I loved the first one, and I missed the characters and the world. But it is also true that, as soon as I started reading, I remembered why I had waited so long: gosh, this book is so intense!!! And I am saying it in the best possible way because it’s gripping, it’s engaging and it hurts so much! Argh!

In this second volume, C steals the scene! I loved him! He is the sweetest puppy ever! Also, I wonder how Caiden managed to train him so well! I mean, Ade has learned the basic commands because they bring him treats, and he loves treats! But that’s all… he doesn’t really care about all the rest (and I get him, really I get him but still… I wonder!). And Azura. To be honest, both C and Azura steal the scene! And I am there for them both!! And the second-best thing in there, after C and Azura, are the villains. Threi and Abriss are the villains in this story, but… but they are not your usual villains. And you are kept guessing for all the book, again like in the first one, if they really are the bad guys. I mean, they are the ones that our dear MCs fight, and for sure they are not the heroes in the shiny armor but… they are complex, complicated and so layered! And their action gave a lot of food for thought! I loved this thing immensely!

And the characters in general are pretty amazing! Caiden has grown a lot in the years passed between the two books, and his life has not been easy. But he has matured and he is ready to let go of the weight of the whole world, finally! He has matured, but he is still death set on doing what he thinks is the right thing. I was really happy to see him become the young man he was growing into in the first book, and I loved his relationship with C and Azura (and how cool Azura is??? You just need to read this series for these two!!). And then we have Leta. Oh gosh, I hated her so much! But to be honest with you all, she is another amazingly well-developed character. And she is great, too. But she caused so much hurt to Caiden! And he is my poor baby! The author is just so cruel to him! And so… yeah, I hated her. Because she hurts Caiden (I can’t really say a lot, because I don’t want to spoiler anything, and she is not bad, really, it is more for what their shared past is than for something that she does. Mind me, she is no angel and she knows that she will cause hurt, even if she has the best intention at heart… but you know what they say about good intentions, and what’s more is that good and bad in this book are pretty jumbled up so… she has some excuses, and maybe it’s not so nice of me, to hate her. But hate her I did!).
I also loved the Proxies and all their found family vibes. They were cute, in some distorted way, and I really enjoyed spending time with them.
My only complain is that we get to see the old crew but… not enough!!! I need more of them, please!!!

And last but not least, the worldbuilding. It is a gem. We have an amazing Universe, rich and diverse, and it is so fascinating! And there is so much amazing tech!! I loved it, and I wanted to spend as much time as possible in there! And the book is not a short one, so I had a lot of time with it all but… do you know what? It wasn’t enough!!! At all!
So yeah, I loved all of this book: the characters, the plot and the world! You can’t ask for more! But there is more. The prose is beautiful, too!! It is a real complete reading experience, and even if it is an intense book, and some parts hurt a lot, I loved it from the start to the end!

Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group UK for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This was originally supposed to be a temporary DNF, but it's been around six months since I last picked this up. I fairly enjoyed Nophek Gloss because it had an interesting premise and a fantastic world but I'm calling it quits with this one. While I was enjoying this more, I do not vibe with Hansen's writing style - it feels quite impenetrable for me and very slow-moving, though this could be due to the fact that I don't typically read hard SF. I also like the characters, but I don't feel emotionally connected to them which makes me lose interest in their story after reading for a little while. Hansen is certainly a commendable writer who has many interesting stories and ideas, so I would definitely be open to reading another book of theirs if it interests me!

I was so-so with NOPHEK GLOSS, the first book in the series. Something about it didn't excite me, but I wanted it to - neurodiverse books are so rare, particularly written by ND authors. So I decided to give the second book a try.

But I just couldn't click with this book either - and I found the first book even harder to read through on a second time around. I suspect it's mostly a matter of writing style - that ephemeral, impossible to pin down quality - and not connecting with Caiden (and thus struggling to invest in the plot.)

