Himself picked this one up – and recommended that I read it. After trudging through a couple of hefty fantasy reads, I was yearning for a sci fi space opera adventure and reached for this one…
Twenty-five years ago the Vardeshi came to Earth. Then they vanished without a trace. Graduate student Avery Alcott always knew they would return. When they do, she’s the only one who can speak their language. She’s quickly recruited to join the crew of an 11-man starship on a one-year mission into the depths of space.
What an impressive debut! I loved the character of Avery – bookish, quiet and introverted, which doesn’t 
stop her being driven and single-minded with hidden resources. Which she certainly needs… She is a linguistic student selected by a brilliant college professor to learn the Vardeshi language just in case they return. And then they do – and she is the only person of an eligible age who can speak their language.
The preparation for a mission where she will be travelling on a Vardeshi ship as a member of their crew as part of the cultural exchange is so very well depicted. I found this book hard to put down as Avery finds herself tackling hand to hand combat, learning how to send secret messages and cooking her own meals on portable equipment as no one knew whether alien foodstuffs would be poisonous to humans, or vice versa. I also loved her struggles to acclimatise – finding the lighting, slight gravity differences, the fact that everything around her isn’t designed for a human body – an issue that she has to cope with.
When things begin to escalate, I’ll admit my heart sank for a while, as I had a horrible feeling this was going to slide into a Hollywood scenario where the whole situation would become overblown and unrealistic, after it had started so strongly. Fortunately, I think Pechenick manages to avoid that one – the nightmarish situation Avery finds herself in is, after all, believable – as is the fallout.
I tore through this one, unable to put it down until I reached the end – when I was adrift with longing for more… I’m really looking forward to reading the next book in this series, Bright Shards which is coming out on 1st August – and we’ve pre-ordered it. Very highly recommended for fans of well written first contact adventures.
9/10
Another one for the list! Thanks matey 🙂
x The Captain
You’re very welcome, Cap! I do hope at some stage you manage to get to this one – it’s a gem:)
This sounds really good! And I have to mention how unusual the cover is, having trees and a spaceship in the same viewpoint. I love it😁
The cover is lovely – particularly in colour. And this one particularly gripped me, Tammy.
This sounds so good! I’m going in search of it!
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, Jan:))
First contact is indeed one of my favored themes, together with colonization and generation ships, so this book will certainly end on my “wanted” list! 🙂
And I think she’s done a cracking job with this one…:)
Lovely review – glad that your worst fears weren’t realised and the author managed to keep the story in line – it sounds like you enjoyed this one so much. I must make a note of it for when I fancy something sci-fi.
Lynn 😀
And the bonus is – like many indies – it is very reasonably priced!
Ugh, the overblown Hollywood style. So glad this story avoided it! Sometimes stories can be gripping even when they’re not on the apocalyptic scale: just one soul against an alien land. Rather like Hatchet, come to think….
This is really well done – I particularly loved her struggle to get to grips with the alien world.
Pingback: My favorite books of 2019 – Notes from a Readerholic
Oooh, sounds like something to add to my TBR! And I have to say, I quite like the cover with it’s “literary sci-fi vibe”.
It isn’t quite literary – but she writes writes amazingly well. I think she has done some of the best first contact writing I have ever come across.
That sounds awesome. It’s hard to do good first contact, and so many books skip over to the “we found means of communication” part.