Stellar Instinct Agent Renault Spy-fi Space Adventures, #1)

Agent Renault Spy-fi Space Adventures #1

by Jonathan Nevair

Mission: Impossible meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in this fun and fast-paced spy-fi adventure series featuring a tough yet conflicted secret agent, cloak and dagger intrigue, and a charming cast of alien characters.

When galactic danger calls, Agent Renault answers.

Strange signals pulse from an icy planet in a remote star system. Enter Lilline Renault, GAM-OPs secret agent extraordinaire. To ordinary citizens she’s Keely Larkin, an adventure company guide with a flair for the daring and a penchant for writing trite poetry.

When a terrifying link between high-tech entertainment and ancient cosmic forces rises, Lilline leaps into action. Verses flow as she rockets through space, dons cunning disguises, and infiltrates enemy territory with an arsenal of secret gadgets. To solve the mystery behind a dastardly plan means beating a mastermind at his own game. Lilline will need her best weapon to stand a fighting chance: her instinct.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Thriller

340 pages, ebook

First published December 1, 2022

About the author

Jonathan Nevair is an award-winning author and educator originally from Long Island, NY. After two decades in the classroom, he finally got up the nerve to write fiction.

His spy-fi adventures and character-driven space operas have won numerous awards, including the National Fantasy Fan Federation Award (Neffy) for Best Novel (To Spy a Star, 2024), second place in the 2024 Valorious Awards (Stellar Instinct), and runner-up in the 2022 Indie Ink Awards under the category Writing the Future We Need (Jati’s Wager).

Jonathan lives in southeastern PA with his wife and rambunctious mountain feist, Cricket. When not writing and teaching, he spends his time chasing his dog through the woods and stargazing with dreams of walking in space.

Reviews

[Scarlett Readz and Runz....Through Novel Time & Distance · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic spy-fi action adventure! Jonathan Nevair knocked it out of the park with Stellar Instinct, his fourth published novel and standalone. I have had the pleasure of reading the Wind Tide Trilogy in the last 2 years and have become a fan of Nevair's ability to combine mindful, intelligent writing and themes with sci-fi action. Stellar Instinct wasn’t any different from that, but the execution in just under 300 pages of thrills and imagination with a fast-moving plot hit the mark dead center. It is a concise, well-constructed espionage story that employs metaphorical pulleys to ease the lift of heavier sci-fi terminology in a well-thought-out world system of intrigue and alien life forms while keeping the integrity of elemental sci-fi.

Stellar Instinct begins on Planet Frebu during Operation Snow Eclipse. The eerie frozen landscape creates an immediate draw into the story for its harsh environment, where we meet GAM-OPS secret agent Lilline Renault on the heels of a native species in a glacial cave. Her weapon of choice: intuition! (with the help of some blasters ;) )

Much happens in this passage as it sets up an intense scene propelling the plot immediately, while the reader finds out much about the MC in way of thoughts and actions in tandem.

"With a crunch, her ears popped. Her skin pulled against flesh and bone. Streams of vertical cracks appeared in the blue ice like a 360-degree mirror shattering. A symphony of buckling echoes bounced through the cavern."

The mission failed, and a battered Lilline is called into GAM-OP's headquarters by Director Lauden, a Gei-ti, a species with gills that thrived millions of cycles ago. As if it wasn't bad enough that whatever Lilline encountered before the cavern collapse had used a psychic grip on her mind, she is ordered on psych leave for a week to recover.

"Her Domus unit provided neither retreat nor refuge, only a mirror's empty reflection amplified to a silent scream."

In the meantime, Mavion Nave, a well-made entrepreneur in the entertainment industry, is entering the picture. He has been purchasing properties in out-of-the-way systems, and his company logo comes up in some of GAM-OP's surveillance footage, throwing a curveball at the agency.

Keely Larking, a Galaxy Unknown (GU) adventurer for the GAM-OP company front, is the perfect identity cloak for Lilline. She comes from a long line of galactic espionage agents in the family, including her Granny Kissy. Both have a passion and aptitude for poetry, more or less, and Lilline's lines are fueled by her drive on the force. It's been a long time since Granny Kissy's days in action, but when Curbrook, the new lab rat as Lilline calls him, sends images of the unknown entity on Frebu, she easily slips into the expert role her legendary name precedes.

The stakes are high in Operation Freestrike. On the force for over 12 cycles, Lilline is paired up with techi and newb Curbrook to attend Mavion Nave's fancy Gala, a spectacle of AI and augmented virtual tech. This was fantastic! Imagine the movie Spy with Melissa McCarthy where everyone is watching everyone in the room and things just go wrong everywhere. However, much grander. The Gala was a spectacle of worlds and artificial ecosystems. It was really well done.

However, something big happens here and Lilline is forced to trust a message that was sent to her to follow through with her mission that leads her to a Krypt of bodies.

Are Lauden and Granny Kissy hiding something?

Oh, I cannot say any more here. If you have nipped a little taste of how fun and multifaceted Stellar Instinct is with my review, you should definitely reach for it and read it. There is so much more to this world and the diversity of characters than I can comprehensively give account to, but as usual, Nevair has an aptitude for creating an array of species and environments.

Unlike in the Wind Tide trilogy, this novel didn't weigh in as heavily on societal and political issues or how to solve them but gave greater focus on a fast-paced, thrilling plot with surprising twists. As always, Nevair's integrity in intelligent verbiage, structural design, and descriptive writing did not disappoint. If anything, it just became better. Everything flowed well, effortless from my perspective as a reader, and I just devoured it.

If there was something that stood out to me the most, it would have to be the illusions created in the AI and the moments where one flowed seemingly into the other. I had to stop and reread some passages since it was so well done, that they fooled me one way or the other and I couldn't discern the differences.

This whirlwind of a galactic thriller is a definite recommendation to my fellow spy-fi readers!

Cheers!

I received a copy of this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Than you!

More of my reviews here:
Through Novel Time & Distance

[Rowena Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will readily admit that I much more of a fantasy reader than a SF one, however, with the Wind Tide trilogy Nevair had become a must-read sci-fi writer for me and I have been waiting for Stellar Instinct since it was first mentioned. I was excited for what was termed a spy-fi thriller, and to see Nevair’s take on this subgenre – and it was glorious, and so much fun to read!!

One of my favourite aspects of Nevair’s writing has always been his characterisation, and for all the thrilling action in Stellar Instinct, this was very much a character-focused story, and as always, he has created characters that are in equal part living, breathing characters but also compelling superstars in their own stories. Also, I adored that one of the main relationships that was so central to both the main character on a personal level but also to the story as whole, was that of granddaughter and grandmother. It was a dynamic that I don’t think I’ve read very often, and certainly not how Nevair has done it here – and I want a Granny like Kissy. Meanwhile Lilline was absolutely Steller (yes I punned badly) main character, and I loved the dichotomy between her role as a highly experienced and talented secret agent and struggling writer. I also liked that her skills and ability to get through the events was very much built up on experience and previous failings, and that even at the top of her game, there were mistakes to make; it made for a very human top-secret agent and helped intensify the stakes.

‘Was it a blessing or a curse? Looking around the room, Lilline wasn’t sure. All eyes were lowered, per usual the signal that none wanted to contribute to her growing, near-perpetual, pile of poetic corpses stacked up from cycles of slash and burn criticism.’

While Lilline (and her badass Granny) was undoubtedly the star of the show, the other characters were just as compelling in their own way. Lauden was absolutely a favourite, filling the classic ‘director’ role, he gave the impression of being a fascinating mix of the old and a guard on the future, his interactions with Lilline and his other subordinates were some of my favourites. I also really liked Carbook, and that dynamic of young techie lose in the field and working with older more experienced agents, although his assistant Pin was another one who stole the show for all that she was incredibly direct and didn’t get as much page-time as some of the others, but it left me wanting to spend more time with her so I’m classing that as a win! Nave was fascinating in his own way, especially as a study of what extremes in emotion and focus can achieve, and how far-reaching the need for revenge can be and how destructive.

