Captured by the galaxy's most ruthless marauders, a hapless tourist finds herself trapped in the far reaches of space, conscripted to fight or die in Delta Freya's battle for the genetic purity of mankind.
A brutal training program engineered to weed out the weak, genocidal campaigns against astral beings and aliens, hypnotized comrades who would kill her at the first sign of disloyalty, Stella Summers of Xandar must survive it all, equipped with nothing but a keen eye, a runic data-slate, a talking sword and her wits.
And for the sake of her entire planet, she better be good with that data-slate, because Stella's wits leave a lot to be desired.
This book contains some sensitive content including references to sexual violence.
I won a free copy of this book, thank you for the opportunity to read authors new to me. First, I would like to say the story line was well thought out. Although a common sci-fi theme of one faction wanting to destroy every other faction but them, it was presented in a unique and original way. However, it was hard for me to get into this until about 40% of the way through. Maybe I needed more background on the main female lead, seeing her interacting with people close to her, or just more of her story in general, I don’t know. But I didn’t feel connected to her until then. She was a little simple minded for me almost to the point of being insulting like a ‘dumb blonde.’ I think this was meant to be comical and maybe also create the setup for the reader to be surprised and awed that she could help save anything much less a galaxy, but it kind of put me off in the beginning. That being said, once it got to the action and her bonding with other characters her true personality shone through. I liked her go get ‘em attitude, courage, wit, and unshakeable defiance. She didn’t care if others went along or thought her plan was bad. She made quick smart decisions and didn’t ruminate on the consequences if her plan didn’t work. She took chances, and hey, when it’s the end of the world as you know it, you have to take chances and have hope that something you are part of will actually help. Not having read others in this series, I am glad I got the chance to get a taste of this author and I hope they keep writing about Stella’s adventures in space. It did give me a few chuckles and I honestly was rooting for her and her team at the end. Thank you.