I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series, Ascending – see my review, so was delighted when I heard that the next book was now available. Would it continue the quality of the first instalment? I will be adding this review to the Sci Fi Month 2019 Challenge.
BLURB: Linguist Avery Alcott has spent three months proving herself to her Vardeshi companions and earning their respect. She arrives at Arkhati, the space station halfway between Earth and Vardesh 
Prime, eager to continue her adventure. But the next stage of her mission brings its own challenges. In the months to come, new alliances and old friendships will be tested. Avery will question her purpose and her place among the Vardeshi, and she will discover that the most memorable journeys are the ones we can’t predict.
I read this one on a train journey and was fully engrossed to the extent that it was a relief that I wasn’t getting off before the train terminated – because I would have been at risk of missing my station. Avery isn’t a brilliant fighter and she is often far too self-effacing. She is stubbornly loyal, to the point where she is blind to the wider picture and given that she is part of an extended first-contact exchange visit, this isn’t just a quirky cuteness – it’s a major failing. And yet… I absolutely love her. She is also courageous and while she might not possess much in the way of kickass ninja fighting skills, she is physically tough and reasonably resilient.
The supporting characters are also well done. I particularly liked Avery’s interaction with Fletcher Simon, the language genius, who has eclipsed her own ability in picking up the Vardeshi dialects and we also get to meet up again with the likes of Zey and Hathan, the aliens serving on the disgraced ship, who are desperate to clear their reputations after the events that occurred during the first book.
I enjoyed the way that Pechenick isn’t focusing on big space battles or nasty invasions, but the ongoing wear and tear of being immersed in a culture in which you don’t belong and where you don’t instinctively understand the people around you – because they are aliens. The fact that in many ways they look very much like us only adds to the disconnect. All in all, this is a fascinating continuation of a really interesting series. I am now eagerly awaiting the third book.
Once again, Pechenick manages to keep this intriguing first contact adventure grittily realistic in attention to the details of food preparation, though it is a lot easier now as the scientific teams in the background have now cleared more of the alien foodstuffs as safe for human consumption. I love how there are many similarities – but it’s the jarring differences that can catch her out. Pechenick is also very good at serving up sudden twists and surprises in the storyline that ramps up the stakes and the narrative tension – I really didn’t want to put this one down.
There is a developing romantic sub-plot which is well handled and I enjoyed, though Himself was a bit grumpy about it, as he preferred the story without the mushy stuff. The thing that I liked about it – is there is no mushy stuff. It felt a very grown-up relationship and while there were no cliffhangers, I honestly don’t know whether this is a relationship that will be able to continue. Highly recommended for space opera fans who enjoy intelligent, character-led stories.
9/10
work on the revisions for Mantivore Prey, bracing myself for all sorts of major plot anomalies… poor characterisation… clunky dialogue – and to my delighted surprise, apart from some small alterations necessary to ensure one of the main antagonists is already suitably sneaky right from the start of the book, it read quite smoothly. It took me two days to work through the manuscript, fixing any major problems and by then I was sufficiently fired up to start work on the plot outline for Mantivore Warrior. I’d known the character and some of the main plotpoints, as well as more or less where I wanted the book to end. Now I’ve worked out the whole narrative arc, who all the major characters are and the beginning, the middle and the end. It’s been wonderful to know that this creative upsurge is not going to be hampered by having to break off and produce Creative Writing handouts for the coming term. In fact, it’s going so well, I am seriously considering bringing forward my soft launch of Mantivore Dreams, the first book in the series, to the last week in August.
After the dramatic events of The Creeping Shadow, the Lockwood team (plus Quill Kipps) deserve some well-earned rest. So naturally they break into the Fittes Mausoleum, on a perilous mission to discover the truth about London’s top ghost-hunting agency, and its sinister leader. What they discover will change everything.
The Sun is bloated, diseased, dying perhaps. Beneath its baneful light, Shadrapur, last of all cities, harbours fewer than 100,000 human souls. Built on the ruins of countless civilisations, surviving on the debris of its long-dead progenitors, Shadrapur is a museum, a midden, an asylum, a prison on a world that is ever more alien to humanity.
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.
and alert. Our launch was scheduled for midday, a mere eight hours from now. I wasn’t about to waste a single moment of my final night on Rikasa sleeping. I rinsed off in the shower and put on matching underwear, a rare occurrence in my life, then jeans and a T-shirt, white to set off my tan. I laughed a bit uncomfortably at myself as I did so. It was an after-party outfit and I hadn’t been invited to any after-parties.
Brainfluff 