Name: Changing Course
ISBN: 9781635553352

Brey Willows

When the woman of your dreams falls from the sky, you'd better be ready to catch her.

Changing Course

Jude Silberfeld

Some books I have trouble reviewing and I don’t really know why. Changing Course is one of those, even though I liked it, a lot. So while I usually try and write my review with the story still fresh in my mind, I decided to let this one sit for a few days and see what stayed with me.

First of all I have to say how impressed I am with the outstanding world-building in this book. There’s a lot of traveling on the Indemnion planet, and I had no problem imagining what each place was like, and how each person the MCs met looked.

Jessa Arabelle is an intergalactic space captain, whose ship crashes after a collision with an asteroid. She manages to get everyone into escape pods and jump into the last one with some of her crew only to nosedive onto the very uninviting planet of Indemnion. Very aware of her responsibilities as a captain, she’ll do everything she can to protect her crew until she finds a way to bring them home. Kylin Enderson was born and raised in Indemnion and meets the crash survivors on her way to scavenge the wreck. When Jessa insists she lets her come along in hope of finding others survivors, Kylin can’t say no.

Kylin is used to fending for herself, scrounging what she can and enrolling in fights to feed herself and get her sick father the cough medecine he needs. Jessa is a hard worker but comes from a completely different world, where poverty doesn’t exist and emotions are shunned in favor of rational, sensible and pragmatic decisions. Even as she falls for Kylin, she has a hard time understanding what her life is really like.

Changing Course is an exciting read, bringing to life a fascinating world, both awfully scary at times and delightfully beautiful too. Yet, as wonderful as the sci-fi aspect of the book is (definitely 5*), I found the romance aspect a bit lacking. I didn’t really get the emotion I was expecting. Hence the 4* rating. Then again, the characters are good, they’re layered and intense, and I loved Asol. I wouldn’t say no to a sequel about her…

I received a copy from the publisher and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

Megan Cooper

3.25 - 3.50
I really do like Brey Willows as an author - her Fury series was an imaginative and original and I thoroughly enjoyed all three books. She is adept at writing outside the standard lesfic box adding Urban Fantasy and specfic twists that I particularly like. I was looking forward to her turning her hand to SF but this one sort of missed the mark for me. As expected, the book is well written and entertaining but the characters didn't grab me and there just wasn't enough depth in the societies of Indemnion I think it wasn't SF enough for what I was in the mood for. 

As a light SF, this works well - with enough action and romance to keep a reader hooked. After crash landing on Indemnion, a planet outside the normal shipping routes and a rather rough society that's structured around city-states with little law and order, Jessa and her crew meet up with local scounger Kylin Enderson. After sending the crew to the closest city, Jessa joins Kylin as she continues on to see what other wreckage may have crashed. As they travel they meet up with nomads, another city state, slavers and an indigenous species who most on the planet consider to be legends. The romance builds between the two starting with a physical attraction but developing as they learn more about one another. 

Despite quite a bit of world-building - Brey does create and populate an entire planet - it didn't feel like it went deep enough and some of the societal issues raised seemed to be a bit too easily resolved. I couldn't figure out why there was no communication between the cities - they had the technology but they have to travel over land and sea to get anywhere or talk to anyone. I also struggled with Jessa as a character - she's a starship captain and from a society that values logic over emotion but she just seemed too passive and accepting of everything.

Changing Course

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