Aurora

This book started out strong. I really dug the main character’s voice, which was this veteran combat type that has been through a lot. When the main character finds himself in a dire situation in the beginning of the book he goes:

Hull integrity - critical, temperature - critical, life support, you guessed it - critical.

Something about this line, especially the “you guessed it” part, made me buy the book right away.

Unfortunately, this book does something really strange. It starts off in that dire situation, then the rest of the story is set before it. Other stories that have this structure usually lets the reader know what happened before that led up to the situation in the beginning, and usually go on to resolve that situation as well. This story does something completely different. It never leads up to what happened in the beginning! The main character never gets to become a veteran of many dire situations who can go “you guessed it”.

Which is a shame because I liked the journey the main character goes through. Even though there were a lot of typos, I counted 9 and I wasn’t even looking for them, I managed to ignore them and continue reading because I found the main character compelling. That said, the main character’s goal resolved itself in what can only be described as pure dumb luck.

I felt unsatisfied when I finished reading this book. I think it could have been much better but I felt like I’ve only read half a book.

★★★✰✰