Number of stars: 4 out of 5

Genre: Space opera, Humor, LGBTQ+

Edition: Paperback

Synopsis taken from back book cover:

Nothing wrecks Captain Eva Innocente’s vacation plans quite like an anonymous threat to vaporize billions of people. Hundreds of monoliths have suddenly materialized in space, broadcasting the same looped message: surrender or be exterminated. Is the universe being epically spammed?

Surrender to whom? Exterminated when? And how is Eva, commander of a beat-up cargo ship, supposed to prevent it? As panic spreads, a mystery message sends Eva to find answers in a system that hasn’t been explored in all of recorded history.

With the crew of La Sirena Negra, a score of psychic cats, a feline-phobic robot, and a superweapon she has no clue how to use, Eva prepares to battle the unknown. But first, she has to defeat the known: mercenary Tito Santiago, whose idea of a clean fight is a shower before kill time. His mission is to ensure Eva doesn’t succeed at hers.

If anything goes wrong, the universe is doomed. But if everything goes according to Eva’s plans—wait, when does that ever happen?

My review:

Yes, the whole book read like one repetitive scene “we’ll go in, kick all the a** and get out with some injuries, and we’ll do it all over again” but I am a fan of the crew and the dysfunctional sort of family they are at this point, so I rolled with it.

The ending was neatly wrapped up in a bow, but still left some room for a possible 4th book. Either way, if this ends up being just a trilogy I’m perfectly happy with that ending.

I loved the fast pace, the descriptions of the Proarkhe, and the 3 mechs. Tons of fun and laughs to be had here.

My biggest complaint, which I pushed past in Book 1, again in Book 2, but in Book 3 it really started to get frustrating/distracting as a non-Spanish speaking reader – there are so many Spanish phrases and even whole sentences in “Chilling Effect” that are not translated at all. One needs to Google what it means or just keep skimming past them and trying to guess what was perhaps said from context. And yes, while I realize from context alone that 80% of the Spanish is probably swear words, that other 20% is something I’d actually really like to know, like Eva’s endearing nicknames for Sue, Eva’s conversations with her mother Regina or sister Mari… it was very disappointing that Valdes just threw so much Spanish in without translating or putting a glossary in the back of ANY of her books. She just expected her readers to deal with it.

I know I’m probably just being a grouch about this, but seriously. I’ve enjoyed books by other authors before where other languages are inserted excellently and there is even terms explained near the back. Take Mia P. Manansala’s “Arsenic and Adobo”. She explained everything, because there were so many Filipino references, slang, and terms. Made for a much more enjoyable reading experience.

Those are my thoughts though! I would still recommend this series, especially as a fluffy, feel-good break from more serious science fiction or space opera.

-Rlygirl

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