Children of Sacabaeus by Sara Creasy - review

Children of Scarabaeus

******

Sara Creasy

although I don't really like the coloring of the cover, I do like how it represents the book. However, I don't really like the pouty look on the model...she looks like she's posing for a magazine ad. Even so, at least there is her hand and her hardware -

Children of Scarabaeus is the sequel to Song of Scarabaeus, a book I thoroughly enjoyed reading back in June. It takes up just a bit after the Song of Scarabaeus ends. As in the first book, Edie and Finn are still tied together by a "leash", a splint in Finn's brain that contains a bomb that will detonate if he's too far from Edie. They're still on the run from the Crib (the conglomerate that is running all the planets, and is exploiting them). Edie is wanted for her cyberteck skills, and she owes years on her contract to the Crib. Finn is a freedom fighter from a previous planetary war....

In this sequel, Edie and Finn are back in space, they are captured by Edie's former boss and Edie is forced to work...only this time there are children involved, children from Edie's home world. The children are cybertecks in training and don't realize yet what they're in for. Edie's former boss wants Edie to help with a new project, and another man is trying to get Edie for his own project-returning to Scarabaeus to find out what is going on there.

Seems the planet Scarabaeus is actually killing people who try to interfere with it. And the planet seems to be growing a type of intelligence....

I enjoyed this book hugely - it was a great sequel. Happily, some of the complications in Edie's life are actually taken care of in this novel, so if there is a third book, there will probably be a slightly different set of problems.....not the same issues dragging on forever.

The dialogue is great here, the only thing I had the slightest raised eyebrow, is the character of Natesa, who seemed so....typically evil boss like....although that was also kind of fun. She was so dedicated to getting her own way, and would go from manipulative to screaming - the full spectrum of evil villian behavior. Even though I did have a raised eyebrow at that, I still enjoyed it.

Good science fiction with a bit of drama and a just the tiniest bit of angst - just enough.

If you haven't yet tried them, I recommend both Song of Scarabeaus and Children of Scarabaeus.

Children of Scarabeaus giveaway link

My Bookish Ways is hosting a giveaway for Sara Creasy's upcoming new release Children of Scarabaeus.

Now I've read the first book (Song of Scarabaeus) and based on the first book, Children of Scarabaeus will be a good read.

For a chance at both book no. 2 AND no.1, go over to My Bookish Ways; while you're there, read the interview, and then read the review of Song of Scarabaeus - if you've never read it, you'll get an idea of how good this book is....er rather how good this series is going to be.

:)

Review - Song of Scarabaeus

Song of Scarabaeus

******

Sara Creasy

334 pages

published by EOS

science fiction

I saw this book a few times at Barnes & Noble, and a couple times at Borders. Each time I picked it up, looked at it, thought about buying it and ultimately put it down in favor of buying books that were written in first person. I am weirdly obsessive like that. Finally, because my eyes kept being drawn to it, I bought it. Boy am I glad that I did.

This book is science fiction with just a touch of romance, and a teeny bit of angst, but not enough to turn me off reading it.

Edie is a being from a planet called Talas Prime. Problem is, she was only half Talas, and half human so she was practically shunned growing up by the elders. She ends up being trained in wet-tech skills, as she was very skilled with working computers and programs. This is an era of people having splints inserted into their heads and/or finger tips to enhance their computer working. I'm not explaining it very well, and I myself don't have much computer type knowledge, but that didn't get in the way of me enjoying this excellent story.

The Crib has trained Edie to use her skills as a coder for terraforming planets for eventual colonization. She and others code seeds that are dropped on uninhabital planets. These coded seeds force climate changes that make a hostile to life planet inhabitable. This is a big money maker.

Edie is kidnapped by a rogue "rovers", people who work against the "Crib", and conglomerate type corporation that pretty much runs the universes. A serf, a man who is little more than a slave (a sentence carried out for "criminal" behavior) is put on a leash and attached to her. Not a real leash, but a splint is inserted into his brain and a code download that will explode his brain if Edie dies or he is too far away from her. He has to serve as her bodyguard. He's not too happy about it, she's not too happy about it.

Edie is kidnapped for her wet-tech skills, which also make her a target for "rads", short for radicals - a group of people who like to kill wet or op-techs so they cannot mess with the the ecology of planets.

Edie and Finn, her bodyguard must come to an understanding. He has to learn to trust her, and she has to basically do the same thing. Trust for both of them is a big deal, hard to come by. Both of them do a couple of stupid things, and both of them make some good decisions. Interesting.

There is some intrigue going on. There are betrayals and more betrayals. There is heartbreak and friendships and retribution. This is a damn good book. It's one of those books that you don't want to put down, and if you do you can't wait to be able to pick it back up again. This is one of those novels that make you hope the author writes another one.

Song of Scarabaeus is a debut novel of Sara Creasy, a woman who was born and grew up in England, moved to Australia and now lives in the United States.

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