Expected Release Date: Available Now!
Publisher: Harper Collins
Imprint: Eos
Author’s Website: http://www.saracreasy.com/
My Source for This Book: Netgalley
Part of a Series: Yes, Scarabaeus Book 2
Series Best Read In Order: Yes.
Steam Level: Warm
Official Blurb:
Edie Sha’nim believes she and her bodyguard lover, Finn, could find refuge from the tyranny of the Crib empire by fleeing to the Fringe worlds. But Edie’s extraordinary cypherteck ability to manipulate the ecology of evolving planets makes her far too valuable to lose. Recaptured and forced to cooperate – or else she will watch Finn die – Edie is shocked to discover the Crib’s new breed of cypherteck: children. She cannot stand by while the oppressors enslave the innocent, nor can she resist the lure of Scarabaeus, the first world she tried to save, when researchers discover what appears to be an evolving intelligence.
But escape – for Edie, for Finn, and for the exploited young – will require the ultimate sacrifice… and a shocking act of rebellion.
Please note, this review contains spoilers for the first book in the series, Song of Scarabaeus, so if you haven’t read that book yet and plan to, you may wish to skip this review.
I absolutely adored the first book in the series, Song of Scarabaeus, and had it not been for the cliff-hanger in that book, I think it would’ve very easily made my top ten favorites this year. So when I started reading Children of Scarabaeus, I assumed that being the second book in the series, it could never stand up to the awesomeness of the first.
Never assume – This book. Was incredible.
We pick up a short time after the horrific cliff-hanger that was the end of Song of Scarabaeus (can you tell I’m still bitter about that cliff-hanger??). Edie is still in the process of dying a slow and horrible death, the group is still on the run from Natesa and the Crib, Finn is still leashed to Edie and as such still has a personal investment in her survival. They’ve managed to find someone who has possession of the neurotoxin that Edie needs to survive, and meet on a space station to make the buy, only to find out that it is a trap set by the Crib. They escape (barely) and stow away on an unmanned freighter, and put themselves into cryosleep in order to basically drop-off of the face of the galaxy and hopefully cause the Crib to stop looking for them.
Unfortunately, the plan goes awry when the freighter is captured a year later by Crib milits and Edie is taken on board and woken from her cryosleep. Using her cooperation to force her captors to return for Finn, she’s horrified to discover that while they won’t torture her for information on Scarabaeus, they will use her leash to torture Finn — via a very skilled cyphertek, one who is just as good as she is.
To make matters worse, Natesa shows up and forces Edie’s hand — she now has to resume work on the seeding technology that she abandoned when she was originally kidnapped, or Natesa will show Finn absolutely no mercy.
Used to being manipulated and treated as a commodity rather than a person, Edie reluctantly agrees, and soon discovers something even more sinister — the Crib is now using children from her home world as the next breed of cyphertek. Can Edie succeed in keeping Finn safe, saving the children from a fate identical to her own, and perhaps most importantly, solving the mystery behind the failure of the seeding project and of Scarabaeus’ own extraordinary evolution?
What worked for me:
- We learned more about Finn and his past in this book. He was such a mystery in the first, that while I wanted to marry him and have lots of little assassin babies with him, I never really got to know him all that well. His Seath past makes a startling appearance, and he actually bonds with the children a lot more than I’d ever expected. He also allows himself to fully trust Edie, and allows her to finally see his feelings for her.
- Speaking of Edie, she has matured a lot since the first novel. She’s no longer as submissive and weak as she was, and even though she’s still at the mercy of the Crib and politics, she does manage to stand up for herself a bit more often, and she no longer views things as how they affect her and Finn alone.
- I actually really enjoyed the children. While they were definitely brainwashed by the Crib, they truly enjoyed what they were doing, and I loved their interaction with Macky.
- Scarabeaus was even more incredible than it was in the first book. Very creepy, deliciously gory, and fantastically cool.
What didn’t work for me:
- I had flashbacks of HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. You’ll see what I mean. I swear I expected to hear “What are you doing, Dave?” at one point.
- As I am a romance reader, I have to comment on the distinct lack of sensuality. There are a few encounters, but they’re very very mildly written, and I swear I had to go back and re-read one to make sure that what I’d thought had happened actually had happened. To be completely fair, this didn’t affect my rating for the simple reason that this book isn’t billed as a romance — it’s billed as sci-fi, and as such I can’t judge the book by the lack of romance.
Overall, I adored this. While I think there was enough information given to make it work as a standalone, I do suggest reading these in order to get the full impact and nuances of the MC’s relationships, as well as “getting to know” Scarabeaus. I will admit, that I had just finished the first book when I started this one, so it was not only very fresh in my mind, but I was also still feeling very invested in the characters.
In this book, finally get some resolution to Finn and Edie’s relationship, and some insight to Edie’s childhood, as well as some closure on a few other isues that had occurred in the first novel.
So much happened in this novel, that even though a lot of time passed, it never got boring. The lack of sensual romance was a disappointment, but since this is technically a sci-fi novel rather than a romance, I didn’t let that bother me too much. I did appreciate the more satisfying resolution, and while I have no idea whether or not there is to be another book in the series, I know for a fact that I will buy it if there is.
A solid 5/5 Stars
