic space opera will scratch any sci-fi addict’s itch for the unusual.
Aside from its part in the greater storyline, Empty of Nothing is an important meditation on finding one’s place in a world where every puzzle piece is expected to fit. While the rest of the Empty individuals are expected to fill their Lacks, to seek satisfaction in others, Alex poses a question - why not fill your own Lack? Or, in Alex’s case, why should anyone be considered ‘lacking’ in anything?
Empty of Nothing is a different beast from the Constellis Voss trilogy. It's an introspective look into a neurodivergent mind, embracing that their understanding of the world is different but not wrong. To the contrary, the author extolls that neurodivergence as a path to truth and perhaps liberation from the restrictions of a binary world. It's a very thorough exploration of a perspective often poorly understood by neurotypicals (including myself!).
It's a really great story to read after finishing the trilogy. It will get you to go back to Color Theory and start reading the original books all over again. Even without the preceding story's context, it's still a good mindtrip and exploration of neurodivergence but reading the whole trilogy beforehand makes it a real treat, especially as a prequel.
This is it. Our cast of misfits is stretched to their absolute limit. The truth is finally laid bare. All hell is breaking loose and it's up to Alex and company to make things right. But can they overcome the hatred and injustice of the past? There is a spark of hope, yes. But can our heroes grab it? Can they fix this? Kira Leigh brings things to a worthy, showstopping end, leaving the audience wanting more.
The next chapter of Constellis Voss continues right where Color Theory left off with a BANG. As we decipher the characters' actions via Pattern Recognition, we see more of the big picture. Revelations strip away any pretense of coincidence as the machinations of another come to light. And with those revelations, superpowers! You will continue to fall in love with the quirky cast of characters as they are put through their biggest trials yet. Kira Leigh truly gets to have his cake and eat it too while deftly building to the unavoidable climax on the horizon.
Color Theory is a perfect introduction to the world of Constellis Voss. A simple story of an awesome android, half-baked revolutions, and familiar faces that insinuates much much more. The theme of Color Theory is not immediately apparent, but it becomes a cipher to understand what's lying under the surface. An excellent novel, great characters, and interesting themes that reflect the author's well-found concerns of mankind's current trajectory.
Constellis Voss is the masterful product of an author wrestling with internal and external demons, who emerges victorious. What initially seems like a slick sci-fi novel in Volume 1 evolves into something much more complicated, exciting, devastating, but ultimately hopeful by the end of Volume 3.
We as readers are given ciphers to glimpse into what is really happening. With Volume 1, it's color theory. With Volume 2, it's pattern recognition. Then, with all those tools at our disposal, all is revealed for the Reformat in Volume 3. It's a story where each new revelation chips away at the deceptive facade until the truth is laid bare; where you see the truth and can look back and see that it was all there from the very start. Every detail is part of a grand plan orchestrated by Kira Leigh.
The character building is top notch. Kira makes it so easy to fall in love with his characters flaws and all. As each one enters the stage, the story is enriched. As they discover more of themselves, they come into higher resolution. As they find power, they spring into vivid, distinct colors. You will most certainly find a character you identify with because the cast is richly diverse in a thoughtful way.
Constellis Voss is a balancing act that is perfectly executed. Indulgences in cool anime cyberpunk action and half-cocked revolutions based on bravado are offset by trauma and societal oppression. There is darkness but there is light and hope. There are clear eyed, sobering glimpses into what our current reality can fall towards, but Kira's defiant response via his characters' actions opposes and rejects all of that.
Constellis Voss is art in the truest sense of the word. It has a clear message, driven deliberately by the passionate words and constructs of its creator: for people to love themselves, to be good to others, and to be awesome. It's a book trilogy that I hope many people read to get them through dark times like these. It's a call for community and solidarity to overcome greed, pride, and cynicism. CV proclaims that our destiny is in our own hands, all of our hands, and it's up to us to make a dark world brighter.
This is it. Our cast of misfits is stretched to their absolute limit. The truth is finally laid bare. All hell is breaking loose and it's up to Alex and company to make things right. But can they overcome the hatred and injustice of the past? There is a spark of hope, yes. But can our heroes grab it? Can they fix this? Kira Leigh brings things to a worthy, showstopping end, leaving the audience wanting more.
Colour Theory is the debut novella of K Leigh, an autistic trans-masculine sci-fi
writer from Providence, Rhode Island, USA. The story is about an android with a
mysterious human past living on a fascist generation ship.
The book is fast-paced and kaleidoscopic. Reading it feels very much like being
dropped mid-season into a sci-fi cartoon or TV show from the 90s, while the story
refuses to subscribe to the heteronormativity and unselfconscious regurgitation of
genre tropes and character archetypes that often coloured fiction from that era.
It makes you feel nostalgic for a story that you’ve never heard, or a time that
didn’t actually exist. This approach to media is common for songwriters in the
contemporary hyperpop genre, whose music tends to evoke a set of sounds and
images from the popular culture of an earlier era (most likely the 80s, 90s, or the early
2000s), then mixes them up with newer, or more politically subversive sounds or
images to create a queer, compelling hybrid.
But you don’t see this hybrid, nostalgic approach in literature as much. K Leigh
uses it to great effect in this story, which doesn’t focus as much on the narrative, but
more on the emotions and psychology of its protagonists, while shamelessly deriving
its aesthetic influences from our cultural understanding of what popular (and populist)
media says is ‘space opera’.
The technology is more of a backdrop for the characters and their relationships,
and gets a little messier towards the end.
