Book Review: The Stars Now Unclaimed Book Review

Title: The Stars Now Unclaimed

Author: Drew Williams

Series: The Universe After #1

Genre: Science Fiction

Publisher: Tor

Pub Date: August 21, 2018

Pages: 448

My Copy: ARC that I got at Book Expo

Book Summary:

Jane Kamali is an agent for the Justified. Her mission: to recruit children with miraculous gifts in the hope that they might prevent the Pulse from once again sending countless worlds back to the dark ages.

Hot on her trail is the Pax--a collection of fascist zealots who believe they are the rightful rulers of the galaxy and who remain untouched by the Pulse.

Now Jane, a handful of comrades from her past, and a telekinetic girl called Esa must fight their way through a galaxy full of dangerous conflicts, remnants of ancient technology, and other hidden dangers.

Book Review:

Definitely a book that takes  you on an adventure. This book starts off with someone having a goal and yet that goal takes on a new dimension and takes turns into something else. Jane is definitely a character who is very goal driven and usually accomplishes the goal. Plus she does have to deal with the Pax also trying to reach that goal and if the Pax succeeds, it’s not good. 

The Pax are a very bad alien race that have come about because they have taken advantage of the repercussions of the Pulse. The Pulse was something that happened, it sent out a signal that basically made most planets technology obsolete and rendered them to be helpless. So this allowed the Pax to become powerful and take advantage of the universe during a time. 

When this novel begins she is trying to find a girl who the Pax wants as well. Her mission is to get this girl who has abilities that the Pax would use to enslave other worlds. She needs this girl and finds the girl in a weird situation. The girls name is Esa. Esa is a telekinetic. Meaning she uses her mind to do things that might seem weird and frightening to others. So she can be useful to both sides, but things get even weirder as the Pax put up a fight to get this kid. Also Jane has a ship that has an attitude to boot. Schaz for short is the name of her ship and it helps her get out of the situation. Schaz is very sarcastic and provides some much needed comic relief.

One of the things that I liked with all the main characters of this book was character development. All the characters grew tremendously as situations became more intense and we learned about past sins and actions. Not to mention Esa becomes a lot more determined and becomes smarter. Plus we learn that the Pax have something much bigger in mind. They are actually are planning on launching an all out assault on Sanctum. Sanctum is a place that a few people in the universe know where the location is, because it is a place where people with abilities like Esa can develop their gifts into something useful without having to fear that the Pax will use them.

Yet we learn that Jane has to warn the heads of Sanctum fast so they can prepare a defense after learning information from someone in her past. There are a lot of battles and things you don’t expect people to do. Plus everyone decides to fight because no one wants the Pax to win. If Sanctum loses, the whole universe will be lost and there will not be anybody able to stop the Pax. 

Tons of twists and turns. Plus there is some romance in a way that you don’t expect at all. I like the little bit of romance that we got with Jane and Javier, a former boyfriend who she hasn’t seen in a while. Thought it was nice to see a more human side of her. This was nice to have in the book as it reminds me you of what these people are fighting for. I really thought this was good.

Totally action packed during the last part of this book. I liked how crazy and unpredictable everything was. It was like those big space battle scenes that you see on certain tv shows like Battlestar Galatica or other space dramas like Star Trek shows. I found this terrific and the way it ended was great and unexpected how the underdogs won by conveying unconventional tactics. Not to mention that the characters got their happy endings in a weird unexpected way.

Rating:

4.5 Hearts