Book Review: Nyxia Unleashed by Scott Reintgen

Crown Books for Young Readers
Published July 17th, 2018
400 Pages

Emmett Atwater thought Babel’s game sounded easy. Get points. Get paid. Go home. But it didn’t take long for him to learn that Babel’s competition was full of broken promises, none darker or more damaging than the last one.

Now Emmett and the rest of the Genesis survivors must rally and forge their own path through a new world. Their mission from Babel is simple: extract nyxia, the most valuable material in the universe, and play nice with the indigenous Adamite population.

But Emmett and the others quickly realize they are caught between two powerful forces—Babel and the Adamites—with clashing desires. Will the Genesis team make it out alive before it’s too late?– Goodreads

If you have not picked up this series, you really should. Emmett is everything you want in a main character. Emmett’s heart and perception is everything you want in a series.

However, despite my love of Emmett, I didn’t get sucked into this story as much as I did with the first book (read my hype here). This book is a build up to what will be an epic finale. The thing about this book is there is so much build up that my focus was going in an out at time. But let me explain.

Emmett is ready to take Babel out. After forcing him into a corner that now has him looking constantly over his shoulder, Emmett is done when he sees Babel’s disregard for the Adamite’s lifestyle & culture. It is a history being repeated. Although the author does not use the term “White people trying to take over things” colonization is used and that is exactly what it is. It pisses Emmett off, rightfully so. Babel is trying to loot the planet as much as possible for their own financial means.

But the Adamite are much more clever that Babel thinks so and its not surprising because colonizers have a tendency to belittle and underestimate the people they want to ruin. I slightly digress but it is hard not to compare real life history to what is happening  in the book. The author does a really good job of not blunting calling it what it is but making the reader as well as Emmett aware of what is happening.

The whole premise of this book is to show that nothing is what it seems and the author does a really good job hiding intentions. I was surprised at some points. My issue with this book was there was a lot of downtime. The downtime makes sense and it is completely appropriate to have considering what happens at the end but it didn’t excite me as much as the first book. Although the pace is really good and there is a lot of things to pay attention to, this read wasn’t as strong as the first book.

Overall, it is important to read this book and not skip because everything comes together at the end. Everything makes sense.

3 Pickles

NetGalley Review: Sea of Stars (Kricket #2) by Amy A. Bartol

47North
Published March 31, 2015
291 Pages

This series has some amazing book covers!

So Kricket is the most wanted woman alive. She is slowly understanding and finding out she is more powerful than she or Trey thought. 

Now on the planet Ethar, Kricket is a target to both the Rafe and the Alameeda house. But when a vision comes in the form of danger, Kricket must decide if her gift of seeing the future will allow her to change it or suffer at the inevitable. 

If you didn’t read my review of the first book check it here.

I picked up book two because I was interested in seeing character development. There was some development. Kricket wasn’t as annoying as she was in the first novel and her relationship with Trey although seemed to come from the heart really felt like lush. Every time she was upset at something she would look at Trey and think “how hot is he” and then she would completely forget what she was thinking.

I felt that throughout the book you really felt that Kricket, Trey and all of them were just teenagers. Although they were good at what they did you can really tell their age.

The pace of the novel was good. I was able to finish it without too much pausing but could I have said it was a good novel? It was okay. It was better than the first one but it was still lacking. Passion, even a fierce desire would have really made the book . . . the series for that matter.

Overall,

2 Pickles