The worldbuilding is by necessity a little sparser because of the focus on the ‘mission’ and the fast pace, particularly as that countdown wound down. However, Nevair manged to create an interesting and varied universe within those limitations, without slowing down the action or the story, and giving us the impression that what we were seeing was a snapshot and that if you stepped out of the boundaries of the story you would find a universe with great breadth and depth. Part of that brings us back to the excellent characterisation, as not only was Lilline our pov and therefore our introduction to the various locales that she found herself in, and the fauna that she found herself face to face with on more than one occasion; but the other characters were our introduction to the various races that inhabit this new universe Nevair has gifted us with. And we get so much through the little details of the different physiologies, and behaviours, and little offshoots of information about their homeworlds or past, and interactions with others, that you found yourself building up a multi-layered view of them and the world with limited details.

‘The city of Hikesh lay like a string of jewels on green velvet. Once the sun rose, the curving sliver of land cut into the slopes of Yu-Shek, the looming volcano, would gleam over an endless jungle.‘

This in turn was paired with some beautiful descriptions really helped to bring the most important settings to life, while giving us the shape and feel of the wider universe. (Also I have to add that my inner geographer was incredibly happy about Frebu). This care to establish the universe added to the overall impact of the story itself as well, because we were invested not just in the characters, but the world through them, and therefore the stakes held weight.

There was a subtlety to this book that is often missing from thrillers. Yes, there were the core elements of the rising threat and increasing stakes, the feeling of sand running through glass as the pace accelerated, and all the twists and turns of a mystery and the betrayals and jack-knifed paths that I always associate with a thriller, and Nevair does those elements beautifully, and I was on the edge of my seat for the action seats and kept on my toes with trying to work out what was going on. But what was impressive, especially in retrospect is the foreshadowing and hints that are layered without, and the way each one, comes into play at the end – even ones that seem tangential to the main story line have a meaning and a purpose, with understanding sometimes coming right at the end of the book

“Modified Cinquain, in the Zeret style.” Granny sipped her tea. “Quite the coincidence.”

I’ve often felt with thrillers that some of the threads, hints that weren’t meant to go anywhere and some of the emotional ones are lost in the chase and the drama of the conclusion. That very much wasn’t the case here, and I have to say it is the most satisfied I’ve been from reading a thriller for some time.

“Yes, they are both equally a part of everything. Balance must be achieved.” It expresses the answer to your unspoken question as it fades from sight. “Remember that. It is my parting gift.”

I think part of the reason for that, and what I really loved about Stellar Instinct – and what really impressed me in how well it worked – is that Nevair managed to remain true to the linguistic and almost philosophical elements that were woven throughout his debut trilogy and were such a strong feature of his work, while combing that with a very different subgenre that demands action and fast pacing. It’s a matchup that might have failed in any other hands, but here it not only works but works BEAUTIFULLY and I think it is that different element, and the fact that it demands not only the focus and thoughts of the character but the reader, that makes it so compelling. It makes you not only pay attention, but to think, to work through more than the hints and puzzles of a simple thriller; and it gives you answers that are fascinating and which propel the story through and made for an engrossing dynamic.

My one and only reservation with Stellar Instinct, was the chapters that were in second person (and I must stress there was less than a handful!). Now, I very much think that this was a personal preference on my part, more than anything else, but I found those chapters much more difficult to read. And it threw me out of the flow of the story – and it was the same on a second read through, although considering how swiftly each following chapter managed to pull me back into the story, I must stress that it was not a deal breaker on any level. Another reason for that, is that even though I was not necessarily a fan of those chapters, I could absolutely understand why they were used, and it was an incredibly effective way of highlighting that those scenes were something ‘beyond’ reality, and I must admit that I’m not sure it could have been done more effectively. I must also say it’s a POV that I’ve rarely read, and I certainly intend to revisit this book again in the near future once I’ve fully chewed over it and see how that effects my view of those chapters.

Stellar Instinct was very much a read that took me by surprise. I knew that I was going to enjoy because I had faith in Nevair’s writing and his ability to create characters that I am heavily invested in, and that was certainly true, and I was excited to see him turn his hand to a thriller. I was not prepared for just how invested I ended up with not just the overarching story, but all the minutiae, but I found myself having to start an immediate reread just to savour all the little details and particularly the more thought-provoking aspects. If you’re looking for a sci-fi thriller with compelling characters, lots of action and something a little different that you can really sink your teeth in, then Stellar Instinct is a book that you should be picking up!

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

A James Bond in space story, Stellar Instinct is an entertaining, fun romp with cool aliens and exciting action scenes.

One of the things that take me out of spy/espionage stories is when the agent is a complete douche. Lilline is not. While tough and rather arrogant at times, she also has a self-identify thread that travels through the entire book. She has personality, aside from being a spy, in that she loves her grandmother, debates her career choices (in that they limit her interpersonal relationships), and wants to be a poet. She’s also a consummate badass and has a huge list of skills (the one she prefers is flying fast ships). She’s a seasoned agent, high up in the company she works for, and while her competency is never in question, she isn’t a superwoman. I also loved that there wasn’t a romance in the novel - that was refreshing.

My favourite character was her boss, Asher Lauden, a fish-like dude (in that he has gills, black eyes, and translucent skin), who smokes a pipe constantly. That felt like a throwback to classic spy movies, which was fun. There is a line that was repeated a bit too much though, about him exhaling smoke from his gills, but Lauden was so fun I can overlook that. In fact, all the characters are fun because there are a lot of aliens! Lilline travels to different planets, running into and fighting with a few different species of various body shapes. It’s one of those futures/realities without alien xenophobia (like Star Trek and Star Wars, in a general sense). It was a great world-build in that regard.

The story is okay - the immensity of the problem seemed like a “third book in a trilogy” issue, not a stand-alone, but it made sense, and I liked the way it poked fun at demented trillionaires. There was a twist I expected, but it came from a different angle than I anticipated. We basically have the typical espionage format - a mystery to solve which turns into a person to hunt down, interspersed with a few action scenes against hired goons, a couple of fights against the right-hand person, and then the climax with the villain. There are also a few tropes of the genre, such as the fancy party, the gadgets, the techie, and car chases (though these are far beyond cars).

There is honestly nothing else I can really say in critique of the novel. It has moments of humour, the prose is great, easy to follow, and balanced. There are a few chapters in the second person which was surprising but while I wasn’t sure why the second person was necessary, it was well done.

Overall, if you like spy stories, aliens, high-tech space adventure, and struggling poets, you’d likely get a real kick out of this one. I highly recommend it.

[Westveil Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jonathan reached out to me to offer an eARC of Stellar Instinct for review and I gladly accepted. Thanks again, Jonathan, for the opportunity to enjoy and review your work early! As always, my thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

A lot of what I love about Stellar Instinct is what I loved about the Wind Tide books, and that's the characters. This is a very character-driven book full of a large cast of diverse people, and we get to know each of them so intimately. Stellar Instinct is a high-stakes secret agent thriller plot in space and I think this book is going to stand out in a sea of secret agent stories and space opera adventures because of these very unique characters that really end up feeling like your neighbours and friends by the end.

