quinn2023's review
challenging
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25
thenamesjanice's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
helenid's review
4.0
Fun! The snappy dialogue is really quite funny at times and lends itself to the pacy plot. Kayla would be an exciting heroine in a weekly sci-fi, battling new enemies whilst the end-game draws ever nearer.
colossal's review
4.0
Kayla is on the imperial homeworld of Faladar stuck pretending to be Princess Isonde, perhaps forever. Her ally and lover Malkor has been stung by her readiness to leave him. What's left of her family is supposedly safe on their way out of imperial space. And the nanobot plague is still spreading through the Empire and the Wyrd world Ordoch is still being occupied. But the forces within the IDC that had backed the insane Wyrd scientist Dolan are regrouping and have been barely affected by his loss.
I liked this one much more than the previous book. It's not as simple as good guys and bad guys here with even the "good guys" behaving wretchedly at times. It's a little frustrating to see the antagonists get such a free ride for most of the book though; Kayla's team are frustratingly reactive and for a top-notch espionage team seem to fail to prepare for some very logical contingencies.
I like that we get some flavor of both Ordoch and the Wyrds with this one. In general I appreciated the distance from the first book. The Kayla/Malkor match is a bit easier to swallow with some distance, but even so I don't buy that Malkor would be upset about Kayla's choices at the end of the previous book (she's literally been trained from birth to protect her brother). Similarly there's a choice that Kayla makes later in the book that I don't really buy either. Like the first one, the relationship here is the biggest flaw in the book for me.
Finally the book ends at a good point. Obviously lots of good material and setup for book three, but no cliffhanger.
I liked this one much more than the previous book. It's not as simple as good guys and bad guys here with even the "good guys" behaving wretchedly at times. It's a little frustrating to see the antagonists get such a free ride for most of the book though; Kayla's team are frustratingly reactive and for a top-notch espionage team seem to fail to prepare for some very logical contingencies.
I like that we get some flavor of both Ordoch and the Wyrds with this one. In general I appreciated the distance from the first book. The Kayla/Malkor match is a bit easier to swallow with some distance, but even so I don't buy that Malkor would be upset about Kayla's choices at the end of the previous book (she's literally been trained from birth to protect her brother). Similarly there's a choice that Kayla makes later in the book that I don't really buy either. Like the first one, the relationship here is the biggest flaw in the book for me.
Finally the book ends at a good point. Obviously lots of good material and setup for book three, but no cliffhanger.
robynldouglas's review
4.0
Whew. A LOT happened in this one - though I have zero clue where it is all going! Very enjoyable.
jameseckman's review against another edition
3.0
More bizarre fantasy/ SF action that's a decent read but a bit nonsensical in spots, Kayla still a fun character and the YA romance is kept to a minimum. You must read the first book or you will be totally lost.
blodeuedd's review against another edition
3.0
It is getting intense in this one. The arena fights are over, Kayla won as her princess persona and now that princess is in a coma.
Kayla, well she is a fighter, obviously. And she does not have it easy. She had no choice than to fight in the arena. She has to pretend to be the princess. All because of who she was. And it does make me dislike the princess and the ones doing it to Kayla. She just wants her family and her country back.
It's not always easy to know who the bad ones are here. Yes I get that the princess has her plans, and she does want Wyrd space to be free. So she does get that the Empire is bad. But the way she does it, not cool.
There is a lot of action. Bad guys, conspiracies, space travel, a big bad virus, yes like I said things are heating up. And it did make it an interesting ride.
I tried to check since it does give me a YA feeling, but no one had placed it under YA, so I am unsure. But it really works both as adult and YA. Adult for the kick-ass stuff, YA because of the simpler way of it all.
Kayla, well she is a fighter, obviously. And she does not have it easy. She had no choice than to fight in the arena. She has to pretend to be the princess. All because of who she was. And it does make me dislike the princess and the ones doing it to Kayla. She just wants her family and her country back.
It's not always easy to know who the bad ones are here. Yes I get that the princess has her plans, and she does want Wyrd space to be free. So she does get that the Empire is bad. But the way she does it, not cool.
There is a lot of action. Bad guys, conspiracies, space travel, a big bad virus, yes like I said things are heating up. And it did make it an interesting ride.
I tried to check since it does give me a YA feeling, but no one had placed it under YA, so I am unsure. But it really works both as adult and YA. Adult for the kick-ass stuff, YA because of the simpler way of it all.
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