Goodreads blurb: On the verge of extinction, the Stephen’s Point colony must take desperate measures to save themselves. Without communication or resupply from Earth for the last fifteen years, the colony has but one chance to survive: restore the ancient starship Chimera and train a young crew to pilot her. The fate of the entire colony rests on the shoulders of a pair of misfits: Theo Puck, a sixteen-year-old hacker with a gift for speaking to machines, and fifteen-year-old Selena Samuelson, a brash but talented pilot with a dark secret in her past.
To Theo, the Mandate to crew the Chimera seems like a game—one he isn’t invited to play. A brutal murder changes everything. Left with no choice, Theo has to complete the Selection training and make it aboard the Chimera or face terrible consequences.
Selena wants to do what she does best—fly. Piloting her father’s ore trawler is the only life she’s known before a horrifying accident strands her aboard the Hydra, the station responsible for rebuilding the Chimera. Forced into the Mandate testing against her will, Selena encounters an unexpected ally, forever changing the way she sees the Chimera and herself.
Forced to make brutal choices in order to survive, Theo and Selena’s fates intertwine. But behind the scenes, someone else sets into motion events that could destroy everything they’re fighting to protect.
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At the outset let me confess that I personally am not a big fan of self-published authors and am all the more apprehensive when they approach me via mail or Facebook asking for a review of the books they have authored. But then every once in a while I do come across gems like Chimera (first of the Universe Eventual series) authored by N, J and Tanger (yes, these are three separate authors).
As the blurb states, this dystopian young adult fantasy novel deals with events in the far future where indentured humans staying on a separate planet Stephen’s Moon are in trouble as the supply ships from Earth have stopped arriving all of fifteen years ago, and they must now take desperate measures to ensure their survival. Their only chance out of this mess is the eponymous spaceship Chimera which has been lying dormant quietly orbiting their planet all this time after it delivered them there.
In this mix find themselves the main protagonists Theo Puck, a young teenager who is known more for his hacking abilities rather than anything else and Selena Samuelson, a teenage pilot of a spaceship which mines asteroids for precious ecomire. The novel moves back and forth between the narratives of these youngsters until they both bump into each other on Hydra, the space station which is rebuilding Chimera.
Interspersed with the usual teenage angst and other relevant issues of the age, this novel succeeds wonderfully well in its world building endeavors. We readers are transported to Stephen’s Point, its landscapes, views, way of life, the people, the culture and its history with ease. In fact the world is so immersive that one tends to forget that this is not Earth but a penal colony where indentured humans were sent seven generations ago.
The protagonists are ably supported by other characters such as Meghan, Theo’s friend, Liam, Selena’s father, Quartermaster West, and the strange, suspicious Marcus Locke who happens to be pivotal in moving Theo’s portion of the story forward at quite a breakneck pace.
All in all a tightly woven tapestry of dystopian young adult fantasy, the second book of which I will surely eagerly await for.
Click here to purchase the book from Amazon [Link].
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A review copy of this book was provided to me by the authors/publishers in return for an honest and unbiased review of the same.