But the story never stops being visually dynamic or compelling. The hints about
the underlying narrative and wider universe that Leigh builds in his future books are
fascinating too. Readers on the autism spectrum will probably feel most at home here,
but anyone prepared to sink into the setting and trust the vibe to carry them along will
most likely enjoy their time with this novel.
I didn't know what I was getting into when I first started Constelis Voss vol. 1: Color Theory. I was bewildered and confused, deliberately so by the author, just like Alex starts out. Everything was new and unknown and almost incomprehensible for the both of us, and I immediately felt a kinship with the snarky android from the future-past based on this mutual misunderstanding of the world he found himself in and I found myself rapturously following. Slowly things started clicking in place for the both of us by the middle of the book, connections both metaphorical and literal solidifying before our very eyes. It's not an understatement that it felt like I was reading the book almost in real time. Everything flows seamlessly and effortlessly with its own perfect internal logic, and once you start to settle into the ebb and flow of said logic it's hard to let it go.
Each successive volume of the trilogy brings you not just more of the same but more of itself, like adding more instruments to harmonize with a song. Each added layer making the previous deeper and more thought-provoking in retrospect. By the end of the series I looked at the first pages with entirely new eyes, able to pick out details that I had never thought to focus on; previously innocuous things were now jumping out at me, leaping out in my mind as if to say "you fool! How could not have seen this before?!". Its a testament to the skill and raw, burning passion of the author to have made something so beautifully complex and wonderfully sublime.
I wondered how the author, K. Leigh, would grasp the fervent pace of the previous 2 instalments and throttle it forthwith into something extraordinary....and by gee CV3 delivers more than I could have imagined! Possibly the fastest & clearest example of a penultimate series ender I've encountered. CV3 is incredibly complex and yet so beautifully concise in wrapping up loose ends that had left me wondering. Masterful writing, leaves me hopeful for more.
Constelis Voss is beautiful.
Trust the author.
This story is a puzzle and asks the reader to assemble it. The pieces are all there, slowly doled out.
Get all three books and read them as a whole. Do not go in expecting a whole complete story in book 1, these are structured more similarly to a three-part manga than other traditional novels.
Color is a major theme of the work, and K paints outstandingly vivid images that leap off the page and animate themselves. Who needs an animation studio?
A meditation on Society and Community, how they're different, and how we're leaving Community behind despite its necessity.
The work is a dialogue and invites the reader to interpret certain elements for themselves rather than stating definitively How Things Are
Empty of Nothing is mindfucky cyberpunk weirdness, and that's what you should love about it.
Whether you're a robot, a program, or a human, we all deal with garbage data. We can only create things with what we have and what we've learned. Garbage in, garbage out. That's all the harder to deal with when you feel EVERYTHING.
Find meaning along with our protagonists as they seek to understand a nonsensical system and realize that they're not the ones who are broken, in this prequel to the stunning trilogy Constelis Voss.
As the story progresses Leigh gives little tidbits of the characters and the life they had before Constelis Voss. I’m internally screaming to final see the picture that Leigh has painted; mainly interested in Alex’s back story. Hoping to at least glimpse into the sexy, badass, war machines dark past. I definitely can’t wait to see how our little bird brings his tantalizing tale to a close.
I give ultimate praise to Leigh for giving the world the masterpiece known as The Constelis Voss Trilogy. The cast is dynamic and never strayed from their personal stance on social issues. Leigh orchestrated a beautiful disaster known as real life. I like how things ended in a realistic way instead of a false reality. Leigh definitely tells the world some happily ever afters aren’t what we expect them to be or how we want them to turn out. Sometimes we need to see that the choices we make have consequences that we must live with. Though not all consequences are dire, some just provide us with a lesson to reflect on. I’m eager for more in the Constelis Voss universe in the future.
I give ultimate praise to Leigh for giving the world the masterpiece known as The Constelis Voss Trilogy. The cast is dynamic and never strayed from their personal stance on social issues. Leigh orchestrated a beautiful disaster known as real life. I like how things ended in a realistic way instead of a false reality. Leigh definitely tells the world some happily ever afters aren’t what we expect them to be or how we want them to turn out. Sometimes we need to see that the choices we make have consequences that we must live with. Though not all consequences are dire, some just provide us with a lesson to reflect on. I’m eager for more in the Constelis Voss universe in the future.
A truely incredible story with enlightening message. The prose is truely next level. Makes you think, cry, and laugh. Truely a wonderful thought provoking read.
Constelis Voss Vol. 3 had me at the edge of my seat the whole time I was reading it. I’d give it a standing ovation if only it was a real space opera. For now I give ultimate praise to Leigh for giving the world the masterpiece known as The Constelis Voss Trilogy. The cast is dynamic and never strayed from their personal stance on social issues. Leigh orchestrated a beautiful disaster known as real life. I like how things ended in a realistic way instead of a false reality. Leigh definitely tells the world some happily ever afters aren’t what we expect them to be or how we want them to turn out. Sometimes we need to see that the choices we make have consequences that we must live with. Though not all consequences are dire, some just provide us with a lesson to reflect on. I’m eager for more in the Constelis Voss universe in the future.
I totally rec this book. This book is amazing. I’m what people call and otaku so I read manga on a daily basis. Constelis Voss made me feel like I was reading a manga except with out the drawings. The detail is so vivid and clear. It’s a LGBTQ+, sci-fi, technological dystopian society, blast from the past, space opera.