Lilline is our protagonist. She's a skilled secret agent with a lot of experience under her belt and a retired secret agent grandmother to visit and talk shop with. She's a devout but misunderstood poet in her spare time and she seems to both hate and appreciates the irony that her critique group will never appreciate the personal experience she conceals in her poems because they don't know who she really is or what she really does. She's witty, clever, and genuinely caring, all character traits you'd expect from her flavour of protagonist, but she's also a bit of a realist with a full scope of emotions and she definitely gives the impression that she lost her rose-coloured glasses on purpose.

I really enjoyed all of Lilline's poetry. There are passages where she's presenting to other poets for feedback, but more often than not the poetry comes by way of inner monologue as she crafts something in the moment. This seems to be her way of keeping a diary, but it also seems like she hopes that something she writes, some piece of art built on secret experience, will live on after her. Since poetry is such a defining characteristic for Lilline, and she's our narrator, a lot of the rest of the book is loosely poetic as well. She thinks poetically, so the narrative is poetic. It's different in this genre, it's beautiful, and I want more!

Lilline's granny Kissy is a perfect example of "I didn't know I needed this in my life." She's sassy, she's strong, she's the tiniest bit Lwaxana Troi, and the staff at her retirement home are afraid of her (for good reason.) Also (formerly) a secret agent and also a lover of poetry, it would have been clear even without Lilline saying so that Kissy was the single most important influence in Lilline's development as a person. She's the sort of person who refuses to grow old, become helpless, or become irrelevant, and she's about as "retired" as Edna Mode. Give her the slightest hint of action and she was back on the clock five minutes ago!

The plot does revolve around a futuristic gaming industry and because of that and the whole secret agent thing, I got a strong cyberpunk vibe while reading this book. That's not to say that it mostly takes place inside some sort of simulation or that the "reality" settings are dystopian wastelands, but it feels like that's where this universe is heading as the book starts. But on that note, let's talk settings. As per usual, Nevair has painted us a universe full of unique, intriguing worlds, and I hope that there's more to come in this universe so that I can explore it more. This book is very character-driven and very fast-paced so it doesn't have time to take entire chapters to describe planets, but I wouldn't want it to. We get enough, and what we do get is not only perfectly timed but also an absolute pleasure to read. I had no trouble at all picturing each setting, and every setting has its own charm and intrigue (or angst, or foreboding.) Setting covers more than locations, though, and this book is rich with other details that reminds us we’re not in Kansas anymore. There’s a lot of advanced technology throughout this book that straddles the line between logical progression of our own technology and “I suspect a hint of magic,” but none of it ever takes over and becomes a character in its own right like in some hard sci-fi plots. This universe is full of much more advanced tech than what we have, and it drives the plot to some extent, but this is still a book about the people using it.

Something else I loved about the Wind Tide books that Nevair has carried on here in Stellar Instinct is specifically gender and orientation diversity. There are characters in this book using neutral pronouns, for example, and not only is it completely natural and normal for the other characters interacting with those characters, but there an impression that some of these characters may come from worlds and cultures where he/him and she/her pronoun users would be in the minority, if they exist at all. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s so refreshing to see science fiction writers treating this type of diversity as just a fact of life and not the thing that makes those characters “alien.”

There are a few short chapters throughout this book that switch from Lilline’s first person narrative to a second person point of view. Second person is a difficult POV to write well and even when it’s done well, it’s not everybody’s favourite thing to read. Personally, I liked it, it added so much mystery to the book, but I can certainly see some readers having different feelings about it. It is jarring (I think it’s supposed to be) and it’s not immediately clear why we’re getting these very different chunks of storytelling. I wasn’t sure if this was past, present, or future to the timeline of Lilline’s narrative for most of the book (it does eventually become clear) and I wasn’t sure which character “You” was meant to be. For me, as I said, that added the perfect element of mystery. I had a starting theory, I was wrong, and that’s great! For readers who are otherwise invested in the book but don’t like these second person bits and are tempted to skip them, I would urge you to read them anyway. They seem separate from the plot at first, but this other POV does become vital later on, and if you’re skipping these parts not only will you miss the point where it all comes together but you won’t have the tidbits dropped in the previous second person passages that add up to that point. Some parts of this book actually reminded me of Paolini’s “To Sleep in a Sea of Stars” in that it gave me the same complex feelings as a reader while the characters brushed up against similar thematic elements from time to time, and a lot of that comes from what’s revealed in the second person POV segments.

If you are new to Jonathan’s works or to the genre in general, Stellar Instinct is definitely a good place to start. This is a new universe and cast, there are no previous books to catch up on, and being so character-driven it is a very accessible point of entry to the genre. As I mentioned before, tech is a plot driver but it isn’t a main character. It gave me the vibes of something so niche as cyberpunk, but the world feels like a precursor to a cyberpunk setting. For as much as this is a science fiction novel, it’s also very much a secret agent thriller. This book is going to be equally enjoyable by someone who has absorbed Star Trek into their personality as it is by someone who would rather watch The Kingsmen.

[Douglas Lumsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun ride! Interstellar espionage with a plucky heroine and a megalomaniacal villain scheming to rule the galaxy. Stellar Instinct reminds me of those thrilling space operas I used to devour back in my late teens and early twenties. The story has some nice twists: our young superspy is also an aspiring poet, although her work is hopelessly derivative, and our villain is the galaxy's most revered game designer, whose plot for interstellar domination involves fusing his virtually real gaming world with what the rest of us call reality. I have a feeling that a lot of gamers would like to see the villain succeed! It's all great fun for the reader.

Stellar Instinct isn't as deep or serious as his fabulous Wind Tides series (go check it out), which was inspired by the works of playwrights from the Classical Age of Greek history, but the story is a refreshing change of pace for those looking for an old-school interplanetary escapade. The book's subtitle--A Spy-fi Space Opera--tells it all. So grab your blaster and fire up your ultramodern space cycle, because it's time to blast off--into adventure!

[Alex (Spells & Spaceships) · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the reader who only has ten seconds to decide if they want to read this book or not… it has all of these things and more:

Fun, easy to read story
Enough twists and turns to keep you engaged
A main character that is instantly likeable
A badass grumpy Granny
Different species of people
Great locations
A sprinkling of humour
Interesting characters
Page-turning splendour
If you have a little more time, allow me to expand…

I really enjoyed Jonathan Nevair’s completed Wind Tide trilogy. It’s a series that is so interesting and unique. Despite all three being books I enjoyed greatly, I’ll be the first to admit that they might not be as enjoyable for every reader. Politics and diplomacy take centre stage through prose that is intelligent, beautifully written but also at times can come across a little academic. It means that Wind Tide can feel heavier-going than some reads and requires more energy from the reader. You might recommend it highly to a seasoned sci-fi reader for example, but probably hold off if it was somebody new to the genre looking for a book they could enjoy without too much knowledge of sci-fi or politics.

Stellar Instinct however, is a book that will be throughout enjoyable to a much wider range of people.

It’s fantastic that an author who wrote by all accounts a fairly serious trilogy has been able to come straight back out with an entertaining spy-fi book that actually had vibes of Austin Powers and Sean Connery’s bond – minus the sexual innuendo. It’s not a comedy though and Nevair has tuned back in to his bright imagination with a great plot that keeps you invested with some twists and turns and a willingness for the main character, Lilline, to succeed. The fact she’s working against an egotistical and self important entrepreneur in Mavron Nave is very topical and will make most readers want to cheer her on further.

The characters are really enjoyable to get to know and have their own quirks. The Preacher is a fun enemy who acts as a sort of Lieutenant to Nave. Lilline’s boss, Asher Lauden at first appears like he is just going to be one of those annoying superiors putting a stop to all the fun but he actually really comes into his own and becomes a really interesting character. One of my favourite parts of the book is a secret he reveals to Lilline later in the book about a storage facility they are in…

Another highlight is Lilline’s Grandmother Kissy, an ex-spy with all of her sass, badass personality and quick wits remaining who gives us some amusing moments!

