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Beyond
The day after Aimee Patterson’s high school graduation, her dreams of college and becoming an engineer are interrupted. On an early evening walk, her cocker spaniel charges into the woods, and Aimee follows. In the stillness of the forest, the unthinkable happens. She becomes paralyzed and watches in horror as her hands vanish before her eyes.
She wakes to find she's been kidnapped and is now FAR from home. A group of human-like aliens fleeing an epidemic travels the galaxies seeking an antidote, and Aimee is mistakenly taken during one of their missions.
Now, Aimee must navigate the advances of an awkward young scientist who seems intent on dissecting her as her own fascination turns to the exotic young warrior, Zak. Having fallen in love with Zak, she faces a difficult choice: return to Earth or live beyond the stars.
She wakes to find she's been kidnapped and is now FAR from home. A group of human-like aliens fleeing an epidemic travels the galaxies seeking an antidote, and Aimee is mistakenly taken during one of their missions.
Now, Aimee must navigate the advances of an awkward young scientist who seems intent on dissecting her as her own fascination turns to the exotic young warrior, Zak. Having fallen in love with Zak, she faces a difficult choice: return to Earth or live beyond the stars.
Audiobook
First published September 19, 2012
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About the author
Maureen A. Miller
32 books1,276 followersUSA TODAY bestselling author Maureen A. Miller worked in the software industry for fifteen years. She crawled around plant floors in a hard hat and safety glasses, hooking up computers to behemoth manufacturing machines. The job required extensive travel. The best form of escapism during those lengthy airport layovers became writing.
Maureen’s first novel, Widow's TALE, earned her a Golden Heart nomination in Romantic Suspense. After that, she became hooked on the genre. As hooked as she was, childhood fantasies still danced around in her head––little voices calling for her to write the young adult science fiction BEYOND series. To her, it was still romantic suspense…just on another planet!
Maureen is a wife. A mother of a crazy Corgi. A lover of mozzarella. And she truly believes there is a portal to outer space somewhere in her house.
Maureen’s first novel, Widow's TALE, earned her a Golden Heart nomination in Romantic Suspense. After that, she became hooked on the genre. As hooked as she was, childhood fantasies still danced around in her head––little voices calling for her to write the young adult science fiction BEYOND series. To her, it was still romantic suspense…just on another planet!
Maureen is a wife. A mother of a crazy Corgi. A lover of mozzarella. And she truly believes there is a portal to outer space somewhere in her house.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 135 reviews
October 11, 2015
I don't like giving a poor review to this book. I liked the idea, but it was not well executed. The science was silly, and there were many grammatical and wrong word errors.
May 24, 2016
More reviews available at my blog, Beauty and the Bookworm.
Oh, Beyond. Oh, how I wanted to like you. And I did. It's just...you have some issues, and those really get in the way of the reading experience. Logic is seriously lacking in parts of this book, and not in a way that can be covered by the typical "suspension of disbelief" we agree to when we read something like sci-fi or fantasy.
Here are the basic facts of the story, just to lay the foundation for the rest of the review. One day, just after graduating high school, Aimee Patterson takes her dog Ziggy out for a walk and ends up abducted by aliens. Well, kind of aliens, because they're not little green men, but are instead normal human beings from another planet called Anthum. They are cruising the universe collecting samples from all kinds of different planets in hopes of finding a cure for a plague that has decimated their people. Aimee is told that they can return her to Earth, but by the time that happens, almost five Earth-years will have gone by.
So, let's talk about the time line first, because that's one of the biggest problems here. At one point Aimee works out that 90 Earth days equals one week on the Horus, the spaceship in the book. Let's just equate that to three months, for simplicity's sake, even though it's not an exact conversion. So, for every year on Earth, Aimee would experience approximately four weeks of time on the Horus. She would be gone for a total of twenty weeks, so about four months. The issue here is, the story on the Horus doesn't take place over what seems like a five-month period. It takes place over what seems like a little under a week. Granted, there's a point at which we're told Aimee was unconscious for approximately two weeks, but that still doesn't make up for the bizarre time gap.
Second, there's the plague. I am not at all opposed to stories dealing with weird, alien, space-plagues. Not at all. This one, however, doesn't make sense. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to reveal part of the plot here, so if you're interested in not spoiling part of (but not all of) this book, skip the rest of this paragraph. As you might be able to guess, Aimee turns out to possess the cure to the plague in her biology. Okay. Except...there's a point at which she's told she is genetically identical to the "mecaws," AKA humans, of Anthum, so why would her body have the cure? Doesn't make sense. Then that is explained away by saying that, "Oh, the cure is actually an antioxidant in her saliva that comes from something she ate that was stored in her glands." Your body, by the way, does not store extra antioxidants for future use, so good luck with making that one work logically.
Now let's talk about Aimee and Zak. I liked the two together, I really did. I didn't mind the instant attraction too much because, hey, you can be instantly attracted to someone. It wasn't insta-love, at least. Well...at least not at first, because suddenly that attraction turns into love about three days later. Mushy, gooshy, yucky love. Blah. Not good. Also, Zak was repeatedly described as a "warm haven," which was really only worthy of eye-rolling.
Now for a couple more minor things. The "prologue" should have been the first chapter, but that's just semantics, really. There is some inconsistent characterization with Aimee. At one point, Aimee wishes she had her glasses--but then later, in the epilogue (which should have been just the last chapter, not an epilogue) her eyes are described as having never needed glasses. That epilogue also seemed rushed, blowing through five years without much of a purpose. Instead of being the end of this book, it seems more like it should have been the beginning of the next one.
Overall, it wasn't a completely awful read, but there wasn't enough cohesion to make it come across as Miller seems to have wanted it to. It felt disjointed, and there wasn't a sense of time progressing as it should have. If the basic story line--girl from Earth leaves Earth, visits other places in the universe, fights an alien plague to which she is strangely immune, falls in love along the way--then I recommend reading the Stardoc series by S. L. Viehl. It's a little more graphic in the romance department, so be prepared for that, but overall it's a superior read.
Oh, Beyond. Oh, how I wanted to like you. And I did. It's just...you have some issues, and those really get in the way of the reading experience. Logic is seriously lacking in parts of this book, and not in a way that can be covered by the typical "suspension of disbelief" we agree to when we read something like sci-fi or fantasy.
Here are the basic facts of the story, just to lay the foundation for the rest of the review. One day, just after graduating high school, Aimee Patterson takes her dog Ziggy out for a walk and ends up abducted by aliens. Well, kind of aliens, because they're not little green men, but are instead normal human beings from another planet called Anthum. They are cruising the universe collecting samples from all kinds of different planets in hopes of finding a cure for a plague that has decimated their people. Aimee is told that they can return her to Earth, but by the time that happens, almost five Earth-years will have gone by.
So, let's talk about the time line first, because that's one of the biggest problems here. At one point Aimee works out that 90 Earth days equals one week on the Horus, the spaceship in the book. Let's just equate that to three months, for simplicity's sake, even though it's not an exact conversion. So, for every year on Earth, Aimee would experience approximately four weeks of time on the Horus. She would be gone for a total of twenty weeks, so about four months. The issue here is, the story on the Horus doesn't take place over what seems like a five-month period. It takes place over what seems like a little under a week. Granted, there's a point at which we're told Aimee was unconscious for approximately two weeks, but that still doesn't make up for the bizarre time gap.
Second, there's the plague. I am not at all opposed to stories dealing with weird, alien, space-plagues. Not at all. This one, however, doesn't make sense. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to reveal part of the plot here, so if you're interested in not spoiling part of (but not all of) this book, skip the rest of this paragraph. As you might be able to guess, Aimee turns out to possess the cure to the plague in her biology. Okay. Except...there's a point at which she's told she is genetically identical to the "mecaws," AKA humans, of Anthum, so why would her body have the cure? Doesn't make sense. Then that is explained away by saying that, "Oh, the cure is actually an antioxidant in her saliva that comes from something she ate that was stored in her glands." Your body, by the way, does not store extra antioxidants for future use, so good luck with making that one work logically.
Now let's talk about Aimee and Zak. I liked the two together, I really did. I didn't mind the instant attraction too much because, hey, you can be instantly attracted to someone. It wasn't insta-love, at least. Well...at least not at first, because suddenly that attraction turns into love about three days later. Mushy, gooshy, yucky love. Blah. Not good. Also, Zak was repeatedly described as a "warm haven," which was really only worthy of eye-rolling.
Now for a couple more minor things. The "prologue" should have been the first chapter, but that's just semantics, really. There is some inconsistent characterization with Aimee. At one point, Aimee wishes she had her glasses--but then later, in the epilogue (which should have been just the last chapter, not an epilogue) her eyes are described as having never needed glasses. That epilogue also seemed rushed, blowing through five years without much of a purpose. Instead of being the end of this book, it seems more like it should have been the beginning of the next one.
Overall, it wasn't a completely awful read, but there wasn't enough cohesion to make it come across as Miller seems to have wanted it to. It felt disjointed, and there wasn't a sense of time progressing as it should have. If the basic story line--girl from Earth leaves Earth, visits other places in the universe, fights an alien plague to which she is strangely immune, falls in love along the way--then I recommend reading the Stardoc series by S. L. Viehl. It's a little more graphic in the romance department, so be prepared for that, but overall it's a superior read.
January 26, 2014
Very enjoyable and captivating. Great story... great ending.
I'm not one to read an entire book in one sitting, and although I didn't do that with "Beyond," I was tempted. I knew from the book description that Aimee would be taken away by alien beings and returned 5 years later, and I had preconceived ideas as to how the story was going to roll; alien beings with multiple, odd-shaped body parts performing invasive experiments on a young, female earthling. I was pleasantly surprised that I was wrong. How was I to know that she'd fall in love with not only one of her captors, but the entire race of alien people? What about her parents who had surely gone crazy with grief at the disappearance of their daughter. I had to get to the end of the book to find out what happened when she returned, and then what happened after that. Wow!
