Valerie Valdes

A hilarious, offbeat debut space opera that skewers everything from pop culture to video games and features an irresistible foul-mouthed captain and her motley crew, strange life forms, exciting twists, and a galaxy full of fun and adventure. Captain Eva Innocente and the crew of La Sirena Negra cruise the galaxy delivering small cargo for even smaller profits. When her sister Mari is kidnapped by The Fridge, a shadowy syndicate that holds people hostage in cryostasis, Eva must undergo a series of unpleasant, dangerous missions to pay the ransom. But Eva may lose her mind before she can raise the money. The ship’s hold is full of psychic cats, an amorous fish-faced emperor wants her dead after she rejects his advances, and her sweet engineer is giving her a pesky case of feelings. The worse things get, the more she lies, raising suspicions and testing her loyalty to her found family. To free her sister, Eva will risk everything: her crew, her ship, and the life she’s built on the ashes of her past misdeeds. But when the dominoes start to fall and she finds the real threat is greater than she imagined, she must decide whether to play it cool or burn it all down.

Chilling Effect

Clair High

Colleen

3 Stars
 
*A humorous & adventurous Space Opera with a fragmented plot and icky alien sex*


I’ve been having pretty good luck with SciFi the last couple of years. Chilling Effect sounded like a lighter, fun Space Opera.

It stars a Cuban-descended space ship captain who is being blackmailed by an email shadow corporation that wants her to do a series of strange missions in exchange for the release of her sister. Bound by familial duty, Eva Innocente attempts to get her ragtag crew through the increasingly bizarre and dangerous missions while hiding their real purpose from them.


  “That was war for you, like a game of musical chairs where seats kept disappearing until only one was left, and people rarely stopped to ask who the hell was in charge of the music.”

The story did have a lot of humorous moments. Potty-mouthed, morally grey Eva and her crew were entertaining. Add in some psychic cats, strange alien worlds, an evil corporation, and family drama, and you have an action packed and entertaining story. But the plot started to feel too much like random fetch quests. Most of the story is just a series of missions that don’t actually have anything to do with the plot. They introduced some entertaining events and some character development happened along the way, but they still had that pointless fetch quest feel. After a point, I stopped trying to keep track of the different worlds and alien races. Most of them are only mentioned once anyway. Things are inserted into the story for one scene, and the majority of them are only relevant to those specific events. It wasn’t until about three-quarters of way through the story, that I really got invested in the plot. Yes, I was entertained, but I was not desperate to know what happened next. Hence why it took me a couple of weeks to read. I kept putting Chilling Effect aside to finish other books.

But where Chilling Effect really lost me was the interspecies romance and sex scenes. And no, the sex scenes were not overly explicit, but I’d still like to scrub them from my memory. I know there is a whole section of people who are really into the alien hanky-panky. I am not one of them. Tentacles, horns, scales, and fur do not appeal to me. So the fact that the love interest in this book is described as a humanoid pangolin was a huge, “Hell no!” for me.

I. Just. Can’t.

Pangolins are not sexy. Sure, they are kind of cute in an awkward way. They make funny memes. They do not, however, inspire any lust in me. Pangolins are in an entirely lust-free zone along with stamp collecting, taxes, and every other animal on this planet. 


  “Maybe it was the quennian’s pangolin-like skin, or his twitchy face-palp things, or the fact that his smell changed to match his mood.”


Twitchy face-palp things?? Yeah, this guy is going slightly below Jabba the Hutt on the list of characters I will never find sexy. Maybe if the author didn’t constantly remind readers that Vakar looked like a pangolin. And almost every time the face-palps were mentioned they were described as “twitching.” As yes, the sexiness of twitchy face-appendages. Try to restrain your lust, my dear. Plus being told what he smelled like based on his emotions got old too. I literally cringed so many times while reading this book.

Also, it’s super disappointing to have psychic cats in a book and barely use them! And this book did contain the dreaded phrase, “She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.” On the other hand, it did have chapter titles which I wish more adult books included.

Like I said, this was still a fun, entertaining story. It certainly did a better job at being diverse yet engaging than the overhyped snoozefest that was The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (which incidentally also had interspecies sex scenes that made me nauseous).

