Sara Creasy
Song of Scarabaeus
HarperCollins Eos (CA: 7th April 2010; US: 27th April 2010)
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Highly sought-after cypherteck Edie Sha’nim is kidnapped, and mentally leashed to her new bodyguard. To afford the teck’s removal, they aboard the Hoi Polloi, whose mission is to collect biocyph from Scarabaeus, a planet that’s played a big part in Edie’s history.
It must say a lot about my personality that characters dying doesn’t upset me as much as characters being separated from their stuffed animals. Edie’s childhood flashback nearly bloody broke me.
Hard sci-fi is not usually my chosen genre, so the ship’s set-up and its crew rankings confused my eejit brain. Not to mention all the teck stuff, so I didn’t really get sucked in until two-thirds of the way into the novel, when Edie finally gets to Scarabaeus, a planet that’s totally effed. After reading, you may have nightmares involving flora and fauna attacking you – seriously, this weird shiz is bloody engrossing.
My favourite character by far is navpilot Cat Lancer. She may or may not be evil, but one can’t help but be won over when she says, “don’t be a dick.” I like the way she thinks 😉
Confusing for eejit brains, Song of Scarabaeus is otherwise a fascinating read, with unforgettable, freaky, and frightening moments. Also, I demand more Cat Lancer!
Tez Says 
Hmmm.. so is this a hard sci fi then? I love the cover.. it looks like it could have romance (since it has a couple on it). Is it straight SF?
By “hard sci-fi”, I mean “not futuristic”. To me, futuristics are set on Earth some years into the future – and I love them 🙂
“Hard sci-fi” in my language means stuff set in outer space, other planets, and usually involves some kind of military. So I do consider this book to be hard sci-fi.
As for romance…there’s no shagging, and no declarations of love. There is kissing, though. I might call it “sci-fi with romantic elements”, but I would NOT call it a sci-fi romance.
Mind you, I’m rather terrible as classifying things (I’m not even sure if I could explain which genre of music I like most), so check out the book for yourself, and make your own decision 😉
Sci fi with romantic elements sounds awesome to me. So I will be looking for this one I think. 🙂 Thanks for the review, I don’t think I’d seen anything about this one anywhere else yet. *putting on to buy list*
I put it on my wishlist when I saw the sale notice in an agency’s newsletter. Then when I read that Sara’s from Oz – my state, no less – I became clearly motivated to get that book 😉
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