What do you think?
Rate this book
Chilling Effect #3
Fault Tolerance
14 hours 22 mins
From the author of the critically acclaimed Prime Deceptions and Chilling Effect, the hilarious new novel about the adventures of Captain Eva Innocente and the crew of La Sirena Negra.
Nothing wrecks Captain Eva Innocente's vacation plans quite like an anonymous threat to vaporize billions of people. Hundreds of monoliths have suddenly materialized in space, broadcasting the same looped message: surrender or be exterminated. Is the universe being epically spammed?
Surrender to whom? Exterminated when? And how is Eva, commander of a beat-up cargo ship, supposed to prevent it? As panic spreads, a mystery message sends Eva to find answers, in a system that hasn't been explored in all of recorded history.
With the crew of La Sirena Negra, a score of psychic cats, a feline-phobic robot, and a superweapon she has no clue how to use, Eva prepares to battle the unknown. But first, she has to defeat the known: mercenary Tito Santiago, whose idea of a clean fight is a shower before kill time. His mission is to ensure Eva doesn't succeed at hers.
If anything goes wrong, the universe is doomed. But if everything goes according to Eva's plans--wait, when does that ever happen?
From the author of the critically acclaimed Prime Deceptions and Chilling Effect, the hilarious new novel about the adventures of Captain Eva Innocente and the crew of La Sirena Negra.
Nothing wrecks Captain Eva Innocente's vacation plans quite like an anonymous threat to vaporize billions of people. Hundreds of monoliths have suddenly materialized in space, broadcasting the same looped message: surrender or be exterminated. Is the universe being epically spammed?
Surrender to whom? Exterminated when? And how is Eva, commander of a beat-up cargo ship, supposed to prevent it? As panic spreads, a mystery message sends Eva to find answers, in a system that hasn't been explored in all of recorded history.
With the crew of La Sirena Negra, a score of psychic cats, a feline-phobic robot, and a superweapon she has no clue how to use, Eva prepares to battle the unknown. But first, she has to defeat the known: mercenary Tito Santiago, whose idea of a clean fight is a shower before kill time. His mission is to ensure Eva doesn't succeed at hers.
If anything goes wrong, the universe is doomed. But if everything goes according to Eva's plans--wait, when does that ever happen?
416 pages, Paperback
First published August 2, 2022
77 people are currently reading
2751 people want to read
About the author
Valerie Valdes
26 books432 followersValerie Valdes is co-editor of the award-winning Escape Pod science fiction podcast, as well as the author of the Chilling Effect trilogy and space fantasy novel Where Peace Is Lost. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Nightmare Magazine and several anthologies. She lives in an elaborate meme palace in Georgia with her husband, children and cats.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 135 reviews
May 24, 2022
Fault Tolerance is an adrenaline-fueled finale to a fantastic series. It balances action, emotion, and humour to give you a story with such great characters that it’ll make your eyeballs fall off from compulsive reading.
The characters, as usual, are a lot of fun. Eva is the same person as in the first two books, but she’s wiser and more aware of her crew’s feelings. She’s had to learn to be this way and she really has grown in that regard. Her relationship with Vakar is so incredibly cute - I loved the respect and love they have for one another but also the trust. Normally I’m a “shipping a new couple” type of reader, but I was 100% on board for Eva and Vakar moments. I wanted more.
I also enjoyed the realism of how she and her sister Mari feel about one another. The love is there, but it’s buried under betrayal and clashing personalities. As much as I’d like to say I’m Eva, I’m definitely Mari (“She’d always wanted to explore ancient places and discover things and write super boring essays about them”). (This is an ARC so that line might change or disappear in the final printing)
There are two new characters who, like Sue and Min, don’t take up a lot of page time but are endearing nonetheless. There aren’t any characters in the novel whom I don’t like or at least find interesting. Nobody likes Miles, but he’s fun to not like.
One could say that the novel has a “small universe” problem, which is when the same people are always showing up for the major events despite the improbability of that happening, but I would disagree. The arrival of some already known characters helped propel the story along faster, as we already know (and or have issues) with these people, so we didn’t need to learn all about them. It was more of a running joke too.
Speaking of the jokes, this book is so damn funny. It's a combination of humorous moments and silly allusions to pop culture stuff that either is or isn't sci-fi related (there’s also a hilarious riff on the cliche “I let out the breath I didn't realize I was holding”.) In book 2, the main pop culture reference was clearly Pokemon and this one is Transformers with a bit of Power Rangers (or perhaps it’s something else, but those were what it felt like to me - it’s Mecha basically). But this doesn't mean it was relying on those concepts to tell the story - these are common sci-fi tropes and Valdes still managed to craft her own plot around them. It’s very fun.
The battle scenes are, as usual, fun, fast, and easy to picture; they utilize a mix of hand-to-hand, weaponry, evasion, spaceships, and new technology. Everything in the novel is well-described but it’s definitely not a hard sci-fi (which is a good thing).
