Series: The Honors #1
Published by Katherine Tegen (2.13.2018)
Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult
Format: Hardcover, 467 pages
Source: I own it
Petty criminal Zara Cole has a painful past that’s made her stronger than most, which is why she chose life in New Detroit instead of moving with her family to Mars. In her eyes, living inside a dome isn’t much better than a prison cell.
Still, when Zara commits a crime that has her running scared, jail might be exactly where she’s headed. Instead Zara is recruited into the Honors, an elite team of humans selected by the Leviathan—a race of sentient alien ships—to explore the outer reaches of the universe as their passengers.
Zara seizes the chance to flee Earth’s dangers, but when she meets Nadim, the alien ship she’s assigned, Zara starts to feel at home for the first time. But nothing could have prepared her for the dark, ominous truths that lurk behind the alluring glitter of starlight.
My thoughts
Holy crap, WHY did I wait so long to read this?! I’d heard of it, but never really heard ABOUT it. I knew it existed, it was on my Goodreads TBR, but I never really looked twice at it. I recently posted in the Epic Reads Book Club group on Facebook looking for obscure and underrated books and someone suggested this one. I went and looked it up, and: Sentient alien spaceships?! Give me NOW! I went and bought it for Kindle ($1.99 on Amazon!!) and devoured it within 24 hours.
This book is fantastic and SO underrated! It’s such a hidden gem, and exactly the kind of book that I crave stumbling upon. Like I said, sentient. alien. spaceships. Such an amazing concept!! I absolutely LOVED the Leviathan and the idea of it. I adored Nadim!! The relationship that Nadim and Zara shared was really awesome, and the way the Leviathan worked was fascinating. I thought it was so cool that they could bond and share each others’ feelings and thoughts. I adored the sense of family that Nadim, Zara, and Bea shared as well as their bond with the ship! All the feels!
The writing is fantastic, too! It’s engaging and interesting – I was hooked from the very first chapter, and there was never a moment where I was bored. I can’t wait to continue with this series!
Overall Assessment
Plot: 4/5
Premise: 5/5
Writing style: 4.5/5
Originality: 5/5
Characters: 4/5
World-building: 4/5
Pace: 5/5
Feels: 4.5/5
Cover: 4/5
Overall rating: 4.5/5
Series: The Honors #2
Published by Katherine Tegen (2.19.2019)
Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult
Format: Hardcover, 480 pages
Source: I own it
Zara Cole was a thief back on Earth, but she’s been recently upgraded to intergalactic fugitive. On the run after a bloody battle in a covert war that she never expected to be fighting, Zara, her co-pilot Beatriz, and their Leviathan ship Nadim barely escaped the carnage with their lives. Now Zara and her crew of Honors need a safe haven, far from the creatures who want to annihilate them. But with two wounded Leviathan to treat, plus human and non-human refugees to help, they’ll have to settle for the nearest outpost, called the Sliver: a wild, dangerous warren of alien criminals. Zara’s skills from the Zone may be invaluable. However, Zara discovers that the secrets of the Sliver may have the power to turn the tide of the war they left behind—but in the wrong direction. Soon Zara will have to make a choice: stand against the ultimate evil or run from it. But she’s never walked away from a fight.
My thoughts
Holy wow, this one brought the action and did not STOP! No second book syndrome here, folks! I was concerned picking this one up, because for some reason second books have a habit of falling flat for me. I shouldn’t have worried, because this one blew me away! I think I may have loved it a bit more than the first book, even though they are both very different.
Actually, this book hardcore reminded me of Aurora Rising and Aurora Burning! (They came out after this one, of course, but I read them first!) I just finished Aurora Burning a couple weeks ago, and have been hungover from it, so this one filled the hole very nicely! The station of melded together ships as well as the creepy planet holding a god dormant reminded me so much of that series, I loved it! This book was definitely my jam.
