One Giant Leap

By: Heather Kaczynski

Narrated by: Soneela Nankani

Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Leap into the unknown with the second audiobook in Heather Kaczynski’s heart-pounding duology, which is perfect for fans of The 5th Wave.

When Cassandra Gupta was chosen to be the youngest member of a top-secret mission to the far reaches of the universe, she knew to expect the unexpected. But nothing could have prepared her for the catastrophic events that would occur once she left Earth.

Cassie and the rest of the crew have found themselves in the middle of a conflict between two alien civilizations hell-bent on destroying each other...and anyone else who gets in their way.

What was supposed to be a reconnaissance mission soon becomes a fight for their lives. But Cassie knows it isn’t enough to simply survive.

The war is coming to Earth, and only she has the information that can possibly stop the devastation it will bring. With humanity’s fate in the balance, Cassie must decide who she can trust and who she's willing to sacrifice in order to complete her mission.

©2018 Heather Kaczynski (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

If you liked book 1, you'll like book 2

I appreciate Heather giving her characters a mild case of hibernation amnesia as an excuse to remind me of some key plot points --even so far as to have Cassie, the main character, reintroduce herself as she jogs her own memory. Very clever.

While book 1 is Hunger Games meets Space Camp, book 2 is quite the sci-fi action/adventure. The stakes are much higher, and apparently so is the language. After reading the first f-bomb, I thought maybe something got missed in editing. Then a short while later it dropped another one. It makes sense. Cassie and crew is no longer in high school, and young adults sometimes have foul language. It still caught me off guard. Note, this is not Scarface. It is just sprinkled here and there.

This book was an entertaining ride, but I have a few complaints.

-Cassie is a bit whiny. When she is not busy emoting the extremes of every detail, she is second-guessing every major and minor choice she has made. Life as Cassie must be exhausting. She badly needs a beer to mellow out a bit. My problems with her from the first book did get improved. She no longer just reacts to others and can develop her own strategies.

-Luca does not seem consistent. Luca is simultaneously aloof, caring, perceptive, awkward, experienced, inexperienced, and a tech prodigy. I just can't wrap my head around him. He drops deep insights in to things he has never seen before. I did not dislike the character. He has a couple of traits I won't mention that makes him interesting. However, if you were to lay out a scene and ask me how Luca should react, my guess is he would speak some sage advice in one sentence, and then say he has no idea in the next sentence.

The main goal from book 1 still makes no sense. I still do not understand the purpose of sending the NASA team hundreds of light years away. That little journey was at best a skunkworks project.

I gave Book 1 a 4/5 (you can read my review of Dare Mighty Things). I also give Book 2 the same 4/5. While Book 1 is better, I really appreciate wrapping up the story. There is room for another adventure, but all the main story arcs were closed, and I was left satisfied and never bored. Fans of Book 1 will be pleased enough continuing Cassie's journey to completion.

#Action #Adventure #FemaleProtagonist #YoungAdult #Teens #NASA #SciFi

Real let-down after book 1

Book one was mighty: a likeable protagonist who wasn't going to settle for being #2, confident in her skills and ready to do big things.

Here in book two we're presented with the same person, except she spends the whole book in one panic after another, waiting for others to solve the problems as she waits for her heartbeat to get back under control and worries about her love life. It's an enormous shift.

To be fair to the author, part of the fault might be the narrator--who, when voicing the protagonist, always sounds like she's half a second from tears. I know she's trying to be emotive and meaningful, but it's 100% the wrong voice for this character.