My review

A true sci-fi thriller, the book has Nadani Jagi, a freelance spacer, living in her ship, the Astromancer, who finds herself bound in a contract of transporting slaves. This one job leads her to the bigger plot where she is implanted with infobots carrying sensitive information, and everyone in space from Government officials to thugs wants her for those infobots. The book has Nadani and her personal Artificial intelligence, Adan, (he is implanted in her brain) trying to escape the various situations with strength and determination.

The story started with a bang where Nadani’s ship is attacked, and I learnt about her sharp brains and her defence moves. It was simply rocking. I love a good sci-fi thriller filled with action, and this debut by Maksim Malik, checks all the boxes.

Nadani is an interesting character, a zeus (read the book, if you want to know more), I found myself immersed in her life. She is calm, courageous, her battle moves are awesome. She is ably assisted by AI Adan (I fell more in love with Adan). Their conversations, their bond, and their mutual respect had me longing for more of their adventures.

Maksim has done a fabulous job, in creating a world filled with distant planets, space stations, spaceships which are as huge as a city. The fight between the ships, the lasers, missiles, and the shields and the speed of travel faster than light by folding points in the space time, brought out the vivid imagery in my mind. The plot is straightforward, the action scenes are enthralling, and villains (Lady Needles) are shiver-worthy.

The book is not perfect, there are niggles. More cohesiveness, a stronger prose, a backstory with a wee bit more detail, would have made this a complete read for me.

But I also add, I read the book in 3 hours, I had good fun imagining the scenes, and the latter half of the book was absolutely thrilling for me. A good sci-fi action thriller with space travel.

I received a copy from the author, and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating : 3.5 stars

About the Author

Maksim Malik lives in North Carolina and tries to write with a cat blocking the screen a good portion of the time. He suffers from a neurological disability and spends most of his time on the computer writing, gaming, and reading.

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Book blurb

Nadani Jagi is low on money and desperately needs replacement parts for her ship, Astromancer. That’s when she finds a job —against the advice of her Personal Artificial Intelligence, a sentient AI living in her own brain. The job has her purchase imperial slaves and transport them to a station where they will be bought by the station owner for a much higher price.

She is not happy about trading slaves herself, but she sets out with a cargohold full of slaves in cryostasis for the sake of her ship. Little does she know this contract will lead to her involvement in a galactic affair dealing with lost government secrets in the form of special information nanobots.

With the help of a Joined Union Systems agent, Nadani and her PAI are put to the test on their race across the galaxy to secure the nanobots and the information they contain.

Product Details

Publication date : 15th April, 2018

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