The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea
Axie Oh
Feiwel and Friends
Fiction, YA Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: For one hundred years, since the emperor fell to invaders, Mina's homeland has been plagued by deadly seasonal storms. It is said that the Sea God is angry, and that only a bride can appease him... but every year, despite the annual sacrifice of a young woman to the waves, the storms return, worse than ever, even as squabbling men grasp for power and things grow more desperate.
This year's sacrifice is supposed to be Shim Cheong, the loveliest girl in Mina's village... and the girl who stole her brother Joong's heart. The lovesick young man follows her on the boat - and Mina follows him. Thus it was that when the god's dragon rises to claim the sacrificial bride, it is Mina, not Cheong, who plunges into the depths.
She finds herself in a fantastic city under the waves, where fish and whales swim through the sky and spirits mingle with gods and ghosts. She also finds everything she thought she knew about the story of the Sea God and the sacrifices turned on its head. The god himself is barely more than a boy, caught in an enchanted slumber, while around him powerful houses scheme and plot - some to protect him, some to depose him. Mortal brides don't fare well in this dangerous place, as Mina learns all too soon. Caught up in politics and magics beyond her understanding, Mina clings to the only things that remain to her: the love of her family, the determination to save her people, and the stories spun by her grandmother.
REVIEW: As one might guess, this story is rooted in Asian folk tales and legends, with myriad gods and watchful ancestral spirits and mythical beasts that may be helpful or dangerous (or both). Being something of a fairy tale, one can mostly guess the broad strokes of how the story unfolds, but the characters are nevertheless engaging and Mina makes for a decently strong heroine, one who will not let herself be a simple pawn of fate or victim but who determines to forge her own destiny despite the incredible odds against her. It moves fairly well, never dragging, as Mina faces victories and defeats and frustrations. A few "twists" were fairly obvious from the outset, and at a couple points the characters need to be pushed or led to conclusions they should've come to on their own, but overall I enjoyed it for what it was.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Grace Lin) - My Review
The Empress of Salt and Fortune (Nghi Vo) - My Review
Dragon Keeper (Carole Wilkinson) - My Review
Friday, January 13, 2023
Thursday, January 12, 2023
Scritch Scratch (Lindsay Currie)
Scritch Scratch
Lindsay Currie
Sourcebooks
Fiction, MG Chiller/Mystery
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Seventh-grader Claire's life has been a nightmare ever since her father's book, about the ghosts of Chicago, became a big hit. Now he runs bus tours of "haunted" sights around the Windy City, while Claire gets teased about her dad's obsession all day at school. She's a girl of science, not of spooks (even if she does still have to count out loud to get through the dark and scary alley behind her home). It might not be quite so bad if she had a shoulder to cry on, but her older brother Sam can be a jerk sometimes, and her best friend Casley seems to have outgrown her, spending most of her time with the new girl Emily talking about fashion and make-up and other stuff Claire just can't make herself be interested in. The night Dad's assistant calls out sick, forcing Claire to fill in on the night's ghost tour, is an embarrassment to end all embarrassments... until she sees the little boy, all alone, at the back of the empty tour bus.
A little boy nobody else sees.
Soon after, strange things start happening around Claire. Something's scratching behind the walls and rattling the bedroom doorknobs. Cold water soaks her dresser drawers. Windstorms strike out of nowhere... indoors. Even a scientist like Claire can't ignore this kind of evidence, for all that she's always believed ghosts are impossible. The little boy is a real spirit, and Claire is being haunted. But why has he latched onto her, of all people? Who was he? And how is she supposed to figure out what he wants before he destroys her home, and her mind?
REVIEW: With a chill-inducing title, Scritch Scratch is a decent little chiller of a story, with some rather spooky moments that evoke childhood fears of death and darkness and things that go bump (or scritch-scratch) in the night.
