Supernova by C.A. Higgins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So we return to the explosive events of the end of Lightless and return to an almost completely dead ship and a Solar System embroiled in revolution. I picked this one up because of the promise of an explanation or real action or at least the development of, or that I might eventually get to see

A: an AI that grows super powerful (check)
B: a reason to get behind or care that the revolution was even going on (um.. no)
C: slightly better developed characters (most of them are missing from the page-time except one, and she's just caught in a slide of horror without hope, so... no)
D: things blow up. Seeing lots of things blow up. (Yeah, hearty check)
E: a rather surprising focus on a bad girl, (antihero, outright villain?) who practically dominates the entire novel, and what happens to her. (check)

There's competent plot going on here and plenty of slide into despair, so if that's what you're looking for in a space opera based in the Solar System with lots of planet hopping revolutionaries and a single ship on the outskirts causing a lot of unintentional damage to everyone, then hop on this book.

If this is the standard book two of a planned trilogy, I'm willing to let the slight (or even more pronounced greater dissatisfaction,) with the resolution of the book slide, because taken together, the first ended as a traditional first act and this one ended as an even darker second act. The third novel must therefore come out on top with some sort of happy ending.

We're talking about making sure that the readers come away from the read with some sort of satisfaction other than just being happy to see the worlds burn.

But then, who knows? Maybe that's the point. Pure downs without the ups? Possibly. Then again, maybe it's just me. The book held my attention even if it was a bit slow for plot development for my tastes, and discussions of ethics are always a high point for my reading, especially when not much else is going on, but at this point, all I can really wish for is a serious underdog reversal that makes a... um... any hero come out on top in the third novel.


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