A review by chanel
Atrophy by Jess Anastasi
3.0
Coming off the high of season two of the Expanse, I decided to jump into Atrophy which came highly recommended from one of my girls. I had tried it previously but I was in slump land and everything I tried to read was failing. This round, Atrophy worked.
The story begins on Planet Erebus from Tannin's POV. He's been a prisoner for 12 years. He's worked his way up to an administrative position and had become an accomplished tech analyst. Rian and his crew on the Imojenna land there one day and Tannin decides it's time to escape. Before he makes his getaway he becomes a witness to an officer mistreating Zahli and essentially becomes her partner in a coverup. Zahli is Rian's sister so when Tannin sneaks aboard Imojenna, he luckily runs into Zahli and between his skills and Zahli's relation, they're able to convince Rian to let him stay; at least til they get to the next planet and he can go on the run.
What started as just hiding and helping a fugitive escape turns into a bigger plot involving an Arynian priestess, Reidar infiltrating the government and trying to take down said Reidar while trying to figure out the bad guys from the good and keeping the crew on civil terms with one another. Tannin and Zahli have chemistry but Rian has ship rules that are a constant battle between them whether it's worth the risk to break them or not.
I struggled with how to review this for a bit mostly because the flow of the book was a bit obnoxious. It started with specifically focusing on Tannin and Zahli but then they became background, secondary characters because I felt like Rian and his story and quest for vengeance totally overshadowed their story. This made it incredibly hard to even like Rian because his character is so complex but it definitely should have been reserved for his own book with us getting glimpses from Zahli.
The chemistry, when it finally exploded, was super hot but again, it would go back to Rian and my happiness would dissolve because he would be a giant dick to Zahli. There are a ton of different plot points so it can be a little overwhelming to keep up but overall the story did work for me and I definitely plan to continue to read the next books in the series.
The story begins on Planet Erebus from Tannin's POV. He's been a prisoner for 12 years. He's worked his way up to an administrative position and had become an accomplished tech analyst. Rian and his crew on the Imojenna land there one day and Tannin decides it's time to escape. Before he makes his getaway he becomes a witness to an officer mistreating Zahli and essentially becomes her partner in a coverup. Zahli is Rian's sister so when Tannin sneaks aboard Imojenna, he luckily runs into Zahli and between his skills and Zahli's relation, they're able to convince Rian to let him stay; at least til they get to the next planet and he can go on the run.
What started as just hiding and helping a fugitive escape turns into a bigger plot involving an Arynian priestess, Reidar infiltrating the government and trying to take down said Reidar while trying to figure out the bad guys from the good and keeping the crew on civil terms with one another. Tannin and Zahli have chemistry but Rian has ship rules that are a constant battle between them whether it's worth the risk to break them or not.
I struggled with how to review this for a bit mostly because the flow of the book was a bit obnoxious. It started with specifically focusing on Tannin and Zahli but then they became background, secondary characters because I felt like Rian and his story and quest for vengeance totally overshadowed their story. This made it incredibly hard to even like Rian because his character is so complex but it definitely should have been reserved for his own book with us getting glimpses from Zahli.
The chemistry, when it finally exploded, was super hot but again, it would go back to Rian and my happiness would dissolve because he would be a giant dick to Zahli. There are a ton of different plot points so it can be a little overwhelming to keep up but overall the story did work for me and I definitely plan to continue to read the next books in the series.