Ahoy there me mateys!  I received an eArc of this sci-fi novel through NetGalley in exchange for me honest musings . . .

This book was frustrating for me.  The first in a new series, there are some fun concepts involved but the structure, plot, and characters had problems.

The story follow Eryn whose sister is exploring a new planet and then goes missing.  Eryn wants to rescue her but gets pulled into fighting a large alien menace that threatens humankind.

The highlight of the book for me was the concept of the arks which are generational spaceships.  Humanity was about to self-destruct when an alien swoops in to save the planet.  Humans are allowed to live because of their potential but are forbidden to settle on any other planet.  I enjoyed how the arks evolved and the personalities of the AIs.  The aliens in charge were rather cool in how they were set up and their basic indifference towards humanity's concerns.  Oh and there is a talking cat.  I liked him too.

I did not really like Eryn.  Her angsty backstory was lame and I thought she was rather shallow and flat as a character.  And she was the most well rounded of the book.  The other characters felt like stereotypes.  And a very large segment of characters existed briefly only to be quickly killed later.  Of course the one person that does survive is for the unnecessary and boring love story.

I also felt that the backstory, told in a series of flashbacks from other points of view, were rather lackluster.  These sections felt tacked on into the plot and were a bit boring.  Ultimately, I feel that the concepts of the book were very fun but there were so many ideas introduced and explored that the plot and characterization suffered.  I am not sure if I will read more of this series.  Arrr!