On that same note, it was entertaining watching Zara grapple with the spectrum of alien genders. The bond matures as Zara begins to explore beyond our human understanding and senses, how they are better together, and how this bond can still continue to grow. The authors really push the SF envelope by exploring what we can only imagine. It’s also refreshing to read a YA that doesn’t focus on physical attraction and our human understanding of love. They are just so fantastic together! The authors explore so many different kinds of bonds and love, and it’s amazing how they’re creating something beyond romantic. I love the growth of Zadim, the Nadim and Zara relationship. The revelations from the end of book one have shaken the characters, and Zara is faced with whole new responsibilities – and aliens. While the first book took place over a couple of months, this one is more condensed to a few days, I think about a week (ignoring moments of time that are breezed over because people are either healing or traveling). But she’s never walked away from a fight. Soon Zara will have to make a choice: stand against the ultimate evil or run from it.

However, Zara discovers that the secrets of the Sliver may have the power to turn the tide of the war they left behind-but in the wrong direction.

Zara’s skills from the Zone may be invaluable. But with two wounded Leviathan to treat, plus human and non-human refugees to help, they’ll have to settle for the nearest outpost, called the Sliver: a wild, dangerous warren of alien criminals. Now Zara and her crew of Honors need a safe haven, far from the creatures who want to annihilate them. On the run after a bloody battle in a covert war that she never expected to be fighting, Zara, her co-pilot Beatriz, and their Leviathan ship Nadim barely escaped the carnage with their lives. Zara Cole was a thief back on Earth, but she’s been recently upgraded to intergalactic fugitive.

The great library series rachel caine