I rate this 4 stars. I plan to review this book at a later date. I also plan to read the next book in the series, even though I don't yet know the title.

Cormak and his crew have to prove that they deserve their place at the Academy. But there are more plots in play than they are prepared for.

I received a free copy fro Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. Despite being a big fan of watching The 100, this is the first book from Kass Morgan that I've read.

The story follows the four trainees that make up Squadron 20, in the Quatra Fleet Academy.
These young men and women are the best of the best from Tri and the surrounding planets.
Cormak - who steals his dead brother's identity to escape a dead-end life on Deva.
Vesper - the daughter of the Fleet Admiral, on her last chance to prove her worth.
Arran - a lad from Chetire who struggles trusting people.
Orelia - an intelligent young woman from "Chetire". (psst. spy)

The narration is split equally between these four main characters. At first, Cormak was my favourite, as he deals with taking on his brother Rex's identity, and the lengths he has to go to not get caught.
As the story went on, I loved everyone's part equally! They all have their issues, and their reasons for doing well.
Vesper has the most unsupportive mother, who doesn't have a scrap of maternal instinct, despite the fact that Vesper is working herself to the bone to gain her acceptance. It's interesting to see Vesper with her friends and boyfriend, who are all from Tri, and consider themselves first-class citizens. As the book goes on, Vesper starts to take pride in herself, forming her own opinions and goals, and refusing to go along with belittling the other classes.
Arran is just so sweet, you just want to wrap him up and protect him. He's quiet and very withdrawn, not trusting anyone easily after being traumatised when he was younger. I thought he and Dash were an adorable couple.
And Orelia... she is fascinating. She has trained all her life for this role, and can't afford to be distracted. She's practically a machine, but slowly becomes more human around her new friends - a luxury she's never experienced before.

The main plot is follows the challenges of the Academy, as the winning Squadron is the only one guaranteed to progress to the second year.
There's a competitive spirit amongst the students, but there's also tension, as it becomes clear that there is a lot of political conflict running under the surface. After generation of being on top, not all people from Tri are going to let the dystopian, lower-class citizens get ahead.
There's also the bigger threat, looming in the shadows of the Specters. An aggressive race who have been terrorising the Quatra planets. It was excellently played, with enough grey area to make you wonder what the truth really is.

If I haven't mentioned already, I really really enjoyed this book, and I can't wait to start the next one - especially after that ending!

I really enjoyed this book! It's a young adult adventure about a group of youngsters training to join the, well the space military. Chapters are from varying viewpoints of the four main characters, which is done well and is a fun way to get to know them, though it was slightly confusing at the very beginning. They are all interesting characters with their own issues, some of them have big secrets to keep, and there's a fine cast of supporting characters, with a few potential love interests among them. I particularly enjoyed the teasing banter between 'Rex' and Vesper, and the unexpected friendship between Orelia and Aaron.
The plot and story were exciting enough to keep me eagerly reading, although in hindsight it seemed a bit repetitive- battle, party, battle, party - but I enjoyed it as it was unfurling. As I was reading, I forgot it was by Kass Morgan, but now I've remembered, it has a similar feel to the 100 series and it's likely that if, like me, you've enjoyed those books, you'd likely enjoy this too.
Lastly, I assume there will be a sequel coming as a) I really want to read it and b) the ending was very abrupt. It definitely leaves you wanting to read the next to find out what happens, but felt perhaps a little like this one doesn't have a proper ending of its own.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and am grateful to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review it.