Great story. Great ending.
I'm not one to read an entire book in one sitting, and although I didn't do that with "Beyond," I was tempted. I knew from the book description that Aimee would be taken away by alien beings and returned 5 years later, and I had preconceived ideas as to how the story was going to roll; alien beings with multiple, odd-shaped body parts performing invasive experiments on a young, female earthling. I was pleasantly surprised that I was wrong. How was I to know that she'd fall in love with not only one of her captors, but the entire race of alien people? What about her parents who had surely gone crazy with grief at the disappearance of their daughter. I had to get to the end of the book to find out what happened when she returned, and then what happened after that. Wow!
Great story. Great ending.
December 9, 2016
When I picked up Beyond, I was looking for a fun alien space story. That's what I got, but I got so much more. Beyond is an intriguing space adventure tale, full of relatable (and brilliant) characters and fun world-building.
I loved that the aliens are not little green men or creepy squid creatures, but people. They're not human, but they're pretty much human - in appearance, emotion, and relationships - but they are so much more advanced in technology. Our alien race is running from a plague, and desperately searching other planets for a cure. By accident, or by evil intention, they snag a girl from Earth in addition to the plants they were sampling.
This girl, Aimee, is a recent high school graduate, a smart cookie who plans to go to college to study engineering (my kind of lady). So being on this space ship? Well, that's an internship of a lifetime!
I loved the Artificial Intelligence machine JOH. What a fun character, and so real. Definitely not just a "computer" like Aimee calls him at first. I loved getting to know Zak and his backstory. He's different from the rest of the alien race on the ship, yet similar, and so honorable and determined to save his own home planet one day. I enjoyed watching Zak and Aimee interact and fall for each other. I ached for them when the spaceship made its way back to Earth and Aimee was to be returned to her home.
But most of all I enjoyed that an Earthling got to save the day! I liked that Aimee wasn't a special snowflake - I don't think it was her and only her who could cure the plague. I think any human from Earth, or at least with a similar lifestyle, could have contained the necessary something in their DNA. So that's what I liked about this story - she was just at the wrong (or right) place at the time the spaceship was searching for a cure on her planet and got picked up for an adventure of her life.
What's to happen next for Zak and Aimee? Well, this is a series, so I'm hoping there are more fun adventures for them.
Now let's chat about the audio since that is the version I am reviewing. I love audiobooks, and this was no exception. I think Emma Lysy did a great job with the pacing and the storytelling for this book. Her voice was kind of unique to me, almost like when I want to mimic a queen, and I open up the back of my throat and kind of make my words um, bigger? Does that make sense? That's kind of what her voice sounds like. I liked her voices for the other characters and enjoyed the way each character's voice had something unique to it.
Overall, a solid read (and listen).
I loved that the aliens are not little green men or creepy squid creatures, but people. They're not human, but they're pretty much human - in appearance, emotion, and relationships - but they are so much more advanced in technology. Our alien race is running from a plague, and desperately searching other planets for a cure. By accident, or by evil intention, they snag a girl from Earth in addition to the plants they were sampling.
This girl, Aimee, is a recent high school graduate, a smart cookie who plans to go to college to study engineering (my kind of lady). So being on this space ship? Well, that's an internship of a lifetime!
I loved the Artificial Intelligence machine JOH. What a fun character, and so real. Definitely not just a "computer" like Aimee calls him at first. I loved getting to know Zak and his backstory. He's different from the rest of the alien race on the ship, yet similar, and so honorable and determined to save his own home planet one day. I enjoyed watching Zak and Aimee interact and fall for each other. I ached for them when the spaceship made its way back to Earth and Aimee was to be returned to her home.
But most of all I enjoyed that an Earthling got to save the day! I liked that Aimee wasn't a special snowflake - I don't think it was her and only her who could cure the plague. I think any human from Earth, or at least with a similar lifestyle, could have contained the necessary something in their DNA. So that's what I liked about this story - she was just at the wrong (or right) place at the time the spaceship was searching for a cure on her planet and got picked up for an adventure of her life.
What's to happen next for Zak and Aimee? Well, this is a series, so I'm hoping there are more fun adventures for them.
Now let's chat about the audio since that is the version I am reviewing. I love audiobooks, and this was no exception. I think Emma Lysy did a great job with the pacing and the storytelling for this book. Her voice was kind of unique to me, almost like when I want to mimic a queen, and I open up the back of my throat and kind of make my words um, bigger? Does that make sense? That's kind of what her voice sounds like. I liked her voices for the other characters and enjoyed the way each character's voice had something unique to it.
Overall, a solid read (and listen).
January 3, 2017
When I first read the book description of ‘Beyond’ I was really fascinated. This book sounded really different and fun, and since I hadn’t read a lot of Sci-Fi books lately this book seemed to come at the right moment. Since I needed a new audiobook, ‘Beyond’ just seemed to be meant to be listened to.
In ‘Beyond’ we meet Aimee. One day Aimee finds herself being kidnapped. She wakes up weeks later finding herself on a spaceship. The ship is in hands of people who have been forced to leave their planet after an epidemic, and now they are looking for an antidote. Soon Aimee finds out she has been kidnapped accidentally, but they can only return her 5 years from now.
To be completely honest it took me a little while to really get into this book. Somehow I just couldn’t really get into this book as easily as I usual do. After I listened for the second time to the beginning I finally felt like I got it and I began to enjoy the read more.
I really liked Aimee. I loved that she was intelligent and had this kind of ‘nerdy’ feeling about herself. She definitely was a character I could connect with. It did find it a little weird how ‘easily’ she seemed to accept her situation. She wanted to get back home at the beginning, but she definitely sounded a little to accepting if you ask me.
Zak was definitely nice to read about, but I just didn’t really ‘love’ him. He just seemed so.. normal. And in the end I still felt like I didn’t really knew him. The romance between Aimee and Zak was really something I did enjoy. Aimee and Zak feel attracted to each other almost right from the beginning and it was fun to read about those two.
The timeline was a little strange. One moment Aimee was waking up, and the next she had been on the ship for months. But it didn’t bother me too much.
The Narrator Emma Lysy did a good job if you ask me. I enjoyed listening to her voice and getting to know the characters through her. After I got used to her voice, I really was able to tell the characters a part due to her different ‘voices’.
Overall I did enjoy this book. I’m beginning to think Sci- Fi isn’t really my thing anymore though. Not because of this book but just in general. I don’t seem to like it as much as I used too. But ‘Beyond’ really is a fun audiobook to listen to.
In ‘Beyond’ we meet Aimee. One day Aimee finds herself being kidnapped. She wakes up weeks later finding herself on a spaceship. The ship is in hands of people who have been forced to leave their planet after an epidemic, and now they are looking for an antidote. Soon Aimee finds out she has been kidnapped accidentally, but they can only return her 5 years from now.
To be completely honest it took me a little while to really get into this book. Somehow I just couldn’t really get into this book as easily as I usual do. After I listened for the second time to the beginning I finally felt like I got it and I began to enjoy the read more.
I really liked Aimee. I loved that she was intelligent and had this kind of ‘nerdy’ feeling about herself. She definitely was a character I could connect with. It did find it a little weird how ‘easily’ she seemed to accept her situation. She wanted to get back home at the beginning, but she definitely sounded a little to accepting if you ask me.
Zak was definitely nice to read about, but I just didn’t really ‘love’ him. He just seemed so.. normal. And in the end I still felt like I didn’t really knew him. The romance between Aimee and Zak was really something I did enjoy. Aimee and Zak feel attracted to each other almost right from the beginning and it was fun to read about those two.
The timeline was a little strange. One moment Aimee was waking up, and the next she had been on the ship for months. But it didn’t bother me too much.
The Narrator Emma Lysy did a good job if you ask me. I enjoyed listening to her voice and getting to know the characters through her. After I got used to her voice, I really was able to tell the characters a part due to her different ‘voices’.
Overall I did enjoy this book. I’m beginning to think Sci- Fi isn’t really my thing anymore though. Not because of this book but just in general. I don’t seem to like it as much as I used too. But ‘Beyond’ really is a fun audiobook to listen to.
October 5, 2012
I don’t read a lot of Young Adult books but I have read all of Maureen A. Miller’s other books and just love her writing. This was no different. I love Maureen’s imagination in this book. Many times while I was reading it I found myself smiling and wondering how she came up with everything in the book. Of course, as true to Maureen’s writing she can describe a setting like no one else. I always had a clear idea of where the characters were and their surroundings. The story moved along easily and I never really felt lost. The characters were well developed and I felt the same emotions that Aimee felt when she interacted with other characters or when she got herself into a little trouble.
The relationship between Zak and Aimee was believable and was true to their characters throughout. I get excited about young love and that is what we saw with these two. They were two lost souls from two different worlds that found each other in space of all places. The book takes you back to what it felt like to be the odd man out in high school (or anytime really) and not know where you fit. Zak and Aimee found that they fit with each other.
I enjoyed the adventure that Aimee and Zak went on while looking for the cure for the disease that took so many people as that was the real turning point for their relationship. I loved Aimee’s thirst for knowledge and how Zak enjoyed that as well. This book truly took me out of reality and made me wonder “what if.” I wasn't sure how Maureen was going to end this book since I saw in an interview this was going to be a series. I was torn on how I wanted it to end, too. Luckily, I think she ended the book perfectly. If you love young adult books, definitely give this one a try! You won’t regret it. I look forward to the other books in the series.
