Tag: first contact science fiction

Review:  Doubt (The Adventures of a Xeno-Archaeologist Book 2) by Jenny Schwartz 

Rating: 4.5⭐️

Doubt sees Nora’s solitary existence crumbling as she builds a found family, which includes that of her alien AI companion Jonah, a real favorite in the cast of well crafted characters. 

An excellent and well written book that moves all the many elements and character relationships of this series into new territory by revealing more of Nora’s history and allowing the conflicts of the characters to be explored and worked on, if possible. 

The burrs, the science (so fascinating in how Schwartz is describing it), and its expansion towards a wider role in the coming stories is highly important and exciting. 

Again, this book will send you immediately onto the next. 

A winner in the writing, characters, world building, and fabulous storytelling. 

Cover designed by MiblArt”

The Adventures of a Xeno-Archaeologist:

Astray #1

Doubt #2

Rebel #3

Cajole #4

Resolve#5

Buy link

 Book 2 of 5: The Adventures of a Xeno-Archaeologist 

Blurb 

Alien mysteries. Parental responsibilities. The scout ship Kangaroo has jumped into trouble.

Nora Devi intended to leave her old life behind. But when a quick detour to acquire the funds for a new identity goes awry, she finds herself plunged ever deeper into the troubles she hoped to avoid. 

The Human Sector is a stash of fuel cells just waiting for a spark to explode. The Great Game of politics and power has shifted from the inner realm to the border. Captain Liam Kimani of the battlecruiser RC Genghis Khan is the man in position to suppress the explosion – or ride the wave of it.

It’s been half a millennium since the Stranding. Is the power of the royals still worth supporting, or is it time to risk everything for the chance to rejoin the rest of humanity?

Review:  Astray (The Adventures of a Xeno-Archaeologist Book 1) by Jenny Schwartz

Rating: 4.5✨

What a fantastic read. I found everything about this book (and series) mesmerizing. From the planets, the political systems and current fragile climate, the galaxies and the science behind the unique found powers, foundations the universe here.  Schwartz builds out, book by book on the societies , cultures, and scientific knowledge and theories she establishes in Astray. 

Schwartz had me, honestly, at the sheer magnitude of world building she’s done here. And things that normally don’t appeal to me such as a space age political system that’s along the lines of an Earth monarchy has been created by a history that’s as compelling as it is historically complicated in human space exploration. 

The central figure is Captain Nora Devi, a solitary xeno-archaeologist ,widowed in the recent galactic wars. Nora is a complicated character. She escaped from a tenement, crime ridden slum world where she’d been raised to owning her own ship and business. Her pilot husband died in the twelve year war between Capitoline and Palantine. And she’s still grieving. 

Other figures in the story and series are Capitolines’s Captain Liam Kimani of the RC battlecruiser RC Genghis Khan, an orphan Aria, for starters.  

I really don’t want to give any more details because it’s a fantastic read and journey for everyone exploring the world along with Nora .  So many surprises, decisions, and twists. 

There is no romance here.  When it comes , it’s books later. 

This is about power, people, galactic energy, politics and survival. 

Absolutely enthralling and entertaining. 

Did I rush from book to book? Why yes I did. And you will too if strong woman characters, terrific storylines and imaginative world building is what you want!

“Cover designed by MiblArt”

The Adventures of a Xeno-Archaeologist:

Astray #1

Doubt #2

Rebel #3

Cajole #4

Resolve#5

Buy link

 Book 1 of 5: The Adventures of a Xeno-Archaeologist 

Blurb 

Nora Devi is a xeno-archaeologist with a complicated past. She has buried more secrets than she’s dug up. Widowed in the recently ended twelve year war between Capitoline and Palantine, she now makes a living as an independent tagger in border space.

Captain Liam Kimani could be credited with ending the latest royal war. Instead, he’s blamed for it. Dirty commoners aren’t meant to lay their hands on royalty.

He has no regrets.

When Liam and his crew of the battlecruiser RC Genghis Khan are exiled to Capitoline’s border they discover that life in unexplored space can be more dangerous than war, and that their best chance of survival lies with a mysterious, elusive tagger.

The only problem is that Nora’s secrets might destroy the precarious stability of the entire Human Sector.

Astray is a fast-paced, enthralling space opera of lost societies, ancient aliens, rugged warriors and semi-legal pirates perfect for fans of Lois McMaster Bujold, Becky Chambers, and Lindsay Buroker.

Space exploration science fiction, first contact science fiction, science fiction adventure,