Conceptually this was an interesting read. The author has stated that he was inspired by The Guardians of the Galaxy and I can definitely the “comic book” influence. The story was relatively straight forward, if rather silly and simple at times; the characters tended to be caricatures and fairly shallow with little to no development over the course of the story. The plot had no real surprises here, and for a fun, casual read, that is all okay. I was actually super impressed that the author was able to portray an ongoing, stable relationship (aka the love birds) when most seem to see relationships as an easy source of conflict/drama. I also found the indirect reference to Atlantis fascinating. There are other interesting ideas that the author introduces along the way; however, I felt he missed as often as he hit my interest. For example … cyborgs are kool … combining letters into unpronounceable sequences to illustrate how alien something is not so much (I hate this with a passion as it drastically slows down my reading speed OR prompts me to increase my scan speed). Likewise, the author throughs in a veritable soup of tech terms that seem to highlight his complete lack of understanding of what those terms actually mean (so not much research on this apparently). For example … he talks about questioning the heterodoxy when by definition, such a statement is an oxymoron. Compile is an action or process … it is not a techie language. Finally … I was not interested in the Vsenk POV at all; but then I can only manage a handful of POV changes before getting irritated, so YMMV. Oh .,. and while I absolutely love happily ever after endings ... this one seemed to ignore the idea that while the big bad was neutralized, there was another less powerful cousin still out there that is basically the same threat to good everywhere ... and this was compeletely ignored at the end. Despite all of that, it was a relatively light and fun read.

I was given this free advanced reader's copy ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. #annihilationaria #NetGalley ( )

I received this book via Netgalley.

There's something awesome about seeing a book grow up. I first read Annihilation Aria as an early draft several years ago. It was a great read even at that early stage and now it's all shiny and published.

This is pure popcorn scifi--a rollicking good time, with a fast-paced plot and relatable characters, including a bad guy who isn't so bad after all. You have a black man from Earth married to a fierce warrior woman from a decimated planet, their grumpy spaceship pilot, plus archaeology adventures in some loaded-with-traps alien ruins and an evil empire with a super weapon and, and... there's a lot going on here, and it's just so much fun. This is the perfect read to escape from the modern world and everything awful going on. ( )