Poetry is a theme in this book, with Lilline in a poetry group in which she is striving to write something she will be remembered by, with a couple of rejections coming at inopportune moments! Her attempts to create poetic meaning at various points adds an extra bit of personality to the book that does actually, rather cleverly, become significant to the story. Even if it hadn’t played a role in the plot, it’s little things like this that add a unique character to the book and in my view makes books in general more memorable.

Memorable too, as always, is the author’s ability to quickly conjure up imagery that lets you imagine a location, such as the volcano-jungle contrast of planet Hesh-9 or a view of the cosmos.

Vibrant red, blue, and green lights danced overhead on structural supports running in a complex geometric pattern, casting a kaleidoscope effect.

You get an immediate sense that the author has had fun writing this book (even from the play on words in the book’s title) and that feeling does not abate as the story progresses. This was an opportunity to be a little more relaxed (though I’m not sure authors ever truly relax) – and write the fun, fast paced novel that was probably a welcome tonic after writing a more emotionally taxing and layered trilogy beforehand.

Indeed, with the pressures of life in general and the majority of fantasy and sci-fi reads being quite heavy going books, Stellar Instinct was a real palate cleanser and gives the reader the opportunity to blow off some steam from some of those books with something that’s just so readable. The author has somehow achieved the feat of maintaining his wonderful prose whilst also making it lighter and easier to read – a real skill. It made this the book I’ve found easiest to fly through over the whole year.

Nevair has created something that could conceivably be a fun outing or the start of a wider series in a world that has already become really interesting to me. One thing I really liked was the introduction of different species of people living together within the world including non-humans:

The blue-skinnes Kreelis, who wear barometric bands across their heads to regulate their blood pressure in order to survive outside of their homeworld.

The muscular-built Rasps, squat figures with a serpentine neck ending in a head the size of your first, with one eye.

The winged Oltari. Oltaris mostly use their double set of wings to get around hovering not far off the ground, with their legs of little use. They make little sounds when aroused, angry or excited which I think is such a fun idea – but one I’m glad is fictional and doesn’t apply to us!

The human variants are also really well imagined:

The Gej-ti, who have translucent skin and a gill flap on their necks. They evolved on a planet in near-darkness long ago.

The Froo, an amphibian-like variant with black rings on green skin and long, 6 knuckled fingers. They have moist skin and cold blood. The typical humans can’t even touch Froo without causing their kind gastrointestinal issues.

Dendari, a hairy and fanged variant adapted to the harsh icy planet of Frebu.

There are also animals and biomes bringing to life Nevair’s worlds here, a highlight being the radioactive Bukki tiger from the Red Zone of Hesh-9. The zone is like a jungle Chernobyl, with rumours of mutations to anything that survived the initial nuclear spill covering five thousand kilometers.

Something I’d like to mention before rounding off my review, but can’t really talk loads about is the implementation of augmented and virtual reality. What I can say is that Jonathan Nevair does this really intelligently and inventively – trust him to deliver, even if at first you’re confused. Again though, the author’s intelligent ideas and the way he paints these ideas onto the page marks his work out and makes it memorable and striking, rather than being just another book to forget about within a few months. What I really love about this book is all these introductions of creative ideas and story elements whilst maintaining the pacing at all times, so it’s a relatively quick read that you enjoy the whole way through, whilst not being so fleeting that it’s a sort of throwaway. I just want to read the next Spy-fi adventure now!!

I’ve got a feeling Jonathan Nevair is going to be an author delighting us with original ideas and exciting stories for many years to come…

“It’s a different approach to intelligence. We call it many things. A ‘hunch’ or our ‘gut’ telling us something.”

“It’s instinct,” Lilline said.

[Jamedi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full text review: https://jamreads.com/reviews/stellar-...

Interview with Jonathan Nevair: https://jamreads.com/interviews/some-...

Stellar Instinct is the new proposal from Jonathan Nevair, who defined it as a spy-fi thriller, continuing his career as a sci-fi writer. I was really excited to see how he would develop in a different subgenre from space opera, especially seeing him writing a spy story, one of the subgenres that can hook me really hard. And honestly, the result is glorious, a book that I will recommend so many times in the future.

We are going to be following Lilliane Renault, a GAM-OPS secret agent, in her adventures across the galaxy. She's a really experienced agent, and somebody with plenty of resources, but somebody who doesn't doubt following her instinct, her best weapon. We also get to know that among her hobbies there is an interesting love for poetry, something that she loves and that helps her to reach a certain calm. She's witty and clever, being a character who is easy to connect with.

Among the diverse cast that is part of this novel, we also have Lilliane's Granny, probably one of the funniest characters, and who could be defined as a more reactionary version of Liliane (in the end, both even share the past as agents). She's sarcastic, a problem for the caretakers that keep her in retirement. A strong woman that also shares the love of her granddaughter for poetry. As happened in the Wind Tide series, we can see that characterization is one of Nevair's strengths, and making memorable characters even among the secondary ones, as can be Carbook, the technician that in reality hides more than you can see at first sight, and his assistant Pin, who gets the spotlight near to the end of the novel.

The plot is really interesting, giving us a story based on spies trying to stop the villain from getting control of the galaxy. And how this villain has amassed this amount of power? By the distribution of an online video game, which could be called a metaverse, getting ways to access a superior power. After a really problematic travel to Frebu, Lilliane discovers a pattern that will give her and GAM-OPS the opportunity to uncover the plan of Mavron, the mind behind this marvelous plan. All of this with an agile pace, making this book the equivalent of reading Mission: Impossible, a really interesting espionage story, with researching parts, several action scenes that make your heart beat hard, and some scenes that allow us to know more about the characters.

There's an aspect that is distinctive from Nevair's craft (in my opinion), and it is the use of different artistic resources in the narration, feeling sometimes a little bit like experimenting. There are several chapters written using a 2nd person's POV, which helps to build a mystery sensation, and also makes us wonder what is happening in this virtual world. As I said before, poetry becomes a key piece in the whole plot, and honestly, it's relaxing that among all the frenetic scenes we have some moments to stop, and just admire the beauty of words, transmitting the same sensation our protagonist is experimenting.

Stellar Instinct is a real masterpiece from the hand of Jonathan Nevair. I found myself cheering for Lilliane and for GAM-OPS, suffering when she got into a dangerous situation, and sometimes just thinking about how she could solve the situation. The pace is brilliant, accelerating when needed, but also slowing sometimes to let you breathe. If you want a great book, which is as entertaining as a good blockbuster, Stellar Instinct is for you.

[Dave Lawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

lighthearted, fast-paced spy-fi fun

Looking for something a little different? Lighthearted at times, fast-paced, full of spy hijinks and sci-fi action, Stellar Instinct could be the book for you. Spy-fi is the perfect name for this genre. Stellar Instinct has sci-fi worldbuilding with spy thriller sensibilities, and it’s just a joy to read.

Lilline Renault is a super spy, but she’s really more interested in her poetry, though no one else seems to be very impressed with her attempts at verse. She goes undercover, finding out that a tech genius is behind a plan to basically take over the world. It’s a race against time to save the world…and save the people she loves.

This story shines when we’re spending time with Lilline and her grandmother especially, or when Lilline gets the chance to interact at length with other characters. I will say that many of the side characters didn’t get much of a chance to let us get to know them, so some of those parts fell a bit flat, but I was so enamored of Lilline’s relationship with her snarky firecracker of a grandma.

