Hi Book Dragons, look we are talking about a Sci-Fi book today! December has been very Fantasy Romance/Romance heavy, which I love but Nophek Gloss was a great break from that. I am drinking the Witcher Blend by Booksnleaf and thoroughly enjoying it. I can’t wait to try out more teas from them.
All right the quick and dirty over view is, Nophek Gloss is this, I’m gonna call it a gem, that is a energy source and worth a lot of money. The downside is it grows inside the brains of these creatures called Nophek (thus Nophek Gloss). The other downside, is very few planets in world of multiverses can sustain Nophek life in order to grow and then butcher them to harvest the Nophek. The really really downside is that if the normal feed animals die, guess who gets feed to the Nopheks? You’re right! The human/aliens that are living on the planet. Aren’t we all smart. Essentially all of these things happen except this pre-teen boy survives the massacre and goes on a revenge spree that is partially helped by this band of misfits that help him get off his planet.
Okay, now to the review. I enjoyed this book! Did I put it down several times to read some Fantasy Romance and then come back to it, yes, is that okay? Also yes. I tend to put Sci-Fi books down several times before I finish them (usually within a span of a month). The plot was intriguing and as an Avengers fan the use of Multi-verses in this book made my nerd heart very happy. Winn/Caiden was an intriguing main character, to see the struggle and growth he had to go through. And to finally and the end for him to realize that just because you get rid of one evil person doesn’t mean another won’t just pop up in their place.
We see Caiden, go through so much with the team that saved him, well they kind of saved each other, Caiden had the ship but the other team actually had a pilot who could get it flying, so it was a mutual rescuing from being Nophek food. Hansen, was able to elegantly and captivatingly show Caiden’s growth from a Pre-teen who as terrified of Nopheks and wanted nothing more than to get revenge on the people who murdered his family. Even after he found out that he was actually a genetically engineered spawn of that evil person. To facing his fears of the Nophek, and actually realizing that it was the “people” that made them evil, which is just a fact of life at this point for most dangerous animals. And that he wanted to help protect their species.
He also had to realize that he couldn’t just run off and do whatever he wanted and not expect any consequences. While his found family, did accept him back into their folds, they also definitely deserved the apologies that he gave them. But friends and found families are their for you as long as everyone owns up to their mistakes. We also see representation of PTSD in this book and it was great to see both Caiden as a “child” and Taitn as an adult work through that and find healing. You get an awesome LGBTQIA+ characters in this book, En who is an androgynous/Trans (maybe/ish) character, they switch between male and female. Was by fair my favorite, and I expect to see some more LGBTQ characters in the sequel.
Overall, this is a book that I would recommend to a Sci-Fi newby or a vet.
Till we meet again Book Dragons,
Kaitlyn
Kaitlyn's Literary Teahouse 