Ahoy there me mateys! While this book was partly enjoyable, I am not sure that I would read the next in the series. For starters, the blurb basically misleads the reader . . .

The story is supposed to be about a girl named Rhee who is the last survivor of her imperial bloodline. She wants revenge for the death of her family and a fight to get the throne. A soldier, Aly, is falsely accused of killing Rhee and must fight to get out the truth in order to save himself and perhaps avert a war.

It says that “Rhee and Aly are thrown together” to save the world. Ummm they see each other across the room once in this novel. That’s it. I kept waiting for their paths to cross. Perhaps in the next novel.

Well basically Rhee is a super annoying protagonist. Her method of getting revenge is subpar. For supposedly being a badass, she basically jumps into everything with no thought and stumbles from one place to another. She doesn’t have a real plan. Her take on revenge is juvenile and she seems to have no inkling of how to be an empress or desire to be one. She does not even appear to be willing to fight for herself. She expects everyone to help her.

Aly on the other hand was the highlight of this novel. He has the second POV. I loved many of his chapters. The fact that he has a robot buddy didn’t hurt. He uses his brain, meets cool people on his travels, and doesn’t whine. I wish the whole book was about him and his friend Kara. Rhee could disappear and I think the story would improve. He might be worth reading the second book for . . .

The plot itself had some extremely predictable points. In addition, time jumps between chapters and POV with no real explanation of logistics. The number of pods the characters steal without being caught (or even chased) sort of belied a feasible reality. In fact the world-building and planets seemed rather lackluster. As did the tech. Though there was an exceptionally cool ship made of organic matter that I loved. The book needed more fun details like that.

Again, I didn’t hate it. I just did not think the world or tech or characters were anything new or stunning. I think if ye never read a space opera yarn then this may be a book to lure readers into the genre. But for me it was just an okay trip.

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