Like I said, the pace is fast, and sometimes there were moments that felt a bit brushed over–there was emotional weight to be had, but we never quite got it. Some of the reveals as the story went on were also a bit obvious. However, I was along for the ride, and Nevair’s prose and wit kept things interesting, and Lilline was a likeable protagonist. I listened to the audiobook, which was fine. The narrator was sometimes very monotone in her narration, but did well with character voices.

Nevair makes a really interesting choice of having some chapters in 2nd person POV, and while it took a bit to get used to and make sense in the story, I really liked the reasoning behind it as the book moved on. My suggestion is to just let it happen and you’ll start to realize why the author made that choice. Nevair has a good command of prose and the novel is quite well written, so you should be able to speed through it!

This is not a hard-hitting, emotional tale. It’s light, it’s fun, and it hits the spot. I wanted a bit more emotional weight, but I do think this would be a great palate cleanser! So the next time you’re looking for a fun spy-thriller sci-fi adventure, look no further!

[Jord MiddleofNowhere · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first book by Jonathan Nevair after hearing about many of his other SciFi novels. The tagline is what made me grab this one first, as it was a mashup of two of my favorite genres. A SpyFi Thriller!! This just made me want to read it more. I jumped into this one not knowing what to expect and was shocked, not only did it have great thriller plot points, but it also contained humor and beautiful poetry throughout. The world was distinct and described beautifully as well, with each of the characters throughout the novel having a distinct voice.

The strength of the novel were the characters, and how easy they were to read. They all had a distinct voice and it was great to see them have such personalities in a relatively short novel. There was even a character that had gills who loved to smoke. This image made me smile and gave me a sense of great imagery that it quickly became a favorite. It was also great to see how this effected the character through some of the scenes that happen. The only thing that really threw me off was the use of second person. This is most definitely a me thing, as I know many others enjoy it. It works well in the novel, and I understand the choice of using it. It just was unexpected and always seems to interrupt the flow to me.

Overall this is a great easy to read novel. Those looking for a fun SciFi read with great characters, beautiful writing, and a dash of humor have found the book that they are waiting for. The technology used is not over the top and is easy to understand, though it does play an integral part to the story. I encourage everyone to give this a spin, listen to your instinct which is saying "read this". I had a great time!! Don't be a fly on the wall trying to figure it all out and jump in with both feet!!

Thank you for taking the time to read this review. As always, happy reading and Stay Great!!

[Bryan Glosemeyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stellar Instinct by Jonathan Nevair promises spy-fi, or spies-in-space, adventure. And it delivers with a scoop of sci-fi space opera fun on top.

This first entry in the Agent Renault Adventures is fast paced, filled with aliens, monstrous beasts, fast rockets, shoot outs, espionage, cosmic occultism and . . . poetry. Yep, poetry. If you like spy thrillers and space adventures, this is the book you didn’t know you needed in your life.

Once again, creative and independent authors like Jonathan Nevair show how fun, cool, and unique indie sci-fi can be and how limited in scope too much of traditionally published sci-fi has often become.

[Isabelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a reread for me because I slacked about writing a review the first time around and because I thought it'd be fun to start over again before continuing the series. I do have to say that I switched from the audiobook to the ebook towards the end and am glad to have done so, because the narrator's voice for the general narration of the story wasn't my favorite. She is very monotone, which led to me being easily distracted by other things and sometimes missing some of the details. Her voices are great though. That part I really enjoyed! I just wish some of the emotions I heard in them had been reflected in the narration of the story itself too.

I'm a sucker for world building in scifi books and that was really fun here. Lately, I've especially liked stories that feature digital entertainment and worlds to live in recently, so this book fit into that as well and used it in a cool way. I liked the variety of races, the various strengths and weaknesses that were used in different ways throughout the story, though I would've liked to dive a little more deeply into learning about them.

The characters were interesting and I enjoyed learning about them. While poetry isn't really my thing and I didn't care too much for those aspects on their own (thought I do wonder if part of that was the narrator's lack of emotion for some of the poems?), I did like that the MC had something unrelated to her job that was so important to her. It definitely added another layer to her character so she wasn't just this super spy that was only passionate about her job.

I can't always comment on writing style when I listen to a book because I admit that it just doesn't stand out to me as much then, but since I switched to the ebook here, I'm happy to say that it felt really smooth and easy to read. While the plot did feel a little predictable here and there, overall I enjoyed it and the pages at the end just melted away. I was done in no time because I was so glued to the story then. The only thing that stood out was the use of second person in some of the chapters. I'm not 100% sure I understand the need for it and it threw me off a bit sometimes. Nevertheless though, I enjoyed myself and am looking forward to continuing with the series.

[S. Bavey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Described as a Spy-Fi space adventure, this standalone story was a little different to most of the Sci-Fi titles I have read previously – in an extremely good way! I enjoy both spy stories and Sci-Fi stories, so the combination of the two genres might be a new favourite subgenre now!

When the story begins, Lilline Renault, a poetry-obsessed secret agent for GAM-OPs, is on a mission on the ice planet Frebu. She is a strong and brave female main character with a heartwarming and wholesome relationship with her grandmother, retired agent Kissy Renault. The relationship between granddaughter and grandmother was one of my favourite aspects of this novel. I also loved the importance of poetry to the whole essence of the story and its ability to link Lillene and Kissy, but also, more widely, as a way to tap into the rhythms of the universe.

Lilline is the likeable main protagonist and the majority of the story is told from her third person perspective. There are a few chapters written in the second person perspective peppered throughout the narrative. The purpose of this becomes clear as the story develops and I felt that it worked really well. Since the second person perspective is not often used, it immediately makes you sit up and take notice and try to figure out what exactly is going on.

Lillene’s spymaster handler, Lauder, is a Gej-ti, an amphibious human variant who smokes a pipe and the smoke can then be seen coming out through his gills. I really loved the addition of multiple alien races, human variants and animals in this book – this is something I particularly enjoy when reading Sci-Fi. They were imaginatively created and diverse. As well as the Gej-Ti there are long-necked Rasps, blue-skinned, enormous Kreeli, winged Oltari and human variants such as Gribb who speaks Froo:

“Long, six-knuckled fingers clasped together over the railing next to her, moist skin providing the amphibious human variant with an internal cooling system that kept their cold-blooded body free of the burden of excessive heat.”

We also encounter exotic alien animals on the various planets Lillene visits, such as the Bukki Tiger, a species to which she lost her ear in a previous encounter, owl-like Ice Rangers, Ganghut lizards, and Pan-ti:

“…a herd of Pan-ti moving at their usual slow and steady pace across the grassland. The purple and white striped mammals, with their sleek frames and muscular legs, were the perfect complement to the palette of the grasslands.”

I love how these creatures and aliens lend multiple layers to the imaginative world-building at which Nevair showed himself to be such an expert in his previous Wind Tide trilogy:

“In the fading light of a binary star sunset, four domes and a series of spires broke the horizon line. She shot up and over a rock formation that rose like shark’s teeth from bone-white snow and banked East.”

The antagonist, Mavron Nave, is an unhinged megalomaniac who has summoned a powerful force in his quest to rule the universe. He is an entrepreneurial titan in the world of augmented reality game development and I’m sure fans of AR and VR gaming will love this side of the story which has a few similarities to Ready Player One in terms of some of the action taking place within a game.

“Sweet dreams, Preacher!”

Nave’s tame assassin, known as The Preacher is a formidable adversary, even for an agent as talented as Lillene. A massive blue Kreeli assassin, she is a zealot who worships Nave as the creator of the Freestrike universe. This whole augmented reality system brought to mind Zuckerberg’s Metaverse. As with any fictional megalomaniac bent on domination of the universe, Nave commands a shady organisation which in this instance is a kind of cult known as Mind Eye. They have been delving into things they don’t fully understand and the consequences endanger the whole of the universe. Luckily GAM-OPs best agent is on the case.

