Nocturnal Book Reviews

Boy, I was so not expecting this book to hit me over the head. I really really like it, and I'm officially on sci-fi binge after Silver Shark as you can see.

First of all, the imagery of the book doesn't deserve this plastic cover. I imagine more of Cliff Neilsen luminous art to describe the look of Sara Mendoza.

I can't believe this book was written as a thesis work on sci-fi. Delightfully twisted world. There is no clarity of Ilona Andrews in it, more of hazy madness of Blade Runner.



Sara starts up as a naive debutante who only thinks about her marriage to Chen, her Rogue partner. Then couple of pages after she is on the run from the government agents being set up by Chen and left to fend for herself.

She spends a month tortured, scarred beyond any recognition and tripping out of her mind on strongest hallucinogens in the hands of an evil female contractor, Faya, all because a mad Sovereign thinks she conspired against him with the Fraggers (rebels).

Then he decides to blackmail her into becoming his spy on a ship suspected in fraggers activity.. She undergoes reconstructive surgery and becomes one of the Embassy's Ambasadoras - diplomats with beautiful live light designs on their arms.

The rest is an absolutely wild and brutal ride rigged with layers of intrigues, betrayals, assassins and fight to survive and regain Sara's sanity.

There are quite a few main characters - Sara, Sean - the ship's tech, David - ex-military and the ship's captain, enigmatic contractor Rainer and many more. They are engaging and different, - none of them are there to just fill the space.

There is also no romance the way we used to it. Instead there are two paranoid and scarred individuals who become close to each other. There are also plenty relationships around them.

I'm being as cagey as possible because I don't want to give away more than I already have, but this is a book certainly worth reading if you love a dash through space with laser guns and totally alien reality. Wonderful sci-fi. I'm in love!