I really enjoyed this book. The general set-up is not new: a group of young people from different backgrounds put together in an academy, all competing to graduate with full honours. Unlikely friendships are made, there are nasty colleagues, bigotry, some danger, ethical dilemmas and romantic up and downs. Despite all this, our heroes should pull through in the end.
What does set it apart, though, are the well-developed main characters with their backstories, and the moral ambiguities.
The stage is space. The school is Quatra Fleet Academy training up new officers and pilots for the Quatra Fleet in its ongoing war against the aggressive Specters. The Quatra planets are Tri (original and ruling planet), Deva (toxic mining planet), Chetire (frozen mining planet) and Loos (tropical planet). For the first year ever, the new cadets at the Academy are being drawn from all four planets, instead of just from Tri. The story focusses on the cadets forming Squadron 20: Cormack from Deva, Arran from Chetire, Orelia from Loos and Vesper from Tri. The first three are amazed that they have been selected, and are determined to make their families (alive and dead), and planets, proud of their achievements as the first of their ilk at the Academy. Vesper, and another Tridian, Dash, are under enormous pressure from their very influential parents to conform, succeed and uphold their parents’ reputations. For the Edgers, those from Deva, Chetire and Loos, the Academy is the only chance they will have to escape the extreme poverty and poisonous, shortened lives of their home planet. They are discriminated against, and almost no Tridian believes they have the intelligence or skill set to succeed. There is only one rational response – the Edgers must be better than the best. Squadron 20 must become the top student squadron. To do this, each must put aside any prejudices or doubts, and work together as a team.
Both Cormack and Orelia are hiding secrets. If Cormack’s are discovered he will be thrown out of the Academy, and into jail. The exposure of Orelia’s secret will sign her death warrant. Will their new-found friends be able to cope with the truth if Cormack and/or Orelia decode to come clean?
Each of the four find romance at the Academy. The reader will have no difficulty guessing who the love interests will be. But, just because there is no surprise, does not mean that the relationships are trivial. For each couple, it involves the breaking of social taboos, that could lead to ostracism – or worse.
As well as the debate on whom one should love, the story also asks whom you should hate. The cadets are being trained for war. A war in which both sides believe they were victims of vicious, unprovoked attacks. Only one character is in a position to look beyond the propaganda – and to judge each person on their own, innate merits, rather than their prescribed affiliations. When the war comes unexpectedly close, that character has a major ethical decision to make.
When I finished this book, I felt somewhat bereft. These were not characters to be left in the lurch. I had become really invested in their stories and futures. I need the next book in this series, but for now will have to settle for recommending this book unreservedly.

I loved the concept of this book but I struggled to get invested in the execution of the characters and the story. The idea of a diverse set of space cadets from different planets and places, training to become pilots and other roles is a great concept. However, this felt overly character-driven when I needed more context about the world, the planets, the ‘space-stuff’.

I really struggled to get into this book and kept setting it down but I can say that after 40% it did pick up for me significantly and then I was able to settle into the story. I think I might have comparion-syndrome having read some excellent YA sci-fi only recently and maybe it would have been more rosy if I hadn’t been reading in the genre.

As it was quite a character-driven book, I did feel that I really got to know this cast of crew rather well and they were well-crafted. Cormack was my favourite and I was happiest when he was on the scene, I love a good underdog and that’s just what he was.

I am interested to see where this goes.

I voluntarily read an early copy of this book.

Light Years is a story about 4 characters, all from different planets, that are thrown together as a squadron at the Quatra Fleet Academy. Each cadet has their own story and reason for being at the academy but they must work together if they want to win the tournament and guarantee their future.

Vesper is a Tridian and daughter of the admiral of the Quatra Fleet. A role that comes with high expectations, Vesper is desperate to be a squadron captain. When she is unexpectedly beaten to the captain role, she has to accept the role of pilot, but can she do enough to secure her position at the academy and impress her mother?

Cormak is from the planet of Deva. Dirt poor and struggling to survive, he finds a message from his recently deceased brother insisting he takes his place at the academy. With no opportunities for people like him to make it off Deva, Cormak decides to take the risk and when he secures the position of squadron captain above Vesper, he’s willing to do anything to secure his future at the academy.

Arran is from Chetire. He’s studied and worked hard all his life to join the academy. When he scored the highest score ever on the entrance exam, he thought his dreams were coming true but when he meets Dash, a rich Tridian cadet, can he remain focused enough to stay at the academy?

Orelia is a Spector and an enemy of Tridian. On a mission to discover the location of the academy, she must pose as a cadet to get the information her people need to be able to attack the Quatra Fleet. But as she gets closer to her team mates can she go through with her mission?

This was a fantastic fantasy read, that was well written and contains characters that are well developed and engaging. The world building is strong and imaginative. This was a quick read, that I found really enjoyable.

I’m looking forward to reading the next in the series to see what happens next especially after that cliffhanger ending!

Solid 4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Light Years will be available from the 9th October 2018.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher (Hodder & Stoughton) for providing a copy. All opinions are my own and provided willingly.

An easy read. I flew through it. I liked the characters and the plot was easy to follow. I would read more of this series to see what happens. The reason I have given this book three starts is that even though this book is YA I expected more depth to it.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Set in the far future, Light Years follows four young recruits to the Quatra Fleet Academy. Humanity is fighting a war with an alien species, and so, needing all the help they can get, admission to the Academy has been opened up to all planets the humanity inhabits, rather than just the main one. Humanity being humanity, not everybody is happy about this.

