Synopsis:
Sometimes the enemy of your enemy is still your enemy.
Rohan swore he’d never work for the il’Drach again, never again be called Lance Primary, never again kill or risk the lives of his friends on behalf of the Empire.
But when the safety of the sector is at risk, when inaction could lead to the death of every living thing in the galaxy, he has to work with what he has.
Even if what he has is allies he can’t trust, a mission he doesn’t understand, and the growing suspicion that things are only getting worse.
Review:
Zombie dinosaurs, giant space kraken, and a star system the defies the laws of physics… These are just a few of the things featured in Shield of the Mothership. Really, the author could have just said, “There’s a space kraken!” and I would have read this book. But there’s much more to it than that, so here we go.
Shield of the Mothership is my favorite installment of the Hybrid Helix series since Blood Reunion and Shadow of Hyperion. That’s not to say the other books in between weren’t good (they were!) but their purpose was laying some of the groundwork for what happened after. The build up was necessary, and it paid off tremendously here. There were even some things that happened based on events from even earlier books in the series, and if there’s one thing that I love as a reader, it’s when all those little threads finally come together to form something truly fantastic. And this was.
Rohan faced some new challenges in this book, but he was back to his usual banter with pretty much everyone. Most of his long-time friends were back in this book too; the Stones, Garren, Katya, Ang, and Wei Li, to mention a few. Beyond that, there were quite a few characters from earlier in the series who made appearances, and it was fun to see them return.
And, as usual, Rohan’s adventures land him in trouble. Without going into plot details, I’ll just say that this is where the zombie dinosaurs, the space kraken, and the broken star system come into play. Oh, and giant empowered mosquitoes. And flying eyeball monsters.
There is so much imagination at work in this book, and it reminded me of all the reasons why I fell in love with this series to begin with. It’s fun. There is a diverse cast of characters comprised of dozens of different species, and they all have unique quirks and interesting backstories (some are quirkier than others, like Katya, but I love her feline antics.) And when Rohan and Co aren’t off trying to save the galaxy from the latest existential crisis, they hang out, usually somewhere with incredible food and a friendly atmosphere.
There’s so much to like about this series. If you haven’t started on the Hybrid Helix yet, it begins with Wistful Ascending.
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