Claire is a bright young girl, but still hobbled by fears... as is everyone in the story, to some degree or another. One major thread in the story is fear: how one doesn't always outgrow fear, whether or not it's objectively rational, but one can choose how one reacts to it and copes with it. Her embrace of science is part of how she tries to overcome her fears, but she still has to count out loud to face scary things... and even that doesn't help much when it's not just an overactive imagination haunting her (no spoiler for saying that the ghost is quite, quite real). She tries to face everything alone, too, convinced that turning to others will only make things worse or open her up to ridicule or disbelief (or, in her father's case, risk him latching eagerly onto a haunting in his own house to boost his ghost tours, regardless of how terrified she is of the vengeful little boy in white), but eventually has to call in help. In doing so, she learns that everyone has their own fears to face (if not necessarily their own personal turn-of-the-century spirits stalking them), and reaching out to others can actually make things a little better. Along the way, Claire and her friends delve into the history of Chicago and the many bones buried beneath its streets, quite literally in some instances.
It lost a half-star in the ratings because of some internal logic inconsistencies with the haunting (which I can't get into without spoilers), and something about the later parts felt like it was pulling its punches after the truly scary bits that came before, as if it didn't trust the reader to handle the climax without excessive hand-holding. I also had the odd feeling it wanted to set up a series (or at least a sequel), but shied away at the last minute. These late wobbles aside, though, I found it a fairly spooky tale.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The In-Between (Rebecca K. S. Ansari) - My Review
The Ghost in the Third Row (Bruce Coville) - My Review
City of Ghosts (Victoria Schwab) - My Review
Lindsay Currie
Sourcebooks
Fiction, MG Chiller/Mystery
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Seventh-grader Claire's life has been a nightmare ever since her father's book, about the ghosts of Chicago, became a big hit. Now he runs bus tours of "haunted" sights around the Windy City, while Claire gets teased about her dad's obsession all day at school. She's a girl of science, not of spooks (even if she does still have to count out loud to get through the dark and scary alley behind her home). It might not be quite so bad if she had a shoulder to cry on, but her older brother Sam can be a jerk sometimes, and her best friend Casley seems to have outgrown her, spending most of her time with the new girl Emily talking about fashion and make-up and other stuff Claire just can't make herself be interested in. The night Dad's assistant calls out sick, forcing Claire to fill in on the night's ghost tour, is an embarrassment to end all embarrassments... until she sees the little boy, all alone, at the back of the empty tour bus.
A little boy nobody else sees.
Soon after, strange things start happening around Claire. Something's scratching behind the walls and rattling the bedroom doorknobs. Cold water soaks her dresser drawers. Windstorms strike out of nowhere... indoors. Even a scientist like Claire can't ignore this kind of evidence, for all that she's always believed ghosts are impossible. The little boy is a real spirit, and Claire is being haunted. But why has he latched onto her, of all people? Who was he? And how is she supposed to figure out what he wants before he destroys her home, and her mind?
REVIEW: With a chill-inducing title, Scritch Scratch is a decent little chiller of a story, with some rather spooky moments that evoke childhood fears of death and darkness and things that go bump (or scritch-scratch) in the night.
Claire is a bright young girl, but still hobbled by fears... as is everyone in the story, to some degree or another. One major thread in the story is fear: how one doesn't always outgrow fear, whether or not it's objectively rational, but one can choose how one reacts to it and copes with it. Her embrace of science is part of how she tries to overcome her fears, but she still has to count out loud to face scary things... and even that doesn't help much when it's not just an overactive imagination haunting her (no spoiler for saying that the ghost is quite, quite real). She tries to face everything alone, too, convinced that turning to others will only make things worse or open her up to ridicule or disbelief (or, in her father's case, risk him latching eagerly onto a haunting in his own house to boost his ghost tours, regardless of how terrified she is of the vengeful little boy in white), but eventually has to call in help. In doing so, she learns that everyone has their own fears to face (if not necessarily their own personal turn-of-the-century spirits stalking them), and reaching out to others can actually make things a little better. Along the way, Claire and her friends delve into the history of Chicago and the many bones buried beneath its streets, quite literally in some instances.