The stakes in the novel felt real, and as much as “save the universe” plots aren’t always my favourite to read, this one worked very well as it ties into the other two novels and it also made sense why Eva was involved. She also takes the time to lament her possible death, as she’s still just a fairly normal person in unusual circumstances. Those aspects gave the story heart and an emotional core.
Overall, the only thing I’m sad about is that it’s over! I loved this trilogy to bits and will definitely be buying a physical copy. I loved it.
The characters, as usual, are a lot of fun. Eva is the same person as in the first two books, but she’s wiser and more aware of her crew’s feelings. She’s had to learn to be this way and she really has grown in that regard. Her relationship with Vakar is so incredibly cute - I loved the respect and love they have for one another but also the trust. Normally I’m a “shipping a new couple” type of reader, but I was 100% on board for Eva and Vakar moments. I wanted more.
I also enjoyed the realism of how she and her sister Mari feel about one another. The love is there, but it’s buried under betrayal and clashing personalities. As much as I’d like to say I’m Eva, I’m definitely Mari (“She’d always wanted to explore ancient places and discover things and write super boring essays about them”). (This is an ARC so that line might change or disappear in the final printing)
There are two new characters who, like Sue and Min, don’t take up a lot of page time but are endearing nonetheless. There aren’t any characters in the novel whom I don’t like or at least find interesting. Nobody likes Miles, but he’s fun to not like.
One could say that the novel has a “small universe” problem, which is when the same people are always showing up for the major events despite the improbability of that happening, but I would disagree. The arrival of some already known characters helped propel the story along faster, as we already know (and or have issues) with these people, so we didn’t need to learn all about them. It was more of a running joke too.
Speaking of the jokes, this book is so damn funny. It's a combination of humorous moments and silly allusions to pop culture stuff that either is or isn't sci-fi related (there’s also a hilarious riff on the cliche “I let out the breath I didn't realize I was holding”.) In book 2, the main pop culture reference was clearly Pokemon and this one is Transformers with a bit of Power Rangers (or perhaps it’s something else, but those were what it felt like to me - it’s Mecha basically). But this doesn't mean it was relying on those concepts to tell the story - these are common sci-fi tropes and Valdes still managed to craft her own plot around them. It’s very fun.
The battle scenes are, as usual, fun, fast, and easy to picture; they utilize a mix of hand-to-hand, weaponry, evasion, spaceships, and new technology. Everything in the novel is well-described but it’s definitely not a hard sci-fi (which is a good thing).
The stakes in the novel felt real, and as much as “save the universe” plots aren’t always my favourite to read, this one worked very well as it ties into the other two novels and it also made sense why Eva was involved. She also takes the time to lament her possible death, as she’s still just a fairly normal person in unusual circumstances. Those aspects gave the story heart and an emotional core.
Overall, the only thing I’m sad about is that it’s over! I loved this trilogy to bits and will definitely be buying a physical copy. I loved it.
April 28, 2023
Rec. by: Chance
Rec. for: Chambers music fans (heh)
Oops, I did it again—that is, I accidentally picked up a sequel before reading any of its predecessors. In my defense, though, it's not at all obvious from the cover that Fault Tolerance is actually the third volume in a series by Valerie Valdes. I only started getting suspicious several pages in, after multiple references to events that had occurred before.
The first two were called Chilling Effect and Prime Deceptions (in that order), if you'd like to avoid my mistake.
Eh, so I'm slow. It's okay, though; Valdes—an author new to me—makes it easy to pick up on Captain Eva Innocente's vibe. And "vibe" is, I think, the right word here... the language in Fault Tolerance is extraordinarily contemporary. Probably too much so—will "escape rooms" and slang like "Absolute unit" (p.50) still be this much of a thing, so long after humanity's made it to the stars? I do have a weakness for wisecracking women in fiction, though, which made the meme-laden conversations in Fault Tolerance substantially more bearable.
The crew of Captain Innocente's ship, La Sirena Negra, reminded me a lot of the people aboard Wayfarer in Becky Chambers' series (starting with The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet). I enjoyed seeing another example of disparate beings united against a cold universe, sharing the warmth of found family:
It would have helped if I'd been fluent in Spanish as well as English, in order to appreciate Valdes' prose more smoothly—although I did immediately get and chuckle at the line
And as a frequent Excel user, I really appreciated the office (or Office) humor of this savage line:
This novel's not all shipboard romance, banter, and interstellar intrigue, though. For action fans, there are ever-escalating space battles, involving not just spaceships but also Giant. Freakin'. Robots.
And to wrap things up, Fault Tolerance ends with a really noice (sic) last line.
So if your own fault tolerance is relatively high—and if you have finished reading everything you can find by Becky Chambers—then you could do a lot worse than check out Valerie Valdes' similarly cozy space opera series.
Just don't start with this one, okay?
Rec. for: Chambers music fans (heh)
Oops, I did it again—that is, I accidentally picked up a sequel before reading any of its predecessors. In my defense, though, it's not at all obvious from the cover that Fault Tolerance is actually the third volume in a series by Valerie Valdes. I only started getting suspicious several pages in, after multiple references to events that had occurred before.