I really enjoyed this book!

I've read most of Morgan's other series (though I haven't finished it yet, oops) so I already knew that the writing style would be easy to get into and understand. She definitely did not disappoint in that area, this book is a very easy read. However, at no point is the reader talked down to or treated like an idiot. I really appreciate that.

I have a weakness for stories about a group of people, who may or may not have things in common, who are thrust together and forced to work as a team, and who end uo becoming a tight-knit group who care about each other, possibly more than they care about whatever their orignial goal was. This is one of those stories. Watching these characters going from teeth-clenched teamwork to being close enough friends to chat casually with one another, and occasionally save each other's lives, was an absolute joy to read.

One thing that might bother some readers was that I found this fairly predicatable. I saw major plot events coming from a mile off. However, this isn't something that bothers me at all. Stories can be predictable and still good. One of my favourite things of all time has a ridiculously predictable aspect to it, but I don't care and still love it. It wouldn't be reasonable for me to get annoyed with something else over predictability when that's the case. Also, just because I found something predictable doesn't mean that other people will. My brain just doesn't know when to shut up.

While there is discrimination in this novel, in fact that's a large focus, absolutely none of it is homophobic in nature. Arran and Dash's relationship is extremely adorable, and is treated like any other relationship by both the narrative and other characters. One character even calls them boyfriends before they actually get together, which I think was a lovely touch. If you enjoy sweet romances then you can read this novel for them alone.

This is the first in a series, and as such it ends on a cliffhanger. I knew this was coming, this is a Morgan novel, but I would like to have the next book in my hand right now immediately, thank you very much.

I really struggled a lot with rating this one. On one hand, we had bland writing and minimal world-building. But on the other, we had a plotline which ended up being surprisingly gripping.

The planets of Deva and Chetire are poisonous hellholes, where only the poorest – known as Settlers – live. Meanwhile, Tri is where the real cream of society live, and only Tridians have been permitted into the elite Quatra Fleet Academy – until now. The first crop of non-Tridians is arriving to be trained in battle against mysterious enemies known as Spectres.

Cormak has been told his whole life that he’s a good-for-nothing criminal. His older brother Rex was the only one who believed in him – but Rex is gone, having died in a mining accident just days before he was scheduled to be one of the first non-Tridian cadets accepted at the Academy. Cormak knows that if his planet Deva’s poisonous atmosphere doesn’t kill him, a run-in with the law during his water smuggling will. So he fulfils Rex’s last request and takes his place at the Academy.

Arran‘s life hasn’t been much more pleasant than Cormak’s. Also not one of the aristocratic Tridians, he’s from the planet of Chetire instead. Although he’s desperately lonely, he knows too well what it’s like to face the contempt of your peers. So he can’t believe it when he ends up falling for Dash, who’s not merely a Tridian but also the son of one of the foremost anti-Settler politicians.

Vesper is a Tridian, and not just any – her mother is the director of the entire Academy. Which just makes everything doubly hard for her, because she knows she has to prove herself as a gifted cadet to win her mother’s love. Admiral Haze had to pull a bunch of strings just to get her daughter into the Academy in the first place, so things aren’t off to a great start. But Vesper is determined to make her mother proud.

Orelia isn’t a Tridian, but she isn’t a Settler either… she’s a Spectre, who’s infiltrated the Academy on a mission to supply information – such as the Academy’s secret coordinates – back home. But as her classmates become more human to her, she struggles with her task. One of her instructors in particular is coming to mean rather a lot to her.

Light Years is told in third-person POV from these four characters. Up until around 40% in, their mental voices blurred together and it was very difficult to see them as distinct people. The fact that Morgan is light on description doesn’t help. I have no idea what most of them look like (except that Cormak is handsome because nearly every girl in the Academy wants to get with him) and this kind of blandness made it hard to visualise the story sometimes.

The worldbuilding is also not great. There’s absolutely zero information on Spectres – and yes, while it’s said that’s because the Tridians themselves know nothing about Spectres, I didn’t expect the dearth of information to remain in Orelia’s POV. She’s an actual Spectre herself! So why didn’t Morgan let us learn more about them through her?We also have no idea why Orelia, out of all people, was chosen to be the spy, or how she got in, or in fact anything. I’m hoping that this will be rectified in the sequel. But even the history of Settlers and things like that were kept a lot briefer than I’d have liked. It felt like we’d go ages without any information and then suddenly get an infodump.