It lost a half-star in the ratings because of some internal logic inconsistencies with the haunting (which I can't get into without spoilers), and something about the later parts felt like it was pulling its punches after the truly scary bits that came before, as if it didn't trust the reader to handle the climax without excessive hand-holding. I also had the odd feeling it wanted to set up a series (or at least a sequel), but shied away at the last minute. These late wobbles aside, though, I found it a fairly spooky tale.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The In-Between (Rebecca K. S. Ansari) - My Review
The Ghost in the Third Row (Bruce Coville) - My Review
City of Ghosts (Victoria Schwab) - My Review
Saturday, January 7, 2023
The Thief (Megan Whelan Turner)
The Thief
The Queen's Thief series, Book 1
Megan Whelan Turner
Greenwillow Books
Fiction, YA Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Gen the thief can steal anything, or so he boasts - including the king's seal from the man's own finger. But he can't get himself out of the prison cell that the theft lands him in afterwards. This isn't the first time his overactive tongue has gotten him in trouble, but it may well be the last. Then a strange visitor comes calling, none other than the king's own magus. The crown has need of a superior thief, it turns out, and though the man is sketchy on the details Gen is in no position to negotiate. Soon Gen, the magus, the man's two mismatched young apprentices, and a burly guard are off on a dangerous mission in hostile territory. If Gen succeeds, he will indeed prove himself the best thief since his divine namesake, Eugenides, who stole lightning from the sky god Himself. If Gen fails, no one will ever find his body.
REVIEW: This is another instance of familiar tropes coming together in a satisfying way. Gen's Mediterranean-inspired world, with long histories and rival nations and complex politics and creation myths and gods (that may or may not be real), feels comfortably familiar yet also distinctive, a wide and lived-in setting for the tale's adventures that comes to colorful life. Likewise, the characters have that familiar feel to them, yet are all solid enough to feel real in their world, often having their own hidden agendas beyond the mission itself, which involves a legendary artifact said to come from the gods Themselves and whose theft is a traditional part of one nation's royal successions. Gen naturally clashes with his companions of circumstance from the start, particularly with the magus himself, though all of the palace folk look down on the filthy young thief plucked from a prison cell. Along the way, he comes to see more of them, and despite his misgivings about dealing with the king's agents (and lingering suspicions that, even if he succeeds, he is ultimately just a tool, one that might be considered disposable), he develops some sense of alliance and even empathy. The plot itself moves well enough, though it takes a while to get around to the details of the mission, and after the climax it lingers a bit overlong on the wrap-up, which leaves threads for future volumes but concludes things well enough. On the whole, it made for an enjoyable story, and a world I wouldn't mind revisiting.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Blacktongue Thief (Christopher Buehlman) - My Review
Swords and Deviltry (Fritz Leiber) - My Review
A Darker Shade of Magic (V. E. Schwab) - My Review
The Queen's Thief series, Book 1
Megan Whelan Turner
Greenwillow Books
Fiction, YA Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Gen the thief can steal anything, or so he boasts - including the king's seal from the man's own finger. But he can't get himself out of the prison cell that the theft lands him in afterwards. This isn't the first time his overactive tongue has gotten him in trouble, but it may well be the last. Then a strange visitor comes calling, none other than the king's own magus. The crown has need of a superior thief, it turns out, and though the man is sketchy on the details Gen is in no position to negotiate. Soon Gen, the magus, the man's two mismatched young apprentices, and a burly guard are off on a dangerous mission in hostile territory. If Gen succeeds, he will indeed prove himself the best thief since his divine namesake, Eugenides, who stole lightning from the sky god Himself. If Gen fails, no one will ever find his body.
