A review by kiiitasticbooks
Barbarian's Choice by Ruby Dixon

5.0

 

Ruby Dixon constantly surprises me with the things that pop up in the Ice Planet Barbarians series. Every time I think there can’t be anything else more surprising, the next book introduces another concept that tops everything I’ve seen before!

In Barbarian’s Choice, we finally get Farli’s story. Immediately, I was struck by how interesting of a choice it was to have Farli as a main character at all. When we first started this series, Farli was a child, too young to resonate and find a mate of her own. Seeing her as an adult now (and the one resonating in this book) was somehow very surprising to me, but also showed off just how far we’ve gotten into this series.

But that’s not the most surprising thing in this book. Because Farli goes off on her own little adventure, about a day away from the rest of the tribe, and finds another ship on the planet. A working ship. With other aliens.

The idea that a ship could land on Not-Hoth in general was already a wild thought (technology? In my Ice Planet Barbarians?), but then the realization that this spaceship didn’t have humans or sa-khui, but another type of alien?

Somehow, the world has opened up.

I really liked Mardok’s introduction to the series. Immediately, I fell in love with the way he called her sweetheart (am I easy? Possibly.) and the, uh, interesting choice he made about a certain pet dvisti. Throughout this book, I was very intrigued by his character and wanted to see the choice he would make regarding Farli and Not-Hoth. Would he stay? Would he take Farli with him?

The best books in this series, to me, are the ones that have couples I really like and very interesting developments in the plot. I really liked Farli and Mardok’s story, and I’m also very interested in seeing how Mardok’s ship visiting the planet is going to change the rest of the series, so this book could only ever be a five star for me!