Stars: 3 out of 5
I loved the worldbuilding in this novel, although it presents another rather bleak view of humanity’s spacefaring future. REminds me a little bit of Murderbot, actually. Only, instead of everything being owned by corporations, we have the MERIT families who have all the riches and privilege, and power. The rest of humanity is either working for those families on more or less favorable terms or living in poverty. And the fact that the shroud is destroying the few habitable planets and forcing humanity into space stations only increases the inequality and the dependence on the MERIT families.
So it was interesting to watch this story unfold from both the perspective of Naira, who grew up on one of those destroyed worlds and then had to claw her way up from the dregs of society on a space station, and Tarquin, who has always been the spoiled son of Mercator – one of the most prominent MERIT families. Add to that he fact that Naira hates Mercator, and for good reason, and is also considered a terrorist, the author could have made a very interesting story out of the clash of their worldviews.
Unfortunately, the author opted to follow the path of having them romantically involved instead, and that basically killed the book for me. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate a good romance between my protagonists if it’s well done and organically woven into the story. And I would point to pretty much any series by Ilona Andrews as an excellent example of that genre.
There is nothing organic about the way Naira and Tarquin’s romance develops. In fact, it’s so unnaturally done that it’s painful to read about. It feels shoe-horned into the story because the author felt like romance was needed. It wasn’t, though. They could have gone from enemies forced to collaborate to escape a dying planet to slowly becoming grudging allies or even friends. But romantic feelings between those two? Nope, can’t see that. Naira had more chemistry with her Conservator accomplice. So much more, in fact, that the author promptly killed him off.
My other issue is that once the whole plot finally comes to light, it sounds rather far-fetched. I will try not to give too many spoilers, but humanity in thrall to a fungus?
The pacing of the book is also rather uneven – we get good action scenes that propel the plot forward, but then we get bogged down in the minutiae of squables between survivors, everyone discovering their budding feelings for each other, etc. Not to mention pages spent in Naira and Tarquin’s heads while they analyze their own feelings, feel inadequate, or reflect on what was and could have been. I found my interest flagging until I would put the book down and read something else, and had to force myself to come back and read a few more pages.
It was a good concept, but the execution didn’t work for me, so I will not be continuing with this series.
PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.