A review by kappareads
Travelers by V.S. Holmes

4.0

Real rating: 3.5/5 stars or 4/5 stars, still unsure

TRAVELERS is about Nel Bently, a lesbian archaeologist who is currently on a dig in Chile, when a local gang expressed their disbelief about the dig. Nel thinks she's dealt with people like this, but she just ends up tangled in something far larger than herself.

This book was an archaeological joy, like, sci-fi and archaeology? Are you calling me out?

You can tell V.S. Holmes is an archaeologist. You can tell parts about the dig were inspired from her own work on dig-sites. There is a glossary for those who have no archaeological experience.

I enjoyed Nel a lot. She can be blunt at times and is quick to being angry, but not in an annoying way. She's also a terrible teacher and is called out on this. I found her voice unique to others I've read.

The science fiction elements come in the last quarter of the book, and kind of suddenly at that.
Spoiler Throughout the book, Nel finds weird things on the site, but the last quarter introduces Lin, the alien love interest. Holmes does have more telling than showing here in that Nel explicitly says there's something off with Lin more so than we see her being weird. Their romance was also kind of rushed, as they've known each other for maybe 3 days and they're scissoring on the roof??Although, I don't know if it was actual scissoring, the description was a bit vague and it felt like they were scissoring.

But their banter was really nice and I could kinda see where the sudden romance was coming from.


I definitely enjoyed it overall, though.

You can get the book on her website for free, so if any of this interests you, try it.