I’m on the fence about whether or not to continue the series. There is a part of me that is curious to know what happens next. But then I think that what happens next is probably more alien horizontal rumba time with a supposedly sexy pangolin with twitchy face palps… and I start feeling queasy again.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 3 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 2 Stars
Originality: 3 Stars

Maggie Gordon

Chilling Effect is everything I wanted A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet to be: found family, but with plot! It's a bit clunky, but good for a first novel. Ancient artifacts, alien romance, and sinister plots! Sometimes I wanted to smack the main character, but the action never stops and the book flies by :)

So I'm realizing that I don't like humor books. I like funny moments in books, but if a book can be put in the humor genre, it's not my thing. I'm sure people who actually like books like the Hitchhikers Guide would enjoy this, but I personally don't find them super compelling.

Mahogany Skillings

Captain Eva Innocente is my new captain, ST:Deep Space Nine's Sisqo has been dethroned.

She's a hard talking, hard drinking, hard hitting, hard loving captain and while she frequently ends up in compromising situations, she's has the brains and gusto to get out of them - mostly. The Fridge (the big bad) doesn't know who they were messing with. I can't wait for the next installment.

Lauren Sullivan

After seeing that beautiful cover art and the tag that it was vaguely reminiscent of Firefly and had psychic cats, I made sure I was first on my library’s hold list for this book. While some of it lived up to that promise, on the whole, the book fell short.

“You get off this tired-ass rock, for one. Back to the black, wandering the galaxy instead of being stuck here.”
“I didn’t realize I was a sweet young moisture farmer with dreams of space travel.”

First off, it is pretty funny, though sometimes to the point of ridiculousness, including a particularly bizarre dinosaur soap-opera-esque scene. There’s lots of nods to other scifi canon, like Portal, Mass Effect, and even Star Wars. The wackiness contrasts with the rest of the storyline – saving her sister from the galactic mob – and the fact that Eva has a very morally grey past (exactly what is never fully described, we just know she did Bad Things) but she’s trying to reform. The missions for the Fridge bring her right back to that past. But rather than it being Eva and her family – or found-family – against the world, Eva’s stuck lying to her crew about their missions to protect them and her family is, basically, part of the problem.

“I thought you’d be taller.”
“I thought you’d be prettier,” Captain Baldessare said.
“I thought you’d be smarter,” Captain Sakai said.
“Being legendary is fucking garbage,” Eva said as she followed the squad leader out.

Despite Eva’s constant wrangling over her moral quandaries, I liked her. She does some pretty morally grey things, but she has a big heart and she means well. Yes, she’s lying to her crew, but she believes she’s protecting them from the Fridge. Yeah, she sort of got a space station blown up, but it wasn’t really her fault some alien emperor wouldn’t take no for an answer… I liked Eva’s crew, but I could’ve used more interactions with them. Eva spends so much time in the book feeling guilty over lying to her crew that we get very little real found-family moments with them, and that’s the part of space operas that I love the most. Of the crew, Vakar, her love interest, was the most well-developed, but that was mostly in regards to how she felt about him. I loved Pink, as well, and would’ve loved to have more about her. Min and Leroy felt barely-there, only good for a quick joke or more fuel to Eva’s self-flagellation.

Part of the lack of crew interaction is that it’s very episodic. Each mission for the Fridge has La Sirena Negra flying off to a new planet and encountering wacky new characters. The missions, on their own, are usually quite funny and well done, but they didn’t always tie neatly back into the overarching plot or advance character development. Each mission is bookended by Eva agonizing over putting her crew in danger and about how bad of a person she is. For the most part, it’s very action-packed… until it’s not, making the pacing uneven. There’s lots of alien creatures, which is always a plus for me, but everything’s light on description, even Eva’s love interest. I was never quite sure what Vakar looked like, besides being vaguely pangolin-like and having face palps, which make me think of him sort of like a giant cockroach (*not* sexy). Another thing that exacerbated the pacing issues was the liberal use of Spanish. My Spanish is pretty terrible, so I had to spend a non-negligible amount of time on Google Translate. As a positive, I now know a lot more swear words in Spanish, but as a negative, it did interrupt my reading experience. While I liked how immersive it was in Eva’s culture, it was disruptive for a non-Spanish speaking reader, and honestly I’m not sure how to fix that issue.

