Liv The Book Nerd: Caretaker by Josi Russell

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Caretaker by Josi Russell

Page Count: 325
Published on: September 2, 2015

Published by: Future House Publishing

Genre(s): Science Fiction, Space Opera, Fiction, Fantasy, YA, Adult
Source: Paperback--Sent by author

Age Rating: PG-13

Where To Find It: Goodreads // Amazon

Twitter: @josi_russell

My Rating: 4 stars

Goodreads synopsis:

Fifty years in space—alone.

Ethan Bryant was supposed to fall asleep on a ship leaving Earth and wake up fifty years later with his family on the planet Minea. Instead, after the ship’s caretaker—the lone human in charge of monitoring the ship’s vital systems—suddenly died, the ship’s computer locked Ethan out of his stasis chamber and gave him the job. That was five years ago. Five years of checking to make sure everything runs smoothly on a ship Ethan knows almost nothing about.

Who wouldn’t dread the years ahead? Who wouldn’t long for their once-bright future now stolen away?

Ethan is resigned to his fate, until the ship suddenly wakes up another passenger: a beautiful engineer who, along with Ethan, soon discovers a horrible secret—a navigation room hidden from even the ship’s computer. The ship is not bound for Minea—but to somewhere far more dangerous.

With the ship nearing its sinister destination, Ethan soon learns he is the only one who holds the key to saving all 4,000 passengers from a highly-advanced, hostile alien race.

~~~

Hey, guys!

I was sent Caretaker by the publisher for an honest review, and when the book came in the mail, I started it as soon as I could. I actually started this book on the last day of high school and finished it within a couple days. This was a pretty good science fiction novel but compared so some of my favorites it wasn't the best I've read. It was interesting to read but I wasn't as connected to the characters as much as I would have liked.

What I Loved:

The world building and descriptions of the ship were really well done. I wasn't
The new alien creatures were quite original, and it was really fascinating to see how the actions of the human race paralleled with what the aliens did before they evolved.
Russell does a great job at creating a futuristic and technologically advanced world, and her historic descriptions are amazing.
She also does a great job at creating a lonely character who you root for and hope for the best
The alien language was also a really nice addition to the book. I didn't understand how the characters picked up on it so quickly, but it was really cool to read about.

What I Didn't Love:

I couldn't connect with the characters
I didn't enjoy the romance...or whatever it was
The plot twists were kind of forced, so the transitions were kind of awkward as well.
The beginning was a bit slow, but once you got a few pages in it was really nicely paced and fun to read. There was a lot of information given to the reader, so that contributed to the slowness.

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