A book review by Elliot Jackman
BY DYLAN MCFADYEN
SHAARA WAS DEAD. Tell me that a story that starts this way doesn’t cause a little bit of curiosity. I’ve read many books with great first paragraphs, then devolve into nonsensical banter. This is NOT one of those books. Dylan’s book is one where I tell myself I’ll just read to the next break and then go to sleep. I say that to myself six or eight times.
Reading Oblivion’s Cloak, I tell myself I’ll just read to the next break and then go to sleep. I say that to myself six or eight times…
Shaara is a human, however, in contrast to our typical earthly superiority complex, humans are considered borderline useless rock rats and only valued as low-quality slaves by most of the races in the universe. Shaara was born into slavery but managed to improve her situation somewhat by joining a team of mercenaries.
While Shaara was in a regen pod recovering from her death, the captain of the mercenary ship, “Warden”, found a ship that just arrived in the system. Not sure what the ship was, they boarded and found only one survivor in a cryo-pod. When Shaara awakens, her first task assigned is to interrogate this human and find out what he knows.
This human, Adnan, is from Earth. This is disturbing to Shaara, as Earth is almost a myth surrounded by dozens of stories about its demise. When Adnan says that they expected to be traveling for almost a thousand years before reaching their destination, the numbers fit and Shaara believes him. When Adnan finds out that he is the sole survivor of the crew, it has a severe impact on him.
Since the two main options are, as Shaara sees it, to have Adnan become part of the crew, or be sold into slavery, she works hard to have him become a medic. She’s barely successful in convincing the captain of this. Being a mercenary vessel, they immediately are thrown into a conflict where Shaara and Adnan are in a constant life-threatening situation. Their bond grows as they continually work together, however, there is a constant lack of trust on Adnan’s part, as he can never seem to reconcile Shaara’s actions with that of a friend or compatriot.
The mercenaries take on a contract that turns out to be much more brutal and difficult than they initially expected. This is where I learned that Shaara would do anything to win, which she’s very good at. I also saw the deep compassion that she has inside but is not in a position to act on.
The story takes several twists that devolve into Shaara finding out about a plot a leader of a human pseudo-religious group has to destroy all non-human sentient beings in the universe. Should Shaara allow this plan to go through with the possibility of releasing all humans from the bondage of slavery? It might be tempting but at the cost of the deaths of trillions of beings.
If you only have time to read one Sci-Fi book this year, this is the one you should choose.
This is the first book in a trilogy. In reading it, I feel like it’s a trilogy in itself. If you only have time to read one Sci-Fi book this year, this is the one you should choose.