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Aggressor Queen #2
Chrysalis
Earth is in danger… again!
Having repelled the alien invaders, Earth once more belongs to humans. On Earth, the few remaining humans struggle to rebuild. Off Earth, the human ambassador, Khara, leads the mission to establish interplanetary trade with the peaceful Alliance. Progress and prosperity seem assured.
When Khara is attacked during an off-planet mission, she believes it to be an isolated incident… until she learns of the secret abductions of humans from Earth.
Now, as an unknown force sabotages the human seat in the Alliance, the abductions and attacks on Earth escalate, and an assassin hunts Khara, it is once again up to Khara and a small band of humans to fight for survival of the human race. Still weakened and recovering from the previous invasion, will they be able to pass the ultimate test and prove their right to existence?
This exciting sci-fi adventure plunges the reader into a deeply personal story of struggle and perseverance in the face of unsurmountable obstacles – thrilling from beginning to end!
Having repelled the alien invaders, Earth once more belongs to humans. On Earth, the few remaining humans struggle to rebuild. Off Earth, the human ambassador, Khara, leads the mission to establish interplanetary trade with the peaceful Alliance. Progress and prosperity seem assured.
When Khara is attacked during an off-planet mission, she believes it to be an isolated incident… until she learns of the secret abductions of humans from Earth.
Now, as an unknown force sabotages the human seat in the Alliance, the abductions and attacks on Earth escalate, and an assassin hunts Khara, it is once again up to Khara and a small band of humans to fight for survival of the human race. Still weakened and recovering from the previous invasion, will they be able to pass the ultimate test and prove their right to existence?
This exciting sci-fi adventure plunges the reader into a deeply personal story of struggle and perseverance in the face of unsurmountable obstacles – thrilling from beginning to end!
533 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 15, 2024
2 people are currently reading
About the author
Davyne DeSye
13 books126 followersDavyne is the author of Through the Eyes of the Opera Ghost, a retelling of the Phantom of the Opera from the Phantom's point of view, as well as the Phantom Rising Series – a trio of historical romances which continue the saga of the Phantom of the Opera. She has also authored the Aggressor Queen Series – a duo of alien invasion science fiction novels. She has also written a sweet paranormal ghost romance, Love Whispers Through the Veil, and an anthology of speculative fiction short stories, Soap Bubble Dreams and Other Distortions.
Davyne’s writing focuses on strong characterization, a sense of adventure, and emotional impact, reflecting her own passionate view on life. She draws from positive experiences in her life (going on safari, being in a television commercial, becoming a lifeguard) and more painful ones (being kidnapped as a child at knife-point [promptly rescued by Dad!], breaking her arms falling 60 feet off a cliff, breaking her neck at the senior prom) to realistically craft her characters, both good and evil.
Davyne grew up traveling the world with her diplomat parents, and has lived in Germany, Bolivia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Japan, and Korea. After several academic (including computer programming and fine art photography!) and career choices, she finally settled into the law and was an attorney for over twenty years, although writing has always been her first true love.
The list of things she loves is long and includes her family (she survived having five teenagers at one time!), Christmas, cooking, laughing, being an introvert (despite her propensity to arm-waving when excited about a topic), intriguing mouths, sneezing and – of course – reading. Her list of dislikes is relatively small: bigots, hypocrites and mean people. Oh, and lima beans.
She lives with her husband in their Colorado home and in Mexico.
Want to know more?
Interview With Author Davyne DeSye
Authors Talk: A Discussion with Davyne DeSye
Stay connected with Davyne by signing up for her email list. You'll receive a FREE short story just for signing up as well as exclusive updates on giveaways, new releases, cover reveals, sneak peeks, etc. HERE.
Visit Davyne at:
Her Webpage
Instagram
Facebook
BookBub
YouTube
Pinterest
Watch her book trailers:
Phantom Rising Series:
#1 - For Love of the Phantom
#2 - Skeletons in the Closet
#3 – Phantom Rising
Love Whispers Through the Veil
Carapace
Soap Bubble Dreams and Other Distortions
Davyne’s writing focuses on strong characterization, a sense of adventure, and emotional impact, reflecting her own passionate view on life. She draws from positive experiences in her life (going on safari, being in a television commercial, becoming a lifeguard) and more painful ones (being kidnapped as a child at knife-point [promptly rescued by Dad!], breaking her arms falling 60 feet off a cliff, breaking her neck at the senior prom) to realistically craft her characters, both good and evil.
