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A review by capturedinwords
Zenith by Lindsay Cummings, Sasha Alsberg
4.0
My Video Review: https://youtu.be/CIvmRCrPtTA
Sasha Alsberg was one of the first Booktubers I watched and therefore one that inspired me to make my own channel. Abookutopia then led me to Lindsay's videos which I also love, however I have not read anything by Lindsay yet (well besides Zenith that is). I would just like to point out that although I like their videos, I am still going to keep this an honest review.
Zenith (the first book in the androma Saga) has quite a bit of promise as is, but it is important to remember that this is only 62 pages. I did not feel like I really became attached to any character or been able to become familiar with this universe in such a short time frame. I still am very excited to see where this goes however.
The story stars Androma Racella, also known as the Bloody Baroness or Andi. She is the captain of a glass starship called The Marauder. Androma and her crew of three other female space pirates all have individual personality and traits that help them stick out from each other. For instance Lira, Andi's second in command, is a blue skinned, hairless, humanoid race called the Adhiran. She fights with her whole body in a way almost like an acrobat and to be honest is just out right brutal. I like her. They all have back stories which are lightly touched on but I'm sure will be brought into full light in the continuing parts.
It begins when Androma awakens from a recurring nightmare she has every night of the first person she ever killed. As she awakes she finds that The Marauder is being followed by two other starships. It is later revealed that a bounty hunter from her past is under orders to track her down. After an awesome action scene Androma is taken to the one who gave the orders to the bounty hunter. This man then forces her into a mission that can start an all out war in the galaxy of Mirabel.
I did not spoil anything because all of that is in the synopsis. But that is pretty much all that happens in this book, it just ends with Andi receiving the mission. Just wanted you to make sure so that you don't go into this expecting a whole lot; once again it's only 62 pages.
I feel like because Sasha is a YouTuber, people have been extra nit-picky with the writing. I've seen the main character be compared to Celaena from the Throne of Glass series, but really, Celaena was not the first badass heroine to wield dual blades. There has been many in fiction, so I do not feel like Zenith had any direct rip offs of any other characters. I enjoyed the writing for the most part, however I did feel like for a book that was so short it could have been cleaned and polished up just a bit more. There was a lot of world building just being dropped in, and at times this seemed like a bit much. The ebook does come with a pretty snazzy map of the Mirabel galaxy that I appreciated, but in 62 pages I never felt the need to go and look at the map whenever a planet was mentioned. This world building does give me hope that the series is going to be pretty big though, and that gets me excited.
There was also a word choice that just got on my nerves. I mean it's one word so it really wasn't a huge deal, but enough for me to mention. For some reason Sasha and Lindsay chose to replace the F bomb with 'Fike'. I completely understand not wanting to put swearing in your novel, but fike just sounds too close to the original and just ended up sounding overall silly. I mean they are in a made up galaxy, so any word could have been used.
I'm not entirely sure why Zenith is being split into parts, I know there is probably some explanation behind it, but I just don't feel like it's a good idea. This part almost felt like a single chapter, and was enough of a taste to get me interested but still just feels like a preview. At first I thought it's cool how it's being released in parts because it feels like I'm reading a comic book. But the thing is, by the time part two is out I am most likely not going to remember all the details to part one and will have to reread it, which is a pain. So I'm hoping part two will either be much longer, or they will just go and release the full book.
Zenith has already reached NYT #1 Bestseller, and I am so proud of Lindsay and Sasha for achieving such a great title! I feel like this book is going to become a very epic series and can't wait for more instalments. Also the idea of space pirates has always been something I've loved and have written about before. The YA section does not have many Sci-Fi series and I'm hoping Zenith will start a change in that.
Next part, please!
Sasha Alsberg was one of the first Booktubers I watched and therefore one that inspired me to make my own channel. Abookutopia then led me to Lindsay's videos which I also love, however I have not read anything by Lindsay yet (well besides Zenith that is). I would just like to point out that although I like their videos, I am still going to keep this an honest review.
Zenith (the first book in the androma Saga) has quite a bit of promise as is, but it is important to remember that this is only 62 pages. I did not feel like I really became attached to any character or been able to become familiar with this universe in such a short time frame. I still am very excited to see where this goes however.
The story stars Androma Racella, also known as the Bloody Baroness or Andi. She is the captain of a glass starship called The Marauder. Androma and her crew of three other female space pirates all have individual personality and traits that help them stick out from each other. For instance Lira, Andi's second in command, is a blue skinned, hairless, humanoid race called the Adhiran. She fights with her whole body in a way almost like an acrobat and to be honest is just out right brutal. I like her. They all have back stories which are lightly touched on but I'm sure will be brought into full light in the continuing parts.
It begins when Androma awakens from a recurring nightmare she has every night of the first person she ever killed. As she awakes she finds that The Marauder is being followed by two other starships. It is later revealed that a bounty hunter from her past is under orders to track her down. After an awesome action scene Androma is taken to the one who gave the orders to the bounty hunter. This man then forces her into a mission that can start an all out war in the galaxy of Mirabel.
I did not spoil anything because all of that is in the synopsis. But that is pretty much all that happens in this book, it just ends with Andi receiving the mission. Just wanted you to make sure so that you don't go into this expecting a whole lot; once again it's only 62 pages.
I feel like because Sasha is a YouTuber, people have been extra nit-picky with the writing. I've seen the main character be compared to Celaena from the Throne of Glass series, but really, Celaena was not the first badass heroine to wield dual blades. There has been many in fiction, so I do not feel like Zenith had any direct rip offs of any other characters. I enjoyed the writing for the most part, however I did feel like for a book that was so short it could have been cleaned and polished up just a bit more. There was a lot of world building just being dropped in, and at times this seemed like a bit much. The ebook does come with a pretty snazzy map of the Mirabel galaxy that I appreciated, but in 62 pages I never felt the need to go and look at the map whenever a planet was mentioned. This world building does give me hope that the series is going to be pretty big though, and that gets me excited.
There was also a word choice that just got on my nerves. I mean it's one word so it really wasn't a huge deal, but enough for me to mention. For some reason Sasha and Lindsay chose to replace the F bomb with 'Fike'. I completely understand not wanting to put swearing in your novel, but fike just sounds too close to the original and just ended up sounding overall silly. I mean they are in a made up galaxy, so any word could have been used.
I'm not entirely sure why Zenith is being split into parts, I know there is probably some explanation behind it, but I just don't feel like it's a good idea. This part almost felt like a single chapter, and was enough of a taste to get me interested but still just feels like a preview. At first I thought it's cool how it's being released in parts because it feels like I'm reading a comic book. But the thing is, by the time part two is out I am most likely not going to remember all the details to part one and will have to reread it, which is a pain. So I'm hoping part two will either be much longer, or they will just go and release the full book.
Zenith has already reached NYT #1 Bestseller, and I am so proud of Lindsay and Sasha for achieving such a great title! I feel like this book is going to become a very epic series and can't wait for more instalments. Also the idea of space pirates has always been something I've loved and have written about before. The YA section does not have many Sci-Fi series and I'm hoping Zenith will start a change in that.
Next part, please!