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A review by aimeesbookishlife
Nyxia by Scott Reintgen
3.0
This book was recommended to me by Emer, one of the mods in the GR book group I am part of (A Book Nirvana). As soon as I heard that it had aliens, space travel, teenagers fighting each other in a contest, I was sold. I've seen this book referred to as 'The Hunger Games in space', and I'm often sceptical when I hear books described as 'X crossed with Y' or 'the new Z' but actually that is a really good description of Nyxia.
It's not the kind of sci-fi book to take too seriously - the titular nyxia is a strange substance from another planet which is used as a convenient handwave for any new technology the author doesn't really want to explain. How can the ship travel so quickly? Nyxia. How can the recruits communicate despite having different languages? Nyxia. How can the recruits fight each other realistically without causing any harm? Nyxian oil. But I really didn't care because I was having so much fun with the story that I was happy to believe it.
And I really liked Emmett. He was really compelling (the whole plucky underdog thing always gets me) and I was rooting for him from the start. I loved his character arc and his complicated relationships with the other recruits, who were both his friends and his competitors.
The ending is a real cliffhanger so I can't wait until the release of the second book.
It's not the kind of sci-fi book to take too seriously - the titular nyxia is a strange substance from another planet which is used as a convenient handwave for any new technology the author doesn't really want to explain. How can the ship travel so quickly? Nyxia. How can the recruits communicate despite having different languages? Nyxia. How can the recruits fight each other realistically without causing any harm? Nyxian oil. But I really didn't care because I was having so much fun with the story that I was happy to believe it.
And I really liked Emmett. He was really compelling (the whole plucky underdog thing always gets me) and I was rooting for him from the start. I loved his character arc and his complicated relationships with the other recruits, who were both his friends and his competitors.
The ending is a real cliffhanger so I can't wait until the release of the second book.