The first two were called Chilling Effect and Prime Deceptions (in that order), if you'd like to avoid my mistake.
Eh, so I'm slow. It's okay, though; Valdes—an author new to me—makes it easy to pick up on Captain Eva Innocente's vibe. And "vibe" is, I think, the right word here... the language in Fault Tolerance is extraordinarily contemporary. Probably too much so—will "escape rooms" and slang like "Absolute unit" (p.50) still be this much of a thing, so long after humanity's made it to the stars? I do have a weakness for wisecracking women in fiction, though, which made the meme-laden conversations in Fault Tolerance substantially more bearable.
The crew of Captain Innocente's ship, La Sirena Negra, reminded me a lot of the people aboard Wayfarer in Becky Chambers' series (starting with The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet). I enjoyed seeing another example of disparate beings united against a cold universe, sharing the warmth of found family:
{Eva} wasn't powerless, and she wasn't alone. She had a crew of dedicated, skilled people ready to fight for themselves, their families and friends, and the rest of the universe, and she would help them succeed.
—p.239
It would have helped if I'd been fluent in Spanish as well as English, in order to appreciate Valdes' prose more smoothly—although I did immediately get and chuckle at the line
They all wore their spacesuits, por si las moscas.I did have to look up the word "sucia," which (like its English counterpart) means "dirty" in both literal and figurative senses. On p.246, it's definitely meant more as the latter. Most of the untranslated terms do seem to be either expletives or food, though, which are easier to understand from context.
—p.30
And as a frequent Excel user, I really appreciated the office (or Office) humor of this savage line:
In the same way that crablike creatures kept popping up across the universe in various forms, so did bureaucracy. There were words for "pivot tables" in almost every known language.
—p.303
This novel's not all shipboard romance, banter, and interstellar intrigue, though. For action fans, there are ever-escalating space battles, involving not just spaceships but also Giant. Freakin'. Robots.
And to wrap things up, Fault Tolerance ends with a really noice (sic) last line.
So if your own fault tolerance is relatively high—and if you have finished reading everything you can find by Becky Chambers—then you could do a lot worse than check out Valerie Valdes' similarly cozy space opera series.
Just don't start with this one, okay?
November 23, 2023
4.25 stars rounded down.
This third (and potentially last) installment of “The Chilling Effect” series capped everything off with tons of high stakes action with an undercut of some humor.
Witty, exciting, and sweet; this is the best of the trilogy! Because of my enjoyment of this trilogy and “Where Peace is Lost” I’ll be reading whatever Valdes comes out with next.
This third (and potentially last) installment of “The Chilling Effect” series capped everything off with tons of high stakes action with an undercut of some humor.
Witty, exciting, and sweet; this is the best of the trilogy! Because of my enjoyment of this trilogy and “Where Peace is Lost” I’ll be reading whatever Valdes comes out with next.
October 27, 2022
3.5 stars
August 23, 2022
Part of this style of humour is generated from the absurd asides and random twists and I think it was done ok here but it's not that easy to pull off well and I think the series came with some awkward moments; sometimes it's a fine line between silly and stupid.
"I hate tech that’s indistinguishable from magic, she thought, pursing her lips like she’d sucked on a naranja agria."
However, I think Valdes' writing really excelled at emotional awareness, down to the micro details. I was regularly impressed by the use of subtle gestures and multi-layered emotional expression.
"The fish tank whirred, releasing a burst of bubbles like an underwater fart. Eva’s brain did the same, more or less."
The adventure ends with a big old "kum ba jah" moment that wraps up the series neatly and then briefly discusses what each of the individual characters think about the future.
Apart from a noticeable growth arc for the protagonist, each story is more or less the same adventure, so even though my typical preference is to binge-read through a series all in one go, for these books I'd actually recommend reading them one at a time as the mood for a comedic, soft scifi arises.
"I hate tech that’s indistinguishable from magic, she thought, pursing her lips like she’d sucked on a naranja agria."
However, I think Valdes' writing really excelled at emotional awareness, down to the micro details. I was regularly impressed by the use of subtle gestures and multi-layered emotional expression.
"The fish tank whirred, releasing a burst of bubbles like an underwater fart. Eva’s brain did the same, more or less."
The adventure ends with a big old "kum ba jah" moment that wraps up the series neatly and then briefly discusses what each of the individual characters think about the future.
Apart from a noticeable growth arc for the protagonist, each story is more or less the same adventure, so even though my typical preference is to binge-read through a series all in one go, for these books I'd actually recommend reading them one at a time as the mood for a comedic, soft scifi arises.
May 31, 2022
3.5 ish. Free Netgalley book for review~~I hadn’t realized this was the third book in the series. It’s quite clear from the mentions of past books that she’s gone through lots of character growth but I’m not sure I actually want to go back and read her past. I may eventually, because I did see that these books were available on my library’s hoopla…
Anyway I liked the crew and captain in this, and the fact that they work together so well as a team in general. The plot is grand in scope (it’s time to save the universe and earth everyone!) although to begin with the initial plot sounds like something out of a Doctor Who episode. Mysterious cubes appearing everywhere? Check, seen that before. But then the actual quest line starts and it’s pretty entertaining for what amounts to a collectithon. There’s plenty of action and feelings.