REVIEW: This is another instance of familiar tropes coming together in a satisfying way. Gen's Mediterranean-inspired world, with long histories and rival nations and complex politics and creation myths and gods (that may or may not be real), feels comfortably familiar yet also distinctive, a wide and lived-in setting for the tale's adventures that comes to colorful life. Likewise, the characters have that familiar feel to them, yet are all solid enough to feel real in their world, often having their own hidden agendas beyond the mission itself, which involves a legendary artifact said to come from the gods Themselves and whose theft is a traditional part of one nation's royal successions. Gen naturally clashes with his companions of circumstance from the start, particularly with the magus himself, though all of the palace folk look down on the filthy young thief plucked from a prison cell. Along the way, he comes to see more of them, and despite his misgivings about dealing with the king's agents (and lingering suspicions that, even if he succeeds, he is ultimately just a tool, one that might be considered disposable), he develops some sense of alliance and even empathy. The plot itself moves well enough, though it takes a while to get around to the details of the mission, and after the climax it lingers a bit overlong on the wrap-up, which leaves threads for future volumes but concludes things well enough. On the whole, it made for an enjoyable story, and a world I wouldn't mind revisiting.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Blacktongue Thief (Christopher Buehlman) - My Review
Swords and Deviltry (Fritz Leiber) - My Review
A Darker Shade of Magic (V. E. Schwab) - My Review
Friday, January 6, 2023
The Benefits of Being an Octopus (Ann Braden)
The Benefits of Being an Octopus
Ann Braden
Sky Pony
Fiction, MG General Fiction
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: An octopus can squeeze through almost any opening. An octopus can change the color and texture of its skin to blend perfectly into its surroundings. An octopus has eight arms, perfect for multitasking. There are so many, many reasons octopuses are Zoey's favorite animal ever, so many reasons she secretly wishes she could be like them. With eight arms, she'd have no trouble helping out with her three younger siblings and overworked mom. If she could camoflage herself, she'd never have to endure the taunts of other kids and even adults about her shabby clothes and the trailer park smell that follows her everywhere, or see that look on teachers' faces when she has to admit that she hasn't done her homework again (which for sure she'd have had time to do with those eight octopus arms). And if she could move like an octopus, she could escape the dark hole she seems to be living in, crushed by the pressure of a life that's never been exactly right and lately seems just exactly wrong, even if Mom has finally found a somewhat stable man, Lenny, who lets them live in his clean trailer.
When her social studies teacher asks everyone in class to prepare a paper on their favorite animal for a presentation, followed by a debate where the class would have to defend their animal and convince the rest of the class why it's actually the best, for once Zoey actually feels confident enough to try. After all, nobody knows more about octopuses than she does. Maybe, just maybe, she could make her classmates see her as someone other than a nobody. But when her nerves fail at the last minute, her teacher doesn't give her a bad grade for "losing" yet another assignment. Instead, she makes Zoey join the class debate team. On her best days, Zoey goes an entire day without a single actual conversation with her classmates; she doubts they even know her name. And she's just a poor kid from the wrong side of the proverbial tracks; why would anyone listen to her, assuming she was remotely smart enough to say anything worth listening to in the first place? But as more things start to go wrong in Zoey's life, she starts thinking more and more about what she's learning in that class, and starts to wonder if maybe hiding like an octopus isn't the way to get to a life worth living. Maybe she needs to do something a cephalopod could never do: find her voice and speak up.
REVIEW: This award-winning tale tackles issues of poverty, class divides, prejudice, and the deep scars left by abuse even on those not directly targeted - and even when the abuser never lays a finger on the victim.