The relationship between Zak and Aimee was believable and was true to their characters throughout. I get excited about young love and that is what we saw with these two. They were two lost souls from two different worlds that found each other in space of all places. The book takes you back to what it felt like to be the odd man out in high school (or anytime really) and not know where you fit. Zak and Aimee found that they fit with each other.
I enjoyed the adventure that Aimee and Zak went on while looking for the cure for the disease that took so many people as that was the real turning point for their relationship. I loved Aimee’s thirst for knowledge and how Zak enjoyed that as well. This book truly took me out of reality and made me wonder “what if.” I wasn't sure how Maureen was going to end this book since I saw in an interview this was going to be a series. I was torn on how I wanted it to end, too. Luckily, I think she ended the book perfectly. If you love young adult books, definitely give this one a try! You won’t regret it. I look forward to the other books in the series.
May 23, 2013
I loved this book and can't wait to get my hands on the 2nd one in the series! I have always enjoyed YA, but I've not read one that took place in space, until now. The author created a believable setting that I could picture easily, and characters that I really cared about. I was convinced that the love between Amiee and Zak was real because it didn't happen with the usual love at first sight seen in so many young adult novels; it happened after certain moving occurrences took place. Some of my favorite parts of the book were the little imaginative details that made the book so special and fun to me. I would recommend this book to anyone that loves YA.
May 23, 2016
Challenge- Jumanji Challenge
I received a copy from the author exchange for a review
Great Sci-fi novel, excellent character development, world building and characters.
The Romance was acted on at the right time .I like how Aimee went to learn about the ship, ‘aliens’ and their lifestyle.
The ending felt a little hurried, but was okay. Overall I really enjoyed this book, looking forwards to the next book!
I received a copy from the author exchange for a review
Great Sci-fi novel, excellent character development, world building and characters.
The Romance was acted on at the right time .I like how Aimee went to learn about the ship, ‘aliens’ and their lifestyle.
The ending felt a little hurried, but was okay. Overall I really enjoyed this book, looking forwards to the next book!
June 1, 2017
I expected science fiction and what I got was suspenseful romance.
I had a hard time with this because the science was inconsistent. Okay, okay. It was silly and illogical.
I kept trying to figure out the difference between the time passing on the ship and Earth. It never really made sense. Only a few weeks passed for her, while years pass on Earth. And yet her hair grows and she matures? I just can't wrap my head around it. Why would she age years in a matter of weeks?
Logically, and after doing the math, (according to the 90 earth day ratio at the END of the book) it just doesn't add up. She would experience approximately 4 months on the ship, and by the timeline she only seemed to be there 3 weeks(including the two weeks she was unconsciousness). Nope. Makes no sense.
*spoilers* And antioxidants in her saliva for the cure? Yet nothing shows up in her blood? Isn't saliva produced in the same body? Wouldn't whatever she ate be affective in her blood stream as well? Basic physioligy: food is broken down and sent through the blood stream to send nutrients and energy to the rest of the body. It would be prevalent everywhere. Not too mention the body doesn't store antioxidants for later, especially not in the salivary glands.*end of spoilers*
There are so many flaws! Like a planet with heavy gasses being able to grow thriving forests. I'd like to know what the science base is for this. How do the plants get their energy to live? If the clouds are so thick, why is there suddenly light? Wouldn't it block out the sun?
And the spacious ship? It feels like they tried to make it into a galactic temple rather than a safe haven for the last survivors of their civilization. It seemed too ostentatious to be believable.
After all the sci-fi I have read, I can only categorize this as romance. There really isn't much science behind the plot.
The grammar needs a major clean up as well.
For my clean readers:
Violence, abduction, and attempted murder. Also copious amounts of the d-word and taking the Lord's name in vain, but no other language.
I had a hard time with this because the science was inconsistent. Okay, okay. It was silly and illogical.
I kept trying to figure out the difference between the time passing on the ship and Earth. It never really made sense. Only a few weeks passed for her, while years pass on Earth. And yet her hair grows and she matures? I just can't wrap my head around it. Why would she age years in a matter of weeks?
Logically, and after doing the math, (according to the 90 earth day ratio at the END of the book) it just doesn't add up. She would experience approximately 4 months on the ship, and by the timeline she only seemed to be there 3 weeks(including the two weeks she was unconsciousness). Nope. Makes no sense.
*spoilers* And antioxidants in her saliva for the cure? Yet nothing shows up in her blood? Isn't saliva produced in the same body? Wouldn't whatever she ate be affective in her blood stream as well? Basic physioligy: food is broken down and sent through the blood stream to send nutrients and energy to the rest of the body. It would be prevalent everywhere. Not too mention the body doesn't store antioxidants for later, especially not in the salivary glands.*end of spoilers*
There are so many flaws! Like a planet with heavy gasses being able to grow thriving forests. I'd like to know what the science base is for this. How do the plants get their energy to live? If the clouds are so thick, why is there suddenly light? Wouldn't it block out the sun?
And the spacious ship? It feels like they tried to make it into a galactic temple rather than a safe haven for the last survivors of their civilization. It seemed too ostentatious to be believable.
After all the sci-fi I have read, I can only categorize this as romance. There really isn't much science behind the plot.
The grammar needs a major clean up as well.
For my clean readers:
Violence, abduction, and attempted murder. Also copious amounts of the d-word and taking the Lord's name in vain, but no other language.
October 19, 2016
My original BEYOND audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.
Beyond: Beyond the Series Book 1 is an enthralling tale of a young woman hours away from graduating with her life planned out before her. Aimee Patterson is an only child with parents that all kids long for until … She takes a fateful trip into the woods following her dog when suddenly she feels strange before blacking out.
When Aimee does wake up she finds her life is no longer planned out, she has no family and only Joh and a few others to help her navigate her way through her new world. Can she get back home? How does she maneuver her way through betrayal and treachery?
Maureen Miller builds a strong science fiction story full of twists and suspense. Miller captures the feelings of a young girl struggling to find herself and her way in a strange world all the while navigating through teenage girl hormones. The dialog is realistic as are the feelings of Aimee. Miller builds strong characters to draw her readers in and connect them to each and every character.
Miller develops the story line and characters with gracefully strong descriptions and situations.
Emma Lysy is a strong narrator; her voice helps to bring the reader in and keep them caught up in the story with her passionate, clear and moving voice. Her voice is even and soothing while projecting the emotions of Aimee and the chaos of her life.
I enjoyed this book immensely and listened to it non stop. I enjoyed the story and narrator to the point that I didn't want it to end. It was fun, light listening and Miller writes using vivid descriptions. Growing up, I loved stories such as this one - I longed to take those trips and explore new worlds while also finding myself.
This book is for anyone who loves science fiction, romance, and adventure.
Audiobook was provided for review by the author.
Beyond: Beyond the Series Book 1 is an enthralling tale of a young woman hours away from graduating with her life planned out before her. Aimee Patterson is an only child with parents that all kids long for until … She takes a fateful trip into the woods following her dog when suddenly she feels strange before blacking out.
When Aimee does wake up she finds her life is no longer planned out, she has no family and only Joh and a few others to help her navigate her way through her new world. Can she get back home? How does she maneuver her way through betrayal and treachery?
Maureen Miller builds a strong science fiction story full of twists and suspense. Miller captures the feelings of a young girl struggling to find herself and her way in a strange world all the while navigating through teenage girl hormones. The dialog is realistic as are the feelings of Aimee. Miller builds strong characters to draw her readers in and connect them to each and every character.
Miller develops the story line and characters with gracefully strong descriptions and situations.
Emma Lysy is a strong narrator; her voice helps to bring the reader in and keep them caught up in the story with her passionate, clear and moving voice. Her voice is even and soothing while projecting the emotions of Aimee and the chaos of her life.
I enjoyed this book immensely and listened to it non stop. I enjoyed the story and narrator to the point that I didn't want it to end. It was fun, light listening and Miller writes using vivid descriptions. Growing up, I loved stories such as this one - I longed to take those trips and explore new worlds while also finding myself.
This book is for anyone who loves science fiction, romance, and adventure.
Audiobook was provided for review by the author.
February 18, 2022
Always Look Within
Aimee Patterson is a shy, nerdy young girl whose head is always in the stars. Living with her parents in North Carolina, she's the kind of girl who plays in the band and walks with her head down.
While walking her dog, Ziggy, by the marshy pond behind her house, something distracts Ziggy and he runs into the deep, dark woods that have always scared Aimee.
Swallowing her fear, Aimee goes in search for her dog. And something amazing happens. She is drawn up in a beam of light and finds herself, unbelievably, on a bigger spaceship than she could ever have imagined.
Beyond is the story of a search to save a civilization, an exploration of the Universe, a wonderful dabble in celestial mechanics and, the meeting of one's own true love.
Maureen Miller excells in her character development, I fell in love with all of her characters, except for the odious one! Her prose is beyond, pardon the pun, descriptive. I was in space, on the surface of many varied planets and felt my body change along with Aimee.
Adventure, mystery, sadness, loss, redemption and love born of connection are all experienced in waves. Beyond is that kind of book that you can't put down until you have reached the end.
I'm thrilled that this is the first of a series, I bawled my heart out at the end. I will be so happy to return to the Universe of Beyond.
Aimee Patterson is a shy, nerdy young girl whose head is always in the stars. Living with her parents in North Carolina, she's the kind of girl who plays in the band and walks with her head down.
While walking her dog, Ziggy, by the marshy pond behind her house, something distracts Ziggy and he runs into the deep, dark woods that have always scared Aimee.
Swallowing her fear, Aimee goes in search for her dog. And something amazing happens. She is drawn up in a beam of light and finds herself, unbelievably, on a bigger spaceship than she could ever have imagined.
