Title: Space Drifters: The Emerald Enigma
Author: Paul Regnier
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by Enchanted Book Promotions in exchange for an honest review.
Captain Starcrost is not having the carefree, adventurous life of a star pilot promised in all the space academy brochures. He’s broke, his star freighter is in dire need of repair, and there’s a bounty on his head. His desperation has led to a foolhardy quest to find a fabled treasure that brings good fortune to the wearer, the Emerald Enigma.
Every captain needs a trusty starship and a crack team of crew members by their side. Unfortunately, the bitter pill of reality has brought him Iris, a ship computer with passive aggressive resistance to his commands; Blix, a hulking, copper-scaled, lizard man with an aversion to battle; Nelvan, a time-traveling teen from the past, oblivious to this new future; and Jasette, a beautiful but deadly bounty hunter looking to take over the ship.
Enter a charismatic and clever nemesis named Hamilton Von Drone, whose dark past has already intertwined with our misfortunate captain and left a painful scar. To complicate matters, as every good nemesis must by their evil nature do, Hamilton is employing his vast wealth on the very same quest for the Emerald Enigma.
Space Drifters went above and beyond my expectations. As a fan of witty humor and original characters, I can’t recommend this one enough. Captain Starcrost, the main character, isn’t all too happy with his life as a star pilot, which isn’t anything like the brochure promised. Instead of tumbling from one adventure into the other, he’s broke, his star freighter needs repairs and there’s a bounty on his head. In what is typical behavior for Starcrost, he decides the solution to all his prolems is to go on a quest to find a fabled treasure called the Emerald Enigma.
Along with his teams, he goes on the adventure of a lifetime, but unfortunately his nemesis, Hamilton Von Drone, is after the treasure too. He’s already had a run-in with Starcrost once, and now Hamilton will stop at nothing to hurt Starcrost’s chances of retrieving the Emerald Enigma first.
The best part about this book was, no doubt, the crew members. Iris is a passive-agressive ship computer with mood swings, Blix is a lizard who doesn’t want to fight and instead prefers to read books, Nevlan is a time-traveling teen from the past and Jasette is a bounty hunter and a mystery wrapped in one. With a crew like that, things can’t go wrong.
The book was fast-paced and thrilling, and at times, hilarous. The writing is solid and the author sketches the characters well. An entertaining and enjoyable space opera / science-fiction novel. If you like your scifi mixed with humor, I highly recommend this book.
Space Drifters sounds like a funny space opera, Majanka 🙂 And the well fleshed-out characters as well as the fast pace makes me think I’ll enjoy this as well.
Great review!