I read this as a buddy read and I sat down on Sunday meaning to just read the next chunk and not finish the book but uhhhhh I GOT HOOKED AND THEN PROCEEDED TO FINISH THE REST OF THE BOOK. Oops. But listen. If you’re looking for great scifi, this is IT. There is MAGIC. There are SPACESHIPS. There are creepy terrifying villains. There’s a great ragtag crew of people. There is DIVERSITY. And let me just make this point again – there’s MAGIC in SPACE. It’s like my two favorite things basically.

This book starts off as a “simple” treasure hunt – searching for a long lost ship of legend, the Harrow. Which like, who doesn’t love a treasure hunt? But the story unfolds and gets a bit more complex, and then everything comes together and I was like WHOA.

The best part for me was the scifi aspects and the magic. So the world building. At the beginning it’s a bit confusing how everything works, but as you read more it becomes clearer. I love reading about the space battles (and one-on-one battles/fights on the ground), the different kinds of ships, the technology, and the types of magic that people can have. ALSO!! There’s a part where they talk about tidal locking of a planet and can I just say!!! As an astrophysicist it was SO COOL to read about something that is actually REAL and I am so impressed that Alex White incorporated this in the story, and did it correctly! I live for these things.

The cast of characters was amazing!! I’m not like, head over heels but I do love all of them equally. We got to see the most of Nilah and Boots, and they’re both amazing. Nilah is very young and I love the contrast between her and Boots, who is in her 40s and is much more experienced. Nilah definitely grows a lot during the book, and at the beginning I found her a little annoying (which I think is natural since she’s supposed to be a bit arrogant and spoiled) but man she really grew on me! I’m hoping we get to know Cordell and Aisha and Malik etc etc etc in the later books, because they’re all very interesting. I also love their interactions, because you get to see what they’re like with a newcomer (Nilah) and someone who served on the ship previously, so knows some of them (Boots).

Yeah so all in all a NEW FAV and you all gotta read it and I need to get the sequel like right now.