Synopsis
One man’s lust for power threatens the future of humanity—can a young girl from the outer system stop it all?
Imogen “Chim” Esper is thrust into the center of an interplanetary conflict when her family is torn apart by the cruel and indifferent Kardashev Corporation. Forced to run, along with her robotic best friend, Chim struggles to find her place in a society that is poised for revolutionary transformation.
The Kardashev Corporation dominates all commerce and politics in the solar system. Its megalomaniac CEO, Alton Neal, is hell-bent on transforming society by capturing the full energy output of the sun through the creation of a Dyson Swarm.
Citizens of Earth and the stations throughout the system must band together to protect access to the lifeblood of the system or risk becoming permanently enslaved to the Kardashev Corporation.
Mercury’s Shadow is a thrilling adventure that blends real science, big ideas, grand adventure and high stakes to introduce a new heroine and a deep universe that will leave readers asking for more.
Review
Mercury’s Shadow is a youthful sci-fi adventure that shows off a brilliant heroine who get’s sucked into the plans of the most powerful man in the galaxy (and not in a good way!). PJ Garcin’s YA space adventure is a book that you’ll rocket through because of it’s witty humor, interesting characters, unique scientific advancements, and a lot more! Let’s talk about some of those!
PJ’s world building was very familiar to me. By that I just mean it felt comfortable and real even though the majority of the book takes place in space! The settings are not overly explained or wildly scientific as many sci-fi books tend to be. In fact, I’d argue that the environments mostly felt robotic and simple as any corporate building might. The only exception being an almost (can I say this in a sci-fi book?) magical-esk spacestation that I’ll leave ominously right here for you to ponder more about.
When it comes to characters in Mercury’s Shadow there is a lot to love. Mostly importantly are the MC’s of the story, Chim Esper, and her sidekick robot who she has basically jailbroken so that he can do whatever she wants him to! Chim is a smart, courageous, and courageous teenage girl who I loved following her journey throughout the story. The antagonist being Alton Neal, the head of a giant corporation that mails packag.. oh wait, no.. the CEO of the Kardashev Corporation which basically creates and produces the world technology, both software and hardware, that has allowed humanity to begin colonizing the galaxy. Alton is the perfect example of what it looks like if you mixed a mad scientist and an evil overlord. Yeah. He’s that bad. As for the rest of the characters, while I enjoyed them, they tended to feel very tropy to me and I did struggle at times to really feel that they were real people and not just plot points.
As a warning, the plot of this novel is fairly predictable for a sci-fi story. What is not predictable is some of the elements that show up throughout the story. All I’ll say is that science can go many different directions. There are always multiple ways to do something! That being said, I still really enjoyed the plot and am actually really excited to get into book 2!
As always, while there are many different themes and ideas that take place in this novel there is certainly a small handful of main ones. The most glaring to me being the concept of letting big business control our allegiances and life. While we may want the ease that technology brings, this does not make said technology worth losing our rights. This is a major theme and very well done. Another theme that appeared is that just because we can do something does not mean that we should. If humanity wants to save the world we started on then we need to take care of it and not let desire for advancement let us destroy it. Finally, the last main theme I decided to write about is that every individual can make a difference in saving the world and changing it.
Mercury’s Shadow is a fun space adventure that would be a great starting place for any youth to get into the science fiction world. However, if you’re a veteran space explorer don’t let that sentence stop you! Let this be a nice break from the space epics you normally devour. I loved it and I’m excited to read book 2!
Also, a big thank you to Escapist Book Tours for allowing me to participate in this tour! It was an honor and I enjoyed every second of it!
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