Beyond is the story of a search to save a civilization, an exploration of the Universe, a wonderful dabble in celestial mechanics and, the meeting of one's own true love.
Maureen Miller excells in her character development, I fell in love with all of her characters, except for the odious one! Her prose is beyond, pardon the pun, descriptive. I was in space, on the surface of many varied planets and felt my body change along with Aimee.
Adventure, mystery, sadness, loss, redemption and love born of connection are all experienced in waves. Beyond is that kind of book that you can't put down until you have reached the end.
I'm thrilled that this is the first of a series, I bawled my heart out at the end. I will be so happy to return to the Universe of Beyond.
December 4, 2024
I liked getting abducted onto the alien ship The Horus with Aimee. The descriptions of the ship were awesome and I enjoyed watching the relationship between her and Zak blossom into real love. The floating JOH computer was an especially interesting “character” and he made me laugh several times.
One thing I think would have made this book extra juicy would have been if Salvan hadn’t been so one-dimensionally bad. If he had been more attractive physically and even his personality as well, Aimee could have been conflicted as to whether she liked him or Zak. Even if it was obvious she was going to choose Zak, she could have still had at least a little interest in Salvan which would have definitely made things more interesting.
Another thing too was how easily her parents accepted her explanation for where she’d been the past five years. She tells them she was abducted but couldn’t remember anything about them because she hit her head or something? Her parents would have certainly alerted the police if anything to make sure the abductors don’t come back to try and steal their daughter again. But they don’t even tell the police. I know this has little to do with the main story but the unrealistic nature of it all really bothered me.
However, in the end, I thought this was a cool book and I rather enjoyed it, in a 3-star kind of way.
One thing I think would have made this book extra juicy would have been if Salvan hadn’t been so one-dimensionally bad. If he had been more attractive physically and even his personality as well, Aimee could have been conflicted as to whether she liked him or Zak. Even if it was obvious she was going to choose Zak, she could have still had at least a little interest in Salvan which would have definitely made things more interesting.
Another thing too was how easily her parents accepted her explanation for where she’d been the past five years. She tells them she was abducted but couldn’t remember anything about them because she hit her head or something? Her parents would have certainly alerted the police if anything to make sure the abductors don’t come back to try and steal their daughter again. But they don’t even tell the police. I know this has little to do with the main story but the unrealistic nature of it all really bothered me.
However, in the end, I thought this was a cool book and I rather enjoyed it, in a 3-star kind of way.
June 22, 2020
Great, fast moving story
Loved it from the beginning. Even believed it all. Will look for more of the story. Should be a series.
Loved it from the beginning. Even believed it all. Will look for more of the story. Should be a series.
July 2, 2024
Updated: I haven’t been on good reads in a while so I don’t remember what date I read this 😭 I reread it awhile ago. The only thing I forgot about was the writing style, gawd it was bad 🥲🫣 this book is still so good but the writing………… definitely entertaining trash. Love this book though
I read this book a longggggg time ago, but I was talking to a friend of mine about sci-fi books, which I don’t really read anymore, and I remembered this book. I remember it was so good and I couldn’t remember the author so I asked my brother to look for it for me, cuz he’s still in my old school where I read it. Cuz he’s useless 🙄and didn’t even remember to look for it, I went there myself and found it. I’ll probably reread it soon and write an updated review (once I finished Finale and Powerful obviously 🤭)
I read this book a longggggg time ago, but I was talking to a friend of mine about sci-fi books, which I don’t really read anymore, and I remembered this book. I remember it was so good and I couldn’t remember the author so I asked my brother to look for it for me, cuz he’s still in my old school where I read it. Cuz he’s useless 🙄and didn’t even remember to look for it, I went there myself and found it. I’ll probably reread it soon and write an updated review (once I finished Finale and Powerful obviously 🤭)
May 8, 2013
I don't usually read sci-fi or fantasy, but I absolutely loved 'Beyond.' Now I'm anxious to read the second book in the Beyond Series. I've read two other books by Maureen A. Miller, both of them romantic suspense, and loved them. So I had to give this series a try. Wow! I instantly fell in love with Aimee and Zak. Maureen A. Miller is definitely one of my new favorite authors.
November 7, 2016
This was an excellent read!
I download this book after finding it on bookbub, but went on to read other books first. I finally gave up and started to read it... Several hours later and here I am!
My favourite characters...
Zak - the dark mysterious man of the book
Aimee - the abducted main character
Ziggy - Aimee's dog
The sumpums
I Recommended this book, happy that I finally read it!
I download this book after finding it on bookbub, but went on to read other books first. I finally gave up and started to read it... Several hours later and here I am!
My favourite characters...
Zak - the dark mysterious man of the book
Aimee - the abducted main character
Ziggy - Aimee's dog
The sumpums
I Recommended this book, happy that I finally read it!
June 6, 2016
So, I rarely do reviews, I just don't have time for it. But this book... my goodness. I'm only giving it 3 stars, because I absolutely LOVE the premise. Emphasis on premise. The book itself was alright, I found the characters likeable, and the setting was cool. However, when I read a scifi novel, I'm entirely willing, and prepared to have a suspension of disbelief. Teleporting beams that completely deconstruct you, and then reconstruct you? Sure. Seemingly magical floating AI's that can analyze DNA to determine identity? Fine. Crash landing into a thing of jello, and coming out unharmed? Totally. BUT. When you take science that we have, knowledge we've already attained, and present it incorrectly?? Then I have a huge problem. Just because you're writing a scifi novel, doesn't mean you get to rewrite science, unless it's intentional and serves the plot somehow. You don't get to skip doing scientific research for your novel because you think "Hey! I am writing a science fiction novel after all." No way. So while Miller's plot, and characters weren't dreadful, I almost couldn't enjoy the novel for all the blaring mistakes. And now, I'm going to proceed by writing out all the errors I found while reading this, please bear with me. (I'm sorry, I'm an astrophysics and biology major I can't help myself). Oh, and don't worry. I have quotes. Oh, and spoilers ahead!!
1) "She walked towards the closest window to observe a light show as shooting stars playfully chased each other across a black canvas."
So this was pretty early in the novel, but after Aimee is on the ship and they were travelling through space. Now you may be wondering, what's wrong with this? Well, let me tell you a little about shooting stars. Shooting stars are meteors, meteoroids burning up in our atmosphere. Theoretically speaking, any atmosphere on any planet would do. So what's wrong with Aimee seeing shooting stars? You can't see them in interstellar space because there is no atmosphere??? I mean, fine, fine, easy mistake to make. You may be thinking, "Beth, stop being a nerd and freaking out over nothing." This isn't what bothered me, I just shrugged this one off when I read it, but just wait. It gets worse.
2) "Stars twinkled with a vibrancy she’d never witnessed before."
Again, this is when Aimee is travelling through space. Stars would not appear to twinkle in space, the twinkling of stars is caused by turbulent air in earths atmosphere, so if you were in space with no atmosphere, there wouldn't be a twinkle in the stars, they'd just appear as dots in space. Again, relatively easy mistake to make, not that big of a deal. The astro major in me cringed, but nothing I couldn't shrug off. I'm not that bad, believe me. You'll see what sets me off below.
3) " "Time. You equate that to a span of life...We see time as a unit of distance, or a measure of travel." [said Vodu]
"I understand that," she offered. "A light year is a measure of time, not distance." "
Note: I literally screamed in disgust at this point. This is when I realized that the author did not, in fact, do ANY scientific research whatsoever. Not even a quick google search. Because I implore you, right now, open a new tab, and type in "light year" into google, and tell me what you find. Because you won't find that light years are a measure of time. Light years are a measure of distance, NOT TIME WTF, that's literally the biggest rookie mistake ever, you don't need a degree in astrophysics to know that. You don't even need to have taken a physics class to know that, all it takes is a google search. This is honestly appalling. A light year is the unit of distance that measures how far light travels in a year. And you know what, I took a deep breath after reading this, and gave the author the benefit of the doubt, assuming that Vodu (the commander of the Horus) would correct Aimee, and this would all be one big learning lesson. But oh no, I put my faith in the wrong author because instead, Vodu goes on to be impressed by her "understanding" of time, and says how lucky the Horus would be to have her working there. The author literally just looked at the word year, and went, hmm, must be a unit of time. *internally and externally screaming*
4) "A strange sound ensued. Something electric—like kinetic energy—or a sparkler."
????? "Like kinetic energy"??? What does that even mean? Kinetic energy isn't electric, well not inherently. A type of kinetic energy is, indeed, electric, but what does that have to do with it sounding like kinetic energy. Like wtf? This is literally high school physics. Kinetic energy is the energy of motion, I don't understand how this relates to a buzzing electric sound. Ugh.
5) " “I have a different chromosomal makeup than the people of Anthum.”
No kidding. The passengers on the Horus all were fair in color, but Zak—Zak definitely had a unique genetic makeup. [thought Aimee]"
What. The. HELL??? Ummm, where to even start?? I thought he was human (or mecaw), you can't be human and have a different chromosomal makeup without it being some kind of genetic disorder. And also, what bothers me most is Aimee's conclusion that, yeah, he has a different chromosomal makeup because he LOOKS different in hair colour and skin complexion. Like, what?? That's such an illogical conclusion. Differences in hair colour and skin colour are caused by different alleles on the same gene, not different chromosomes. Has Aimee never seen a Spanish person, or an Indian person, or a Kenyan?? Has she never left small town America? Because according to her, the fact that Zak has a darker skin tone and hair colour, results in him having a different chromosomal makeup. Which, may I add, is not the same as having a different genetic makeup. Not really.
6) "She was almost twenty-three-years-old. Her body might reflect that, but her mind felt much older."