Zoey's life has always been chaotic, and try as her mother might the family can never seem to get its feet under itself for long... making them the perfect targets for an emotional abuser like Lenny, the sort of sly snake whose cruelty masquerades as protective concern until even Zoey doesn't quite realize what's so terribly, terribly wrong. After all, with Lenny they can live in a clean home (unlike the last few places, or the car they had to live in for a few months), and Lenny helped Mom land a job, so how bad can he really be? It's only after she's forced to attend debate class by a concerned teacher that she starts to recognize what Lenny is doing, how he manipulates ideas and undercuts arguments and attacks his opponents just like a debater at the podium, finding weaknesses and ruthlessly exploiting them for the "win". When her young brother Bryce starts parroting Lenny's cruelty, she realizes she has to do something... but what can one girl hope to do when her own mother no longer has the will or the strength to escape a trap she refuses to even see? Meanwhile, her best friend Fuschia is going through her own troubled times, which take a terrible turn just when Zoey is least prepared to listen. To cope with life's intolerable stresses, Zoey often imagines herself as an octopus, drawing comfort and strength from the cephalopod's abilities. She resists being drawn out by her teacher, resistance the reader fully understands given her circumstances and how her classmates continually and unthinkingly put her in boxes to ignore (quite relatable, I say as someone who wasn't exactly one of the popular kids growing up and who still counts her chief social success in high school as being the achievement of essential invisibility), but at some point growth and change become less about her well-founded fears and more about literal survival.
The tale sometimes feels like it's moving in circles, and at some point I found myself mildly irked at how it seemed like the only purpose in Zoey's life and main impetus to change was her younger siblings, the "screaming monkeys" (Zoey's description) she has to corral and half-raise as her mother becomes less and less certain of her parenting skills under Lenny's influence. (While of course their welfare is important, the children-are-the-be-all-and-end-all-of-a-female's-existence thing gets a bit old.) That aside, it's a decent story that offers no clear, clean, or easy answers for the characters, but does offer hope that sometimes one voice speaking up at the right time can make a difference. I can definitely see why it earned its awards.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Frindle (Andrew Clements) - My Review
The Tiger Rising (Kate DiCamillo) - My Review
The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton) - My Review
Ann Braden
Sky Pony
Fiction, MG General Fiction
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: An octopus can squeeze through almost any opening. An octopus can change the color and texture of its skin to blend perfectly into its surroundings. An octopus has eight arms, perfect for multitasking. There are so many, many reasons octopuses are Zoey's favorite animal ever, so many reasons she secretly wishes she could be like them. With eight arms, she'd have no trouble helping out with her three younger siblings and overworked mom. If she could camoflage herself, she'd never have to endure the taunts of other kids and even adults about her shabby clothes and the trailer park smell that follows her everywhere, or see that look on teachers' faces when she has to admit that she hasn't done her homework again (which for sure she'd have had time to do with those eight octopus arms). And if she could move like an octopus, she could escape the dark hole she seems to be living in, crushed by the pressure of a life that's never been exactly right and lately seems just exactly wrong, even if Mom has finally found a somewhat stable man, Lenny, who lets them live in his clean trailer.
When her social studies teacher asks everyone in class to prepare a paper on their favorite animal for a presentation, followed by a debate where the class would have to defend their animal and convince the rest of the class why it's actually the best, for once Zoey actually feels confident enough to try. After all, nobody knows more about octopuses than she does. Maybe, just maybe, she could make her classmates see her as someone other than a nobody. But when her nerves fail at the last minute, her teacher doesn't give her a bad grade for "losing" yet another assignment. Instead, she makes Zoey join the class debate team. On her best days, Zoey goes an entire day without a single actual conversation with her classmates; she doubts they even know her name. And she's just a poor kid from the wrong side of the proverbial tracks; why would anyone listen to her, assuming she was remotely smart enough to say anything worth listening to in the first place? But as more things start to go wrong in Zoey's life, she starts thinking more and more about what she's learning in that class, and starts to wonder if maybe hiding like an octopus isn't the way to get to a life worth living. Maybe she needs to do something a cephalopod could never do: find her voice and speak up.
REVIEW: This award-winning tale tackles issues of poverty, class divides, prejudice, and the deep scars left by abuse even on those not directly targeted - and even when the abuser never lays a finger on the victim.
