About the Book
-
Author:
- Heather Kaczynski
Cover Story: Jump To Hyperspace
BFF Charm: Yay
Talky Talk: Overdrive
Bonus Factors: Artificial Intelligence, Aliens
Relationship Status: Let’s Part As Friends
Careful, Sweetie: spoilers! This is the second book in the Dare Mighty Things series, so if you haven’t read the previous one, you should probably hop back in the TARDIS and go curl up in the library by the pool with the first book before continuing.
Cover Story: Jump To Hyperspace
Putting the giant title aside, this cover reminds me of the instant before you jump into hyperspace and all the stars form a squiggly tunnel. Like its predecessor, it’s a very simple cover that stands out more because of the GIANT WORDS than anything else.
The Deal:
So at the end of the last book, Cassie got quite a shock when she was woken up from her cryosleep orbiting an alien planet and found…Luka, the guy she had a little thing with during the NASA competition. (Who saw that coming!? Oh, right…everyone.) Luka and his family bring the rest of the astronauts into a secret research facility inside one of the megobari’s moons, because their planet was destroyed decades ago in a war with the vrag, vicious alien race. The megobari fear that the vrag know they’ve been in contact with Earth and may retaliate against it, but the megobari offer the use of a catastrophic weapon (that they were never able to use) in exchange for permanent refuge on Earth. The astronauts are understandably shell-shocked, but before they can discuss long-term plans, their location is attacked by the vrag ship, and Luka and Cassie are the only survivors.
How do two teenagers convince an entire planet that they’re in danger from killer aliens?
BFF Charm: Yay
As she proved in the previous novel, Cassie is a cool head under pressure. She’s a good person to be around as this particular crisis is world-ending levels of intense. I don’t blame her for being on edge and second-guessing her choices. Would I be half as collected knowing I held the key to a super-powerful weapon that could destroy a species? Check back with me on this side of never. Her lessons in friendship during the competition served her well, as she is able to lean on her new friends right about the time one would really need a support group.
Swoonworthy Scale: 3
Cassie is wary of Luka after he reveals his alien heritage, wondering if he kissed her only to woo her into helping his family. A deadline for world-wide destruction doesn’t really set the right mood for more intimate moments, and I was also feeling quite indifferent to Luka’s character this time around. Now that he could be open about who he was, I wanted to see more personality, but between grieving for his family and trying to survive he didn’t really give me a reason to fall for him.
Talky Talk: Overdrive
We went from zero to alien in a blink. One second we’re excited about space travel that still will take six months, in the next we are so over that as Earth gets caught in an intergalactic war. Kaczynski’s no-nonsense writing style didn’t work quite as well for me as it did in the first book, mainly because I felt this topic of aliens and right/wrong required more explanation than a straightforward competition. There was never really time for the characters to breath, the action was a little too simplistic for my tastes, and I guessed the twists pretty early on. It didn’t leave a bad taste in my mouth, but I didn’t feel totally satisfied either.
Bonus Factor: Artifical Intelligence
Sci-fi books often portend our future, and while some of it sounds downright bleak (seems like dystopian scenarios where the Earth is dying because we’ve squeezed the crap out of all our natural resources is the new “vampire”—yay!), some of it can be kind of cool, albeit in a creepy sort of way. In order to keep using Sunny, the super computer inside Cassie’s original spaceship, she has to do a sort of…mind-meld with it. It reminded me of SAM from Mass Effect: Andromeda (video games always have the cool tech). Sunny was cool. The more advanced version of her that Cassie encounters later: not so much.
Bonus Factor: Aliens
The vrag have a pretty interesting story, and the megobaris’ computers use colored lights instead of any kind of written language. Reading about the kinds of aliens we humans invent always makes me wonder what else could really be out there…
Relationship Status: Let’s Part As Friends
A long term relationship between us won’t work, Book. You seemed nice enough on our blind date, but after getting to know you more, I’m looking for something that gives me a bit more zing. Thanks, though, for keeping me entertained when I needed something fresh.
FTC Full Disclosure: I purchased my own copy of this book. I received neither money nor peanut butter cups in exchange for this review. One Giant Leap is available now.