It just felt like Caiden was repeating the same mistakes again and again and again across the first two books. I could understand that in the first book - he's been traumatised and has gone through acceleration and a memory jog of the horrors that had side effects. But in the second book? He's ten years older and he's been through all this before - the lies and false promises ending in disaster - but he falls for it all again. It just felt like he hadn't grown up at all since the first book, despite ten years on the run. And I just couldn't bring myself to care about a character who felt like he was repeating the same events and bad decisions.

I did, however, like the fact we got a second POV in this book. Leta, the friend he thought was dead but has always had a prick of guilt that he didn't save her. The biggest hook of this book was trying to work out if she was real and not a clone or something, and which side she'd ultimately end up on. It was nice to get another perspective, see events beyond just Caiden's bad mistakes. But it wasn't ultimately enough to keep me engaged.

Please note Azura Ghost is the second book in an ongoing series. If you’ve not read Nophek Gloss then what follows will likely contain some spoilery type detail. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya!

Caiden has been on the run for ten years with his unique starship in order to keep his adversary, Threi, imprisoned. But when an old friend he’d once thought dead reappears, he is lured into a game of cat and mouse with the one person whose powers rival Threi’s: Threi’s sister Abriss.

Now with both siblings on the hunt for Caiden and his ship, Caiden must rescue his long-lost friend from their clutches and uncover the source of both his ship’s power and his own origins in order to stop Abriss’s plan to collapse the multiverse.

Back in 2020, I read Essa Hansen’s debut novel, Nophek Gloss. It was thoroughly entertaining stuff. The sequel has just been released and the good news is it’s also well worth your time.

Character-wise, I was unsurprised that Endirion Day and C* remain firm favourites. There is, undeniably, a lot going on with the main protagonist Caiden, but I would quite happily read an entire novel following Endirion Day’s adventures. You gotta love a sassy intergalactic gender-fluid rogue who has a habit of getting into all manner of scrapes. I tend to view Endirion as a character living from moment to moment. There is a sense of genuine unpredictability that is always an absolute joy to encounter. You know whatever they do next it is going to keep you riveted to the page.

Hassen’s complex universe building is fascinating stuff. There are many layers of ideas to unpick and enjoy, so much scope for the impossible to become possible. The myriad races are endless. I love the hustle and bustle of the spaceports and the epic, silent grandeur of deep space.

So, what have we learned from Azura Ghost? Firstly, messing with the multiverse is bad. I cannot stress strongly enough how bad. Just trust me, it’s bad. If you are planning on taking control of everything, even if you have the best of intentions, entire planets are going to suffer. Mastering existence is a tricksome business. Secondly, if you have the power to mess with the multiverse then inevitably you will try to mess with the multiverse. It’s just too much of a temptation. Ask yourself, if you could change the shape of reality and bring all different possibilities together into one perfect version of themselves, would you be able to resist?

One of the things I like most about this novel is the way it explores the motivations of the two antagonists, Threi and Abriss. They both exist in a morally dubious grey area. Each is entirely self-assured and utterly convinced that their conflicting plan is the best course of action for the multiverse. It’s interesting watching Caiden’s opinion being swayed by what appears to be two quite compelling arguments. I’ll be honest, if I were in the same position, I’m not sure what choice would convince me more.

Overall, Azura Ghost is a classic slice of mind-bending science fiction. Yes, there is action a plenty but also a thoughtful consideration of other topics like the nature of power and the meaning of family. If you like your science fiction with brains as well as brawn, then this is the series of books for you.

Azura Ghost is published by Orbit and is available now. Book three of The Graven trilogy, Ethera Grave, is set to follow next year.

My musical recommendation to accompany Azura Ghost is the soundtrack to the first season of Raised by Wolves by Marc Streitenfeld and Ben Frost. The music has that same otherworldly tone that Hansen’s narrative perfectly captures. I’d say they are an ideal pairing. You know the drill – read one while listening to the other to enhance your enjoyment of both.

*I wish I could properly articulate how much I love C. If I was wandering the spaceways of the multiverse there would be no better companion to have. You can easily tell by some of the interactions between Caiden and C that the author is most definitely a cat lover. I am also in thrall to our feline overlords, so this pleased me immensely.

