BOOK REVIEW | Achilles by Greg Boose

Title: Achilles
Author: Greg Boose
Series? Yes, the Deep Sky Saga
Pages: 288
Publication Date: September 26, 2017
Publisher: Diversion Publishing
Source: I received an e-galley of Achilles via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review! All thoughts and opinions are my own. :)

The year is 2221, and humans have colonized an earthlike planet called Thetis in the Silver Foot Galaxy. After a tragic accident kills off dozens of teenage colonists, Thetis's leaders are desperate to repopulate. So the Mayflower 2, a state-of-the-art spaceship, sets off across the universe to bring 177 new recruits to the colony.

For Jonah Lincoln, an orphaned teen who's bounced between foster homes and spent time on the streets of Cleveland, the voyage is a chance to reinvent himself, to be strong and independent and brave the way he could never be on Earth. But his dreams go up in smoke when their ship crash-lands, killing half the passengers and leaving the rest stranded--not on Thetis, but on its cruel and unpeopled moon, Achilles.

Between its bloodthirsty alien life forms and its distance from their intended location, Achilles is far from an ideal resting place. The situation is already dire, but when all of the adults suddenly disappear, leaving the teenage passengers to fend for themselves, Jonah doubts they'll survive at all, much less reach Thetis. Especially when it appears Achilles isn't as uninhabited as they were led to believe.

Goodreads

If I'm going to be honest, I really didn't want to write this review. I have a lot of pros and cons to Achilles; I struggled to read Achilles at times, and other times I was enjoying what I was experiencing. 

One big issue I had with this book was the pacing. For most of the time, I felt like nothing was happening. These kids were stranded of this planet, but after the initial crash and night, I was not interested. The middle just felt like a filler until the ending. While the ending was explosive and thrilling, I wish the whole entire book was like that. Instead, the beginning and ending were fast paced and kept me reading, while I trudged through the second act.

It also didn't help that I didn't care for the characters. I don't think they were developed enough, and I kept forgetting that some characters even existed, or I would mix them up. The only character I really enjoyed reading about was Tunick, who is so maniacal and complex. I honestly loved reading about his crazy antics, and there is one scene where he manipulates a lot of the characters and everyone is stuck between a rock and a hard place, literally. I think that was one of the strongest scenes, but the rest of the book (besides the beginning) was lackluster. Because I didn't care for any of the characters, the ending didn't impact me emotionally, even if it was interesting.

I got so confused with the characters because so many were introduced all at the same time. We see a ton of new people in the beginning, and none of them were fleshed out enough that I could easily differentiate the characters. I only remembered four characters out of maybe 12-15 that were introduced, and only two names. Even writing this review, I only remembered Jonah's name because it was in the synopsis. 

Though I hinted at this before, the beginning and ending were the strongest points for me. I was not invested at all during the rising actions, and could barely keep reading. Though I do think the ending was worth it, it was also pretty gimmicky. I knew that Achilles was going to be part of a series, but the set up didn't feel genuine. 

Achilles was okay, but it wasn't anything outstanding. I thought the beginning was really strong, but the book went downhill from there. The ending was thrilling, but it was also confusing, considering how many characters there were. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book to you, but I wouldn't not recommend it to you. Venture forth at your own risk!

With that, I give this book
3 out of 5 Stars!