[I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and HarperTeen in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]
Summary
After the Twenty-Five Year War, Emperor Atar Faroshi unified the quadrant. All of the prime families came together in peace. While the Emperor has never had children, he has also never named a successor. And now he is dying.
Captain Alyssa Farshot of the Vagabond Quest is an explorer. In fact, she just received accolades from the Explorer’s Society. Hungover from the celebration, she wakes to a communication from her Uncle Charlie, the envoy to the Emperor, also known as “Uncle Atar” to Alyssa.
Atar cannot name Alyssa Empress – even if she wanted the job, which she absolutely does NOT. Instead he names her crownchaser for the Faroshi family.
There hasn’t been a crownchase in hundreds of years. When there is one, a royal seal is hidden somewhere in the empire. Each of the prime families chooses a crownchaser to hunt it down. Whoever finds the seal and returns with it will be crowned.
While a religious zealot Alyssa trusts about as far as she can throw him holds the throne, six crownchasers, childhood friends and rivals, begin their quest to explore a 1,000-planet area, solve puzzles, meet challenges, and find the seal in order to become the new leader of the quadrant.
Review
Outstanding. Stunning. Perfect. Magical.
This could well be my top book of 2020. I loved every moment with this book. I would start reading it again right now if I didn’t have 70 ARCs waiting for my attention.
This is a science fiction story, which is the first mark in its favor. I love sci-fi. There are interesting planets, space battles, aliens, and futuristic technology. It was awesome!
The characters are another mark in the book’s favor. I loved Alyssa. The early chapters of this have a Polaris Rising feel to them. (Another mark in the book’s favor.) The biggest difference is that while Ada (Polaris Rising) is all about masking her emotions and controlling her responses, Alyssa is more what-you-see-is-what-you-get. She’s just as smart and strong and skilled. But she’s more irreverent and impulsive than Ada. I love both characters.
Then there’s the stellar (pardon the pun) plot. It felt familiar, but I never could place what this reminds me of. There’s a reluctant royals piece – something I love and read often. Then there’s a competition. It’s not meant to be a last-one-standing deal like The Hunger Games, but the stakes are high. There’s also the fact that Alyssa doesn’t want to win. She competes out of obligation. She’s more focused on the process than the end goal. She wants a good outcome for the future of the quadrant. She cares about how people are doing and about fixing the problems she can. But she isn’t a win-at-all-costs sort of person. She mostly just wants to get back to her life.
The ending is excellent! I wanted book 2 in my hands immediately, but since the book just released two days ago, that is not going to happen for awhile. I had to settle for having my own print copy, which I ordered immediately after finishing this.
Science fiction fans, YA fans, reluctant royal fans, and competition story fans should snatch up a copy and clear their schedules for a few days (or a few hours) to dive into this one. I could go on and on about how much I adored this book! (Language, LGBTQ+, science fiction violence – blasters, space battles, etc.)
Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥+++*
*♥♥♥♥♥+++ = Best of the best