I will say the mcs made some pretty dumb decisions, the plot felt a little draggy in certain places, and the swearing was more than a bit much for my taste,
Overall however if you’re looking for something that doesn’t take itself too seriously, has a bit of Firefly flare to it, and a few morally gray characters, you’ll probably like this. Oh and let’s not forget the cats of course.
Anyway I liked the crew and captain in this, and the fact that they work together so well as a team in general. The plot is grand in scope (it’s time to save the universe and earth everyone!) although to begin with the initial plot sounds like something out of a Doctor Who episode. Mysterious cubes appearing everywhere? Check, seen that before. But then the actual quest line starts and it’s pretty entertaining for what amounts to a collectithon. There’s plenty of action and feelings.
I will say the mcs made some pretty dumb decisions, the plot felt a little draggy in certain places, and the swearing was more than a bit much for my taste,
Overall however if you’re looking for something that doesn’t take itself too seriously, has a bit of Firefly flare to it, and a few morally gray characters, you’ll probably like this. Oh and let’s not forget the cats of course.
May 29, 2024
Догрызла из упрямства и чтобы закрыть гештальт, но все недостатки прошлых двух частей в этой расцвели буйным цветом. It was a hot mess with too much gratuitous Spanish.
February 23, 2023
9- A very satisfying close to a breezy, action packed space opera trilogy that riffs on popular franchises, has psychic cats, a feisty Cuban protagonist gathering a found family of misfits around her, with witty dialogue and a great, tense finale.
Compared to the first two books in this series (I guess if you read my review for this one you will already have read those two) this book was slightly more coherent, the plot getting together nicely with lose threads from the previous books woven in. The Mass Effect-allusions are clear here as well (and I love a book where the protagonist has a fishtank), with different kind op weapons, all kinds of missions, alien races, secret societies and a world ending threat. Where the second book riffed on Pokemon, here Transformers was an influence (and there was even a satisfying explanation for Dinobots!). Also there were giant transforming mechs (also a staple of geek culture).
A plus here compared to the first two books is the expanded role of the psychic cats. I had a big grin on my face every time they featured, the behaved like real cats and they saved the day on multiple occasions.
Protagonist Eva also was fun to follow along. She made some rash decisions, endangered her friends, but ultimately her sheer determination (even if fueled by a lot of coffee and medical nanites) gets the upper hand. A couple of new faces to the cast, but not too many, so the existing 'found family' gets room to shine.
The action scenes were well done here, and even though the tone of this book is witty and not all too serious, the tension was still realised well and the threats to the protagonists had weight to them.
This is a fun popcorn read and a pallate cleanser in between more serious SF literature. Maybe in ten years this will be forgotten, as I don't think it adds a lot that's new to the genre, but sometimes you just want to enjoy yourself with space ships, robots and laser fights. You got that here in spades.
Compared to the first two books in this series (I guess if you read my review for this one you will already have read those two) this book was slightly more coherent, the plot getting together nicely with lose threads from the previous books woven in. The Mass Effect-allusions are clear here as well (and I love a book where the protagonist has a fishtank), with different kind op weapons, all kinds of missions, alien races, secret societies and a world ending threat. Where the second book riffed on Pokemon, here Transformers was an influence (and there was even a satisfying explanation for Dinobots!). Also there were giant transforming mechs (also a staple of geek culture).
A plus here compared to the first two books is the expanded role of the psychic cats. I had a big grin on my face every time they featured, the behaved like real cats and they saved the day on multiple occasions.
Protagonist Eva also was fun to follow along. She made some rash decisions, endangered her friends, but ultimately her sheer determination (even if fueled by a lot of coffee and medical nanites) gets the upper hand. A couple of new faces to the cast, but not too many, so the existing 'found family' gets room to shine.
The action scenes were well done here, and even though the tone of this book is witty and not all too serious, the tension was still realised well and the threats to the protagonists had weight to them.
This is a fun popcorn read and a pallate cleanser in between more serious SF literature. Maybe in ten years this will be forgotten, as I don't think it adds a lot that's new to the genre, but sometimes you just want to enjoy yourself with space ships, robots and laser fights. You got that here in spades.
February 4, 2024
Already missing the space cats!
March 30, 2022
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!
I want to be upfront and admit that when I started reading this book, I had no idea it was the third novel in the series. Being unaware of this marred my opinion of the book at first, but I liked the story way more as I went on reading. I ended up actually liking this book more than I thought I would! Enough so that I am going to go read books one and two when I can get my hands on them. The one thing that stood out to me in this book was the fight scenes. Those scenes were some of the most fun and engaging scenes I've read in a long while. It was super easy to picture the action in my mind's eye, and just a joy to read. However, I do also have one minor annoyance with the book. I can read some Spanish, but not enough to be able to completely understand full-length sentences. Having to stop reading to open up my translator, completely interrupting my reading flow, just so I can understand what she said, is very annoying. Let it be noted that this is just a personal annoyance and it has no bearing on the quality of the story itself! "Fault Tolerance" was a fun and colorful ride of a space opera, and I'm excited to go back and read the first two books of the trilogy!