Since Stellar Instinct is a spy-fi thriller there are plenty of interesting tech gadgets, including rocket gloves; a hover bike, a life-saving necklace; and a holographic monocular device that aids with rock climbing. Lillene’s equivalent to James Bond’s ‘Q’ is a technical genius named Carbrook, but his bold, self-confident assistant Pin, an Oltari, is the efficient member of the team, saving the day with her intelligence and initiative on many occasions. Pin was one of my favourite characters of the story. I appreciated how the heroes of this story were all female. The people in charge may have been male but it was the females that took charge and got things done, thinking on their feet and problem solving as the need arose.

Add into the gaming mix exciting chases, well-paced fights, unexpected twists and turns, a traitor, a daring rescue of an imperilled grandmother, the poetic summoning of a dangerous entity and you end up with a cornucopia of excitement and an unrelenting page turner.

[Wolfmantula · Rating 2 out of 5]

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MY ⭐️ RATING: 2.25/5
FORMAT: Kindle Whispersync

I came in to the month of May looking to add more sci-fi to my library since I am doing my year end best of, based on categories rather than just a regular top 10 like I typically do. Another blogger had posted that they were planning to read Stellar Instinct this month, and when I saw the cover, I knew I had to add it to the other Sci-fi May reads. The description of it being a “Spy-fi” made me even more interested because I don’t read a lot of spy type of books either, so it added to intrigue of this sub-genre in sci-fi.

I really hate writing negative reviews and contemplated not even writing it at all, but I felt it was my duty as a book blogger to do so. This had all the makings of something that could be really good, it was a little bit of Men in Black meets Gamer with its spy like nature and the plot revolving around a virtual reality game that is being used deviously. The first 30% was not very good, and I almost put this down after chapter 10, but I decided to stick with it hoping that it would improve. While it did get better, it just never got to where I was hoping it could get to. Bland characters, a predictable plot and sub-par narration made this something I just couldn’t like, no matter how much I tried to keep going in hopes that it would get better.

Unfortunately, this just wasn’t for me despite how much I was looking forward to it. The story had its fun and interesting parts, but they were few and far between. The most interesting thing about the main character, Renault, was that her civilian identity Keely, liked poetry, which kind of reminded me of Sylvester Stallone’s character in Demolition Man where he’s programmed to like knitting, only her poetry matters in this story unlike Stallone’s. I like that Nevair wanted to add some depth to the character by doing this, but it didn’t change that she just wasn’t very interesting. With that said, her grandmother, Kissy, was actually a good character that I wish had a far larger role, but by the time I met her, I had already contemplated stopping and moving on to something else. I did like Carbrook though, he is a nerdy tech guy that likes video games and added some much needed goofiness, but like Kissy, just didn’t get the time that could’ve helped draw away from the main character.

The narration by Erica Garraffa was something that I was left wishing was better for a few reasons, the first is that the narration of several characters was actually quite nice voice, like Renault, Kissy, Carbrook and Pin, but when in narration mode it was just a bit too monotone, which forced me to take more breaks than normal because I was losing focus, it reminded me of the way Siri’s voice sounds, always the same and a bit robotic. The other issue I had is something that feels like cheating, like using chatGPT to write or using AI to create a cover, and I don’t know if it’s the blame of the narrator or the production, but using a voice distorter for characters because the narrator can’t reach a deep voice was just the wrong choice and something I hope I never experience in another audiobook again.

[T.A. Bruno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stellar Instinct reminded me of everything I loved about older James Bond films, but set in space and filled with aliens. It read like a very informed spy thriller, with betrayals, tactics, and spy-gadget-fueled action scenes. Lilline is a really cool character, and she feels both capable but not invincible. Add in her failure as a poet, and you have a unique spy to follow throughout Stellar Instinct. I grew attached to her boss, Lauden, an alien who smokes entirely too much but in a way that really brought out his character every time he entered the room. And who can’t love retired Super spy Granny Kissy, who brings the sort of snark and history to a spy thriller that we love in character a little like M, but with a flirtatious past. As a fan of both spy thrillers and science fiction, I absolutely loved this spy-fi novel.

[Ziggy Nixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Welcome to GAM-OPs, where we save the galaxy from the shadows.

A scintillating and well-constructed intergalactic spy thriller with a ton of unique twists and surprises!

OK, so how would I describe Jonathan Nevair's self-professed "spy-fi space thriller" besides just that little blurb (intended as my Amazon review "title")? Well, it's kind of like James Bond in space with a little Indiana Jones thrown in. Um, make that Jane Bond. Internati… no, Intergalactic Secret Agent that sometimes fights in CyberSpace, too! And he, oops, she likes poetry which I guess is better than martinis (but only just because admittedly, Jane, um, Lilline's poetry sucks most of the time [I guess, that's what she says]). But yeah, there's the addiction to danger that's on full display and some cool escape-slash-fight scenes. And there's a Q-type who is good with all kinds of tech… and a lower-case q-type with 4 arms and wings that may be even better. Lots of gadgets, danger galore and if it weren't for the aliens, FTL spaceships and oodles of planets strewn throughout the galaxy, this could be a tale right out of Ian Fleming's catalogue! Oh and rocket gloves. Wow!

This isn’t something blasters and daring maneuvers can stop. This is a deeply complex matter, beyond the borders of known physics.

Goodness knows the ingenious yet emotionally flawed villain, um, I mean the "ill-tempered but charismatic entrepreneur" qualifies in his role as our resident megalomaniac. Naturally he goes about employing such standard "tools" including the criminal underworld, cutting edge technology, mysticism and even ancient cult-related activities and teachings to push his agenda. Plus, he naturally utilizes gobs and gobs of money in his quest for utter domination! Heck, there's even a scene with a hidden lair near a volcano to deal with (sorry, wrong owners there, ignore that!). Needless to say (but I will) we can only begin to see how monumentally dangerous this truly universal threat has become as he seeks to combine the secular with the spiritual to bring about, quote, "a Futurist Galactic Order."

I offer escape and pleasures unattainable in your moral prison. The galaxy will be set free from your arrogant rules.

OK, we may be missing the Bond franchise's requisite libidinous member(s) of the desired sex(es) intended to tantalize and tease our protagonists - no, idle flirting and/or mild lusting does not count - but the general framework is still valid. That being said - and before you start painting in visions of Sean Connery and his successors - I did find that Nevair's tale shows a great deal of imagination and even unexpected highlights, particularly as he dared to do so in a scifi environment. It all comes across as being very entertaining even if there were vast swaths of techno- - well, not babble but something akin to same - that I didn't understand at all. Keep in mind the most complicated video game I've ever played is Tetris and that gives me a migraine. Crossword, anyone?

No longer will the world of the virtual and the tangible be separate. Games are now reality. Life is now play.

Naturally, when you throw in a bit of the occult as well as rituals and customs associated with Enochian traditions (thanks Wikipedia!), you have a recipe for some pretty wild scenarios! Added to this was Nevair's subtle integration of the particular quirks of various alien and/or human-like species (aka variants) and, again, I was sold! And I haven't even mentioned the added drama that our resident Spy's dear Granny provides nor even the shenanigans of the Agency's director! Both are worth the price of admission for the surprises - and knowledge - they drop on us!

We have summoned a power greater than any in galactic history. For millennia, we have put our faith in the capability of integrative intelligence to achieve ascendence.

