Synopsis
Rohan has been building alliances and solidifying his abilities, all to keep his friends, his family, his homeworld, and the Empire safe from anything that threatens them, from anywhere in the universe, whether from inside the sector or from a distant galaxy.
He thought he was doing a pretty good job.
He thought he had accounted for everything the real world had to offer.
He thought he had a pretty solid handle on what he needed to worry about.
He was wrong.
Because not every threat is real.
Review
“She shook her head. “Hyperion said your people have a saying. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.”
Any book that makes me cry is an automatic five star, and this book made me cry both with its last chapter and epilogue. Just like the main character Rohan’s powers, Joe’s writing prowess keeps leveling up. The ending particularly leaves us in such a place that I cannot wait for the mouthwatering clash that is set up for Book 9. It seems to be the culmination of plot threads that began in Book 4 and I cannot wait.
Coming to this book, once again Joe does everything right. It carries over all of the merits from the previous books and keeps adding to it. The Hybrid Helix series will always deliver in terms of fun, action, and just like the fast and furious movies – focuses on a loyal, found family. I loved that Ang (the space bear) plays a major part in this one. And somehow Joe’s flow keeps getting better with each book – every time I picked up this book I knocked off at least a 100 pages.
Since I’ve committed to not talking much about the plot to avoid spoilers, I’ll simply say that somebody kidnaps one of Rohan’s friends in this book and they go to a place where Rohan cannot follow. I’ll pivot to talking about Rohan’s character arc though. It is incredible and brilliant the way Joe keeps feeding us Rohan’s growth with each book. The balance he has struck with how much of it he shows us overtly and how much of it he shows us covertly is perfect. I mentioned I cried two times earlier – one was because of a plot point but the other is because it was a moment of growth for Rohan. I keep learning so much about myself as I read more books and as I’ve said before character work remains the top most part of a sff book for me. With Rohan’s character arc, Joe has built an emotional connection for me with his series and it is all the more memorable and meaningful for it. Rohan is just so real to me.
If you’ve not yet tried this series yet, do pick up Book 1 (Wistful Ascending) and experience why I feel so deeply about Rohan. I can promise you two things – this series is a lot of fun, and Joe is also taking the readers somewhere special.
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