Davyne grew up traveling the world with her diplomat parents, and has lived in Germany, Bolivia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Japan, and Korea. After several academic (including computer programming and fine art photography!) and career choices, she finally settled into the law and was an attorney for over twenty years, although writing has always been her first true love.
The list of things she loves is long and includes her family (she survived having five teenagers at one time!), Christmas, cooking, laughing, being an introvert (despite her propensity to arm-waving when excited about a topic), intriguing mouths, sneezing and – of course – reading. Her list of dislikes is relatively small: bigots, hypocrites and mean people. Oh, and lima beans.
She lives with her husband in their Colorado home and in Mexico.
Want to know more?
Interview With Author Davyne DeSye
Authors Talk: A Discussion with Davyne DeSye
Stay connected with Davyne by signing up for her email list. You'll receive a FREE short story just for signing up as well as exclusive updates on giveaways, new releases, cover reveals, sneak peeks, etc. HERE.
Visit Davyne at:
Her Webpage
BookBub
YouTube
Watch her book trailers:
Phantom Rising Series:
#1 - For Love of the Phantom
#2 - Skeletons in the Closet
#3 – Phantom Rising
Love Whispers Through the Veil
Carapace
Soap Bubble Dreams and Other Distortions
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December 15, 2025This is a rare instance where I have in the past interacted with a writer through messaging or email etc. Though I feel friendly toward the author due to past exchanges, I have to be honest about this one, and the problems I had with it.
I’m sadly abandoning this at 1/4 of the way in because it’s really frustrating me. I’m not rating it however, since I have no intention of finishing it. And maybe it's just me. I’ve enjoyed several other books by Davyne DeSye, who can really write. But some narrative choices here just didn’t work for me at all.
I very much enjoyed her short story about this world in the sci-fi/fantasy collection, Soap Bubble Dreams, and later the novel, Carapace, which told the much bigger story of the invasion and occupation of Earth by ant-like creatures who subjugate humanity for a time.
In this follow-up to Carapace, which was great, in Chrysalis we have the aftermath of the successful rebellion against the occupation, and the destruction of the insane queen or whatever she was who did not really represent her species, the Semil.
Something is brewing, with a shape-shifting assassin on a secret mission, strange abductions taking place on Earth, and an alliance between species that to Khara’s and Samuel’s surprise, does not include Earth, who they thought had already been sponsored by the Semil. Earth is once again vulnerable.
It sounds very exciting, and it should be, yet there is way too much exposition and telling, way too much introspection. Dialog and reactions to it in real time would have cut so many pages, and given us the same if not better understanding of past and present. I feel the reader certainly would have been invested more that way.
One quick example is when the kind Semil from Carapace, Nestra, is about to reveal the explosive news about Earth’s situation in the Alliance to Khara and Samuel. The tension is building, and we’re waiting for the revelation so we’ll know why Khara and Samuel were nearly run out of a bar off-world. Well, it’s a long, long wait, because what should and could have been revealed excitingly, with some back and forth dialog and reactions, is mostly told in pages of introspection about Khara’s inability to get past the horrendous events of the invasion, and Samuel…well, you get the point. Dialog is at a minimum, with inner thoughts which are much too lengthy.
Another example is when the sixteen-year-old daughter of Khara and Samuel, Jemma, learns of a new threat. She’s about to respond, which could lead to the reader discovering much, while giving us a better picture of Jemma. But no, there’s very little dialog and reaction, but pages of individual thoughts and background, introspection and reflections on the past. It’s well written, because this is a good writer, but that’s part of what makes it so frustrating.
