Devil’s Gun

You Sexy Thing, Book 2

By: Cat Rambo

Narrated by: Vivienne Leheny

Life is hard when you’re trying to outrun a vengeful pirate king.

When the intergalactic Gate Niko Larsen and her crew plan on traveling through turns out to be out of commission, they make the most of things, creating a popup restaurant, the Second Last Chance, to serve dozens of other stranded ships.

Niko smells something suspicious when archaeologist Jezli Farren shows up claiming to be able to fix the Gate. Farren, however, may know an ancient site and a weapon that can stop Tubal Last before he can take his revenge.

In one of the most dangerous places in the Known Universe, everyone must face their ghosts: Talon attempts a desperate and highly illegal act to regain his lost twin, Atlanta must discard her old role and find a new one, Dabry confronts memories of his lost daughter, and Niko must find Petalia again, despite her promise not to.

Meanwhile, You Sexy Thing contemplates what it wants from life—which may be very different from what Niko and the rest of the crew want.

©2023 Cat Rambo (P)2023 Recorded Books

Fantastic follow up!

Loved this sequel. Great world building and so many otherworldly experiences and characters. Can’t wait to hear what happens next. The narration was spot on.

A great middle to the series

It was a worthy continuation with more character development. When is the next installment?

Better than the first book

Cat Rambo has hit her stride in this book. The characters are great, and the story moves quickly. I finished this quickly, and I eagerly await the next installment.

Finding purpose and a McGuffin

Captain’s log: it’s been 3.5 hrs listening to book 2 and nothing has happened except Atlanta, the newest member of the You Sexy Thing, keeps trying to find her place among the crew. Meanwhile, Talon, another crew member is coping with the loss of his twin. Also, Millie is figuring out if she still has a place with the crew after her betrayal. Yep, a whole lot of people reflecting upon the consequences of their actions and figuring out how to move forward.

Just like the last book, I pondered giving up as the story meandered without action, fun, or excitement.
You could listen to the opening recap of book 1, start at Chapter 13, and not miss a thing, story wise.

Chapter 13 is where, as the summary advertised, the Gate has gone down and stranding all ships.
We’re introduced to Jezli, a maybe problem solver or charlatan, and her Paladin companion Roxana. Random aliens, backstories, and world building tidbits are thrown down, only to never come up again. What exactly does a Paladin do? How does sorcery and mysticism work? If you want details, prepare to be disappointed.

For that matter, the plot-line of needing to find a weapon to defeat Tubal Last was also disappointing. Hours building up to finding the MacGuffin Devil’s Gun … only to devolve into a cliffhanger. Tubal Last appears in name only. There is a single, two minute action scene and the barest character progression.

This is not a series for meaty plots. This is not a series for reasonable plots (they surrender to an enemy ship just because the other captain threatens to tell on them?). This is a series with mildly interesting alien species and moral quandaries, delivered in a meandering way, and narrated phenomenally.