I saw the familiar brightly coloured, retro Baen cover on the shelves and swooped upon this one – I generally enjoy science fiction adventures produced by this publisher – would I like this one? I have linked this review to Sc
i Fi Month 2019.
BLURB: Lost in the dark, half a year into their journey to the colony world of Tantalus, Sakura Kimei, her family, and her best friend, the alien “Bemmie” nicknamed Whips, are torn from the safety of their colony ship. In a crippled lifeboat, they had one chance to find a habitable world. But even then, they would find that their apparent salvation was a world of a thousand secrets.
Yes, yes – I know. Book 4… and I haven’t read any others in this series. But my foolish ways once more paid off – this is clearly a new entry point into this series, because due to the nature of this adventure, previous characters and actions simply didn’t matter. Think Swiss Family Robinson in space – this book has the same upbeat energy and painstaking attention to detail regarding their survival adventures I recall from that classic I read a lifetime ago. The planet they have landed on has some intriguing differences regarding the way the land and sea interact, which impacts on all the creatures they discover. While the climate and landmass is a lot more temperate and suited to humans and bemmies than it might have been, the eco-system throws up all sorts of hazards.
I loved this one. It took me back to the likes of Robinson Crusoe and one I enjoyed even more – Coral Island. The family dynamic worked well – though it was an improbably cosy and peaceable family where there were hardly any quarrels and the parents were invariably united and supportive of each other. But that’s okay – given it was the situation that powered the narrative, I was quite happy to accept the characters’ slightly unrealistic positivity for the sake of the storyline, which was brought to an entirely satisfactory conclusion. Highly recommended for fans of space colony adventures.
8/10
Brainfluff 
This sounds like my kind of book! And the retro cover is excellent. Thank you for sharing, Sarah😁
Thank you, Tammy:). The cover is all kinds of fun, isn’t it?
This sounds like something I would like, Sarah. I like a lot of the Baen books, too, and I love the retro covers! Good review!
Thank you, Jan – it was so much fun:)). I think you’d enjoy it, too.
I would try this one on the strength of the cover alone… 😀
I know what you mean:)). It was the cover that encouraged me to pick it up!
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That certainly is one crazy cover and I’m pleased to see that diving head first into the middle of a series is still working out for you.
Lynn 😀
How could I resist a cover like that??? And yes – I don’t do it quite so often, but my hobby of crashing midway into a series provides plenty of giddy excitement in my life:)
That cover is GORGEOUS! Love the creepy squid monster.
Oh, I know. And the aliens are lots of fun in the story, too…