I want to be upfront and admit that when I started reading this book, I had no idea it was the third novel in the series. Being unaware of this marred my opinion of the book at first, but I liked the story way more as I went on reading. I ended up actually liking this book more than I thought I would! Enough so that I am going to go read books one and two when I can get my hands on them. The one thing that stood out to me in this book was the fight scenes. Those scenes were some of the most fun and engaging scenes I've read in a long while. It was super easy to picture the action in my mind's eye, and just a joy to read. However, I do also have one minor annoyance with the book. I can read some Spanish, but not enough to be able to completely understand full-length sentences. Having to stop reading to open up my translator, completely interrupting my reading flow, just so I can understand what she said, is very annoying. Let it be noted that this is just a personal annoyance and it has no bearing on the quality of the story itself! "Fault Tolerance" was a fun and colorful ride of a space opera, and I'm excited to go back and read the first two books of the trilogy!
September 1, 2022
Protagonist makes too many dumb decisions. Writing is fine, plot is good, but I hate it when a protagonist makes endless series ' of idiotic decisions with consequences anyone could see coming a mile away. Did not finish.
February 21, 2025
Think Mass Effect 3 meets Stellaris Endgame Crisis.
Seriously the various scifi inspos keep coming with this and I'd probably say it was the best one of the three maybe? It was focused, there was no awkward time skips and there was a set goal in mind we kept travelling towards.
However I keep my complaint from the other two with the persistent and untranslated Spanish, especially complete sentences and short complete bits of dialogue. I do not want to sit with my phone in my hand to translate shit so more often than not I just have to skip over it, which I don't really want to do.
My second complaint is that it was in this one specifically that I realised that this is a universe spanning book, not just a galaxy one and that's kinda off putting, at least for me. The galaxy itself is already fuckin' impossibly huge for our comprehension really and when they would say 'universe' before I thought they just used it interchangeably but when they're outright mentioning different galaxies it lost me. One galaxy could potentially contain almost endless possibilities at life. One galaxy is more than enough, it didn't need to be the "universe". That's too big.
My other complaint, and it's kinda a really big one and technically two but they are related, is that
I have to say the very end final reveal in the literal last line in the book is fantastic when you think back to some of the earlier foreshadowing towards it.
But yeah I really liked this trilogy. It took itself just seriously enough to be really enjoyable and it was fantastical enough to feel like the author really just got creative with making all these cool planets and aliens and societies. You can also really see the different scifi inspirations and references dotting throughout, almost making it rewarding to find them.
Seriously the various scifi inspos keep coming with this and I'd probably say it was the best one of the three maybe? It was focused, there was no awkward time skips and there was a set goal in mind we kept travelling towards.
However I keep my complaint from the other two with the persistent and untranslated Spanish, especially complete sentences and short complete bits of dialogue. I do not want to sit with my phone in my hand to translate shit so more often than not I just have to skip over it, which I don't really want to do.
My second complaint is that it was in this one specifically that I realised that this is a universe spanning book, not just a galaxy one and that's kinda off putting, at least for me. The galaxy itself is already fuckin' impossibly huge for our comprehension really and when they would say 'universe' before I thought they just used it interchangeably but when they're outright mentioning different galaxies it lost me. One galaxy could potentially contain almost endless possibilities at life. One galaxy is more than enough, it didn't need to be the "universe". That's too big.
My other complaint, and it's kinda a really big one and technically two but they are related, is that
I have to say the very end final reveal in the literal last line in the book is fantastic when you think back to some of the earlier foreshadowing towards it.
But yeah I really liked this trilogy. It took itself just seriously enough to be really enjoyable and it was fantastical enough to feel like the author really just got creative with making all these cool planets and aliens and societies. You can also really see the different scifi inspirations and references dotting throughout, almost making it rewarding to find them.
September 10, 2022
The crew of La Sirena Negra have my whole heart, as always!
Full RTC when I stop squeeing over Mala the psychic cat!
Full RTC when I stop squeeing over Mala the psychic cat!
November 10, 2022
Another fun high stakes romp with Eva and the crew of La Sirena Negra, this novel is a satisfying culmination of the characters and conflicts developed throughout the earlier books in the series.
April 17, 2023
Loved this whole series on audiobook. Very satisfying conclusion.
May 9, 2023
I very much feel like I need to go back and reread the whole trilogy from the beginning, because I hadn't read any except this one after playing Mass Effect and holy shit there are so many references.
May 18, 2025
This was a lot of fun, and it's absolutely my favorite entry in the series.
The plot includes a fetch quest, a heist, and a million other little things, but still managed to be the most focused of the three books. The galaxy-level threat was nicely balanced with Eva's personal arc. This is a book about relationships just as much as it is about giant robots and psychic cats.
