Firebird #1
While I liked the premise of A Thousand Pieces of You, the execution unfortunately fell a little flat for me. As Marguerite sets off dimension-hopping in order to find her father’s killer, I’m expected adventure and action. What I get instead is a lot of stumbling around, fretting about how she’s “fitting in”, and very little actual investigation into what happened to her father. In fact, everything that Marguerite ultimately learns about the events surrounding her father’s death seems to be fed to her by her co-dimension hoppers: Theo and Paul. And add to this the fact that about half the book has her “stuck” in a dimension, making no progress towards her goals whatsoever, just left me feeling frustrated and unfulfilled.

But I really liked the idea of dimension hopping, and getting to see different versions of yourself and your life. The novel also brought up some interesting ethical quandaries surrounding the concept of taking over the body of your “other self,” and essentially blocking them out of their own lives. Overall, I wish that the story focused more on the adventure aspect, and less on what I felt ended up being a romance. I may try to finish up the series at some point, but I’m not in any rush.

Constellation #1
Defy the Stars opens on soldiers preparing to make the ultimate sacrifice, a suicide run against a deadly enemy that wants to take over their planet. The name of their enemy…Earth. It’s not often you read a story where Earth is made out to be the bad guy, but that’s how Defy the Stars begins, and it instantly peaked my interest. Add into that super advanced artificial intelligence and a plucky young girl prepared to do anything to save her world, and I was hooked!

Even beyond being a fun Science Fiction adventure, Defy the Stars makes us examine what it truly means to be human. Abel’s progress from sophisticated mech to autonomous being is wonderful and inspiring and I loved it so much! He’s such a great character, and I loved getting to watch him grow and change. We see him shift into something he was never meant to be, a new kind of machine with thoughts and feelings all his own.

At the same time, we see a universe in turmoil. Earth, having been ravaged by disasters of its own making, is furiously trying to expand out into the stars. But when its best hope of survival breaks away from the rest of the colonies, declaring itself an independent world, what choice does it have but to strike back? But Genesis does not want to see their beautiful world fall to the same destruction as Earth, especially since Earth shows no indication of changing their polluting, resource-draining, destructive ways.

At its heart, Defy the Stars is a fun sci-fi adventure that takes a deep look at the human condition and the shades of grey that color our world. Though it stands well on its own, Defy the Stars leaves a lot open for future exploration. And I look forward to seeing where it goes.