Rating:  3.25 stars out of 5

Together, they can change the rules of the galaxy and the definition of humanity.

When Damion Hawk is offered an opportunity to escape the destitute life of a miner on Mars and become an elite Alpha Fighter pilot, he jumps at the chance. Within the Chrysalis Corporation, Damion must learn to work with his Core—a man with computerized implants, no human emotions—and no rights. But unlike other Fighters, Damion can’t treat Core 47 as a tool. He sees 47 as more than a machine, and he’ll take deadly risks to help 47 find the humanity inside him.

Fighters and Cores are designed to work together and enhance each other’s strengths in defense of their employer. Damion and 47 will need each other’s support as suspicions about the all-powerful Chrysalis Corporation arise. Someone wants Damion and 47 gone, and they need to find out who and why while hiding 47’s growing emotions and the love forming between them. If they can succeed, they might save not only themselves, but all Cores enslaved by the Corporation.

The fundamental storyline we’re presented with in this book is extremely intriguing as are the various characters for the most part. I adored 47 and felt absolutely awful for the life he’s been handed at the same time as I admired his steadfast determination to make something of it. Some things 47 said during this story got to me in a major way. So I’ll begin this review by saying that the writers definitely achieved the single most important thing I hope for in any story I read—to make me connect to a character. On the other side of that coin, being that I admired 47 so much, I found that the way others treated him, even Damion towards the end, thoroughly angered me.

The first half of the book kept me entertained, but as the pages slipped by, I began to have quite a few quibbles. First off, while the Fighter/Core team’s purpose is to fly their ships and defend against enemies/rebels, they really do very little of that… at least not on page. There’s a couple simulation runs, then later a reference to some off-page flights. Only at the very end do we get to see action, see the two working together in a space fight. For the length of the book and it’s set up, I’d expected more. But this book dealt more with relationships between the characters, and to be honest, it rather devolved into more sex than I felt the story warranted. Now, believe me I like the sexy bits, but I was left wanting more than that from the story, more sci-fi or action or something. Another quibble stemmed from the frequent debate/bickering between the characters, after a while that started to get wearisome.

But the single thing that bugged me the most was Damion’s treatment of 47. The Corporation creates the Cores from infants and controls their entire lives. We’re told the Cores are expensive and time-consuming to create and thus are valuable. Yet they’re not treated as if they have value but as if they are extremely disposable. The Corporation and even many of the Fighters, treat Cores as tools, not as human. Cores have no say over their own body or life–ever. It’s really very heartbreaking. Then comes Damion, and yes, he’s a better Fighter for 47 than those he’s been assigned to in the past. Yet he’s not very considerate, caring, or even smart in the things he does and says to 47. It bothered me that he (and his Fighter friend Juni) had so little concern about how what they chose to do would ultimately affect their Cores.

Given that Cores are programmed to obey their Fighters, while Damion may not have thought he was ordering 47 around, in essence, he was all along. I tried to mark this treatment and lack of empathy down to youth. However, it reached a point where Damion’s treatment of 47 really started to get to me. In the second half, he came across to me as rather selfish, inconsiderate, and unfeeling. I could see that he was frustrated, but still! He just seemed to make very little attempt to understand what 47 was going through when the Core was obviously being pulled apart inside. I didn’t feel the consideration/concern from Damion enough, which bothered me and kept me from really liking or feeling connected to him.

From a writing perspective: there were times the POVs slipped, times when the way the dialogue was handed confused me because it didn’t flow smoothly and had me sometimes looking back to try and figure out what the speaker was responding to again, and there was quite a bit of redundancy and repetition. In my opinion, the story would’ve benefitted by being tightened up, especially since it ended up quite lengthy at 350 pages.

Being that this book is from DSP, I wasn’t expecting a traditional HEA/HFN ending, however, neither was I prepared for the abrupt cliffhanger, to-be-continued ending. Do be prepared for that when you pick this story up! If you’re the type who hates waiting for the rest of a story, perhaps read this together with the rest when available.

For me, while I’m not a fan of cliffies, I will be coming back for the next book. And hoping with fingers crossed.

The cover by Anne Cain is as intriguing as the blurb, both did their job of draw me to the story admirably. But one thing that bugged me just a tiny bit is the cityscape at bottom when mostly the story revolves around spaceships.

Sales Links: DSP Publications |  Amazon | Buy It Here

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