I also felt seriously cheated when it came to Vesper’s character. For the whole book, Morgan sets her out as driven, determined and strong-willed; how quickly she forgives Cormak for his betrayal was simply not in keeping with that, and I’m very disappointed.

With that said, however, I tore through this book.

Yeah, I’m still not sure why either. But once the characters had resolved themselves into individual people for me, I enjoyed it a lot more. The storyline was pretty interesting; it’s essentially these four trying to navigate their first-year cadet trials, while facing their own issues. For Cormak, it’s his stress over impersonating Rex; Arran struggles with his relationship with Dax; Vesper is involved in a similar struggle with her mother, and meanwhile Orelia was sent there to kill them all.

I’m told that Morgan is also the author of The 100, which is now a super-popular TV show. I’m totally clueless on that, but I can say that Light Years doesn’t suffer from the problem Mirage had of not even feeling like it was set in space. In fact, this book reminded me very strongly of Maura Milan’s Ignite the Stars.

I will be reading the sequel, particularly after the way this one ended, but I hope we get a lot more information next time.

Light Years is perfect for fans of YA science fiction - especially if you enjoyed Kass Morgan's first series, The 100. This novel is just as fast-paced and exciting with engaging characters you'll wish you knew. The world-building is strong. The romance is a nice addition. If you're looking for a new addictive science fiction series, you've found your next favorite book!

This was a really addictive read and I enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting to.

This novel is set in the Quatra fleet Academy which, due to the impeding danger of attack from the Spectres, are opening their doors to all planets within the Quatra Federation. However, not everyone is happy with this arrangement. In order to stay at the academy the cadets must prove their worth by partaking in weekly stimulation tournaments and at the end of the year the winning team will immediately be accepted into year 2.

This is a multiply POV novel that has four main characters who are all put together to create Squadron 20.

Cormack – Who is from the planet of Deva and is taking his dead brother’s place in the academy as this is his last change to get away from his life on Deva. He is the Captain of the Squadron.

Vesper – Who is from Tridian and is the daughter of the esteemed Admiral Haze and is therefore under a lot of pressure to live up to her mother’s reputation especially when she is granted the position of pilot instead of captain.

Arran – Who is from Chetire and took entry exams to the academy in order to avoid a life working in the mines of Chetire. He also achieved the highest score on the exam for his planet.

Orelia – Who is a spectre spy who has been tasked with a mission to help bring down the Quatra fleet.

I really enjoyed reading of all of these POVs but Arran was definitely my favourite. I also enjoyed the romance in this as we have a m/m romance and the enemies to lovers trope is going strong.

I absolutely adore novels with school settings and this one does not disappoint. I have never read a sci-fi book with a school setting before but I’m all for it and am looking forward to seeing more of it in the next book.

Overall, this was a really enjoyable read and I’m looking forward to how the story progresses in the next novel. I gave it four out of five stars.

When I first picked up Light Years by Kass Morgan I wasn't sure whether I would even enjoy it. But I was quickly addicted to the story and now I'm desperately waiting for the next one. It is an excellent book and a gripping story.

5 Words: TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK.

Ahem.

Actual 5 Words: Friendship, secrets, prejudice, subterfuge, space.

This book was absolutely excellent.

I'm not sure what I was expecting when I came into Light Years, I just knew that I was in the mood for a space book and this one was at hand, as it came in May's Illumicrate box. Now, I'm usually not a fan of space books. My sci-fi love leans toward dystopia. But oh my. This book.

My favourite characters were Vesper and Orelia. Vesper because of how steadfast she was and how she wanted to challenge the prejudices of her society. Orelia because of her conflicted feelings and changing beliefs. That's not to say that I didn't like the other characters - this book is something of an outlier in that I actually really liked all of the different narratives and characters.

While it is not the most action packed space adventure, but the action does definitely pack a punch. I'm so glad that the story wasn't bogged down by training montages. Light Years is a boarding school book (one of my favourite things) with a difference. Rather than being about the school itself the story is driven by the characters and their relationships, and I loved it.

That being said, there is one relationship that left me feeling a little squiffy. The characters had such amazing chemistry together, and even knowing the secret of one character that made it kind of a little OK, I felt it was still a huge barrier that they were crossing. The power imbalance just makes it the wrong side of acceptable for me. It reminded me of Sonea and Akkarin in the Black Magicia' Trilogy, which is another pairing with amazing chemistry that just doesn't sit right. I have Feelings, OK?

