I showed the first three chapters of my hobby sci fi manuscript to my husband as an alpha reader.

He's a really thorough film critic, and I told him to be brutal with his feedback.

He really liked them. He highlighted a few things to tweak for improvement, but otherwise loved it. Pretty genuinely I think. He particularly liked the first glimpse of one of the antagonists. There was a balance there between them being horrible but also kind of likable and intriguing, and so that delicate balance seems to have struck correctly.

So I'm going to show him the first 15 chapters that, in the current draft, make up Act 1 of the story, and get his further thoughts.