Renegades

The Eurynome Code, Book 2

By: K. Gorman

Narrated by: Andrea Emmes

The Shadows have taken over half of the system, and Karin is the only one who can fight back.

Genetically engineered from birth, Karin Makos’ powers have made her the Alliance’s most wanted person. With her sister still missing and only a cryptic notebook left behind for clues, the mystery of her past is going to take a lot more time and resources than they have to unravel it.

And there’s a bigger problem looming. Keeping their promise to heal Ethan’s stepfather and the rest of the people on the Ozark puts them right past Caishen station and its Alliance allies - and there might be another force on their tail.

After the crew split apart on a wild chase that puts Karin in the hot seat, it’ll take all of their strength and ingenuity to bring them back together. With enemies gathering in the wings, a desperate, heavy-handed station commander hard on their tail, and the Shadows an ever-present threat, they must race against the odds and scramble to fight their way out.

Don't miss the explosive sequel to Black Dawn! It's perfect for fans of Lindsay Buroker, Rachel Aukes, and Jennifer Foehner Wells.

©2020 Aethon Books (P)2020 Aethon Audio

Stellar Sci-fi Thriller

Renegades is the second book in the Eurynome Code series and continues the story right where the first book left off. Now that the slow start of the story has passed, Renegades focuses on action and intrigue. I've thoroughly enjoyed the cast of characters and the fact that they try to out think or out maneuver the various antagonists in the series rather than constantly relying on brute force. This makes this series a refreshing change of pace from the typical "shoot 'em up" tactic more often present in many of the books I've been reading lately.

I've found myself fascinated with mysteries presented and am both pleased and irritated that I don't have any idea where the story is going. Like the first book, Renegades also ends with a cliffhanger and adds more questions than it answers. Normally I'm pretty good at predicting what will happen next or what the big reveal will be before it happens; however, with this series, I'm completely in the dark still. Unlike other book series that compare themselves to popular sci-fi TV series, I'll honestly say that the Eurynome Code would make a great TV series.

Thank you to Aethon Books who provided me this book free of charge at my request.

Exceptional Sequel to a Sensational Series!!!

In book 1 of the Eurynome Code, there was a system wide event, in which it appears over 50% of the population of all the planets, ships and space stations were attacked by strange Shadow Creatures. These creatures appear out of nowhere, literally coming out of the shadows to attack you, and then using their fingers to slide into your head, and brain, and taking you over. Whilst they have ‘form’ as in you can hit them, or stab them, they are not quite 3D, and can change shape, and even appear fuzzy at the edges, and this is why they are able to get into people so easily.
Once they are in a person, this person becomes zombie like, just wandering around, doing nothing, saying nothing, not really there anymore, and they have shiny, jet black eyes. People are known as ‘The Lost’ once in this state, and there is no cure, or way to help them. They are attracted to Light, Children and other People, in that order.
The Shadows can be stabbed, shot, or beaten, but are very resilient, their one real weakness is of course, Light.
And this is where this story really gets fascinating. We learnt in book 1 about the main character, Karin Makos – a young woman who fled to this system through a ‘world gate’ (which appears to be something that allows for transport between galaxies?), from the Earth solar system with her sister Nomiki.
Karin and Nomiki are different, having been grown in a lab as test tube babies, and both of them have developed rare abilities (although we don’t really know anything about Nomiki yet). Karin, however, has the ability to create and project light, not like a torch, but almost like a substance, so bright and so powerful, that she can actually kill Shadows, in fact, she is the only light source so far that can outright kill them.
And as discovered in Book 1, Karin is the only person who can heal people, as in remove the Shadow host from them and bring them back from being ‘Lost’. Of course, this makes her one of the most valuable resources in the Sector.
In Book 2, everybody is still reeling from the shock of the attack, trying to come to terms with it all, and work out how to deal with not only ‘The Lost’, but also new Shadow attacks.
The crew of the Nemina is initially trying to work out how to get off of Enlil, having been trapped there, after rescuing Cookie, Marc’s Cousin. Whilst on Enlil, they are contacted by Senton, the passenger who blackmailed them into a deal previously to help his family if he didn’t tell the Alliance about Karin.
This is the first in several different encounters/situations, that (without giving away spoilers), the crew finds themselves in, as we move through the story in this book. In the first book, it was kind of an introduction to the story, the main characters, and the actual incident that starts off the chain of events. In book 2, we start to see the fallout of this incident, the initial panic and reactions of people on stations and ships, the desperation.
This is where the Author has done a brilliant job of writing this story, as she has really captured the various aspects of humanity, from those that are kind, and want to help, no matter the cost, to those that just want to take advantage of the situation, and those that pretend they are nice, or think they are nice or doing the right thing, but are actually just horribly selfish or just downright evil people.
There are a couple of points in this book, when Karin faces some truly awful situations, and you wish that she had some other sort of ability as well so she could protect herself. The Author does a masterful job of capturing the really dark nature of some people, and it adds a really gritty, realistic element to this book (What I really liked is that Gorman creates this atmosphere in such an intelligent and subtle way, without huge amounts of graphic gore/violence etc, just to make a point, but with clever word choices to let our own imaginations do the work for us – very clever, and very well done!)
As with book 1, the world building is outstanding, the Author has created this detailed environment for the Characters to tell their stories, but just as good, as the story goes along, we are introduced to more and more elements, of the Galaxy at large, planets, stations, different factions. But we are also getting more information and history about Karin, her sister Nomiki and the project that they were involved in. The main story with the Shadows and everything is fascinating enough as it is, but all this background is even more intriguing, and the way it is being developed is not only creative, but very clever, making the story, enthralling and captivating.
Whilst the main character of Karin Makos is utterly fascinating as discussed, the other characters are just as good, Soo-jin is easily one of the best characters in the book, with her wise-cracking attitude, and take no prisoners mentality. It has been remarkable watching the relationship between Karin and Soo-jin in this second book. Marc is not in this book as much, and Soo-jin gets more of a main role, and we get to understand her a lot more.
This is a brilliant sequel to book 1, and if you enjoyed the first in the series at all, you are going to love book 2. If you have any interest in Sci-Fi, Mystery, Thriller, Action, or a bit of Horror (You will be looking at Shadows in a whole new way after this series, trust me!!), You HAVE to read this series (or listen to it!!), it is one of those books that you just can’t put down it is SO GOOD!!!
Andrea Emmes does a good job with the Narration, she has a nice clear and concise voice, that is easy to understand. She has a really nice voice to listen to, she has a really lovely sounding voice, so it is actually a pleasure to listen to her telling the story, she is not someone you could get tired of easily.
My only concern is that sometimes it is a little hard to distinguish between who is talking (especially when she is doing two female voices like Karin and Soo-jin), and you can get confused about who is saying what. Identifying the characters, or just having a slightly different voice for each character. This is less of an issue for Male voices. And this doesn’t impact the actual clarity – you can still understand ‘WHAT’ is being said.
Overall, the Narration is still of a high quality, and Emmes is a great Narrator, making this well worth the Listen. I am listening to part 3 now!