Syrin

by Lindsay Anderson

It has been 50 years since humans were introduced to the fantastic beings that shared their galaxy. Technology has been thrust to futuristic depths, producing an elaborate space station that orbits Earth where Tara lives with her mother and sister. But it is not quite the melting pot of cultures that idealists had hoped for. A tragedy on Earth pushes Tara and her family to abandon everything they know to escape being tied into the conspiracy. But who labeled them as traitors in the first place? As they run deeper into uncharted space, the mystery grows as thick as the tangles of trouble they find themselves in.

314 pages, Paperback

First published October 11, 2015

About the author

Lindsay Anderson was born in Tucson, Arizona and has moved in a cycle through three states most of her youth. She has been writing stories since high school and has many different series buzzing through her brain. Syrin is her first series published. She enjoys the view of her worlds through eyes of the powerful women she creates.

Amazon Profile: amazon.com/author/lindsayanderson

Syrin Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SyrinSeries/

Reviews

[Samantha Campfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can find my full review and a bonus asthetic photoset at http://bookwormeviewsandasthetic.tumb...
This book is for the Ya/Sci-fi crowd who loves an action packed, plot driven novel. I did receive this book for no cost via Goodreads Giveaways, but I would have marked it “to-read” anyway because the concept is so fascinating.

Our book begins with a snippet of one of our main characters past, when an alien ship landed in her backyard. Against all safety measures, Emmeline must help them, it’s who she is as a person.

We are thrown into the future into the day to day life of Emmelines daughter Tara, and younger sister, Max’s life. Tara and Max are two young women growing up on the space station named Noon which lies between Earth and open space. Tara and Max are normal children up here, well, as normal as you can be when your mother is The Earth Ambassador, and most of your classmates, teachers, neighbors and friends on Noon are different species of aliens. So maybe not so normal. After the Violet War, all species made a pact to live in peace, to work together for the betterment of our galaxy. But something has gone wrong.

The evening news becomes full screen, and no one wants to see whats on it, blood, so much alien blood, green and black, and oozing. This is how our story really begins. Earth is locked, something has gone wrong, almost 500 non-humans have been stripped, tortured, and murdered. No non-human is safe on Earth, and things at space station Noon are getting tense. Especially for Emmeline, The Earth Ambassador, as well as Tara and Max, some of the only humans in their classes.

All in a 24 hour period between finding out about the murders on Earth, Emmeline is charged as a traitor when she has don nothing wrong, the entire space station is on a hunt to find them and the girls have no choice but to run. In this story, we travel from the space station to an on-the-run bounty hunters ship, kidnapped by an Alien species, and dare to challenge the status quo.

I really could have loved this book, but I needed to learn more backstory about The Violet war, more about Emmeline’s backstory. As well as what is really going on with all the murders on Earth. I have so many questions that it somewhat ruined my reading experience. What is an actual Syrin? Who is the ghost they encounter? What are these abilities that Emmeline and Max have, and why do they have them? What exactly is Madrid, an why does she want revenge? I felt all these backstories and further plot development would have made this book a full 5 star in my opinion. There is so much action going on in this book that the extra backstory could have been put in and the story could have ended when they decided to overthrow their captors, and I would have been HOOKED! I want to fall in love with characters and all that they go through, In this book, I just got mildly attached. Not having any backstory made me put down the book many many times cause I just couldn’t get into it. once I got past page 75 or so, it was better, but I almost quit a few times before that point. I know this is the first in the series, I am hoping that the second book tells all the backstory that was missing in this one. Overall I am glad I read it, but I am unsure if I will be a fan of the series, we will have to see how the second book comes out.

[Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked parts of the book, but I also thought there was too much crammed into 290 pages which left me trying to keep up with the plot/ characters as they moved from one part of space to another.

Parts I tried to keep up with:
1. The prologue - was this the first encounter? Were any of these people/ aliens continued/ ancestors to the main characters in the book?
2. The names of the different species/races - It would have been nice to have a section at the beginning of the book that gave a list of each species/race in the book as well as a description of them. This would have saved me some confusion each time a new one was introduced.
3. So much going on - just as I was trying to figure out if Max and Tara were being flown to Earth for school, they evacuated their home. Just as I was starting to understand the airship they were on, they were boarded by another race. I never fully "got" what was going on when Tara was running around the room or when she and her mom were sent to the planet to do work. Finally, there was a battle both on the surface and on the trasporter ship (and mother ship).

I'm not sure where the series is heading, but I don't know what the hurry was all about. I would have enjoyed reading the book more if a couple of chapter would have been spent with Max and Tara going through their days at school, seeing some interaction between them and their classmates and neighbor before humans started to kill aliens. I would have been satisfied if the book would have ended just before the air ship they were on were getting boarded or right after the two daughters and mom were taken to different rooms. That would have created many cliff hanger scenarios that would have kept me looking forward to reading the next book.

Now, I'm wondering if the next book will be just as crammed full of events that suspense doesn't get the chance to build.