Tag: shaman and shifter science fiction romance adventure

Review:  Jingle Stars (Shamans & Shifters Space Opera Book 4) by Jenny Schwartz 

Rating: 4.75✨

Jingle Stars (Shamans & Shifters Space Opera Book 4) is a holiday themed book and a highly important part of the series narrative tapestry.  While it contains a lovely story that could be read simply as a Christmas gift by the author that’s really not it’s true worth. This book is a beautifully crafted piece of writing. 

Its main character starts off with Ahab, is a mLa’an AI who’s a partner with Vulf and Jaya on the spaceship Orion.  The galactic political system is in the process of determining whether artificial intelligence is or can be considered “real beings “, and recognized as full citizens of Galaxy Proper.  

This argument should hit home as we are currently in the midst of early stages of the exact same process. And robotics. 

Ahab is piloting the Orion on a solo mission when Ahab picks up a distressing transmission. A letter to Santa from a young boy asking Santa to save a group of kids, where there shouldn’t be any. 

What follows is a discourse on what it means to be a person. The questions that arise from multiple perspectives and sources. And finally, those answers that matter the most. 

And yes, grab a box of tissues and have it handy.

This isn’t a fun or easy read. There’s children in horrifying situations, traumatic events in their backgrounds.  And all play huge roles in the story and series. 

Jingle Stars (Shamans & Shifters Space Opera Book 4) by Jenny Schwartz  is an amazing read, capturing so many different perspectives and emotional moments. A fun lighthearted holiday story? No, but a great book that will make you think about families and love in all its faces.  At Christmas. 

Highly recommended. Love this author and series. 

Loving the covers.  Highly recommended. 

Shamans & Shifters Space Opera series: 

Her Robot Wolf 

Cosmic Catalyst 

Shattered Earth 

Jingle Stars 

The Ceph Sector 

Buy link 

        Jingle Stars (Shamans & Shifters Space Opera Book 4)

    

Blurb 

When a starship decides to play Santa Claus… 

Ahab is a mLa’an artificial intelligence embedded in the starship, Orion. The campaign for AIs to be recognized as full citizens of Galaxy Proper is within reach of its extraordinary goal. The only thing that could stop it now is if an AI did something foolish…like take a space station hostage to save eight orphaned children.

And this is the letter to Santa that starts it all:

Dear Santa

I don’t know if your reindeers work in space. But if you have room in your sleigh after you finish delivering presents to the lucky kids with parents and homes, can you come and get me and my friends? Please? We’ve been good. Well, we haven’t been really bad. We’re on Station Elphame, in the junkyard, and Zoe is sick. She’s bad sick. I think she’d be better on a planet. We don’t need presents. We just need a way out of here. Ollie tried to sneak onto a trampship…he died. Please, Santa, I don’t want any more of my friends to die.

Aiden.

  • Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
  • Accessibility: Learn more
  • Publication date: December 4, 2017
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 75 pages

Review: Shattered Earth (Shamans & Shifters Space Opera Book 3) by Jenny Schwartz  

Rating: 4.5✨

I’ll be posting the review for Shattered Earth and the holiday novella, Jingle Stars, together because they are short and , shakes finger at Schwartz, only appear to be side stories from the overall series arc.

But having read the series finale, I can tell you that Schwartz makes every single character and storyline have impact and enormous implications going forward. Even if superficially, nothing in the stories seems to connect to the complex plot of starship shaman Jaya Romanov and her new mate partner, galactic bounty hunter and robot wolf shifter, Vulf Trent, headed to the Ceph Sector for research and exploration. 

I love when an author never drops a thread, uses each character’s storyline and development further to make the series stronger and even more compelling by its finale.

Just saying keep it in mind when going through the next two novellas. 

Shattered Earth features pirate captain Kohia Jekyll and healer shaman Nairo Bloodstone, important figures from Cosmic Catalyst.  Kohia is  Jaya’s cousin and Nairo grew up with Jaya in the Academy that raised them. 

Shattered Earth is literally a transformative tale. Nairo is taking over from Jaya in working towards the solution where all the shifters have the ability to recover their animal form. Kohia, a Tiger shifter and one of the galaxy’s most powerful captains, is returning to Earth, a mission to find and see what happened to the prison Jaya and Vulf uncovered. 

A short story that makes the most of its length.  Full of details about the magic, descriptions of a destroyed Earth, a horrifying mine turned prison, and newly forming relationships between shipmates. Including a Captain and Healer. 

Yes, absolutely wanted a book twice as long but these two are now an integral component of the narrative. As are many others. 

Loving the covers.  Highly recommended. 

Shamans & Shifters Space Opera series: 

Her Robot Wolf 

Cosmic Catalyst 

Shattered Earth 

Jingle Stars 

The Ceph Sector 

Buy link 

        Shattered Earth (Shamans & Shifters Space Opera Book 3)

    

Blurb 

The scum of the galaxy are using Earth as a nuclear winter death camp. It outrages pirate captain Kohia Jekyll’s sense of justice. No one deserves to die agonizingly of radiation poisoning, especially not on the planet humanity had to evacuate seven generations ago. So Kohia intends to close the prison camp down. She didn’t count on an infuriating shaman healer hitching a ride aboard her starship.

Nairo Bloodstone isn’t going to Earth to be a hero. He learned the hard way that when you’re a healer, doing your best for people is never enough. One miracle leads them to demand another and another. Heroes die exhausted and alone, and the galaxy continues with billions of people still clamoring for a miracle-worker to save them. No, Nairo isn’t going to Earth to be a hero. He intends to change what it means to be human.

Shattered Earth is a stand-alone novella in the Shamans & Shifters Space Opera series.

  • Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
  • Accessibility: Learn more
  • Publication date: November 20, 2017
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 80 pages