Starless Night

Dark Horizons #2

by Rae D. Magdon, Michelle Magly

In this sequel to Dark Horizons, Taylor and Maia did not know where they would go when they fled Earth. They simply trusted Akton to take them somewhere safe. Leaving behind a wake of chaos and disorder, Coalition soldier Rachel is left to deal with the backlash of Taylor’s actions, and soon finds herself chasing after the runaways. Rachel quickly learns the final frontier is not a forgiving place for humans, but her chances for survival are better out there than back on Earth. Meanwhile, Taylor and Maia find themselves living off the generosity of rebel leader Sorra, an ikthian living a double life for the sake of the rebellion. With Maia’s research in hand, Sorra believes they can deliver a fatal blow against the Dominion.

Genres: Science Fiction, LGBT, Romance, Lesbian, Fantasy

218 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 29, 2015

About the author

Rae D. Magdon is an author of queer lesbian fiction. Her stories celebrate lesbian, bisexual, queer, and trans women falling in love, and she cares deeply about including characters of color in her work. In addition to publishing novels about all kinds of women and their adventures, she has an extensive fanfiction collection available for free online.

Reviews

[Dani · Rating 5 out of 5]

After Dark Horizons, we're left with the predicament where our main character Taylor is now a fugitive, along with Maia. I thoroughly enjoyed the second instalment of this series, since I really enjoyed the first one. It took me way to long to finally start reading it. It was interesting for me to discover more about the other planets and especially species. While we only really get to see the naledai, it's still so fascinating for me. This series definitely does have an M.E vibe but I'm a massive fan, so this was really up my alley. In book one we saw Maia as the captive and Taylor as her guard, but in book two those roles are reversed. Taylor becomes a bit more reserved, since she's been thrust into a situation she's never had to deal with before. Maia is in her element, so more of her personality comes out and I must say, I love her so much. I feel as though book two was not enough plot. I wanted more. More development, more action, more love. TAYLOR AND MAIA NEED TO JUST LOVE EACH OTHER, JFC. So I'm extremely excited for the next instalment. Thank you Rae and Michelle for writing this wonderful series.

[DefinitelyNotARabbit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 2 improved in all the ways I wanted it to. Deeper side characters and more world building, but dang that cliffhanger. I need book 3 like yesterday.

[Dani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Taylor and Maia escaped Earth with the help of their Naledai friend Akton. Akton takes them to a rebellion leader Sorra. It’s a role reversal for Taylor. She is now the lone human. Limited in what she is aloud to do, with new and strange food, and few places she can visit. Her and Maia take a step back in their physical relationship. Maia knows she loves Taylor, but she wants the time to properly get to know Taylor before hoping back into bed with her. Taylor wants to give Maia all the time she needs, but can’t help but feel further adrift with the new developments. Sorra uses alias and husband’s space station to help the rebellion take down the Dominion. She enlist her old school friend Odelle to help find a way to release Maia’s research to the planets under the Dominion’s rule. Rachel is blamed for Taylors’s escape and exiled from Earth. The Coalition has left her only one option, return Taylor to Earth and reclaim her career. In her quest to find Taylor, the propaganda the coalition has told her is proven wrong. The Naledai rebellion is full of ikthian deserters. She meets one such ikthian named Elurin. Through Elurin her eyes are opened to the truth and the good in some ikthian. When she hears of Taylor’s location, Elurin helps her make her way to help Taylor and Maia. But, things backfire before the plans can be set into motion and the six of them have to fight the seekers to stay alive and get off the station.

[Zara · Rating 3 out of 5]

(This is based on me reading the first and second book and I don’t know what happens in the third book so if I get anything wrong I apologise)

I was excited going into this book after the first instalment and I came out a bit disappointed. I love we had more time with Taylor and Maia even if I felt like it dragged on a bit, and the plot line with Rachel was ok but my main problem with this book is Sorra and Odelle. They take up so much of the book on their past and relationship, Sorra and Odelle are important characters to the story but I felt they focused on their relationship so much when Rachel’s plot line was very weak despite the book making you think that we would focus on Taylor and Maia hiding from Rachel, if they focused more on Rachel we would’ve seen more conflict on how she thinks of the Ikthians not all being bad. Which at times made it difficult for me to keep reading when I put it down for a day or two.

Overall while I was disappointed I still enjoyed it, I just hope in the third book they focus more on Taylor and Maia’s relationship and then finally finding peace.

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. This was much better than book one. There's less sex and more political intrigue, action, and world building which is great. Not to say that the romance was between Taylor and Maia took a back seat because it didn't. The growth of their relationship was good and I loved that they wanted to slow down and get to know each other more. I thought that was a great decision on the authors part honestly because I was able to really see what made them so attracted to each other. The ending to this left me wanting more and I will for sure be picking up book three soon.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book, especially after the set up in Dark Horizons. I'm really looking forward to the third one.

The intrigue of the differences in aliens really grabbed me and I just ate the characters up. <3

[Macsyrup · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great second part of this space series.

Loved to read about the different backgrounds of the characters - about their languages and stuff.

[Terri Basner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the previous book (Dark Horizons) and love both authors. I couldn't wait for this sequel to release. After reading it I found that it wasn't as entertaining as the first book. Events seemed to drag on with lots of talking about "what to do" when very little was happening. Then you get to the ending where the action happens and it was so fast paced I felt I missed out on a thrilling experience. I will still support both authors, but this title wasn't their best work.

[Elisa Rolle · Rating 5 out of 5]

2016 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention: Starless Nights
A taut plot filled with nonstop action. Clear, crisp prose, and a diverse cast of excellent characters. Thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish.

[Michelle]

I wrote with Rae D Magdon! If you read it, rate it and leave a comment!

[Michelle]

Read it! Comment on it! Please!