If those two things sound interesting to you, you don't mind a main character who can be selfish and shortsighted, and you're okay with translating a bunch of Spanish phrases (many involving the word 'shit'), this might be worth a shot!
The plot includes a fetch quest, a heist, and a million other little things, but still managed to be the most focused of the three books. The galaxy-level threat was nicely balanced with Eva's personal arc. This is a book about relationships just as much as it is about giant robots and psychic cats.
If those two things sound interesting to you, you don't mind a main character who can be selfish and shortsighted, and you're okay with translating a bunch of Spanish phrases (many involving the word 'shit'), this might be worth a shot!
May 19, 2025
A good ending to the series, but less engaging than the other books
3.25 stars
3.25 stars
September 13, 2025
so fun when authors have fun
“I haven't been keeping abreast of the situation,” Mari said, her voice strained.
“If your breasts get any messages, let me know.” Eva ended the call, torn between frustration and relief.
August 4, 2024
A fun and satisfying end to the trilogy. This book suffered from a boggy middle where it felt like the characters were getting no where and everyone was regressing through their earlier mistakes again but sticking with it was worth while as I thought the climax was well done. This book had just as many fun nerd influences like Voltron, Mass Effect, and Transformers which I loved. Overall the book were a lot of fun and just what I was looking for in a space opera trilogy.
May 18, 2023
Absolutely loved this for all its use of Cuban Spanish slang. Having read two of the three in the series I'll say that as space opera, OK, as I obviously did not kick these books out of bed for eating crackers.
February 3, 2024
This space opera trilogy was delightful fun.
The audiobooks are great, especially if you want to hear the swearing in Spanish.
The audiobooks are great, especially if you want to hear the swearing in Spanish.
January 6, 2023
Fault Tolerance is one of those books that I stalked. Desperate for the final book in the trilogy since finishing my ARC for Prime Deceptions ages ago, I jumped on the chance to read more about La Sirena Negra and her crew. I can't stress enough how much I enjoy this world that Valdes has crafted! I loved the nods to favorites like Mass Effect, Pokemon, Gundam, Transformers, and more.
The strength of my feelings for the characters, particularly towards Mari, took me by surprise. Seriously, my internal little sister was completely unfair to Mari at times. I love all the side characters and the complex relationships that have been built over the series.
I adore Eva and Vakar and I really hoped for more moments with them. I'm also a sucker for Vakar. I'm almost as far gone for him as I am Garrus Vakarian... Though no one will be able to oust my darling Archangel.
But on that note, I started to get frustrated early on with the repeated terrible decisions by Eva. I can understand the urge to check in on a lover, but all the signs and this reader were screaming DON'T DO IT! It felt like we had back to back awful decisions and I really was on Pink's side with the exasperation. It made it hard to stay engaged as the story continued.
This series has been so much fun, and while I'm bummed I didn't enjoy the finale as much as I had hoped, I will absolutely be recommending this in the future!
*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
The strength of my feelings for the characters, particularly towards Mari, took me by surprise. Seriously, my internal little sister was completely unfair to Mari at times. I love all the side characters and the complex relationships that have been built over the series.
I adore Eva and Vakar and I really hoped for more moments with them. I'm also a sucker for Vakar. I'm almost as far gone for him as I am Garrus Vakarian... Though no one will be able to oust my darling Archangel.
But on that note, I started to get frustrated early on with the repeated terrible decisions by Eva. I can understand the urge to check in on a lover, but all the signs and this reader were screaming DON'T DO IT! It felt like we had back to back awful decisions and I really was on Pink's side with the exasperation. It made it hard to stay engaged as the story continued.
This series has been so much fun, and while I'm bummed I didn't enjoy the finale as much as I had hoped, I will absolutely be recommending this in the future!
*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
July 24, 2022
The Epic Conclusion
First, thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for an advanced reader's copy of this spectacular book.
This is my favorite book of the series! It, of course, has everything to do with the fact that I love chaotic plot lines with solid resolution. Everything comes together here and it was done perfectly. This story doesn't take place within our reality and yet it feels more real than a lot of books I have read which are. It feels human. In between the adventure and excitement, there is emotion and thought. It is a story of love and loyalty to others and oneself that is paced well as to not be overbearing. I wasn't left with a distaste for the main character because of illogical emotional responses which none of us can relate to. Every choice felt justified and understandable in its own right. It did not feel like an adventure that was out of reach for me.
Obviously, I must once again mention the psychic cats. I adore them. They are what sold me on the series in the first place and shot my serotonin levels off the meter. I laughed. I cried. I flopped around on my bed like a fish. I loved every moment of this book and I feel no shame in being dramatic about it.
First, thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for an advanced reader's copy of this spectacular book.