All said, Nevair's writing is as smooth as a Racer dashing into normal space. I loved how he formulated some seemingly random bits that just really made the scenes jump out (great example: "the sleek spires of corporate buildings rose like the layered teeth of an aquatic predator."). And I think I've already made it clear that I found his characters to be very well-formed in this tale, with unique personalities that fed well off each other. Even though I didn't get all the computery bits, I am very glad that he chose NOT to venture this plot into a more cyberpunk-themed adventure nor have it wind up being a forced effort like "Ready Player One" or other equally poor attempts to connect with today's iDevice and (cr)app addicted public.

The sweetness of control was so much more delicious than brute strength or martial skill. It was like an invisible force that bound an opponent with nothing more than words.

So like I've long promised (I even told the author this personally when I still subscribed to Twitmusk), I will definitely be expanding my enjoyment of his catalogue and diving into his "Wind Tide" series before 2023 is over. Maybe 2024. I'LL GET TO IT, OKAY? Sheesh...

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

While investigating on the arctic planet, Frebu, secret agent Lilline Renault encounters a mysterious being that tries to “feed” on her thoughts. This thoughtform seems to be connected to strange events that have happened across the galaxy, including a billionaire game designer and possibly to a GAM-OPs mission from many cycles ago, when Lilline’s grandmother worked as an agent. Lilline has to work quickly to connect the dots in these missions, and maybe get her poetry published along the way.

Lilline Renault is a smart, no-nonsense GAM-OPs agent who relies on her vast experience and instinct to complete missions. She has faced some of the most fearsome beings in the galaxy and saved countless people, and her travels/work often serve as inspiration for her other love: poetry. Lilline is kind, witty and honest; she’s a character that readers will find it easy to root for. I really appreciated Lilline as a character not only because she trusted herself and her abilities, but because she encouraged other characters to succeed, as well. Lilli’s interactions with Pin were wonderful and I loved seeing two characters interact in such a fun and positive way.

Kissy, Lilline’s retired agent grandmother, is a capable, sarcastic character with a relatively unknown past. She provides levity throughout the story and I loved that she became a bigger part of the story later on. I did think that the earlier scenes where Kissy is portrayed at her retirement home were a little corny, but I didn’t find them off putting by any means. and think it was just an attempt to portray some of the zaniness of Kissy’s personality. I appreciated the character arc and how her story has the potential to be developed in the future (this is me asking for more books about Lilli and Kissy).

Beyond the Renaults, we are introduced to a wide range of characters, species, and planets. While the pace of the book is very quick, the descriptions and world building worked perfectly for me. I was easily able to picture the settings and thought that the detail provided on nature and technology was great. Nevair does a great job at keeping readers guessing and engaged. The different characters/species all had unique characteristics, but couldn’t be easily designated as “heroes or villains” within the story because of these traits. As a reader, you’re never totally sure which characters you can trust and I found that to be a lot of fun and it helped me to appreciate some of the characters more.

Stellar Instinct is a short book, but it is so effective in how it handles the storyline. There aren’t any dull moments, but the pace does change appropriately throughout giving the reader “time to breathe.” The use of augmented/virtual realities and gaming within the plot was really interesting to me and I thought it was a really creative way to show how a villain can gain a following and become powerful. I also really enjoyed Nevair’s occasional use of second person narrative to portray the AR and Astral Mind and the way it becomes part of a person. It helped me to feel like I was involved in the story and gave me a better understanding of what the villain was trying to do.

While I don’t read too many books in the sci-fi genre, I found that I became quickly absorbed in Stellar Instinct. This is a really fun, character-driven novel, with plenty of twists to keep you guessing. I would love to read another book (or many!) within this universe or follow Lilline through another mission to save the galaxy! Highly recommend this book to my fellow readers!

[Kate Sibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stellar Intinct has been sat on my TBR now for quite some time. With a nudge from a friendly but competitive discord server, March is the month to have a go at reducing that reading mountain and I have finally gotten round to reading this book. Was it worth the wait?

Well, if you like action-packed Sci-fi with a strong female MC, then yes, yes it was. It's not the longest at just over 300 pages but the author manages to get quite a bit in that page count. It's a spy thriller come Sci-fi action romp where the excitement starts on the very first page and does not stop until the end. Some of the usual tropes are present but the prose used means it feels fairly fresh. Although there is science in this science fiction, I wouldn't say it was hard sci-fi. I did get a bit lost with some of the hacker speak but that is not hard to do. There is a whiff of mysticism in the air but I think it still falls very firmly in the realms of sci-fi.

The characters are a fun set. The female MC, Lilline, is a agent for GAM-OPS, a secret organisation helping to protect the known galaxies. Although she is a secret agent with various toys to back up her intelligence, Lilline has a vulnerable side as well. It isn't always easy being a top spy and saving the galaxy, especially when your grandmother has done it all before you. Kissy, the aforementioned Grandmother, is an outrageously fun character, although I imagine I wouldn't be saying that if I was related to her. The side characters I found to be well written, having a personality without having a ten page back story. However, I did find the villain of the piece to be a bit flat. His story felt like one of those troups I mentioned but without the personality to back it up and that his assassin minion was better written than the Big Bad. It all just felt a bit too 2D for me, which is a shame as the other characters where well-written.

Weirdly, there is quite a lot of poetry in this book. I am not a massive fan of poems or songs in fiction and have a tendency to sidestep round ones used for the beginning of chapters. This literary device is used as part of the plot here, so there is no avoiding it. Luckily, the poems are all very short, more like haikus or limerick than extended poems. I could deal with them but if poety is one of your pet hates, then this may become an issue fairly quickly.

I had a fun time with Stellar Instinct. While the plot is not exactly literary genius, the prose keeps it fresh and moving along at a fresh pace. I don't need my sci-fi to win the next Booker Prize - I want a bloody good tale told well. Preferably with aliens and explosions. I got that with this book and it scratched my sci-fi itch. Having taken this off my TBR (pat on the back for me), I have now added it's two sequels to it. Oh well...

[Marian Thorpe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jonathan Nevair’s Stellar Instinct has all the twists and turns of a James Bond movie, with a protagonist more wily than 007 and an arch-villain worthy of succeeding all the world-dominating nasties of that franchise – but without action limited to our planet. Nevair calls his science fiction thriller ‘spy-fi’, and it’s an apt term.
From its opening in a polar ice cave through a series of reveals and reversals, Nevair takes the tropes and timings of the thriller genre and gives them new life. Lilline Renault, Agent T8 of GAM-OPS, the organization tasked with keeping peace in the galaxy, is a legacy agent—her grandmother Kissy is the best operative GAM-OPS ever had. Lilline’s no nepo baby, though: she’s ALMOST as good as her grandmother, both as an agent and a poet.
Peopled with secondary characters, human and non-human, who are far from cardboard devices (with special mention of Kissy, who is utterly marvellous), and with a central plot that pushes ideas and personalities recognizable from our current world into new dimensions, Stellar Instinct is light, pacey, and extremely fun. Nevair’s talent with words raises an already strong story well above many thrillers, and as light as the book is, there are still moments of profundity.
Will Lilline save the galaxy? Will she ever write a decent poem? Read and find out! My pressing question is this: will we be seeing more of Lilline? I certainly hope so!

[Shannon Knight]

Stellar Instinct reads like a popular sci-fi family film. The story is action-packed with constant humor. Initially, I found the purposeful bathos startling. Every bit of tension or seriousness is countered by a prompt joke, so readers never feel any concern for the hero or the universe she is out to save. The movie franchise it most reminds me of is Men in Black, but MIB aims more firmly at comedy, so a better comparison may be the Marvel Universe. Either way, you get the picture. Zany aliens, nonstop cleverness and action sequences from the secret agent, and a light type of humor never aimed to punch down. For example, a primary way we're asked to laugh at the secret agent is that no matter how terrific she is at her job, she longs to be a great poet, but her poetry is painfully bad. She mentally composes poems in the middle of action scenes and then has them kindly eviscerated by her writing group, who has no idea she's a secret agent. Our hero is following in the footsteps of her grandmother, a great spy known as Kissy, which helps increase the family-feel of it all.