In essence, sad to say, this was my biggest overall issue with what I read of Chrysalis. The lengthy in-the-head-of style worked well with the assassin, for example, because he isn’t — at least up to 25% — interacting with anyone. But with the other characters, especially the main protagonists, who are interacting with one another, this style causes the narrative flow to lose all immediacy, killing the momentum which has been building toward new knowledge which will drive the story forward, and mutes the excitement once we arrive there.
Even in moments of action, such as the explosion of a place under the watery sky which precedes these abductions, there is more telling than showing, with little real-time dialog and reaction to this shocking turn of events. It should be exciting — yet it isn’t.
To use a racing analogy, much of the exposition and inner thoughts about past and present, act like a pop-off valve or restrictor plate — two methods of keeping an engine from reaching too high a RPM, or restricting an engine’s horsepower.
I held off tackling this one for quite some time because of the 500 + page count, which is only on very rare occasion justified. It took me a good while to get around to it, wanting to make sure I gave it a fair shot. I knew the writing would be good, because I’ve read other books by Davyne DeSye and enjoyed them — even in genres not necessarily in my wheelhouse. By reading 1/4 of it, I feel I gave it that fair shot, but perhaps should have listened to my gut. That was enough for me to conclude that the die had been cast, and everything in regard to the style of storytelling that was so frustrating me, would continue. It wasn’t the length, but the narrative choices, which caused the length.
If this story had two or three times the dialog it has, immediate interactions and conversations, and half the exposition and inner rumination on past and present, I’m betting it would be a hundred pages less, and a much more exciting and engaging read. There’s a great story here, but in my opinion it was throttled by the manner chosen to tell it.
A good writer with loads of talent, but sadly, in all honesty, this particular story — because of the manner in which it was told — ended up being a rare miss for me from this author. Others may feel quite differently. Another reason I'm leaving no rating.
I’m sadly abandoning this at 1/4 of the way in because it’s really frustrating me. I’m not rating it however, since I have no intention of finishing it. And maybe it's just me. I’ve enjoyed several other books by Davyne DeSye, who can really write. But some narrative choices here just didn’t work for me at all.
I very much enjoyed her short story about this world in the sci-fi/fantasy collection, Soap Bubble Dreams, and later the novel, Carapace, which told the much bigger story of the invasion and occupation of Earth by ant-like creatures who subjugate humanity for a time.
In this follow-up to Carapace, which was great, in Chrysalis we have the aftermath of the successful rebellion against the occupation, and the destruction of the insane queen or whatever she was who did not really represent her species, the Semil.
Something is brewing, with a shape-shifting assassin on a secret mission, strange abductions taking place on Earth, and an alliance between species that to Khara’s and Samuel’s surprise, does not include Earth, who they thought had already been sponsored by the Semil. Earth is once again vulnerable.
It sounds very exciting, and it should be, yet there is way too much exposition and telling, way too much introspection. Dialog and reactions to it in real time would have cut so many pages, and given us the same if not better understanding of past and present. I feel the reader certainly would have been invested more that way.
One quick example is when the kind Semil from Carapace, Nestra, is about to reveal the explosive news about Earth’s situation in the Alliance to Khara and Samuel. The tension is building, and we’re waiting for the revelation so we’ll know why Khara and Samuel were nearly run out of a bar off-world. Well, it’s a long, long wait, because what should and could have been revealed excitingly, with some back and forth dialog and reactions, is mostly told in pages of introspection about Khara’s inability to get past the horrendous events of the invasion, and Samuel…well, you get the point. Dialog is at a minimum, with inner thoughts which are much too lengthy.
Another example is when the sixteen-year-old daughter of Khara and Samuel, Jemma, learns of a new threat. She’s about to respond, which could lead to the reader discovering much, while giving us a better picture of Jemma. But no, there’s very little dialog and reaction, but pages of individual thoughts and background, introspection and reflections on the past. It’s well written, because this is a good writer, but that’s part of what makes it so frustrating.
In essence, sad to say, this was my biggest overall issue with what I read of Chrysalis. The lengthy in-the-head-of style worked well with the assassin, for example, because he isn’t — at least up to 25% — interacting with anyone. But with the other characters, especially the main protagonists, who are interacting with one another, this style causes the narrative flow to lose all immediacy, killing the momentum which has been building toward new knowledge which will drive the story forward, and mutes the excitement once we arrive there.