This is my favorite book of the series! It, of course, has everything to do with the fact that I love chaotic plot lines with solid resolution. Everything comes together here and it was done perfectly. This story doesn't take place within our reality and yet it feels more real than a lot of books I have read which are. It feels human. In between the adventure and excitement, there is emotion and thought. It is a story of love and loyalty to others and oneself that is paced well as to not be overbearing. I wasn't left with a distaste for the main character because of illogical emotional responses which none of us can relate to. Every choice felt justified and understandable in its own right. It did not feel like an adventure that was out of reach for me.
Obviously, I must once again mention the psychic cats. I adore them. They are what sold me on the series in the first place and shot my serotonin levels off the meter. I laughed. I cried. I flopped around on my bed like a fish. I loved every moment of this book and I feel no shame in being dramatic about it.
April 20, 2024
Space ships, psychic cats, weird aliens, transforming robots, and robot-like sentient beings (some of which want to take over the universe), populate this third book in the series. It's an entertaining romp, although...
It helps if you know a bit of Spanish, which I don't.
There is one annoying plot hole, or maybe it's just a way to increase tension, that involves trying to obtain a goal the hard way rather than using a recently obtained resource.
And, sometimes the protagonist is annoyingly impulsive and unforgivably stupid.
(2.5 stars rounded up)
It helps if you know a bit of Spanish, which I don't.
There is one annoying plot hole, or maybe it's just a way to increase tension, that involves trying to obtain a goal the hard way rather than using a recently obtained resource.
And, sometimes the protagonist is annoyingly impulsive and unforgivably stupid.
(2.5 stars rounded up)
September 2, 2022
A fabulous conclusion to a fabulous series. I love how funny, exciting, and heartwarming these books are. And, and I feel like I can't say this enough, psychic cats. Definitely one of my favorite sci-fi series of all time. <3
February 28, 2024
Humm, I wanted to finish the series so I did. I wasn't particularly thrilled with the experience but it wasn't horrible either. Interesting ending but I am not sure I'll read more from Valdes in the future.
September 9, 2022
I'm happy that I kept up with this series, and I'm happy to see how it ended! I appreciate Eva's growth over the course of the series and the consequences that follow. This is 'feel-good' (gonna use that loosely here) sci-fi, so the consequences weren't major, and overall .
The writing was stronger in this book than in the first two, but there were still a few quirks I had noticed in prior books that carried over here. I think hearing them made them more obvious, like repetitive phrasing regarding alien things, i.e. the Quennian equivalent of a nod, shrug, etc. I get wanting to make sure that what is happening is understood, but by the third book I know that Vakar shrugging is him nodding.
Funnily enough, this didn't feel like the end of a series until the last chapter. It still felt like there was more to do, more to see, more adventures to follow Eva and the crew on. But perhaps that is the point - they all had stories and lives before the books, and they will after. I was surprised by how attached I had gotten to all of them! This book does not do as much to further the development of the characters besides Eva as much as book 2 did, but I suppose that makes sense. This was much more of an action-packed final act. Here's hoping that we get some extra bonus short stories, since this world is interesting and I would love to come back to it.
And one final thing -
The writing was stronger in this book than in the first two, but there were still a few quirks I had noticed in prior books that carried over here. I think hearing them made them more obvious, like repetitive phrasing regarding alien things, i.e. the Quennian equivalent of a nod, shrug, etc. I get wanting to make sure that what is happening is understood, but by the third book I know that Vakar shrugging is him nodding.
Funnily enough, this didn't feel like the end of a series until the last chapter. It still felt like there was more to do, more to see, more adventures to follow Eva and the crew on. But perhaps that is the point - they all had stories and lives before the books, and they will after. I was surprised by how attached I had gotten to all of them! This book does not do as much to further the development of the characters besides Eva as much as book 2 did, but I suppose that makes sense. This was much more of an action-packed final act. Here's hoping that we get some extra bonus short stories, since this world is interesting and I would love to come back to it.
And one final thing -
September 27, 2022
I had a huge amount of fun reading this third (and final?) book of the adventures of Captain Eva Innocente and the crew of La Sirena Negra. In this one, beacons appear all over the galaxy, next to travel gates, all broadcasting the same message - surrender or be exterminated! Somehow, it's up to Eva and her crew to find the superweapon that will be all that stands between civilisation as we know it and annihilation!
Despite the fact that the stakes were nominally really high in this book (the destruction of the Earth!), I don't think I ever felt like Eva and her crew were ever in real peril throughout this book, or that they would fail to win, but that never mattered to me. It was all about how they solved the puzzle and made it to the next step. They're all likeable characters, and the crew have gained a bit of depth over the books. Leroy (plus girlfriend Momoko) comes back for this one, after being mostly shelved for the last one, but he doesn't get much to do, and there's still no details on his past, which is a shame. But there's so much going on, that I only realised this well after I finished the actual book.
TheTransformers giant, shapeshifting robots from the climax of the previous book make a return here, and we learn more about them and the neverending war between the two factions, and we get to see our gang face off against them in giant mechs, which is just as cool as it sounds. Also, the mechs' "final form" completely cracked me up.