Okay, so this was talking about how the time on the Horus run "slower" than the time on earth. So, on the Horus it had only been a few months, while one earth it had been 5 years. So, Aimee has been on the Horus, not earth, and yet she's aged like she's somehow been on earth. Why? Because she's from earth? And somehow her body's been aging according to earth time?? That's not how time works?? Listen, clearly Maureen Miller, you have done no research on the topic you're writing, other than maybe searching up a few science terms you thought sounded cool. Aimee doesn't age based on earth time, that's so dumb??? She ages based on whatever time she's living in. The way time dilation works is through relativity. So on the Horus, let's say 7 days have passed. For people on the Horus, those feel like 7 normal days, and they age accordingly to those 7 days. And let's say in that same amount of time, 2 years have passed on earth, those 2 years feel normal for the people on earth. You age according to whatever reference frame you're in. So Aimee would return to earth 5 years after she'd left, but she wouldn't have aged that, she would've aged whatever amount of time she spent on the Horus, so one month, or a few months. She would've still been 17 or 18, however old she was. Not 23. Ughhhhhh.
Alright, I'm done my rant. These are just the things I managed to catch, but also, if any of my own science is wrong feel free to call me out! I'd really appreciate it. I'm sorry if this felt aggressive to anyone, or angry, but it was, and I am. I'm just feeling frustrated that Miller couldn't be bothered to do a google search. This honestly isn't rocket science, and I hope her future books reflect better research. Alright, done.
1) "She walked towards the closest window to observe a light show as shooting stars playfully chased each other across a black canvas."
So this was pretty early in the novel, but after Aimee is on the ship and they were travelling through space. Now you may be wondering, what's wrong with this? Well, let me tell you a little about shooting stars. Shooting stars are meteors, meteoroids burning up in our atmosphere. Theoretically speaking, any atmosphere on any planet would do. So what's wrong with Aimee seeing shooting stars? You can't see them in interstellar space because there is no atmosphere??? I mean, fine, fine, easy mistake to make. You may be thinking, "Beth, stop being a nerd and freaking out over nothing." This isn't what bothered me, I just shrugged this one off when I read it, but just wait. It gets worse.
2) "Stars twinkled with a vibrancy she’d never witnessed before."
Again, this is when Aimee is travelling through space. Stars would not appear to twinkle in space, the twinkling of stars is caused by turbulent air in earths atmosphere, so if you were in space with no atmosphere, there wouldn't be a twinkle in the stars, they'd just appear as dots in space. Again, relatively easy mistake to make, not that big of a deal. The astro major in me cringed, but nothing I couldn't shrug off. I'm not that bad, believe me. You'll see what sets me off below.
3) " "Time. You equate that to a span of life...We see time as a unit of distance, or a measure of travel." [said Vodu]
"I understand that," she offered. "A light year is a measure of time, not distance." "
Note: I literally screamed in disgust at this point. This is when I realized that the author did not, in fact, do ANY scientific research whatsoever. Not even a quick google search. Because I implore you, right now, open a new tab, and type in "light year" into google, and tell me what you find. Because you won't find that light years are a measure of time. Light years are a measure of distance, NOT TIME WTF, that's literally the biggest rookie mistake ever, you don't need a degree in astrophysics to know that. You don't even need to have taken a physics class to know that, all it takes is a google search. This is honestly appalling. A light year is the unit of distance that measures how far light travels in a year. And you know what, I took a deep breath after reading this, and gave the author the benefit of the doubt, assuming that Vodu (the commander of the Horus) would correct Aimee, and this would all be one big learning lesson. But oh no, I put my faith in the wrong author because instead, Vodu goes on to be impressed by her "understanding" of time, and says how lucky the Horus would be to have her working there. The author literally just looked at the word year, and went, hmm, must be a unit of time. *internally and externally screaming*
4) "A strange sound ensued. Something electric—like kinetic energy—or a sparkler."
????? "Like kinetic energy"??? What does that even mean? Kinetic energy isn't electric, well not inherently. A type of kinetic energy is, indeed, electric, but what does that have to do with it sounding like kinetic energy. Like wtf? This is literally high school physics. Kinetic energy is the energy of motion, I don't understand how this relates to a buzzing electric sound. Ugh.
5) " “I have a different chromosomal makeup than the people of Anthum.”
No kidding. The passengers on the Horus all were fair in color, but Zak—Zak definitely had a unique genetic makeup. [thought Aimee]"
What. The. HELL??? Ummm, where to even start?? I thought he was human (or mecaw), you can't be human and have a different chromosomal makeup without it being some kind of genetic disorder. And also, what bothers me most is Aimee's conclusion that, yeah, he has a different chromosomal makeup because he LOOKS different in hair colour and skin complexion. Like, what?? That's such an illogical conclusion. Differences in hair colour and skin colour are caused by different alleles on the same gene, not different chromosomes. Has Aimee never seen a Spanish person, or an Indian person, or a Kenyan?? Has she never left small town America? Because according to her, the fact that Zak has a darker skin tone and hair colour, results in him having a different chromosomal makeup. Which, may I add, is not the same as having a different genetic makeup. Not really.
6) "She was almost twenty-three-years-old. Her body might reflect that, but her mind felt much older."
Okay, so this was talking about how the time on the Horus run "slower" than the time on earth. So, on the Horus it had only been a few months, while one earth it had been 5 years. So, Aimee has been on the Horus, not earth, and yet she's aged like she's somehow been on earth. Why? Because she's from earth? And somehow her body's been aging according to earth time?? That's not how time works?? Listen, clearly Maureen Miller, you have done no research on the topic you're writing, other than maybe searching up a few science terms you thought sounded cool. Aimee doesn't age based on earth time, that's so dumb??? She ages based on whatever time she's living in. The way time dilation works is through relativity. So on the Horus, let's say 7 days have passed. For people on the Horus, those feel like 7 normal days, and they age accordingly to those 7 days. And let's say in that same amount of time, 2 years have passed on earth, those 2 years feel normal for the people on earth. You age according to whatever reference frame you're in. So Aimee would return to earth 5 years after she'd left, but she wouldn't have aged that, she would've aged whatever amount of time she spent on the Horus, so one month, or a few months. She would've still been 17 or 18, however old she was. Not 23. Ughhhhhh.
Alright, I'm done my rant. These are just the things I managed to catch, but also, if any of my own science is wrong feel free to call me out! I'd really appreciate it. I'm sorry if this felt aggressive to anyone, or angry, but it was, and I am. I'm just feeling frustrated that Miller couldn't be bothered to do a google search. This honestly isn't rocket science, and I hope her future books reflect better research. Alright, done.
August 1, 2017
I feel really bad for leaving a not-so-encouraging review for this, but I try to be as honest as possible when I review, whether a book is great or not. This one is not.
I wanted to like this. I won it in a GR giveaway a couple years ago, lost it in my pile of to-read books, and finally opened it a week or so ago. First impression was negative, right from the opening of the cover. The formatting is awful and instantly sets up an amateur feel. There is almost no front matter, which gives a completely unprofessional look from the get-go. And the first chapter starts on a left-hand page. Again, bad first impression, and distracting.
From the first chapter, I was pulled from the story over and over by random/improper capitalizations. There was the occasional slip into "you," repeated phrases such as "the black void of space," and bad science in general, which other reviewers have pointed out (e.g. that stars don't "twinkle" in space because there's no atmosphere; mention of a surface that had “no temperature” . . . um, everything has a temperature).
Because the print book I had was from 2014, I actually downloaded the (free) Kindle version from Amazon in the hopes that the book had been edited, since it clearly hadn’t been prior to publishing. Though a handful of things changed, any “edit” was either a cursory glance or not done by a real editor, because there were still issues that would be obvious to the average reader. For example, one of the main food/meat sources, “sumpum,” was sometimes capitalized, and on occasion spelled “sumpun.” Constant use of the non-word “alright” rather than the correct “all right.” Odd things like “self-wallowing,”—I’m not sure if it’s actually possible to wallow someone else. Also, in one scene where someone tells the MC that they speak all languages, the character says, “Si, hablamos Espanol, tambien.” If an author uses a foreign language in a book, it should be a given that the proper usage has been researched: accents, capitalization, special characters. In this case, “Si” without an accent means “if,” not “yes,” and Espanol sounds like a type of fuel. With only a rudimentary knowledge of Spanish, I know that “Sí, hablamos español, también” is the correct way to write this.
I really pushed myself to keep reading, because frankly, it was not captivating. What sounded like a science fiction premise quickly turned into an odd romance, for no apparent reason. Almost no character development with anyone. Time passage was not done well, and the events felt as if they happened over the course of a couple days. The MC somehow aged five years as she would have on Earth, even though it was pointed out that the time passage in space was only a matter of weeks—and she somehow didn’t notice that her body was changing until she saw herself in a mirror at some point, weeks (days? months?) later. Also regarding time: someone refers to a “half a quarter” of Earth time and it’s then referred to as 90 days (which is actually a full quarter). The MC’s supposed to be intelligent enough that she’d planned to major in engineering, and yet she couldn’t seem to grasp the basics of why she would not be returned to her home immediately, even after it was explained to her multiple times. Half of her answers to people were whispered, and I don’t know why. Her romantic interest was constantly described as speaking “huskily,” which lent to a cheesy romance feel.
I feel terrible for saying this, but I have no idea how this book has gained so many four- and five-star ratings. The only reason I downloaded the Kindle version was because I thought maybe the errors in my print version had been fixed . . . but the book is still in bad shape and yet the good reviews are there. If you’re looking for science fiction, you won’t want to read this. If you’re looking for romance, you won’t want to read this. And if you’re looking for richly developed characters you want to care about, I suggest looking elsewhere. I only finished the book because I was determined to give it every chance possible before submitting a bad review.