Light years is packed with toxic relationships, poisonous parents, friendships, power struggles, changing societal dynamics. It has everything I love in a book and it has all come together wonderfully.

This book feels rather incidentally diverse, and I absolutely loved that. None of it felt forced, it was all incredibly believable.

After the ending of Light Years I am desperate for the next book. It's a definite cliff hanger!

This latest offering from Kass Morgan, of The 100 fame, is bound to fly off the shelves of any YA collection where sci-fi is popular. Fans waiting for the next in the series would do well to check out IGNITE THE STARS and the forthcoming THE DISASTERS.

This book is multiple POV, and Kass Morgan has managed to perform a feat I didn't think was humanly possible, and create four unique characters - none of whom I didn't enjoy reading. Seriously. That never happens. Every single one of these characters is interesting, is relatable in their own way, has challenges to overcome and strengths they can rely on. I've read a huge number of multiple POV books and there is always one character that you adore and there is always one that makes the chapters they are narrating feel like a chore. Not so in this case. 

I have to echo the words of another blogger,  in saying that this is essentially a high school drama set in space. You could easily supplant these characters into a more 'normal' setting and the plot would work in much the same way. However, the fact that they are in space makes everything that much cooler. It's a story about finding friends and working together, which is always something I love, but it's set in space so I love it even more! Maybe I'm a sucker, maybe I'll love anything if you slap space on it (I'm still waiting for Space Dragons), but it works!

There was, predictably, a lot of romance in this story, I think the high school-esque nature kind of necessitates it almost? What I did enjoy was that not all of the romances were straight romances and that it wasn't just a case of everyone in the group coupling up (this isn't Glee in space...although). You get the feeling that these are relationships that can and will build and change as these books go on, it isn't insta-love per say but it's the start of relationships amongst young adults. It felt very real, and that's what made them fun to read as opposed to annoying. 

Of course one can't get away from the fact that this is a white author writing what is essentially a narrative about the integration of schools. Yes, it is space, but the theme is still there. Of course, I can't speak to how well she handles that topic and I will be on the lookout for reviews from people of colour and I urge you to do the same. 

All in all, I was incredibly impressed by this book. It isn't long, so it's a nice quick read and would be perfect for those looking for something fast-paced and exciting. I also think it would be a good transition book for anyone who is used to reading contemporary. 

My rating: 4/5 stars

Light Years comes out on the 9th of October so there is time to preorder if you fancy!

I received a free digital advanced review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I did not succumb to the phenomenon of The 100 event with the TV show, but I wanted to find out what the author could do outside of this saga.

For the universe, I think we are in something very classical for the genre, a group of planets has been colonized by humans, the mother planet is very rich and the others live in poverty especially since their resources are exhausted. This planetary system is in conflict with another planet and an armada of ships allows it to defend itself. To control these ships, it takes humans, and the future members of the armada must go through the fleet school. The story happens in this school, again a context a little classical, I had read this year 2-3 novels with the same starting point. However, I do not associate classic with bad things especially when it is well done and here it is rather the case.

The book is going to follow 4 characters, Vesper who lives on the richest planet and who is a privileged one, Cormack comes from a toxic planet, the fleet will allow him to get out of it, Arran also comes from a tough planet and finally Orelia is an enemy, since she comes from the planet in conflict with the planetary system belonging to the fleet. I really liked these 4 characters, I found them very complementary and well built. Their multiple points of view allow the reader to have a global vision on the universe, present inequalities and denounce several things. It's nice to have characters as well built as them, because for once I do not have a preference and I've enjoyed them all.

For the plot of the book, I think the novel is not going to surprise you a lot, the book takes many codes and we quickly guess the outline of the story. However, I still found the story entertaining, I know that I remain good public in view of the number of books I read every year, but I think that if you want a novel very original novel this book is not for you otherwise you will appreciate it like me.

That was really good. I enjoy anything that has to do with school or/and Academy so this was right up my alley 😊 Plus it was in space! ⭐️ Does it get better than that? I loved the characters and I easily connected with them. I loved Cormak 💕 and Orelia! And that ending left me staring at the page! 😬 I need book no.2 now! 😩

While this was easy to read and it went by fairly quickly, I still struggled to get through this. It's not that the story was bad, I was just never fully invested in any of the characters to want to pick this up to continue reading.
There was one character in particular who would have made this book a lot more exciting (for me, at least), but instead I feel that a lot of the 'airtime' was given to the other characters and their high school dramas.

