Another book for the dnf pile. Unfortunately, this story wasn't working out for me. I am not a huge fan of established relationships that began before the book started. And though I do like sci-fi and there are parts of this that are very good ... I wasn't really drawn into this as I was hoping. This book is cut from a similar cloth as the star trek and firefly TV series. Parts of this book are imaginative and well written. But for me, my biggest qualms with this story are the character inconsistencies and dialogue. Zander is a billed as one big, powerful killing machine ... and yet he also tended to "blush" and experience the urge to hug strangers? Yeah, no. Felix's witty banter had a grating effect on me and affected his likeability. I also felt that the tension and angst between the MCs was slightly forced and did not necessarily compute well with me. I've read a few too many books recently that I've had to muscle through and disappointedly decided to dnf this at around 50%. I had high hopes for this series but the writing style is just not my cup of tea ...

3.5 rounded up. RTC

This sci-fi reads more like a military story than a science fiction one. But it is set in space in some unknown future time so it falls into the sci-fi category. It has just enough romance in it that I almost called it a sci-fi romance. However, it has so much more than that.

The main characters, as well as the secondary characters, are well developed and we get to know them. We see their lives in both past and present and become engaged with their struggles. It's an emotionally compelling story.

If I have any complaint at all, it would be that I'd prefer the action scenes to be more descriptive. But other than that, I am thrilled that Brew's review brought my attention to this great book. I am invested already and can't wait to read the follow-up books in this series.

4.5 Stars

I tried so hard to finish this book and I just couldn't. I felt constantly confused and couldn't keep names and situations straight. Maybe that's why it was so easy for me to set this down and not come back to it for months and even years at a time. I'm finally giving up on. Maybe someday I will come back to it and give it another shot but for right now...its just not for me.

Merged review:

I tried so hard to finish this book and I just couldn't. I felt constantly confused and couldn't keep names and situations straight. Maybe that's why it was so easy for me to set this down and not come back to it for months and even years at a time. I'm finally giving up on. Maybe someday I will come back to it and give it another shot but for right now...its just not for me.

Really enjoyed this.
Loved the sci-fi world building and the history with the wars and different alien species. Really liked Zed's character and so curious what will happen to him in future books.
There wasn't much romance in this book, but since it is book one in a series I am assuming that will come slowly over the course of the series.
Lots of good set up for the rest of the series.
I did think it was weird there would occasionally be a random chapter from Elias's POV.

“You were never supposed to see this. You were never supposed to know what I did, that I’m not human anymore, that I’m going to go insane and—” His voice caught. “I didn’t want anyone to know. I wanted to stay in the dark, alone, where I wouldn’t hurt anyone and just...disappear.”

I enjoyed this one, and thought it was a decent start to the series!

I'm on a bit of a sci-fi kick and this has been on my TBR for ages, and it more or less hit the spot. The world-building is a little weaker than I prefer, and while I enjoyed the concept and the idea of the characters, I did find them to be a little flatter than entirely ideal. Elias (one of the side characters) felt a little confusing to me. I'm also a little on the fence about the dynamic between Zed and Flick--everything seems so heavily skewed towards Zed and his problems etc. when Flick also has a lot of trauma, and something about the balance here wasn't *quite* off, but I could see it veering that way for my personal tastes.

Still, it scratched my sci-fi itch, and I'm interested enough to keep reading--knowing that there are four more books in this series following this same character is giving me some hope that some of the issues I had in this one will be smoothed out as we build on each book... or it could get worse! LOL, time will tell, but I've got the next book on my kindle. :D

This was... Good. it didn't give me the feels, but the story was good.