She’s not waiting for a hero to come save her; instead, she becomes her own heroine. Hazel’s world comes crashing in front of her in an instant during a family trip to Mont-Tremblant. What she doesn’t know is that she is from the stars, and so it’s no wonder she must return in order to find the answers she seeks.
She embarks on a trek aboard the Imperial Bona Fides, the mothership of the Alpha Cygnians people. With the help of her best friend Zita, and the others she will meet along the way, she will journey to places she never knew existed. Hazel will learn to tame her fears and become the woman she wants to be.
This is the story of different worlds that must learn to co-exist. They must all put their differences aside, and with a bit of faith they will all witness a new dawn. We are all compelled to be inspired when faith is with us.
This story is for anyone who enjoys what we look for when we wish to get away in a sci-fi fantasy book. You will live vicariously through the energetic characters as they go on through their incredible first trek. There is a sense of youthfulness and coming of age in this story that makes it a great read and appealing to a wide audience with the implemented strong characters and exciting action.
We opened a door at the bottom of the stairs and arrived outside where a completely unexpected scenery awaited us. We rubbed our eyes with disbelief and were stunned to see a large spaceship that was almost see-through, as if it were trying to be translucent and there were weird glyphs written on it. Somehow, no one else were around to witness this spectacle. There were three women dressed in clothes fashioned in a way we aren’t accustomed to seeing here on Earth. They wore grey, black, and dark purple one-piece suits, and their boots had flashing lights on them. Their hair was black and pulled slick back inside their hoods. One had dreadlocks sticking out of a hole at the back of her hood. Their faces were ornated with a style of makeup that we would consider different here on Earth. They had different skin tones, ranging from dark to very light brown. They were strong, robust like men, and were doing some type of mind control on the twins. The scariest one of them had eyes coloured purple and orange as she was emitting her powers, rushing the twins to enter the spaceship. She seemed like she was the strongest of the two. The other one was holding a device that was emitting waves that were pulling the girls toward them. The girls seemed like they were putting a little effort in fighting what was happening to them, but eventually they gave in. Mom was running with all her might toward the UFO and screaming: “Please don’t take my children! Stop it! Those are my girls! Help! Help! Someone please help us!”.
Review
This book’s description sounded amazing, and the concept grabbed me. After reading so many dystopian sci-fi books that predict the future as hopeless, this story sounded like a breath of fresh air. Hazel’s character and journey definitely fall on the uplifting side of science fiction, and I appreciated how she and so many others found their inner strength to build the world they want to see.
While the concept was fantastic, the story’s execution leaned so heavily on world information and descriptions that the uplifting plotline within got lost. The beginning showed Hazel’s family facing everyday family trials and the brilliant “call to action” of Hazel’s sisters being abducted. However, once Hazel made the decision to go after them, the narrative focused backward, rather than forward. A large chunk of the subsequent chapters went to explaining backstories and people Hazel didn’t even know, leaving her completely out of the action.
Now, these worlds and civilizations that the author constructed were amazing, but without the protagonist, they felt like little more than over-explained setup. I wanted to see Hazel wending her way through them to grow into the woman she wants to be. The chapters and chapters of information about how the bad guys are bad and the minute details of all the bad things they’ve done brought the story to a stand-still. I kept reading in hopes I’d get back to Hazel, but it took a very long time. I did get a glimpse at her sisters and some others, but it was all told from Hazel’s distant eye, so it was less like I was watching stories unfold and more like Hazel was just narrating everything that ever happened to the people she loves and anyone who was around them.
I also kept forgetting this was supposed to be set 300 years in the future. This is partly due to the amount of backstory but also to Hazel’s relationship with her world. Rather than thinking in terms of her current timeline, almost every reference point she had was to culture and events of the 2010s and early 2020s. This happened so much that I became startled when futuristic technology or other elements were introduced because they seemed so out of place.
If there was ever a book I’d describe as a “diamond in the rough,” this is it. I could see the story arc trying to stretch out over Hazel and the wonderful worldbuilding present in this novel, but it was mostly buried beneath large chunks of information that stalled much of the plot’s forward movement.
E.K. Highland is a Haitian-Canadian first-time author who enjoys sci-fi and fantasy stories. The problem is, she wants to see more diversity in those genres. While growing up in Ottawa, Canada, she felt that books and television lacked representation of more Black characters.
Now she wants more characters who resemble her likeness as a Black woman in the science fiction and fantasy genre, as there are increasingly more Black authors who are writing science fiction and including characters of different color and ethnicity.
After attending the University of Ottawa in hopes of understanding English literature better, she decided to finally write her own sci-fi fantasy novel. And, you guessed it, the lead character resembles her because representation matters. Find her online at http://www.ekhighland.com.
To check out more stops on the tour, visit the tour page here.
All the opinions expressed in this review are my own. Read the full disclosure here.