In summary, there’s lots of excellent components, but it didn’t add up to a compelling whole for me. I think it’s still a promising first novel, though, and I’ll probably pick up the next in the series to see if some of the issues are addressed.

Jessica Nottingham

Oh, this book! First off, I have to praise Harper Voyager for pushing #ownvoices books out in the world. Captain Eva Innocente was hilarious, snarky, and the kind of woman I’d gladly follow into battle. The fact that she just so happened to cuss in Spanish whenever she was extremely angry made me crack up laughing. As a person with a family who does the same I couldn’t help but love Eva, prickles and all.

Starting with the good, I can definitely say that there’s not a boring character in this book. Eva’s whole crew is just a bit mad, and full of personality. Although I suppose they would have to be, to follow Eva Innocente. I loved their family dynamic, and how much each of them was willing to sacrifice for any of the rest of them. The ship felt like a place that I’d want to visit. Provided I wasn’t visiting on a day when Eva decided to get into a fight, that is.

In terms of the plot, the overall story line was pretty solid. I liked that they brought Eva’s actual family into the picture, and that Eva did do some growing up throughout the story. Let’s be honest, we all make bad decisions. Eva just makes a lot of them all at the same time, for a fair amount of this book. What pushed this book down in ratings for me as mainly the pacing, to be honest. It drags at points, and runs at a mad pace during others. I needed a little more of an even keel, to keep me reading on.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m in the for the long haul on this series. I liked Eva and her misfit crew enough that I’ll be back for the next book. I only hope that now that we’ve established the dynamic between these characters, things will even out a bit. I’d love to dive deeper into the places that La Sirena Negra travels, follow along on more battles, and giggle madly at the banter between these friends. So, count me in. I’ll be waiting.

Jane Krauss

As a sci-fi fan and a cat momma, the book hooked me to start with. The characters are great, and I found myself invested in their story. I found myself invested with the main character; however, not long after the start, I often found myself skimming bits that I didn't enjoy. I wanted to get to know the character more. I didn't even get a real sense of Eva’s age. 
I felt like I needed to know Spanish because there seemed to be lots of random Spanish without much explanation. Also, the leading character names a ship, something I'm sure means something in Spanish but makes no sense to me. Furthermore, I find the place names and billion figure to be a bit cheesy for my liking. For example, ”The Fridge, e-mail, sound holes or father-ship.”
There are so many random side plots, and so many times I felt, ’this would be a great place to end,’ but no. 
Also, the author used the word sapient instead of sentient throughout the entire book. I'm very sure it's the wrong word because it would have a very different meaning otherwise.

Ariel Johnson

Boothby

'Hilarious and heartwarming . . . my shields are at full strength and my heart is ready for Eva's next adventure' Patrick Weekes, Lead writer at BioWare (Dragon Age, Mass Effect) A debut space opera that features an irresistible foul-mouthed captain and her misfit crew . . . Captain Eva Innocente and the crew of La Sirena Negra cruise the galaxy delivering small cargo for even smaller profits. When her sister is kidnapped, Eva must undergo a series of dangerous missions to pay the ransom. But Eva may lose her mind before she can raise the money. The ship's hold is full of psychic cats, an amorous fish-faced emperor wants her dead, and her engineer is giving her a pesky case of feelings. The worse things get, the more she lies, raising suspicions and testing her loyalty to her found family. To free her sister, Eva will risk everything: her crew, her ship, and the life she's built on the ashes of her past misdeeds. But when the dominoes start to fall and she finds the real threat is greater than she imagined, she must decide whether to play it cool or burn it all down. 'Jam-packed with weird aliens, mysterious artefacts, and lovable characters... A tremendous good time and an impressive debut' Kirkus Reviews (starred review) 'Mass Effect meets The Expanse in this energetic space opera adventure. Eva Innocente is an unforgettable starship captain and I love every member of her crew-slash-family. This book has enough twists to keep you up way past bedtime, and I can't wait for the sequel' Michael R. Underwood, host of The Skiffy and Fanty Show 'This engaging space opera debut delivers a story that dances between hilarity and seriousness, with all the joy and frustration psychic cats can bring to the mix' Library Journal (starred review) 'Imagine if Firefly and Mass Effect got together and had a baby, and that baby were delivered by Guillermo del Toro. This book is that baby. ¡Esto fue un triunfo!' Curtis C. Chen