I wanted to like this. I won it in a GR giveaway a couple years ago, lost it in my pile of to-read books, and finally opened it a week or so ago. First impression was negative, right from the opening of the cover. The formatting is awful and instantly sets up an amateur feel. There is almost no front matter, which gives a completely unprofessional look from the get-go. And the first chapter starts on a left-hand page. Again, bad first impression, and distracting.
From the first chapter, I was pulled from the story over and over by random/improper capitalizations. There was the occasional slip into "you," repeated phrases such as "the black void of space," and bad science in general, which other reviewers have pointed out (e.g. that stars don't "twinkle" in space because there's no atmosphere; mention of a surface that had “no temperature” . . . um, everything has a temperature).
Because the print book I had was from 2014, I actually downloaded the (free) Kindle version from Amazon in the hopes that the book had been edited, since it clearly hadn’t been prior to publishing. Though a handful of things changed, any “edit” was either a cursory glance or not done by a real editor, because there were still issues that would be obvious to the average reader. For example, one of the main food/meat sources, “sumpum,” was sometimes capitalized, and on occasion spelled “sumpun.” Constant use of the non-word “alright” rather than the correct “all right.” Odd things like “self-wallowing,”—I’m not sure if it’s actually possible to wallow someone else. Also, in one scene where someone tells the MC that they speak all languages, the character says, “Si, hablamos Espanol, tambien.” If an author uses a foreign language in a book, it should be a given that the proper usage has been researched: accents, capitalization, special characters. In this case, “Si” without an accent means “if,” not “yes,” and Espanol sounds like a type of fuel. With only a rudimentary knowledge of Spanish, I know that “Sí, hablamos español, también” is the correct way to write this.
I really pushed myself to keep reading, because frankly, it was not captivating. What sounded like a science fiction premise quickly turned into an odd romance, for no apparent reason. Almost no character development with anyone. Time passage was not done well, and the events felt as if they happened over the course of a couple days. The MC somehow aged five years as she would have on Earth, even though it was pointed out that the time passage in space was only a matter of weeks—and she somehow didn’t notice that her body was changing until she saw herself in a mirror at some point, weeks (days? months?) later. Also regarding time: someone refers to a “half a quarter” of Earth time and it’s then referred to as 90 days (which is actually a full quarter). The MC’s supposed to be intelligent enough that she’d planned to major in engineering, and yet she couldn’t seem to grasp the basics of why she would not be returned to her home immediately, even after it was explained to her multiple times. Half of her answers to people were whispered, and I don’t know why. Her romantic interest was constantly described as speaking “huskily,” which lent to a cheesy romance feel.
I feel terrible for saying this, but I have no idea how this book has gained so many four- and five-star ratings. The only reason I downloaded the Kindle version was because I thought maybe the errors in my print version had been fixed . . . but the book is still in bad shape and yet the good reviews are there. If you’re looking for science fiction, you won’t want to read this. If you’re looking for romance, you won’t want to read this. And if you’re looking for richly developed characters you want to care about, I suggest looking elsewhere. I only finished the book because I was determined to give it every chance possible before submitting a bad review.
February 18, 2015
Warning, there will be spoilers.
What I liked:
-Aimee. The heroine was mildly interesting to read about. I liked that she was actually intelligent. The author didn’t just tell us she was intelligent and then have her make a bunch of stupid decisions an actual intelligent person would never make. We got to see the engineer in her take over and figure things out through observation and experimenting. It was actually kind of fascinating.
-Zak. I liked the love interest, even if his personality was a little flat for my taste. He didn’t really have much going for him other than his whole stoic warrior persona. He seemed to be this cold, kind of uncaring soldier, and then suddenly we’re seeing him open up under unrealistic circumstances and becoming an entirely different person. His devotion to the people that rescued him was wonderful though, and his decision to let Aimee go in the end was the best part of the book for me.
-Outer space/technology. It was awesome getting to read all the descriptions of space and the ship and all of the technology on board. I especially liked the addition of JOH and his light-hearted moments. The backdrop of space was an interesting one.
-The ending. Honestly, it was by far the best part of the book. Both characters were actually very mature in their decision to return Aimee to Earth, and I think it sent a very positive message. They both had unfinished dreams—her education and family, and his home planet and people—and they were willing to put their budding love on hold to give the other a chance to do what they needed to do so they’d be satisfied with each other down the road.
What I disliked:
-Cliché. Aimee gets accidentally abducted by a group of space aliens traveling across the entire galaxy—and they just so happen to look exactly like humans do. They’re explained in the books as being similar I think or maybe just a different type of human, but still. Out of all the possible types of aliens the author could have created, they went with an alien race that looks exactly like humans? Just a way to make the insta-love more “credible” I guess, without having to put in any real effort.
-Time line. It felt like it was all over the place. There was no real defined definition of time. Suddenly she’s been there for like two weeks and it’s already been years on Earth? I think? It was so confusing. She aged like five years in such a short time, turning from a girl into a woman, but I don’t understand how that makes any kind of sense. Does this mean now that she’s back in space with Zak that they’ll have like a year together before she ages into a decrepit old lady and dies in her sleep?
Overall, it was a good read. I wish the main alien species in the book had been actual aliens, not just different kinds of humans, but other than that I found myself enjoying this book. I liked the setting and the main character, and I’d recommend this book to fans of sci-fi and young adult romance, even if there was a case of insta-love. It has the potential to grow into more. 3.5
What I liked:
-Aimee. The heroine was mildly interesting to read about. I liked that she was actually intelligent. The author didn’t just tell us she was intelligent and then have her make a bunch of stupid decisions an actual intelligent person would never make. We got to see the engineer in her take over and figure things out through observation and experimenting. It was actually kind of fascinating.
-Zak. I liked the love interest, even if his personality was a little flat for my taste. He didn’t really have much going for him other than his whole stoic warrior persona. He seemed to be this cold, kind of uncaring soldier, and then suddenly we’re seeing him open up under unrealistic circumstances and becoming an entirely different person. His devotion to the people that rescued him was wonderful though, and his decision to let Aimee go in the end was the best part of the book for me.
-Outer space/technology. It was awesome getting to read all the descriptions of space and the ship and all of the technology on board. I especially liked the addition of JOH and his light-hearted moments. The backdrop of space was an interesting one.
-The ending. Honestly, it was by far the best part of the book. Both characters were actually very mature in their decision to return Aimee to Earth, and I think it sent a very positive message. They both had unfinished dreams—her education and family, and his home planet and people—and they were willing to put their budding love on hold to give the other a chance to do what they needed to do so they’d be satisfied with each other down the road.
What I disliked:
-Cliché. Aimee gets accidentally abducted by a group of space aliens traveling across the entire galaxy—and they just so happen to look exactly like humans do. They’re explained in the books as being similar I think or maybe just a different type of human, but still. Out of all the possible types of aliens the author could have created, they went with an alien race that looks exactly like humans? Just a way to make the insta-love more “credible” I guess, without having to put in any real effort.
-Time line. It felt like it was all over the place. There was no real defined definition of time. Suddenly she’s been there for like two weeks and it’s already been years on Earth? I think? It was so confusing. She aged like five years in such a short time, turning from a girl into a woman, but I don’t understand how that makes any kind of sense. Does this mean now that she’s back in space with Zak that they’ll have like a year together before she ages into a decrepit old lady and dies in her sleep?
Overall, it was a good read. I wish the main alien species in the book had been actual aliens, not just different kinds of humans, but other than that I found myself enjoying this book. I liked the setting and the main character, and I’d recommend this book to fans of sci-fi and young adult romance, even if there was a case of insta-love. It has the potential to grow into more. 3.5
April 30, 2013
I was lucky enough to be a beta reader for Ms. Miller's newest book, "Beyond," book 1 in a YA science fiction series. I read quite a few of the author's books and really enjoy them and Ms. Miller's style of writing. This is the first time she's ventured into science fiction for young adults and she's hit a home run with this one. The story follows teenager Aimee Patterson shortly after she graduates from high school. She's used to walking her dog, but when the dog runs off into the woods, Aimee's life is about to change dramatically. She is mistakenly taken by an alien vessel and wakes up to find she is in deep space with no hope for going home. Not everyone on the space ship is happy that Aimee was abducted including Aimee, but when she learns she will not be returned to Earth for 5 years, she does her best to fit in as best she can. While she tries to discourage the romantic overtures from one of the scientists, she finds herself drawn to warrior Zak.
Ms. Miller does a great job of letting the reader into Aimee's inner thoughts and feelings, but without all the teenage angst that so many of the YA books rely on. The writing is smart, witty and even though YA isn't a genre I read often, I couldn't wait to see what happens to Aimee and Zak. The conflicts and a looming disaster makes the pages fly by. By the end of the book, I was a big fan of Zak. I'm looking forward to book 2 in this series and see what new adventures Ms. Miller has in store for these two. Recommended.
Ms. Miller does a great job of letting the reader into Aimee's inner thoughts and feelings, but without all the teenage angst that so many of the YA books rely on. The writing is smart, witty and even though YA isn't a genre I read often, I couldn't wait to see what happens to Aimee and Zak. The conflicts and a looming disaster makes the pages fly by. By the end of the book, I was a big fan of Zak. I'm looking forward to book 2 in this series and see what new adventures Ms. Miller has in store for these two. Recommended.
June 24, 2016
I really am not sure how this get all its 4 and 5 star ratings. While I'd agree that this book had a very good Sci-Fi premise behind it and some really good ideas that could have been built upon...
