Holt Hawkins is a bounty hunter, and his current target is Mira Toombs, an infamous treasure seeker with a price on her head. It’s not long before Holt bags his prey, but their instant connection isn’t something he bargained for. Neither is the Assembly ship that crash-lands near them shortly after. Venturing inside, Holt finds a young girl who remembers nothing except her name: Zoey.
As the three make their way to the cavernous metropolis of Midnight City, they encounter young freedom fighters, mutants, otherworldly artifacts, pirates, feuding alien armies, and the amazing powers that Zoey is beginning to exhibit. Powers that suggest she, as impossible as it seems, may just be the key to stopping the Assembly once and for all.
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review:
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for providing me with a copy of this egalley to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed her are my own.
Did this book give me some Star Wars vibes? Yes, it sure did. Did it also give me some Divergent or 5th Wave vibes? Yes, that also. I love me a good dystopian/fantasy/sci-fi reading!
Also, to say I have cover envy is putting it mildly. This one is beautiful!
The plot: kids rule is basically what you get. The Assembly has turned the adults into mush; subservient to the core. But they can't reach the kids, so they get to be the ones to form the resistance! I love this idea and Mitchell did a pretty good job with the world building for me. Action scenes that kept me on the edge of my seat? Check! Conflict between characters? Check! Forming a great picture of what things looked like in my head? Check!
Then we can talk about the pacing. Did I say action packed? Every chapter has some new conflict or action that keeps you moving forward. I wanted to get to the next chapter just to see what would happen. The author commanded his pace and flew forward with it. I was never bored.
Did I connect with the characters? Yep! I loved the tension created between Holt and Mira. The good old frenemies trope. Mitchell did a good job showing each of their sides and then pulling it together to show how they truly needed each other. And the secondary characters, Zoey and Max, add to the motley crew. Mitchell fleshes out dynamic, interesting, and unique characters that grab your empathy.
Something I liked was the lack of romance. So many YA books now have to have romance and have it effect the characters and their relationships. While there was a hint of it in this book, it was not the primary premise so you really got to read the story and enjoy that more.
Overall, this one was fun and I'd recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed the books and movies I mentioned above.
J. Barton Mitchell is a creator and writer of speculative fiction, and the author of the science fiction YA novel series CONQUERED EARTH (published by St. Martin’s Press), and THE RAZOR (published by Tor Books). He has sold screenplays to Warner Bros. and 21st Century Fox, and created the comic book series POE for ‘Boom! Studios’. His novel VALLEY OF FIRES, was awarded best science fiction novel of 2014 by the RT Book Review.
Or at least that’s what someone wants you to think…
The truth is, J. Barton Mitchell doesn’t exist. He’s a shadow persona created by another shadow persona dreamed up by an even more shadowy persona. Who is he really, you ask? A super villain named Dr. Sinister? The world’s most daring thief, desperately trying to save the world from a hidden alien menace only he can see? A master assassin trained by an ancient crime syndicate in Myanmar? We’ll never know. All we can know is that you take your life in your hands every time you look at this site. And that’s why you keep coming back…
Just one more page, you tell yourself. Just one more blog entry. And each click of that little wireless, bluetooth mouse of yours (that’s right, he even knows what kind of input device you use) is more exhilarating than the last.
Yeah. Now you see his master plan. Now he’s got you…
J. Barton Mitchell lives and writes somewhere between Austin, TX and Taos, NM. Or…does he?
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