Creative ideas abound in sci/fi and fantasy novels. The novels I will review this month include two fantasy adaptations of classic stories, as well as two novels focusing on the trending topic of humans falling in love with engineered beings. Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim is a gender swapping retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo. Rogue Princess by B.R. Myers reimagines Cinderella in space. In The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow a human and a "labmade" alien, who resembles a human, cooperate to save Earth. In Ink in the Blood Kim Smejkal creates a world where people are controlled by a divine being who has her wishes tattooed upon her devotees.
Scavenge the Stars, the first book in a duology, introduces Amaya "Silverfish" Chandra, who is a prisoner on a debt collector's ship when the story opens. When against her captor's wishes she rescues a mysterious man, Boon, from drowning, he offers her riches and a chance at revenge against Kayman Mercado, the merchant who ruined her family. They escape and head to her former home of Moray, a city-state where opulence and desperate gamblers collide. Boon orchestrates Amaya's makeover and sets her up as a countess, who cons and manipulates people. As she navigates this game of deception, she finds herself crossing paths with Kayman's son Cayo, who is involved with the seedy Moray underworld, trying to get medicine to save his sister from a disease plaguing the city. Each working toward their own ends, they begin to fall for each other as they get caught up in complex schemes and discover revealing secrets about the past. Each chapter begins with literary quotes that foreshadow what is to happen. Alternating between Cayo and Amaya's perspectives, this tale of romance and revenge will capture reader's hearts and minds.
Rogue Princess finds Princess Delia fleeing an arranged marriage on a stolen spaceship. She is supposed to marry a prince who will secure an alliance and save her failing planet, but she is dreaming of true love. Aidan, a handsome stowaway on the royal spaceship, is a common thief who is fleeing his abusive family, complete with wicked stepbrothers, in hopes of making a new life for himself on a distant planet. Sparks fly when they discover each other and must work together to battle pirates and a planned coup to take over their planet. As they cooperate to thwart planetary revolution, Delia thinks Aidan is an undercover bodyguard, and he does little to disavow this notion. Uncovering a long-hidden secret and the truth behind the conspiracy threatens to derail their affection for each other in this charming interstellar twist on Cinderella, which is filled with romance and political intrigue.
The Sound of Stars is set on Earth two years after an alien invasion. An African American teen, Janelle (Ellie) Baker, survives the invasion of the Ilori and now is sequestered in a NYC high rise, while the aliens, who can't breath on Earth, complete a vaccine which will wipe out humanity and leave bodies available for the Ilori to inhabit for recreation. She is running an illicit library and is discovered by MORr1S (Morris), a "labmade" Ilori commander who resembles a human. He is captivated by music and offers her protection if she can smuggle him records and ipods. When Ellie ends up scheduled for execution, the two set off on a cross-country road trip to California, where Morris thinks he will be able to execute a plan that will save humanity. Along the way they bond over literature and music, in particular a boy band that is made up of a benevolent race of aliens masquerading as humans. The novel is told in four parts, alternating between the protagonists' perspectives and is filled with pop culture references and original songs. Political issues, such as the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements are explored, as Morris and Ellie make their way toward a solution that will save mankind and give them an opportunity for a life together.
Ink in the Blood focuses on Celia Sand and Anya Burtoni, who have served the Profeta religion as "inklings" for a decade. They can magically tattoo the Profeta faithful with images that offer divine guidance. As the girls become disillusioned with the religion, believing there is no deity, only a mortal bureaucracy that seeks to subvert free will, they decide to flee. Joining a seditious traveling theater troop, the Rabble Mob, they use their abilities to create a performance where they pose as an angel and the devil and supposedly read minds. They attract the attention of the Profeta Divine, a vengeful deity that actually exists. She hopes to expand her following by using their performances as propaganda and threatens their newfound theater friends if they don't cooperate. The complex characters with a wide variety of gender identities and sexual orientations are sympathetically drawn. As the battle between good and evil plays out, readers will care deeply about the strong friendships and delicate romances that are threatened in this thought-provoking tale. The cliffhanger ending will leave them anxious for the sequel in this fantasy duology.
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