The action and one particular characters' story did pick up more towards the end of the book (like, the last 12%), but overall it felt rushed and anti-climatic. The cliffhanger at the end makes me believe that the next book will be slightly better in terms of excitement, but I don't think I'll be continuing with the series because I'm not attached to any of the characters.

There have been some tremendous flops in YA sci-fi of late but happily Light Years isn’t one. I found it fast paced with engaging characters who were well developed and an interesting premise. I liked the military academy setting. I am curious as to why the wars are happening – that was a bit thin unfortunately. I enjoyed the shifting 4 person POV structure. This was a lot of fun and I’m keen to read the next book.

Light Years is the story of the first class at the Quatran Fleet Academy to accept people from all four planets in their system, rather than just the elite planet Tri. We follow four students in this class, who end up in the same crew, competing against other crews to win the #1 spot in the end-of-year grading. There’s a political undercurrent that all the students have to deal with, since many people are not happy about the admittance of the newcomers, and there’s a fair amount of regular school drama, with academic pressure, friendships, and romances proving testing. It’s like Ender’s Game meets Riverdale.

The world(s)-building here is well-sketched, with some clever things to say about racism and colonialism, but it’s never heavily dumped. There are four planets in the Quatran system: Tri, who have put themselves in charge of all the others, and Chetire, Loos, and Deva, which are less well-developed, and are regarded with varying degrees of pity and disgust. The integration of the new students into the school leads to a lot of tension, which is expressed both subtly (students mostly choosing to hang out with their planet-mates) and overtly (bullying, racist graffiti, rumours of special treatment). As well as these tensions within the school, there is also the problem of the Specters, an alien race from another planet, who attacked the Quatran solar system recently and could attack again imminently.

I’m not usually a huge fan of multi-POV narration, since I often find that either A) the voices are too similar and I can’t tell who’s talking, or B) one plotline is significantly more interesting than another. However, I found all four narrator characters to be distinct and well-written, so that was a nice surprise. We have Vesper, a Tri girl, the daughter of an admiral, who has an enormous amount of pressure on her to do well, both from herself and her mum. Then there’s Arran, an awkward genius from Chetire, one of the outsider planets, whose main plot revolves around his romance with Dash, the son of a bigoted Tri commander; Cormak, a smart but disadvantaged guy from Deva, who secretly takes his brother’s place in the Fleet after his brother’s death; and Orelia, who claims to be from Loos, but is actually a spy from the Specters…

All four have compelling plotlines as they struggle with the demands of the academy as well as their own secrets, and they all interact with each other throughout, so you never find that isolation of plotlines (as, for example, with Game of Thrones). I actually liked all of them for different reasons, though I think my favourites were Vesper and Orelia. Vesper because she’s the classic overachiever, and Orelia because her mindset was so very different from the others (I loved the details like her confusion about the abundance of food, or her reluctance to decorate).

This is not a drastically original book, beyond the world-building. The romances are all predictable, as is the overall plot (which largely follows the model of Ender’s Game, in terms of spaceship training being simulations, followed by a final real-world test). If you took the space part away, and had the characters competing at an academy for sport or art or whatever, this could easily be reworked into a YA contemporary. But you know what? It was extremely good fun! A nice easy read, with engaging characters and a pacy plot. It’s very clearly set up for a sequel, which I’m looking forward to. If you’re in the mood for a space high-school story, you should enjoy this a lot. Four out of five stars!

Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for providing me with a copy for review.

This novel, from the author of The 100, is fairly short but is full of action and adventure with all the exciting aspects of a good science fiction novel. The main characters, Vesper, Cormak, Arran, and Orelia, are all cadets at the Quatra Fleet Academy competing together to prove their worth so that they may be allowed to continue their training and protect their people. They each have their own motives and drives, but each is fiercely strong and capable of great things.

It was well-written and I loved the switching perspectives so that you got to see each character in a lot of detail. The main characters, as well as many of the side characters, are brilliantly written individuals and I found myself loving each one of them and their different personalities and storylines. The inclusion of LGBT+ characters, including a main character, as well as a character with a disability was also great and one of the many things that I loved about this novel.

I wish there has been a little more world-building early in the novel, especially about the dynamics of the different places in this world, but overall it was a great introduction to the series and I hope we get to learn even more later in the series. I can't wait to read the next book and see what happens next, especially after that cliffhanger.