Title: The Disasters
Author: M.K England
Series: Standalone (I think)
Genre: Sci-fi/YA/LGBT
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: December 18th, 2018
Edition: Kindle Edition, 368 pages
Source: Received for review
Synopsis:
Hotshot pilot Nax Hall has a history of making poor life choices. So it’s not exactly a surprise when he’s kicked out of the elite Ellis Station Academy in less than twenty-four hours.
But Nax’s one-way trip back to Earth is cut short when a terrorist group attacks the Academy. Nax and three other washouts escape—barely—but they’re also the sole witnesses to the biggest crime in the history of space colonization. And the perfect scapegoats.
On the run and framed for atrocities they didn’t commit, Nax and his fellow failures execute a dangerous heist to spread the truth about what happened at the Academy.
They may not be “Academy material,” and they may not get along, but they’re the only ones left to step up and fight.
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Review:
This was a really fun book. I love the variety of characters, race, religion, sexuality, and gender identity. It felt like a natural mix of people. This was an action-packed story that made it a very fast read, I would have read in quicker if my dinosaur of a tablet hadn't kept freezing on me.I really enjoyed this book though, the setting had me a little confused at times though, being set only about 180 years (2195 is the year given) into the future seemed a little early to me. For how the world is, having not only conquered long-distance space travel but also having multiple planets terraformed and colonized, I felt it should be closer to 3195. But that's really the only technical error I could find.
Nax, our narrator, is a pretty well-rounded character. He is a hotshot, he has the kind of confidence in his abilities that to outsiders might come across as being full of himself, but he actually has the skills to back it up.
I only wish that the other characters had as much backstory as Nax. Rion, Case, Asra, and Zee are all interesting characters that I would have liked to get to know more about. We get to know some of their backgrounds, but since this book is told from Nax's perspective we only get to know what they tell us, rather than see their thought process as we got to with Nax, which I think helps us get to know characters a little better.
The antagonist is also someone I kind of would have liked to know a little better. None of the other characters, except Asra, have any personal connection to him other than he facilitated them being used as scapegoats for the attack that started his terrorist attack. I felt that their motivation to help Asra and trust her as quickly as they did would have been better had they had a more personal connection to him.
I don't typically read, or like Sci-fi that much, but this book was a lot of fun to read and I really enjoyed it, my small complaints aside.
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About the Author
M.K. England is an author and YA librarian living who grew up on the Space Coast of Florida and now calls the mountains of Virginia home. When she’s not writing or librarianing, MK can be found drowning in fandom, going to conventions, rolling dice at the gaming table, climbing on things in the woods, or feeding her video game addiction. She loves Star Wars with a desperate, heedless passion. It’s best if you never speak of Sherlock Holmes in her presence. You’ll regret it. For the latest DISASTERS news, you can subscribe to the monthly newsletter, Eccentric Orbit.
You can also find her on Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr | Website
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