I have to preface this review by absolutely recommending everyone check out the short story Extinguishing The Stars before diving into this book. Is it 100% required? Ehh…maybe not 100%. Does it offer some important context and fuel character development in The Universe Within? Definitely. Grab it for free from your favorite ebook retailer, or get the audiobook for a mere 99¢.
Anyway. As much as I loved The Thief (y’all know how I feel about Eren), I was very much looking forward to this book because I really liked the sound of a good old-fashioned adventure with Alex and Caleb. And “good old-fashioned” is truly an apt descriptor for this story. It had a sense of wonder and exploration that hearkened back to the days of the Aurora Renegades trilogy (er…Amaranthe II: Rebellion…I guess I’m being a little old-fashioned myself). Without spoiling anything, a certain hiccup right at the beginning of the story regarding Calex™’s usual companions—Valkyrie and Akeso—renders the whole setup even more nostalgic. This is even addressed by the characters themselves.
While each of these Cosmic Shores novels has had stakes that are plenty high, they’re all still very contained stories and offer a bit of a respite from the massive, universe-altering stakes we’ve been seeing in the main series. Since they can’t help themselves, Alex and Caleb still end up having to save a planet—nay, a whole galaxy—from destruction, with a big assist from their new Elakri allies. The Elakri, who first appear in Extinguishing The Stars, are a peaceful, artistically inclined race with a very interesting culture and backstory; after being introduced to dozens of other alien races and cultures over the course of the previous 21 books, creating a new one that still feels fresh and unique deserves major props. The two primary Elakri characters in the story, Laurent and Deunan, have incredibly disparate personalities and backgrounds, which makes their interactions with Calex™ and each other all the more compelling.
But a peaceful society focused solely on art and fashion and architecture has to be too good to be true, right? There’s got to be some sort of conspiracy and cover-up involved, riiiight? I am here for it.
Now I’m excited to return to the Amaranthe universe at large. Despite these three Cosmic Shores books being marketed as standalone, they each still contributed something to the overall story, from the smallest character development details to the biggest scientific breakthroughs. I can’t wait to see how everything comes into play.
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ABOUT G.S. JENNSEN
G. S. Jennsen lives somewhere in the U.S., in a locale that may or may not be where she lived the last time she published a book (she’s a gypsy at heart), with her husband and one or more dogs. She has become an internationally bestselling author since her first novel, Starshine, was published in 2014. She has chosen to continue writing under an independent publishing model to ensure the integrity of her stories and her ability to execute on the vision she has for their telling.
While she has been a lawyer, a software engineer and an editor, she’s found the life of a full-time author preferable by several orders of magnitude. When she isn’t writing, she’s gaming or working out or getting lost in the mountains that loom large outside the windows in her home. Or she’s dealing with a flooded basement, or standing in a line at Walmart and wondering who all these people are (because she’s probably new in town). Or sitting on her back porch with a glass of wine, looking up at the stars, trying to figure out what could be up there.
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