Valerie Valdes

It took a while for the rather episodic plot, uneven tone, and inchoate relationships among the characters to finally gel, but once they did, this became a fun space romp. Captain Eva-Benita Caridad Larsen Alvarez y Coipel de Innocente reminded me a bit of Murderbot in her foul-mouthed snarkiness and blithe disregard for mortal peril. As a bonus, I learned more Spanish swear words in the first 10 pages than I ever knew existed. This is not the most polished book, but it shows promise.

Captain Eva Innocente and her crew aboard La Sirena Negra are just making ends meet doing legal jobs moving cargo and the occasional passenger. But right after a deal reselling twenty psychic cats falls through, Eva receives word that her sister, Mari, has been kidnapped by The Fridge, a shadowy criminal organization. In order to rescue Mari, Eva must do whatever jobs The Fridge gives her and tell no one why. But as the missions get more and more dangerous and Eva has to tell more and more show more lies, she begins to wonder if there isn't a better way to get out of this particular tight spot.

A really fun space opera with a full cast of diverse and queer characters, some fun subtle pop culture references/homages, and a rolicking adventure plot. Eva and her crew are a delightful group of characters and the future and universe Valdes has created for them to inhabit is fascinating. As a non-Spanish speaker there was definitely some dialogue that completely passed me by, but the plot still makes sense even when I missed the occasional phrase (my phone wasn't always handy for using Google Translate). I had a good time with this and I'll definitely be tracking down the subsequent books in the series. show less

A book club pick!

Sorry, I forgot to turn my brain off.

First things first: when a book promises me psychic space cats, it should deliver. The cats are introduced in a fun scene in chapter 1. There are 20 of them. For the rest of the book, they do absolutely nothing, except show up a couple of times, purr and sit in people’s laps. That alone is two star-worthy!

The rest? We have a badass captain Eva Innocente, her ship, her crew, and their adventures in a standard far future universe with show more loads of sentient species, spies, mafia, secret organizations, and dangerous alien artifacts. I usually enjoy such a fun romp through the galaxy, but this time I have so many complaints I hardly know where to start.

🤦‍♀️ The plot is a mess. There is too much going on, and it reads more like a series of incoherent episodes. The twists are ridiculous. Let’s throw this in! And now that! And now this jumps out from behind the corner! I am not who you thought I was! Groan. I was booooored.

🤦‍♀️ Tech appears out of nowhere for comedic purposes.

🤦‍♀️ The romance is ridiculous, with embarrassing dialogue. The dialogue that it supposed to be funny? It’s not funny.

🤦‍♀️ The characters are all 16, probably. Yes, I know that the book told me they were adults. No, they are 16, with a suitable emotional and intellectual range. (The book is labelled as YA, it should have told me something.)

🤦‍♀️ There is a lot of Spanish thrown in. I thought it was fun at first. By the end of the book, I was wailing “if I hear anyone say “comemierda”, “comiendo mierda”, or “no te jodas tanto”, I will scream, I swear!”

🤦‍♀️ Silly pop culture references might have been cool, but they are lost in the overall plot mess.

🤦‍♀️ Characters also let out breaths they hadn’t realized they were holding. Authors, please stop doing this.

🤦‍♀️ That maniac unkillable galactic emperor that keeps chasing Eva across the galaxy, showing up when you least want him – just because Eva turned him down at a bar? Beyond ridiculous. What kind of galactic emperor would pick up girls at a seedy bar on a seedy space station? (Palpatine would never… This book had stupid Star Wars references, now I want to do this too!) Also, many die as collateral damage in the pursuit. Eva feels kind of bad about this, but, you know… plot requirements.

😆 Eva has to do assignments for space mafia (yeah, she has to). She suddenly grows more morals after watching a todyk orgy. (Todyk are intelligent dinosaurs. I would read a book about the todyk instead of this one.) “Dinosaur sex, she thought. That is a hell of a place to draw the line.” Eva was supposed to kidnap one of the todyk. So this is a touching moment, lol. This is the only episode I laughed at and liked.

😆 Oh, there was another good line: “They don’t make ancient mystery doors like they used to,” Eva murmured.”

One star for dinosaur group sex, one star for all the rest. show less

After her crew's latest exploits, Eva just wants to give them a vacation. But when cubes appear near almost every intergalactic travel gate blasting out a message that boils down to surrender or die, a vacation seems unlikely. However, all may not be lost as after their previous adventures, Eva and her crew have been given the opportunity to locate mechs that could just possibly save the universe as they know it.

A fitting ending to this space opera trilogy. The stakes are as high as they've show more ever been, Eva continues to be her impulsive self while also growing as a human, and watching all of her crew find their own places continues to be thoroughly enjoyable. Plus the psychic cats continue to be awesome. If you liked the first two novels, this third is a must. show less