As with the other books, there was a liberal sprinkling of Spanish throughout the book, which I mostly ignored - I tended to assume that it was inventive swearing or other stuff that wasn't vital the the plot. There were a handful of times I was moved to load Google Translate, but I don't think it was hugely important.
I've very much enjoyed spending time with this series, which I first discovered when the first one was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, which I thought was unusual, since the Clarke usually goes for more literary works, so an old-fashioned space opera on the shortlist made me sit up and take notice. I'm very glad that I did as the whole series has been fun, and I feel that Valdes has grown as an author as the series has progressed. Recommended to any fan of space opera, giant robots and/or cats.
Despite the fact that the stakes were nominally really high in this book (the destruction of the Earth!), I don't think I ever felt like Eva and her crew were ever in real peril throughout this book, or that they would fail to win, but that never mattered to me. It was all about how they solved the puzzle and made it to the next step. They're all likeable characters, and the crew have gained a bit of depth over the books. Leroy (plus girlfriend Momoko) comes back for this one, after being mostly shelved for the last one, but he doesn't get much to do, and there's still no details on his past, which is a shame. But there's so much going on, that I only realised this well after I finished the actual book.
The
As with the other books, there was a liberal sprinkling of Spanish throughout the book, which I mostly ignored - I tended to assume that it was inventive swearing or other stuff that wasn't vital the the plot. There were a handful of times I was moved to load Google Translate, but I don't think it was hugely important.
I've very much enjoyed spending time with this series, which I first discovered when the first one was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, which I thought was unusual, since the Clarke usually goes for more literary works, so an old-fashioned space opera on the shortlist made me sit up and take notice. I'm very glad that I did as the whole series has been fun, and I feel that Valdes has grown as an author as the series has progressed. Recommended to any fan of space opera, giant robots and/or cats.
April 5, 2024
This was easily my favorite book of this comical space opera series so far!
Yes, the whole book read like one repetitive scene "we'll go in, kick all the a** and get out with some injuries, and we'll do it all over again" but I am a fan of the crew and the dysfunctional sort of family they are at this point, so I rolled with it.
The ending was neatly wrapped up in a bow, but still left some room for a possible 4th book. Either way, if this ends up being just a trilogy I'm perfectly happy with that ending.
I loved the fast pace, the descriptions of the Proarkhe, and the 3 mechs. Tons of fun and laughs to be had here.
My biggest complaint, which I pushed past in Book 1, again in Book 2, but in Book 3 it really started to get frustrating/distracting as a non-Spanish speaking reader - there are so many Spanish phrases and even whole sentences in "Chilling Effect" that are not translated at all. One needs to Google what it means or just keep skimming past them and trying to guess what was perhaps said from context. And yes, while I realize from context alone that 80% of the Spanish is probably swear words, that other 20% is something I'd actually really like to know, like Eva's endearing nicknames for Sue, Eva's conversations with her mother Regina or sister Mari... it was very disappointing that Valdes just threw so much Spanish in without translating or putting a glossary in the back of ANY of her books. She just expected her readers to deal with it.
I know I'm probably just being a grouch about this, but seriously. I've enjoyed books by other authors before where other languages are inserted excellently and there is even terms explained near the back. Take Mia P. Manansala's "Arsenic and Adobo". She explained everything, because there were so many Filipino references, slang, and terms. Made for a much more enjoyable reading experience.
Those are my thoughts though! I would still recommend this series, especially as a fluffy, feel-good break from more serious science fiction or space opera.
Yes, the whole book read like one repetitive scene "we'll go in, kick all the a** and get out with some injuries, and we'll do it all over again" but I am a fan of the crew and the dysfunctional sort of family they are at this point, so I rolled with it.
The ending was neatly wrapped up in a bow, but still left some room for a possible 4th book. Either way, if this ends up being just a trilogy I'm perfectly happy with that ending.
I loved the fast pace, the descriptions of the Proarkhe, and the 3 mechs. Tons of fun and laughs to be had here.
My biggest complaint, which I pushed past in Book 1, again in Book 2, but in Book 3 it really started to get frustrating/distracting as a non-Spanish speaking reader - there are so many Spanish phrases and even whole sentences in "Chilling Effect" that are not translated at all. One needs to Google what it means or just keep skimming past them and trying to guess what was perhaps said from context. And yes, while I realize from context alone that 80% of the Spanish is probably swear words, that other 20% is something I'd actually really like to know, like Eva's endearing nicknames for Sue, Eva's conversations with her mother Regina or sister Mari... it was very disappointing that Valdes just threw so much Spanish in without translating or putting a glossary in the back of ANY of her books. She just expected her readers to deal with it.
I know I'm probably just being a grouch about this, but seriously. I've enjoyed books by other authors before where other languages are inserted excellently and there is even terms explained near the back. Take Mia P. Manansala's "Arsenic and Adobo". She explained everything, because there were so many Filipino references, slang, and terms. Made for a much more enjoyable reading experience.
Those are my thoughts though! I would still recommend this series, especially as a fluffy, feel-good break from more serious science fiction or space opera.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 135 reviews