For once there's an idea that humans aren't unique to Earth as species
There's an idea about the innerworkings of an alien spaceship
There's a possibility to delve deeper into space combat
but no.
Instead all the focus went into the emotional parts of the story with a heavy emphasis on relationship, feelings and just way, and I mean WAY too much gooiness. This sort of reminded me of a simplified Twilight. (Yes...Twilight could be simplified. Just read this one).
Not a huge fan of the book. Will I read Part 2...maybe, just because I have OCD and it's extremely hard for me to not finish something, but I would be doing so with very little enthusiasm.
Roman
For once there's an idea that humans aren't unique to Earth as species
There's an idea about the innerworkings of an alien spaceship
There's a possibility to delve deeper into space combat
but no.
Instead all the focus went into the emotional parts of the story with a heavy emphasis on relationship, feelings and just way, and I mean WAY too much gooiness. This sort of reminded me of a simplified Twilight. (Yes...Twilight could be simplified. Just read this one).
Not a huge fan of the book. Will I read Part 2...maybe, just because I have OCD and it's extremely hard for me to not finish something, but I would be doing so with very little enthusiasm.
Roman
June 4, 2016
Issues with the 'time' thing, the 'cure' being blatantly obvious, and a few other 'throw that in the book too' complaints,
but I did enjoy the story and will be reading the other two as well.
3.5 stars
but I did enjoy the story and will be reading the other two as well.
3.5 stars
July 26, 2013
OMG, this series is so freakin' good!!!! I don't know how I'll wait for book 3 to come out :(
May 17, 2019
Beyond (Beyond Series) By Maureen A. Miller
Beyond is an entertaining book and for the most part I thought it was mostly light reading and quite suitable for the young adult market. There were elements that seemed quite familiar throughout the book and if I went into great depth to find them all I'd probably be able to start pointing out tropes that I've seen in recent reading.
The most striking and probably unusual of all connections though was the connection I felt to Jacqueline Susann's Yargo. For those who might not know Yargo is one of Jacqueline Susann's novels that was published after her death. It was written way back in the early or mid 50's at about the time we were seeing such movies as The Day the Earth Stood Still.(the original) The copy I have of this book bears some striking similarity to the cover I have for Beyond. (A woman walking toward a light in the sky.) Both of the female protagonists are being kidnapped by some supposed superior race of space borne bipeds that look strikingly like humans but seem at first look to be almost perfect. They both unwittingly have something that these races need to improve and secure their continued existence. (In Yargo it less of a material thing as it is just the concept that they have given up emotions and the main character is attempting to break their emotionless barrier and bring them back to life.) What Aimee Patterson has is more material but vital to the continued existence of these people and that is probably telling too much and making this a spoiler.
In Yargo the setting is in some far off planet named Yargo with a rule named Yargo who is best described as looking like Yul Brynner only taller. Mars and Venus are inhabited, which was often speculated in much of the science fiction of those times. In Beyond we have mostly far off inhabited world and a large city in space (Horus) type of space ship structure. The aliens that look quite human are much more emotional than in Yargo and they are compassionate and do hope to get Aimee back home but they are on a rotation schedule that will wont bring them back to Earth for another five years. The aliens of the Guardian Ship Horus are on a quest to other planets to scout their flora and some fauna for a cure to a virus that devastated their home world. The aliens are mostly of one race but there is a mysterious outsider (Zak) who is possibly the sole survivor from a world that was destroyed by the evil Korons (Rock or Sandmen).
As was mentioned Aimee has been kidnapped and the nature of the voyage dictates that she cannot return to earth for 5 years although in space at speeds greater than light speed those five years are condensed. Naturally since this is a romance we can guess that soon Aimee and Zak will become close. This book though deals with a lot of the world building and the rules of this world and universe. There are several things that come up about the rotation of the ship compared to the rotation of space itself and the universe that create interesting puzzles. But the core of the story is mostly bound around the characters. There is Salvan who seems to be the major antagonist, he's the one who accidentally kidnapped Aimee. I don't think we are ever clear just what he might have had in mind at first but it's all pretty evil nasty as the story progresses.
We learn of some of the other planets that are visited on the route and we learn of the planet that Zak came from which is on a part of the rotation. And we learn that although the people on Horus are mostly safe from the virus that decimated their world they are not entirely safe and they live in fear it will show up anytime and since it is airborne it will likely move quickly. That means they are in constant fear while hunting for the cure. It is no help that the Korons have space technology and on occasion will attack the Horus and her expedition ships.
If I were to highlight any single deficiency in the story it would be the time line aka relative time in space flight vs time on planets. I had the impression that the five years aboard Horus were more like a year or less for those aboard. Yet Aimee speaks of being 18 at the beginning and 23 at the end which could all be resolved easily by just saying that is relative to the earth 23 while she's more close to 19. The problem is that it seems to be more than that. This could become problematical and would definitely put a damper on space flight if those aboard the ship experience life in a condensed form and aged five year for every one aboard a ship. Even if they lived to be one hundred or two hundred it would still be a drag.
That aside there is a lot of food for thought in the story and I think that those who like their science a bit light and enjoy romance and adventure they should be pretty happy with the Beyond Series and it did prompt me to reread Yargo to refresh my memory.
Anyone who likes Beyond should enjoy Yargo, although Yargo might be a bit difficult to obtain.
J.L. Dobias
Beyond is an entertaining book and for the most part I thought it was mostly light reading and quite suitable for the young adult market. There were elements that seemed quite familiar throughout the book and if I went into great depth to find them all I'd probably be able to start pointing out tropes that I've seen in recent reading.
The most striking and probably unusual of all connections though was the connection I felt to Jacqueline Susann's Yargo. For those who might not know Yargo is one of Jacqueline Susann's novels that was published after her death. It was written way back in the early or mid 50's at about the time we were seeing such movies as The Day the Earth Stood Still.(the original) The copy I have of this book bears some striking similarity to the cover I have for Beyond. (A woman walking toward a light in the sky.) Both of the female protagonists are being kidnapped by some supposed superior race of space borne bipeds that look strikingly like humans but seem at first look to be almost perfect. They both unwittingly have something that these races need to improve and secure their continued existence. (In Yargo it less of a material thing as it is just the concept that they have given up emotions and the main character is attempting to break their emotionless barrier and bring them back to life.) What Aimee Patterson has is more material but vital to the continued existence of these people and that is probably telling too much and making this a spoiler.
In Yargo the setting is in some far off planet named Yargo with a rule named Yargo who is best described as looking like Yul Brynner only taller. Mars and Venus are inhabited, which was often speculated in much of the science fiction of those times. In Beyond we have mostly far off inhabited world and a large city in space (Horus) type of space ship structure. The aliens that look quite human are much more emotional than in Yargo and they are compassionate and do hope to get Aimee back home but they are on a rotation schedule that will wont bring them back to Earth for another five years. The aliens of the Guardian Ship Horus are on a quest to other planets to scout their flora and some fauna for a cure to a virus that devastated their home world. The aliens are mostly of one race but there is a mysterious outsider (Zak) who is possibly the sole survivor from a world that was destroyed by the evil Korons (Rock or Sandmen).
As was mentioned Aimee has been kidnapped and the nature of the voyage dictates that she cannot return to earth for 5 years although in space at speeds greater than light speed those five years are condensed. Naturally since this is a romance we can guess that soon Aimee and Zak will become close. This book though deals with a lot of the world building and the rules of this world and universe. There are several things that come up about the rotation of the ship compared to the rotation of space itself and the universe that create interesting puzzles. But the core of the story is mostly bound around the characters. There is Salvan who seems to be the major antagonist, he's the one who accidentally kidnapped Aimee. I don't think we are ever clear just what he might have had in mind at first but it's all pretty evil nasty as the story progresses.
We learn of some of the other planets that are visited on the route and we learn of the planet that Zak came from which is on a part of the rotation. And we learn that although the people on Horus are mostly safe from the virus that decimated their world they are not entirely safe and they live in fear it will show up anytime and since it is airborne it will likely move quickly. That means they are in constant fear while hunting for the cure. It is no help that the Korons have space technology and on occasion will attack the Horus and her expedition ships.
If I were to highlight any single deficiency in the story it would be the time line aka relative time in space flight vs time on planets. I had the impression that the five years aboard Horus were more like a year or less for those aboard. Yet Aimee speaks of being 18 at the beginning and 23 at the end which could all be resolved easily by just saying that is relative to the earth 23 while she's more close to 19. The problem is that it seems to be more than that. This could become problematical and would definitely put a damper on space flight if those aboard the ship experience life in a condensed form and aged five year for every one aboard a ship. Even if they lived to be one hundred or two hundred it would still be a drag.
That aside there is a lot of food for thought in the story and I think that those who like their science a bit light and enjoy romance and adventure they should be pretty happy with the Beyond Series and it did prompt me to reread Yargo to refresh my memory.
Anyone who likes Beyond should enjoy Yargo, although Yargo might be a bit difficult to obtain.
J.L. Dobias
October 23, 2019
The first book in the Beyond series was a fun book to read, even though I had issues with it. Every so often I enjoy a YA book as they are so often fresh and different.
The premise was interesting: a teen gets abducted by a spaceship of humans in search of an antidote, and she falls in love during her journey. The problem is that this felt more like a middle-grade book because of the very simplistic plotline and the way it was executed. I was totally confused by the progression of time that was mostly unexplained. A few months travelling in space equalled five years on Earth, however, the story seemed to take place over a course of a few weeks. The danger was mostly downplayed, especially the plague part. I wasn't sure what Aimee did with her time on the spaceship. She was offered an opportunity to study with the engineers, but this never came up again in the plot. The romance started out fine but then became heavy for the rest of the book.