Even in moments of action, such as the explosion of a place under the watery sky which precedes these abductions, there is more telling than showing, with little real-time dialog and reaction to this shocking turn of events. It should be exciting — yet it isn’t.
To use a racing analogy, much of the exposition and inner thoughts about past and present, act like a pop-off valve or restrictor plate — two methods of keeping an engine from reaching too high a RPM, or restricting an engine’s horsepower.
I held off tackling this one for quite some time because of the 500 + page count, which is only on very rare occasion justified. It took me a good while to get around to it, wanting to make sure I gave it a fair shot. I knew the writing would be good, because I’ve read other books by Davyne DeSye and enjoyed them — even in genres not necessarily in my wheelhouse. By reading 1/4 of it, I feel I gave it that fair shot, but perhaps should have listened to my gut. That was enough for me to conclude that the die had been cast, and everything in regard to the style of storytelling that was so frustrating me, would continue. It wasn’t the length, but the narrative choices, which caused the length.
If this story had two or three times the dialog it has, immediate interactions and conversations, and half the exposition and inner rumination on past and present, I’m betting it would be a hundred pages less, and a much more exciting and engaging read. There’s a great story here, but in my opinion it was throttled by the manner chosen to tell it.
A good writer with loads of talent, but sadly, in all honesty, this particular story — because of the manner in which it was told — ended up being a rare miss for me from this author. Others may feel quite differently. Another reason I'm leaving no rating.
February 11, 2025
Another top-notch adventure
I loved returning to Earth (and space!) with Khara & Samuel. This time, we get to see who they’ve become nearly twenty years after their fight to liberate humanity from the Aggressor Queen. Meeting them in their 40’s, as mature adults, parents, and important leaders as Earthlings travel among the stars was a treat. The characters felt familiar, yet clearly more refined, subtle, mature.
The villain of this saga was easy to despise, and his motives clear and unflinching: greed. The introduction of the Alliance and the 30 races they represent could have, under the pen of a lesser author, either felt overwhelming or underdeveloped… but again Ms DeSye delivers!
I loved returning to Earth (and space!) with Khara & Samuel. This time, we get to see who they’ve become nearly twenty years after their fight to liberate humanity from the Aggressor Queen. Meeting them in their 40’s, as mature adults, parents, and important leaders as Earthlings travel among the stars was a treat. The characters felt familiar, yet clearly more refined, subtle, mature.
The villain of this saga was easy to despise, and his motives clear and unflinching: greed. The introduction of the Alliance and the 30 races they represent could have, under the pen of a lesser author, either felt overwhelming or underdeveloped… but again Ms DeSye delivers!
September 5, 2024
Book: **
Performance: **
This is the second book of the series ... and as noted with my review of the first, this just did not work for me at all; however, it is worth noting several improvements. First, the narration is much better, making much easier to distinguish which character is talk (with a few irritating quarks for the aliens, but I would rather suffer those than not have the differentiation). This story itself is less course and physically gross for me as well ... but the overall premise of a competition/game for entry into some form of an interstellar community/society is way too simplistic and unbelievable. Pacing is still slow and there is a lot of relationship drama that did nothing for me, but YMMV. Over all, while better, is not enough so for me to continue with the series.
I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#Chrysalis #AggressorQueen #FreeAudiobookCodes
Performance: **
This is the second book of the series ... and as noted with my review of the first, this just did not work for me at all; however, it is worth noting several improvements. First, the narration is much better, making much easier to distinguish which character is talk (with a few irritating quarks for the aliens, but I would rather suffer those than not have the differentiation). This story itself is less course and physically gross for me as well ... but the overall premise of a competition/game for entry into some form of an interstellar community/society is way too simplistic and unbelievable. Pacing is still slow and there is a lot of relationship drama that did nothing for me, but YMMV. Over all, while better, is not enough so for me to continue with the series.
I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#Chrysalis #AggressorQueen #FreeAudiobookCodes
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews