L.J. Cohen - Derelict / Ithaka Rising / ...

Review.

The Halcyone Space series now contains 4, no wait, 5 books. I noticed them earlier, but didn't pay much attention to them.

What actually triggered me was the cover and the title of book 3: Dreadnought and Shuttle. I can't say why, it just... spoke to me.

YA

The first two books I've read thus far. (Well, listened to audio-books, to be honest.) These are clearly Young Adult. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Cheap

... as there's nothing wrong with the price of book 1 either... Derelict sells for 99 cents on Amazon, buy the eBook and the audiobook at the same time, and you'll get the audiobook for euro 2.95. (Interesting, it's often cheaper to buy eBook and audiobook at the same time, then buy the audiobook separately.)

Book number 2 Ithaka Rising is euro 4.45, add the audiobook for 2.95. That's affordable!

The later books 3, 4 and 5 don't have an audiobook counterpart (yet), so I have been holding out on them for now. I just might pick up a paper or Kindle copy though, one of these days...


Suspension of disbelief

Of course, I can think of a few reasons why it would be unlikely for a lone female hacker to receive a derelict but warp jump capable (and thus dangerous) star ship as a reward, but let's not go there.

Once you've shuttered your sense of disbelief it actually becomes a fun read. There's (of course) the required amount of teen angst and family relations (what YA book could do without) but the characters are alive and all have their own voice.

The second book requires a little more suspension of disbelief, as a complete rebel community relies on the honesty of a bunch of teens. Evil governments are, well, evil, so there's little reason for an evil government to use evil means to get at the truth. Drugs, torture, bribes, whatever.

I haven't read / listened to books 3 and 4 yet. I do like the title of book 3 (and still don't know why). I might pick them up some day, whenever I run out of other stuff to read or listen to 😏

Titles

1. Derelict
2. Ithaka Rising
3. Dreadnought and Shuttle
4. Parallax
5. A Star in the Void

Verdict

Derelict and Ithaka are decent YA novels. The audiobook versions are great as well.

Dapper 167 / Telltales! 100