The world-building was great. I loved the description of the spaceship itself and I wished that the main character would have been immersed in the daily life on the ship, rather than seen mainly swooning over Zak. Don't get me wrong, Zak was certainly swoon-worthy but I needed more to the story. There wasn't much character building and this turned out to be mainly a sweet romance story.
Beyond is a clean read that can be read quickly. It's fun, but lighthearted. Nothing deep or profound. Fans of the romance genre will probably enjoy this one more than sci-fi fans that will question the probability of the science even if this is fiction.
The premise was interesting: a teen gets abducted by a spaceship of humans in search of an antidote, and she falls in love during her journey. The problem is that this felt more like a middle-grade book because of the very simplistic plotline and the way it was executed. I was totally confused by the progression of time that was mostly unexplained. A few months travelling in space equalled five years on Earth, however, the story seemed to take place over a course of a few weeks. The danger was mostly downplayed, especially the plague part. I wasn't sure what Aimee did with her time on the spaceship. She was offered an opportunity to study with the engineers, but this never came up again in the plot. The romance started out fine but then became heavy for the rest of the book.
The world-building was great. I loved the description of the spaceship itself and I wished that the main character would have been immersed in the daily life on the ship, rather than seen mainly swooning over Zak. Don't get me wrong, Zak was certainly swoon-worthy but I needed more to the story. There wasn't much character building and this turned out to be mainly a sweet romance story.
Beyond is a clean read that can be read quickly. It's fun, but lighthearted. Nothing deep or profound. Fans of the romance genre will probably enjoy this one more than sci-fi fans that will question the probability of the science even if this is fiction.
June 8, 2023
Enjoyable
This was a fairly quick read. It's a YA novel with just the right amount of adventure, romance, suspense, and skulduggery woven in to make it appealing to all ages. Aimee, almost 18, takes her dog out for a walk one evening in North Carolina, and is accidentally caught up by an alien spacecraft out looking for, of all things, PLANTS. Of course she wants to go home, but that's not possible, they tell her when she wakes up, as they are already light years from Earth. She resigns herself to this and begins to learn more about where she is, meeting the inhabitants of HORUS, the spacecraft, who are humanoid, and learning that they fled their planet when a virus sickened most of the inhabitants, and have since been searching the galaxy for a plant, any plant, to cure it. She meets Raja, in charge of what we would call the sick bay; Salvar, a scientist, who she takes an instant dislike to, as we find out later with good reason; Vodu, the leader; and Zak, who is, like her, from another planet, but has joined with these folk because the virus also decimated his world. There is also JOH, a floating device (actually many of them) which is a sort of cross between an iPad and a supercomputer that talks and adds a bit of humor. Of course there is, as I mentioned, romance, Zak being the obvious. I do have to mention that every time Vodu came on-scene, I couldn't help seeing Patrick Stewart in my mind (Picard). All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the read and it left me with a smile on my face, which not all sci-fi does.
This was a fairly quick read. It's a YA novel with just the right amount of adventure, romance, suspense, and skulduggery woven in to make it appealing to all ages. Aimee, almost 18, takes her dog out for a walk one evening in North Carolina, and is accidentally caught up by an alien spacecraft out looking for, of all things, PLANTS. Of course she wants to go home, but that's not possible, they tell her when she wakes up, as they are already light years from Earth. She resigns herself to this and begins to learn more about where she is, meeting the inhabitants of HORUS, the spacecraft, who are humanoid, and learning that they fled their planet when a virus sickened most of the inhabitants, and have since been searching the galaxy for a plant, any plant, to cure it. She meets Raja, in charge of what we would call the sick bay; Salvar, a scientist, who she takes an instant dislike to, as we find out later with good reason; Vodu, the leader; and Zak, who is, like her, from another planet, but has joined with these folk because the virus also decimated his world. There is also JOH, a floating device (actually many of them) which is a sort of cross between an iPad and a supercomputer that talks and adds a bit of humor. Of course there is, as I mentioned, romance, Zak being the obvious. I do have to mention that every time Vodu came on-scene, I couldn't help seeing Patrick Stewart in my mind (Picard). All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the read and it left me with a smile on my face, which not all sci-fi does.
January 23, 2022
I liked this book well enough, but one thing really bothered me.
In sci fi, it's fine to have whatever rules you want. As long as you're internally consistent, I'm happy to believe in faster than light travel, and orbiting the universe once every five years. My issue is when the main character figures out approximately one week of ship time equates to 90 days on Earth, and 1. Only about two weeks of time (plus the last week before they get back to earth) is actually described (with no real gaps that are elided). In five years of earth time, she would have been on the ship for 20 weeks, which is less than half a year.
2. She is on the ship for twenty weeks. She gets on the ship the day before her 18th birthday, and yet she is constantly talking about how she is twenty now, and then twenty two at the end of the trip. And it talks about how she got on the trip as a girl, but got off as the woman she had become, and the love interest made her feel like a woman etc. No. She has experienced 20 weeks of ship time, regardless of how much relative time has passed on earth. She was nearly eighteen when she got on the ship. She is eighteen and a half when she gets off.
Aside from that, I didn't mind the story, although I felt like there was a whole lot going on at the end, which was relatively easily resolved. Still, I didn't mind the characters, and I'm tossing up whether or not to read the rest of the books in the series.
In sci fi, it's fine to have whatever rules you want. As long as you're internally consistent, I'm happy to believe in faster than light travel, and orbiting the universe once every five years. My issue is when the main character figures out approximately one week of ship time equates to 90 days on Earth, and 1. Only about two weeks of time (plus the last week before they get back to earth) is actually described (with no real gaps that are elided). In five years of earth time, she would have been on the ship for 20 weeks, which is less than half a year.
2. She is on the ship for twenty weeks. She gets on the ship the day before her 18th birthday, and yet she is constantly talking about how she is twenty now, and then twenty two at the end of the trip. And it talks about how she got on the trip as a girl, but got off as the woman she had become, and the love interest made her feel like a woman etc. No. She has experienced 20 weeks of ship time, regardless of how much relative time has passed on earth. She was nearly eighteen when she got on the ship. She is eighteen and a half when she gets off.
Aside from that, I didn't mind the story, although I felt like there was a whole lot going on at the end, which was relatively easily resolved. Still, I didn't mind the characters, and I'm tossing up whether or not to read the rest of the books in the series.
October 14, 2020
Interesting storyline. Aimee is walking her dog, Ziggie, in her back yard and follows him into a treed area that is not their property. Her dad has told her to not go there. But, she had to follow her dog (I can relate). Soggy is barking at something she can’t see but then a bright light falls on her and the next thing she sees are people leaning over her asking her if she’s okay. She is on a space ship, the HORUS. She was accidentally beamed up when they were really after her dog. her adventure begins. She meets Savan, a mad scientist. She meets Zak, a warrior, and also an alien on the ship. And she meets Vodu, the leader. She finds that she must wait for the ship to make a revolution around the planets (5 earth years in time) before they will be back to Earth and can return her. During this time, she winds up liking the humans (known as mecaws). She especially likes Zak. She does some crazy things for such a smart girl but all in all the book is a pleasant read. It might be more appropriate for young readers but it is interesting enough for us adults. Kinda a mix of Star Wars and Twilight Zone. Take a chance. I’ve read other Maureen Miller novels and liked them all. Not sure if I will pursue this series but likely I will.
March 9, 2023
Her dog ran into the woods making Aimee Patterson chase it. Then when she caught up with it, it ran away, back the way it came, but Aimee suddenly couldn’t move. She watched parts of her body disappear but kept her eyes closed when she awoke to strange voices. Aimee figured she was in a hospital, but when she finally opened her eyes, it was no hospital room she had ever seen. Come to find out. She had been abducted from her home world by accident, and they would not be by Earth again for five of its rotations around the sun.
Hey! She got to keep her memories, and she did not get probed! :D Okay, enough fun about the abducted and conspiracy theories. But, for our heroine, it was no theory, and as expected, she had the answer for the reason the aliens abducted her by accident. The world-building is done well, and the character interaction is smooth.
Hey, reader of this review. You might like this read if you like young adult science fiction with a little action and adventure. I give it five stars out of five stars.
Hey! She got to keep her memories, and she did not get probed! :D Okay, enough fun about the abducted and conspiracy theories. But, for our heroine, it was no theory, and as expected, she had the answer for the reason the aliens abducted her by accident. The world-building is done well, and the character interaction is smooth.
Hey, reader of this review. You might like this read if you like young adult science fiction with a little action and adventure. I give it five stars out of five stars.
July 14, 2022
Fantastic voyage !!
What a super fantastic read !!
Aimee is a young girl still in high school, and she doesn't know that her life is about to change. Drastically!!
She gets abducted by aliens, and had the adventure of a lifetime !!!
On the gigantic spaceship HORUS, Aimee becomes acclimated to life in outer space, and makes a few friends along the way.
But she just wants to go home....
Zak is a warrior, and totally unlike the others on the ship. He and Aimee become friends, and then , something more.....
I thought this book was a great read. Full of action and adventure and unbelievable descriptions of life on other worlds. It was a treat for my senses, and every well written !!! Can't wait to read the next !!!
What a super fantastic read !!
Aimee is a young girl still in high school, and she doesn't know that her life is about to change. Drastically!!
She gets abducted by aliens, and had the adventure of a lifetime !!!
On the gigantic spaceship HORUS, Aimee becomes acclimated to life in outer space, and makes a few friends along the way.
But she just wants to go home....
Zak is a warrior, and totally unlike the others on the ship. He and Aimee become friends, and then , something more.....
I thought this book was a great read. Full of action and adventure and unbelievable descriptions of life on other worlds. It was a treat for my senses, and every well written !!! Can't wait to read the next !!!
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