Review: Polaris by Mindee Arnett

Title: Polaris (Avalon #2)
Author: Mindee Arnett
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Source: Balzer + Bray via Edelweiss
Goodreads

Jeth Seagrave and his crew of mercenaries are pulled into one last high-stakes mission in this breathtaking sequel to Mindee Arnett’s fascinating and fast-paced sci-fi thriller Avalon.

Jeth Seagrave and his crew are on the run. The ITA, still holding Jeth’s mother in a remote research lab, is now intent on acquiring the metatech secrets Jeth’s sister Cora carries inside her DNA, and Jeth is desperate to find the resources he needs to rescue his mother and start a new life outside the Confederation. But the ITA is just as desperate, and Jeth soon finds himself pursued by a mysterious figure hell-bent on capturing him and his crew—dead or alive.

With nowhere to run and only one play left, Jeth enters into a bargain with the last person he ever thought he’d see again: Daxton Price, the galaxy’s newest and most fearsome crime lord. Dax promises to help Jeth, but his help will only come at a price—a price that could mean sacrificing everything Jeth has fought for until now.

The conclusion to the story Mindee Arnett began in her acclaimed novel Avalon, Polaris is a dangerous journey into the spaces between power and corruption, life and death, the parts of ourselves we leave behind, and the parts we struggle to hold on to.

Review by Nara

Seriously, I still have no idea what these covers are supposed to be, but they're still freaking pretty. It just looks so...so...shiny. I don't know what the covers look like in person, since I read both of them as ebooks, but my god, I want to know. They're probably better in physical form.

I really love the characters in this book. They're fantastically well developed and the camaraderie between the main crew is fabulous. Jeth in particular goes through a lot of changes in the series, especially with his relationship with Sierra. Mostly they're good changes, though, in terms of making you understand his character better and liking him more in general. On the other hand, I feel like the main villain was really very generic. His motives for the things he does aren't particularly original, and there is a bit of the feeling that he's evil for the sake of being evil.

Polaris had so many twists and turns! There's certainly no lack of action in this series, and I feel like the pacing is one of the most solid aspects of the book. There's always some mystery to be solved, or some mission to be completed, and you're never bored- on the contrary, it's difficult to stop turning the pages.

To be honest, I feel like the book did tie most of the loose ends in the series, but I also feel like it could have benefited from an epilogue or something. The characters are left in a place where I'm satisfied enough with what I got, but I would have been happier if I had gotten even more, if that makes sense. It was a very solid conclusion to the series though, and I'm glad it's a duology rather than a trilogy- a trilogy would have dragged things out too much.

All in all, really, all this book is telling me at the moment is that I really need to get onto watching Firefly.

Really liked it

Ratings
Overall: 8/10
Plot: 4/5
Romance: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
World Building: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Cover: 5/5