Nophek Gloss was my favourite read of 2020, surprising me with its trippy ‘bubbleverse’ sci-fi setting made all the more vivid by Hansen’s uniquely sensorial prose; she had me feeling, smelling and tasting (someone get me some fresh ramia immediately) as I read. Since then, I’ve been particularly impatient to get my hands on a copy of Azura Ghost. And to cut to the chase, it did not disappoint.

There’s an experience unique to reading a book you’re really into: you’re completely engrossed in the story and tearing through the pages, but then you reach those critical final chapters and the climax completely blows your mind and you NEED to talk to someone about it. Well, I had that experience in the first 20% of Azura Ghost. And then again at around 30%. It’s a wildly unpredictable story, not due to misdirection or surprise plot twists, but due to Hansen’s willingness to put characters in difficult positions. That, and her fantastic imagination.

If you’ve already read book one, you can look forward to discovering the secrets of the Azura, the enigmatic Graven, and the multiverse itself. Metaphysical and spiritual ideas introduced in Nophek Gloss are explored in more detail and are central to the plot. While Azura Ghost is set 10 years after the first book’s conclusion, all the key characters are back (plus more than a few new faces), and we learn more about their pasts, particularly the origins of Threi and Abriss’ fraught relationship. Nophek Gloss focuses heavily on Caiden, but the story is told from multiple points of view in Azura Ghost.

If you haven’t yet started this series, you can expect a fantastic sci-fi adventure with the vibrant diversity of character and setting that has earned it frequent comparisons to Mass Effect.

There’s something refreshing about Hansen’s character writing that I’m still trying to find the right words to describe. Her characters aren’t necessarily flawed but fallible, and she encourages the reader to see them as such, allowing them to be shaped by their mistakes rather than require redemption because of them. More than once, Caiden needs a rap on the head for things he thinks or does, but that’s what makes him so relatable and his relationships with others feel so genuine.

And if you want to talk morally grey characters, the Cetre siblings are where it’s at. Threi is definitely one of my favourite recent ‘villains’, and I think I’ll still be unsure about those inverted commas even after book three.

The Graven is one of my favourite series and an exciting addition to the diverse sci-fi being published in recent years. For an immersive read in a unique setting, I highly recommend it. If you’re interested in learning more about the author, check out my interview with her here!

Many to the publisher for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!

Trigger warnings: c-PTSD, anxiety, references to child abuse

"Azura Ghost" follows on from "Nophek Gloss" in "The Graven" series. As with book 1, this was an enjoyable read for me. The writing is very good and the story continues to be interesting. There's a lot of action to be found here (which is great!), but I wish we could have gone a little bit deeper into the characters' minds. Bring on book 3!

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

Fantastic installment in this mindbending, genre pushing Scifi series. So much more than just a space opera, Azura Ghost is a treat for the senses and the intellect alike.

I didn't realise that this was the second book in a series and found it initially hard to get to grips with what quickly became obvious was an on going story. To be fair there is a glossary which gives much background information but I didn't find this until I got to the end of the book! It would have been helpful to have been guided to it from the beginning or else included the information in a 'what has gone before' section

I did not like the basic concept of multiple universes as they are here portrayed, I am not enough of a cosmologist to say whether or not he many worlds theory has any validity but from what I understand, even if it is correct there is no way in which one would be able to travel from one to another, so my suspension of disbelief was rather strained when Caiden did just that. I strained even more when he trvelled in the boundary layer between universes and finally gave up the ghost when a planet was introduced of which half was in one universe and half in another. It seems to me that the author introduced a variety of concepts and characters ie people with transparent flesh and jewelled bones, jut for effect with no thought for the science behind them. It's a shame as there is a good story buried there somewhere.

