Having read 'Defy the Stars', I was curious to see how Claudia Gray would continue the story. The sequel picks up about six months after Abel and Noemi have been separated. She is back on her home planet Genesis but struggling to fit back in. He has joined up with a couple of Vagabonds, traders who don't know that he's not human. When Earth uses biological warfare to unleash the deadly Cobweb virus on Genesis, Noemi is sent for help but ends up falling straight into a trap, Abel the only one who can save her.
This novel suffers a little from the main issue a second novel always has - we've already been wowed by the world building and this was always going to be less shiny and new than 'Defy the Stars'. However, that does leave the book room to explore the overall theme of this series: what does it mean to be human? Amongst the fighting, peril and explosions, this question is asked both explicitly and implicitly. Gray poses several interesting moral questions through the actions and voices of her characters which make me interested to see how the series progresses.
This is a page turning read that ends on an incredible cliffhanger. I think I know where it's going but I'll be reading the next instalment just to be sure!
This novel suffers a little from the main issue a second novel always has - we've already been wowed by the world building and this was always going to be less shiny and new than 'Defy the Stars'. However, that does leave the book room to explore the overall theme of this series: what does it mean to be human? Amongst the fighting, peril and explosions, this question is asked both explicitly and implicitly. Gray poses several interesting moral questions through the actions and voices of her characters which make me interested to see how the series progresses.
This is a page turning read that ends on an incredible cliffhanger. I think I know where it's going but I'll be reading the next instalment just to be sure!