Zoey's life has always been chaotic, and try as her mother might the family can never seem to get its feet under itself for long... making them the perfect targets for an emotional abuser like Lenny, the sort of sly snake whose cruelty masquerades as protective concern until even Zoey doesn't quite realize what's so terribly, terribly wrong. After all, with Lenny they can live in a clean home (unlike the last few places, or the car they had to live in for a few months), and Lenny helped Mom land a job, so how bad can he really be? It's only after she's forced to attend debate class by a concerned teacher that she starts to recognize what Lenny is doing, how he manipulates ideas and undercuts arguments and attacks his opponents just like a debater at the podium, finding weaknesses and ruthlessly exploiting them for the "win". When her young brother Bryce starts parroting Lenny's cruelty, she realizes she has to do something... but what can one girl hope to do when her own mother no longer has the will or the strength to escape a trap she refuses to even see? Meanwhile, her best friend Fuschia is going through her own troubled times, which take a terrible turn just when Zoey is least prepared to listen. To cope with life's intolerable stresses, Zoey often imagines herself as an octopus, drawing comfort and strength from the cephalopod's abilities. She resists being drawn out by her teacher, resistance the reader fully understands given her circumstances and how her classmates continually and unthinkingly put her in boxes to ignore (quite relatable, I say as someone who wasn't exactly one of the popular kids growing up and who still counts her chief social success in high school as being the achievement of essential invisibility), but at some point growth and change become less about her well-founded fears and more about literal survival.
The tale sometimes feels like it's moving in circles, and at some point I found myself mildly irked at how it seemed like the only purpose in Zoey's life and main impetus to change was her younger siblings, the "screaming monkeys" (Zoey's description) she has to corral and half-raise as her mother becomes less and less certain of her parenting skills under Lenny's influence. (While of course their welfare is important, the children-are-the-be-all-and-end-all-of-a-female's-existence thing gets a bit old.) That aside, it's a decent story that offers no clear, clean, or easy answers for the characters, but does offer hope that sometimes one voice speaking up at the right time can make a difference. I can definitely see why it earned its awards.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Frindle (Andrew Clements) - My Review
The Tiger Rising (Kate DiCamillo) - My Review
The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton) - My Review
Thursday, January 5, 2023
The Exiled Fleet (J. S. Dewes)
The Exiled Fleet
The Divide series, Book 2
J. S. Dewes
Tor
Fiction, Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: The Sentinels were supposed to be humanity's protectors, posted at the very edge of the universe beyond the galactic rim as guardians against the alien Viator threat. In truth, they were a dumping ground for the System Collective Legion's criminals and misfits and political embarrassments... and now, they're supposed to be dead, abandoned by the government that sent them there, to be replaced with mindless hybrid clones.
They don't know about the ship full of survivors.
Led by former war hero Adequin Rake and disowned royal heir Cavalon Mercer, the Sentinels have abandoned their loyalty to the Legion that left them for dead when the Divide - the barrier between the end of the universe and the nothing beyond - began to collapse. Rake now sees the Legion and the System Collective for what they truly are, a corrupted force that's at least as dangerous to humanity's future as the long-vanquished Viators (who are not as extinct as the public has been led to believe, and also not at all what they appeared to be). Part of her oath was defending the human race from all threats, and right now the biggest threat is coming from within. Before she and her mismatched command crew can deal with that threat, though, they still have plenty of obstacles to overcome, as the Sentinels are still stranded and literally starving at the edge of nowhere.