Despite its long history there is still plenty of new and interesting space opera emerging. Series like Arkady Martine’s Telixcalaan books, Megan O’Keefe’s Protectorate series and Linden Lewis’ First Sister trilogy. Into that mix last year came Essa Hansen’s debut Nophek Gloss, which at least took the prize for weirdest title. That book used a range of space opera standards – multi-species empires, lost civilisations, eldritch powers, genetic modifications – but added in a few twists including manipulation of the multiverse. She now returns to that world in the high energy sequel Azura Ghost.
Nophek Gloss introduced readers to genetically modified supersoldier Caiden and his found family alien crew. The book ended with Caiden on the run with a nophek pup and on his unqiue ship the Azura. The epilogue for that book jumped ten years into the future and Azura Ghost picks up at that point. Caiden has been on the run from the forces of Threi, once his ally now an enemy who he has trapped in a pocket universe. And would stay on the run except that he learns that his adopted sister Leta may still be alive and in the hands of Threi’s sister and leader Unity Arbiss. Arbiss wants Caiden and his ship and uses Leta successfully as bait. Caiden is forced to fall back on his old connections as he tries to thwart Arbiss’s plans and all hell breaks loose.
Hansen’s scenario lends itself to high energy action sequences. Many of the characters have artificial bodies or are alien or in some other way enhanced so can take plenty of punishment allowing for lengthy chase and battle scenes. There is the capacity to create and jump between multiple different universes in which the laws of physics differ slightly. And in amongst all the sturm and drang are the questions of family and loyalty. Caiden struggles with knowing whether his companions support him because the has the power to coerce them or because he really is part of their found family. Arbiss and Threi have very different visions for the future but also have a shared history as brother and sister. And Leta has a deep connection to Caiden but now has her own “found family”. Unfortunately much of the emotional action of this book gets buried under the big set pieces making it hard to really connect with any of the characters, Caiden in particular.
Azura Ghost is a worthy follow up to Nophek Gloss. Hansen deeply understands her weird multiverse and is able to render her vision in a compelling way. Readers who loved the characters and concepts of that first book will be delighted to get more and bigger. But while the action is epic, Hansen is not quite able to capture some of the deeper emotional and character beats that make some of the other recent space operas so compelling. She is definitely though a science fiction author to watch.

Azura Ghost is the sequel to Nophek Gloss, Essa Hansen's sprawling space opera full of heartbreak, tension and adventure. The stakes are raised in this book as Caiden has been on his own for the past decade keeping his spaceship, the Azura, away from the clutches of the Dynast Empire but he discovers his old friend Leta may be alive after all and is thrust right back into the heart of the conflict and politics of the galaxy.

In this installment we follow the POV of both Caiden and Leta and I really enjoyed this extra dimesion to the story, as both have very interesting characterisations and conflicting loyalties. Through Leta we explore more about the Empress of the Unity, Abriss and her set of proxy machines which are very interesting and we see how Leta is torn between her past and her current "family" and the Empress who has saved her life.

I think I probably should have re-read book 1 before diving into this one, as I forgot how complex it is and was a little bit confused at first however I soon got into it and remembered all the important plot points and world building. I did think the writing can occasionally be over convoluted but most of the time I really enjoy the prose, it's quite reminiscent of Becky Chambers (whom I love) and the heart-warming found family moments also remind me of her books as well!! I was a bit worried that in the sequel we wouldn't get to see some of the crew from book 1, as I loved the whole dynamic of the group but rest assured we get lots of wholesome moments (as well as some devastating ones lol).

This book is very interesting in that there are two main "villains" and you are never quite sure which one is worse than the other. I thought towards the end of the book Threi (one of the bad guys) got a lot more interesting and I may have even started to like him T_T I love villains who are simps for their love interests haha.

I loved Caiden's arc in this book and how much he has grown and matured since book 1. In book one he was pretty angry and revenge obsessed but now he is a lot wiser and willing to stand up for what he believes in and his new family which makes him a lot more likeable to read from! I also love the side charcaters (especially En and Ksine) they are well characterised and feel like their own people and not just there to prop up the characters.

Overall I would really reccomend this series and the sequel doesn't disappoint - it strikes the perfect balance between interesting speculative sci-fi concepts, reflections on the nature of humanity, dark themes with some lighter moments and great characters.

thanks to the publisher for providing me with the digital arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

i did not realize this was the sequel to a first book but i still enjoyed the journey nonetheless! i'm looking forward to reading the first one because i am still confused and blotchy-minded on many details. the writing was great and the sci-fi elements were really interesting to read too!