Book source ~ Review copy. My review is honest and voluntary.

Kael and Alessia are from the planet Lyra. They’ve only ever known to conserve resources because they are scarce. When they develop space travel the Lyrans discover nearby planets are just as resource deprived as their own and of very little help. It takes a scientist discovering something called “thinnings” to give them hope. Thinnings are a means of traveling from one universe to another and the planets that are there. Sometimes they get lucky and find information and/or resources to use on their own planet. But in all their years of traveling they find no sentient life left on most of the planets they find. When Kael and Alessia find a clue to solving a major problem they are tasked to follow it, something that Alessia’s dad and crew tried two years before and never returned from. Will their fate be the same?

What a great space adventure this is! Completely alien, it still rings true for Earth. Lyrans are trying to scavenge other planets for resources because theirs is practically worthless. Many planets they discover are abandoned. Well, that’s never a good sign. Bringing back foodstuffs or other things that could be recycled is how Kael and Alessia make their money. It’s a dangerous job, but they are methodical and careful. That makes them one of the best teams around, but not always very profitable.

When they discover a clue on a frozen world, their leader gives them a grant to follow it. The thing is, well, Alessia’s dad and his crew, probably the best crew there ever was, set off to do the same thing two years previously and never returned. Kael and Alessia are apprehensive, but willing to try. They hire a bodyguard, Basteel, get as many supplies as they can safely carry, alter their car (technically spaceship), and upgrade their weapons then when all the lists are checked, double-checked, and triple-checked they take off.

The first couple of thinnings take them to places they’ve already been. One’s slightly dangerous and one that should not have been dangerous, but is? The space station they jump to has something very wrong with it and they have to see what that is. When they do, well. What the hell? Ok. So, this leg of the journey has proven to be very interesting. So they move on to a nice planet where there’s warehouses for explorers to restock, rest, and make repairs. Now it’s time to make the jump to the crystal planet that proved to be fatal (was it? who knows?) to Alessia’s dad and crew. They assume extreme danger and approach with as much caution as possible. Holy shit.

Each jump brings more things for them to overcome and one of them has folds in space and weird life forms that just make my brain hurt. It’s the only jump that I didn’t enjoy reading about. It is so confusing to me that even now, days later, I still don’t know what the fuck it’s all about. Anyway, that’s just a small disappointing blip in an otherwise fantastic tale of space adventuring. I love the characters, I love the world, and I love the plot. Except for that one jump to Carthusian and that’s just a personal thing of mine. I don’t do well with alternate universes, space folds/rifts, and stuff like that. My other slight complaint is the POV shifting tends to happen quickly. From one person and back again without warning. I got used to it, but it was a tad confusing at first. If you like your sci-fi filled with space travel, humor, danger, and excitement then I highly recommend you give Parasites a go. ( )