REVIEW: The story picks up not long after where the first one (The Last Watch, reviewed here) ended, with Rake, Mercer, and their allies struggling to leverage what little resources and knowledge they've gained toward their greater goals of justice, vengeance, and (first and foremost) getting back to galactic civilization without their former colleagues gunning them down the moment they return. Also like the first book, the action is close to nonstop, with complications fouling up even the simplest of plans. It sometimes comes close to exhausting, and once in a while it toes close to the edge of plausibility (even given the inherent handwaving in space opera action adventures), but it makes for solid entertainment. As a counterbalance to all the external action, Rake and Cavalon have both accumulated significant mental and emotional scars in their lives and during their previous adventures, scars that cast shadows over their thoughts and decisions going forward and add extra weight to the firefights and danger they're constantly facing. The two outwardly mismatched duo come to rely on each other as anchors against the perpetual dark undertows threatening to pull them under, a bond that's deeply emotional yet blessedly nonromantic; theirs are the bonds of shared trauma and combat, of understanding where the other one's been and when they're sliding. Around them are the usual collection of side characters, some returning and some new, with fresh faces and sacrifices. Along the way, they unearth more pieces of the greater puzzle that continually upend everything they thought they knew, from the political landscape to family secrets to even the basic physics of the universe. Also like the first volume, it ends less at a definitive conclusion than at a temporary resting point along the greater arc, a pivot point marking a new direction and resolve going forward. I'll be keeping an eye out (or an ear, as this was another audiobook via the local library and the Libby app) for the next installment, which may not drop until next year. Dang it...
You Might Also Enjoy:
Crownchasers (Rebecca Coffindaffer) - My Review
Finder (Suzanne Palmer) - My Review
Shards of Earth (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
The Divide series, Book 2
J. S. Dewes
Tor
Fiction, Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: The Sentinels were supposed to be humanity's protectors, posted at the very edge of the universe beyond the galactic rim as guardians against the alien Viator threat. In truth, they were a dumping ground for the System Collective Legion's criminals and misfits and political embarrassments... and now, they're supposed to be dead, abandoned by the government that sent them there, to be replaced with mindless hybrid clones.
They don't know about the ship full of survivors.
Led by former war hero Adequin Rake and disowned royal heir Cavalon Mercer, the Sentinels have abandoned their loyalty to the Legion that left them for dead when the Divide - the barrier between the end of the universe and the nothing beyond - began to collapse. Rake now sees the Legion and the System Collective for what they truly are, a corrupted force that's at least as dangerous to humanity's future as the long-vanquished Viators (who are not as extinct as the public has been led to believe, and also not at all what they appeared to be). Part of her oath was defending the human race from all threats, and right now the biggest threat is coming from within. Before she and her mismatched command crew can deal with that threat, though, they still have plenty of obstacles to overcome, as the Sentinels are still stranded and literally starving at the edge of nowhere.
REVIEW: The story picks up not long after where the first one (The Last Watch, reviewed here) ended, with Rake, Mercer, and their allies struggling to leverage what little resources and knowledge they've gained toward their greater goals of justice, vengeance, and (first and foremost) getting back to galactic civilization without their former colleagues gunning them down the moment they return. Also like the first book, the action is close to nonstop, with complications fouling up even the simplest of plans. It sometimes comes close to exhausting, and once in a while it toes close to the edge of plausibility (even given the inherent handwaving in space opera action adventures), but it makes for solid entertainment. As a counterbalance to all the external action, Rake and Cavalon have both accumulated significant mental and emotional scars in their lives and during their previous adventures, scars that cast shadows over their thoughts and decisions going forward and add extra weight to the firefights and danger they're constantly facing. The two outwardly mismatched duo come to rely on each other as anchors against the perpetual dark undertows threatening to pull them under, a bond that's deeply emotional yet blessedly nonromantic; theirs are the bonds of shared trauma and combat, of understanding where the other one's been and when they're sliding. Around them are the usual collection of side characters, some returning and some new, with fresh faces and sacrifices. Along the way, they unearth more pieces of the greater puzzle that continually upend everything they thought they knew, from the political landscape to family secrets to even the basic physics of the universe. Also like the first volume, it ends less at a definitive conclusion than at a temporary resting point along the greater arc, a pivot point marking a new direction and resolve going forward. I'll be keeping an eye out (or an ear, as this was another audiobook via the local library and the Libby app) for the next installment, which may not drop until next year. Dang it...
You Might Also Enjoy:
Crownchasers (Rebecca Coffindaffer) - My Review
Finder (Suzanne Palmer) - My Review
Shards of Earth (Adrian Tchaikovsky) - My Review
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