Zenith by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings

When I heard about this book, I thought it would be really interesting. I’ve been trying to read more books that take place in space because I’ve started really liking space adventures. When I went to borrow this book from the library, I was really confused to find out there were only 60 pages. Then someone told me that this was an excerpt that was released before the book and that the actual story was about 500 pages. I decided to try an audiobook format for this novel because of its length so some of my comments may pertain to the audiobook reading and may differ from those who just read the physical book or ebook. But enough blabbing, here are my thoughts:

Summary (Goodreads): Most know Androma Racella as the Bloody Baroness, a powerful mercenary whose reign of terror stretches across the Mirabel Galaxy. To those aboard her glass starship, Marauder, however, she’s just Andi, their friend and fearless leader.

But when a routine mission goes awry, the Marauder’s all-girl crew is tested as they find themselves in a treacherous situation and at the mercy of a sadistic bounty hunter from Andi’s past.

Meanwhile, across the galaxy, a ruthless ruler waits in the shadows of the planet Xen Ptera, biding her time to exact revenge for the destruction of her people. The pieces of her deadly plan are about to fall into place, unleashing a plot that will tear Mirabel in two.

Andi and her crew embark on a dangerous, soul-testing journey that could restore order to their shipor just as easily start a war that will devour worlds. As the Marauder hurtles toward the unknown, and Mirabel hangs in the balance, the only certainty is that in a galaxy run on lies and illusion, no one can be trusted.

Review: Alright, well, I’ll be honest here: I did not like this book at all. The authors promised a lot … but I didn’t feel like they delivered. There was just so much that didn’t work with this book!

First of all, THE SUMMARY IS A LIE. Why do I say that? Because it paints a prettier picture of this book than it deserves.

First of all, the story is not at all about a badass group of females. It’s about Androma and her love story. The other girls on the Marauder are barely given a thought. In a story that has tons of different perspectives, only one of the girls is given her time in the spotlight – and her POV literally added nothing to the story. I never got a good sense of the other characters, never witnessed this close connection between them that apparently existed. It was definitely disappointing.

The story is also not that interesting. The entire premise is that Androma and her crew are supposed to rescue someone on behalf of a man who hates Androma and she must work with her enemy/former lover. This whole mission occurs by Chapter 36. The rest of the story is just flashbacks and dithering around as Androma and her lover/enemy work things out.

Did I mention that there are a TON of POVs? Because there are. A TON. And they just make for the most confusing thing in the world. I’m glad that in the audiobook version, they had multiple narrators to try and help keep all of the different perspectives separate but it was still extremely difficult. And again, I had feelings of complete apathy towards all of the characters and POVs. I just didn’t care about any of them.

I also had a problem with Androma’s character. She sucked. She was boring and whiny and not a “bloody baroness” at all. Her persona doesn’t make sense to me at all. She is supposed to relish killing and fighting. And yet, she spends most of her time mourning over the people she kills. She also is supposed to be fierce about her crew … but she obsesses more about her romantic interest. Her character was just not what I was hoping to get.

In the end, this novel just had too many negative factors to it. The plot was boring, the cast of characters had no depth, and the story fell into too many familiar tropes … but the tropes weren’t carried out well enough to justify that. I’m going to have to give this book a 1/5 star rating.

Happy reading ~

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