Wraith

The Carriena Oracles #2

by Laura Eno

Book Two of the Carriena Oracles

Someone wants them dead. Another wants them captured. No one can be trusted. Secrets, lies, and revelations await Raven and Mikael as their search for Mikael's missing friend leads them to Wraith, a mysterious moon owned by Jeffrey Hamilton, cybernetics genius and Ben's creator. How much of the Oracle's technology does Hamilton possess and where did it come from?

Raven's nightmares from the past threaten her sanity, while Mikael's guilt slowly consumes him. Ben's in more danger than anyone as they race to find the answers to uncertain questions—questions which could lead to death for them all.

78 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2012

About the author

Laura Eno lives in Florida with three skulking cats and two absurdly happy dogs. After spending years immersed in college but never figuring out what she wanted to be when she grew up, she now writes novels late at night with the help of muses from the underworld. And, no, she still hasn't grown up but that's okay. Please visit her strange imagination at Laura Eno and follow her on Twitter at lauraeno

Reviews

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Evoking Firefly crossed with I Robot, Laura Eno invites readers back into the lives of Raven’s fine cast of characters in this second book of the Carienna Oracles. Mikael is still tortured by regrets after losing his friend in their first search for the Oracles. Now he longs to find out what really happened. Meanwhile Raven has fallen in love, something she thought would never happen. But events spin out of control and leave her losing her fragile sense of self-worth. “You have love and hope and good friends willing to help,” her android friend, Ben, assures her. And indeed, Ben might be the most interesting, and most endangered character of them all.

Another pleasingly quick read in the series, Wraith takes the characters to an almost invisible moon, beautifully imagined and convincingly described. Betrayals ensue, loyalties are tested, and an evil tycoon manipulates everyone who ventures into his grasp. But Raven does indeed have love and hope and good friends, who eventually prevail. I certainly hope there’ll be more to these tales from Laura Eno.



Disclosure: With thanks to the author for giving me an ecopy of this story.

[Ron Fritsch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wraith is the second book in Laura Eno’s "romantic space opera" series “The Carriena Oracles.” I recently read the first book, Raven, and gratefully gave it a five-star review.

Three thousand years in the future, Raven owns and pilots a spaceship, with the able assistance of her co-pilot Ben, an android she’s bought. How she came to own a spaceship and an expensive android is part of a heart-breaking back-story I won’t reveal in this review. In any event, she and Ben, perhaps the most intriguing character in this series, are mostly alone in space.

Then she picks up a paying customer, Mikael, from an archaic world, Algora. This is his first time in space. He’s looking for stone Oracles like the one on Algora. Many Algorans consider their Oracle a god. But if, as it seems, there are other Oracles on other worlds, what then? Mikael’s quest is to discover what Oracles are. That would be mine, as well.

The adventure takes Raven, Mikael, Ben, and their three passengers to Wraith, a moon of Seaward. I can’t reveal too much about what happens there without including spoilers in this review. But I can say we meet Jeffrey Hamilton, a would-be ruler of the universe who needs Mikael’s knowledge of the Oracles to achieve his purpose.

Hamilton takes Raven, Mikael, Ben, and their three allies as his prisoners in order to get what he wants from them. His mistake is to assume that he’s more clever than they are. Despite his vast power over them, can they escape him and Wraith?

Laura made me fervently hope they could. Can a reader ask for more from a writer?

I look forward to Laura Eno’s next book in her series. I’ll no doubt begin reading it the very day she publishes it.