I love the world and all the alien races in this series. We got to meet more of them and learn more about them, and I just want to say that Ann and Rachel did a fantastic job bringing all of the races to life. I also love that they think outside of the box with gender pronouns when it comes to alien species (like Starsight!!) – I mean, it makes sense that aliens may or may not stick to gender roles like we do. One of our main characters, Starcurrent, goes by the pronoun ze (zim/zis). There was also an alien mob boss that went by the pronoun them. Brilliant! This book is very diverse – the main character, Zara, is black (er, maybe biracial? It was my understanding that she was black, because she defined herself as so in the first book; but she made a comment in this book about one of her backgrounds repressing the other, or something along those lines so maybe I misunderstood?), and there was also a hint of something between her and Bea in this one. I’m interested to see where that goes! View Spoiler »
I enjoyed getting to know the side characters! I really love Starcurrent, I think ze might be my favorite besides Nadim! I also loved Suncross and the reptilian race of Bruqvisz and the way they referred to Zara as “Zeerakull,” they were badass! Even Typhon grew on me in this one, the cranky old ship-dude.
The only complaint I really have about this book is that even though the danger was closing in from all sides, from multiple antagonists, the stakes never really felt all that high. It was intense, and plenty action packed (which I liked!), but it never felt dire. I guess there was a little bit of a disconnect because of that – I had plenty of feels toward the crew and their bond (especially Starcurrent, I love zim!!), but not really toward what was actually happening to them. I can’t wait to see what happens in the conclusion, though!
Overall Assessment
Plot: 5/5
Premise: 5/5
Writing style: 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
World-building: 5/5
Pace: 5/5
Feels: 4/5
Cover: 4/5
Overall rating: 4.5/5
Series: The Honors #3
Published by Katherine Tegen (2.11.2020)
Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult
Format: Hardcover, 448 pages
Source: I own it
Space renegade Zara Cole may have finally met her match. Lifekiller—a creature that can devour entire planets—is spreading terror throughout the universe, and it seems nothing can stand in the monstrous godking’s way.
Reeling from a series of battles, Zara and her wounded band of allies are going to need a strategy before they face Lifekiller again. Zara’s street smarts may not be enough when their enemy could be anywhere, destroying civilizations and picking his teeth with the bones.
And just when it feels like she’s reached a special place in her bond with Bea and Nadim, an ex from Earth with an ax to grind comes after her with nefarious intentions. With human enemies, alien creatures, and mechanical stalkers on her tail, it’s down to the wire for Zara to save the galaxy—and the people she calls home—before the godking consumes them all.
My thoughts
This one was much slower than the first two. It actually didn’t pick up until about the last quarter of the book, and it makes me sad to say that I was kind of bored with it in the beginning and middle. It was lacking the magic that the first two books held for me – the first because I was introduced to the world of the Leviathan and the epic concept of their bonding, as well as the world; the second because it felt like Aurora Rising/Aurora Burning with epic space travel, interesting new alien species, intergalactic space stations, and a creepy abandoned planet (holding a dormant god in prison). I can say unequivocally that the second book was my favorite!
The stakes were SUPER high, but things never really felt dire. Everybody would be panicking about another new threat looming, and I’d just sigh to myself and be like “oh, shut up, you’ll be fine.” View Spoiler »
I liked the romance between Bea and Zara well enough – it was sweet, took a long time to develop (slow burn yasss) – but I never really felt the chemistry between them even though I really liked them together. View Spoiler » I do, however really appreciate the fact that they saved the kissy kissy for appropriate times – there’s nothing that pisses me off more in the middle of a high stakes sci-fi or fantasy when the main couple is freakin’ making out when everyone is in mortal peril *rolls eyes* They would kiss every once in a while, but a chaste we-have-more-important-things-to-do kiss. I love when romance takes a backseat to the action!
The main thing I enjoyed about this one in the first half was the world and all of the characters. I still loved those parts! I loved the side characters even more in this one, especially Suncross and Chao-Xing! Suncross stole the title of Favorite Character from Starcurrent in this one – mostly because Starcross is fierce and hilarious and Starcurrent was barely present in this book. I loved him SO MUCH! I loved when he hugged Zara (“This is a hug? Am doing it right?”) and then said “Live with honor or die with glory, Zeerakull.” YAAASSS HE’S SO BADASS. I found C-X growing on me, too – I actually really liked the direction her character took! View Spoiler »
The battle at the end was badass! I really enjoyed how the final installment wrapped up, it was a satisfying end to a fantastic trilogy!
Overall Assessment
Plot: 3/5
Premise: 5/5
Writing style: 4/5
Originality: 4.5/5
Characters: 4/5
World-building: 4.5/5
Pace: 3/5
Feels: 3/5
Cover: 4/5
Overall rating: 4/5
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