My personal preference in science fiction is for more seriousness and layered themes. Stellar Instinct is not trying to do that at all. If you'd like a popcorn flick of a space romp, though, Stellar Instinct has you covered!

[Bory · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should have DNF'ed this. I wanted to DNF this after 50 pages, but I have a hard time giving up on books, especially indie ones.

In short, I did not like this. From the stereotypical, unoriginal characters, to the predictable twists, Stellar Instinct is so bog-standard as to defy belief. Lilline is two-dimensional, and uninteresting both as a person, and as a protagonist. The world is shallow. The villain is comical, and his motivations are predictable and banal. No amount of nonsensical metaphysical prattling or weird forays into made up poetical conventions can make up for any of it.

Oh, and that scene with Lilline flirting with the bartender was awkward and cringy.

The only saving grace was Kissy, but she wasn't in the story enough to make much of a difference.

This is the trird Nevair book I've read, and at this point, I'm just going to have to concede that he is not the author for me.

What a pathetic whimper of beginning to the reading year. I sincerely hope it's not an omen for things to come, or I'm not sure there'll be getting me out of the inevitable reading slump.

[Traveling Cloak · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my first Nevair book, and I have to say it is quite a playful read. The main character, Renault, is really fun and interesting. She is loyal and courageous, and has an unwavering moral compass. The perfect protagonist for this type of story.

The supporting cast is pretty good, as well. The author does a nice job of making sure each has a distinct voice. They were a bit stereotypical at times, but I did not mind that.

The plot was really fun, too. Making the villain a tech giant and the main conflict based on a game was really cool and apropos to current events. I always find this level of technology to be interesting. I will say, even though the date of the galaxy was at stake, I did not feel the conflict deeply, missed the emotion of it. Because of that, I never really felt like the stakes were that high.

I have seen this categorized as a “space opera”, but I would not. I am not great with sub-genres, but for me a space opera is bigger, deeper, more sweeping, if you will. Much of the world-building in this book is very surface level, so I would just call it a sci-fi story. Which is perfectly fine.

I was nervous coming in about the poetry aspect. I am not a huge poetry fan, and I feared that might turn me off. It is actually very lightly present, so it did not affect me either way.

Overall, I liked STELLAR INSTINCT. It is a quick, fun read with interesting characters and a playful plot.

[Helyna Clove · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a nice, entertaining sci-fi ride. Lilline was an enjoyable main character, although I wished I could have gotten closer to her and saw more of her inner world in a deeper fashion. In any case, I loved her poetry insertions a lot. I also enjoyed Kissy's character, we love a badass granny. And Lauden was also great as the big boss. The plot wasn't the most complicated ever, but the couple of settings we visited were immersive (I especially loved Frebu but the jungle planet was also very interesting) and the alien species we got to know were distinct and cool. The villain seemed a tad bit easy to defeat but I did love the concept of what he was trying to do a Lot. My favourite scene was probably the gala. The book was very pacey and we didn't linger a lot anywhere, but maybe that's part of why it's a nice little break between heavier stuff. I'll probably come back for the sequel eventually!

[Douglas Williamson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our heroine is an interstellar spy, with definitely kicks things up a notch. It is bad enough trying to outsmart human opponents, but when they are literally alien, the task becomes a bit more complex. Our heroine is going to need all her skills, tech and backup to get this one done.

This is a science fiction spy story, which definitely makes for a fun combination. I found the story to be well written and generally easy to read. I do have to admit that the variety of alien names and places sometimes make it a challenge to keep things straight, but they also add to the fun. The plot tends to move at a quick pace and includes plenty of twists and turns along the way which keep things interesting. Overall, I enjoyed this excursion and would not mind reading about our heroine again in the future.

Highly recommended.

[Andrew Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this little "spy-fi" adventure. Nevair's mastery of space opera helps create a rich, believable world that he tears through at the breakneck pace of a thriller. I can safely say I haven't read many books like this, and now all I want is more!

GAM-OPS agent Lilline Renault is a purely badass character, with the unique foil of being a terrible poet. This makes for some wonderful moments of levity during even the most serious situations!

A poor poet she may be, but she's also the galaxy's only hope against a threat the likes of which it can't possibly be ready for.

The supporting cast are fleshed out and often deeply mysterious, especially Lilline's elderly grandmother, who can't quite keep out of mischief in her retirement...

This novel flies by like a passing meteor. Not one you want to skip if you're a sci-fi or thriller fan. A truly stellar effort!

[K. Pimpinella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, fast-paced thriller that will keep you turning the pages in want of both answers to the mysteries evolving, and the ongoing action. A diverse cast of characters from a secret agency called GAM-OPS try to take down an exceptionally evil (and to a degree, petty, and at times a little over the top) villain of enormous power. What makes this book even more interesting than it’s characters and rich world-building, is from where this antagonist siphons his power. There’s a commentary, or two, made on the world we live today- and where it might lead, that can’t be missed. They’re woven into the plot so as not to sound preachy, and actually enhance the story in the way ‘life-lessons’ in a book should be. It makes for an enjoyable read that when you’re finished you feel like you’ve learned something. Or at least have your eyes opened.

As is typical of Mr. Nevair's writing, it's easy to get lost in the pages and forget the world around you as you enter the futuristic, planet-hopping, gaming world he's created. This book is great for either a stormy-day, train ride to work, or easy beach read.

[Benjamin Hadde · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to read this book as a bit of light-hearted fun reading as a break between larger more lore-heavy fantasy novels.

I chose this book because a sci-fi spy novel sounded fun, but unfortunately It turned out to be quite terrible. The author never let me care about the characters. As soon as any character development or any interesting dialog took place the author constantly felt the need to interrupt it with some chase or fight scene. Unfortunately, since I didn't care about the characters I also did not care about their fate In these high-action segments.

In a nutshell, this book was not good. The only thing I cared about was for it to be over so I didn't have to read it anymore.

[Dr susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic sci fi thriller

The worldbuilding is excellent, Lilline is a quirky narrator, the non-humans are fascinating, and the story is definitey a thrill ride. Bad things happen, and there is graphic violence. People have kept secrets, and that is never a good thing. Kissy is hilarious and the epitome of a retired galactic spy. The story is well-written with an ending conducive to a sequel. I hope Lilli and Pin have more adventures and lunches.

[Peter Hartog · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lilline is the sci-fi spy you didn't know you needed. Nevair plants his foot on the pedal and doesn't let up in this non-stop, thrill-ride! He leans into many of the spy-thriller tropes that I love, and shamelessly paints a tremendously fun story. Great characterization, fabulous prose, and great dialogue make this a wonderful read. Looking forward to reading about how Lilline saves the galaxy whenever a sequel is written!

[Susana Imaginário · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick and easy to read. It wasn't quite what I was expecting (I expected something darker and a bit more mature) but I always try to judge a book by what it is and not by what I'd like it be. Sadly, I didn't connect with the MC or the plot because it came across so light-hearted at times and the poetry really didn't work for me... Still, I couldn't find much fault with the writing or the story itself. It's a well-crafted book based on a good idea. The lighter approach will make it accessible to a wider audience.

[Nancy Wallis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jonathan Nevair has done it again! This new spy-fi novel is an exciting ride - fast paced and engaging with unique characters trying to save the galaxy from a megalomaniac's attempt to rule the universe. The heroine is an aspiring poet who combines her unique spying skills with a literary twist. I wouldn't mind visiting these characters again in a follow up adventure.