And to me it seems as though she conjures exotic sentient species by combining random letters. The book hurtles through the plot so fast, with so many action scenes, that there is little character development. There is little narrative flow and no time to consider the implications of various plot turns because Valdes piles one thing after another. The plot can be generously described as ODTAA: one damn thing after another. The end result is an absorbing novel that is worth re-reading.In Chilling Effect, however, Valerie Valdes's new book, it's as though she took the elements of space opera and flung them at a wall. In addition, the crew members of the principal ship all develop distinct personalities. In that novel, the author summons up a range of civilizations and creatures and then spends time on each, building a believable universe.
An instructive comparison would be The Long Journey to a Small Angry Planet. Chilling Effect has that and more, yet I didn't particularly like the book. Fleets of ships, large evil forces at work, derring-do, galaxy hopping and strange artifacts. But when the dominoes start to fall and she finds the real threat is greater than she imagined, she must decide whether to play it cool or burn it all down. To free her sister, Eva will risk everything: her crew, her ship, and the life she’s built on the ashes of her past misdeeds. The worse things get, the more she lies, raising suspicions and testing her loyalty to her found family. The ship’s hold is full of psychic cats, an amorous fish-faced emperor wants her dead after she rejects his advances, and her sweet engineer is giving her a pesky case of feelings. When her sister Mari is kidnapped by The Fridge, a shadowy syndicate that holds people hostage in cryostasis, Eva must undergo a series of unpleasant, dangerous missions to pay the ransom.īut Eva may lose her mind before she can raise the money. “Jam-packed with weird aliens, mysterious artifacts, and lovable characters. a tremendous good time and an impressive debut.” - Kirkus Reviews (starred)Ī hilarious, offbeat debut space opera that skewers everything from pop culture to video games and features an irresistible foul-mouthed captain and her motley crew, strange life forms, exciting twists, and a galaxy full of fun and adventure.Ĭaptain Eva Innocente and the crew of La Sirena Negra cruise the galaxy delivering small cargo for even smaller profits.
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