What do you think?
Rate this book
Insiders
One sentient plant,
one intergalactic plague,
one closing universe.
Sachi Inside, a pipe crawler on Kerberos Station, is dying of the planet-killing Hibravian virus. In a state of delirium, the agoraphobic girl agrees that in exchange for life, she will not only leave her pipes, but even the station. A parasitic plant wraps around her, guides her to an exiting ship, and adheres to the hull.
When the crew of the small hauler Jacks identifies a barnacle attached to the hull, Captain Karasi Kwei orders it scraped off. While no one is pleased to see a stowaway, the crew thinks there’s money to be made on the plant, and the fact that both the Eastern Star Corporation and the Elysium Empire are tracking it confirms its value. But just as the mercenary Eastern Star Corporation closes in on them, the entire crew falls sick with the incurable Hibravian.
Sachi is having a breakdown, Karasi won’t be bound, and each member of the crew must face their personal nemeses in order to succeed. But Sachi’s plant contains the solution to the reversal of the closing universe. All they have to do is fight the mercenaries, survive the virus, evade the Elysium Empire, and navigate a fluctuating microwave wall in order to save the universe.
one intergalactic plague,
one closing universe.
Sachi Inside, a pipe crawler on Kerberos Station, is dying of the planet-killing Hibravian virus. In a state of delirium, the agoraphobic girl agrees that in exchange for life, she will not only leave her pipes, but even the station. A parasitic plant wraps around her, guides her to an exiting ship, and adheres to the hull.
When the crew of the small hauler Jacks identifies a barnacle attached to the hull, Captain Karasi Kwei orders it scraped off. While no one is pleased to see a stowaway, the crew thinks there’s money to be made on the plant, and the fact that both the Eastern Star Corporation and the Elysium Empire are tracking it confirms its value. But just as the mercenary Eastern Star Corporation closes in on them, the entire crew falls sick with the incurable Hibravian.
Sachi is having a breakdown, Karasi won’t be bound, and each member of the crew must face their personal nemeses in order to succeed. But Sachi’s plant contains the solution to the reversal of the closing universe. All they have to do is fight the mercenaries, survive the virus, evade the Elysium Empire, and navigate a fluctuating microwave wall in order to save the universe.
- GenresScience Fiction
389 pages, ebook
Published January 28, 2023
2 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
Shannon Knight
7 books17 followersShannon Knight lives in the Pacific Northwest with her most excellent cat. Their adventurous lives include coffee, reading, ribbon games, and K-dramas.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 30, 2025
I received a copy of this novel from the author in exchange for a fair review.
A character-driven space opera, Insiders is a great sci-fi that has a touch of The Expanse.
One thing I really enjoyed about this book was the point of view, which was handled with finesse. It’s third-person multiple, jumping between not only the good character but also sometimes giving us insight into the antagonists. This broadened the motives of the villains, which helped to raise the tension and expand on the word building. She absolutely does not engage in head-hopping, which was great to see (as it's something I often encounter when editing or reading self-pub books).
The world-building is really rich and wide-ranging. There’s a lot going on - the Hibravian virus, a sort of fluctuating dark matter or highly volatile something floating around the outer “edge” of the universe which is so strong it’s causing planets to move and space to constrict, as well as various factions competing for control in the galaxy. Aside from the plant alien thing, we don’t have aliens, but some people have been altered either by their planet over the centuries or on purpose, and they seem almost alien in culture and appearance. But none of this is info-dumped; we either are left to infer this or the information is deposited gradually.
I liked the characters, though, because there are so many POVs, I didn’t love any of them. All of them are distinct, and how they act makes sense, but I found I wanted to know just a little bit more about each character than what I got.
The one thing about the book which I could critique is that it does take a little bit to get going. The first scene is exciting and fast-paced, but a little bit of exposition on the Insiders’ life in the pipes might have helped a little. (This could also be because Shannon gave me this book a few months ago, and I forgot the premise.) The book really gets going around twenty percent, though, as this is when the world-building and characterization start to gel, and the plot takes off. After that point, I was utterly hooked.
While the medical science and space aspects were rooted in reality, one thing I had a little bit of trouble with was how much time had passed in transit. The entire story takes place on moving ships and it seems like they move from place to place rather instantaneously. It’s possible I missed something about that, but even sub-headings that said something like “ten hours later” or something like that would have helped in this regard. Or perhaps a few scenes of the crew interacting in transit. We often see the characters interacting one-on-one or in threes, but rarely as a big group.
But those two things are honestly very minor. The book was really engaging, exciting, and fun, with great tension and fun word-building. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it!
A character-driven space opera, Insiders is a great sci-fi that has a touch of The Expanse.
One thing I really enjoyed about this book was the point of view, which was handled with finesse. It’s third-person multiple, jumping between not only the good character but also sometimes giving us insight into the antagonists. This broadened the motives of the villains, which helped to raise the tension and expand on the word building. She absolutely does not engage in head-hopping, which was great to see (as it's something I often encounter when editing or reading self-pub books).
The world-building is really rich and wide-ranging. There’s a lot going on - the Hibravian virus, a sort of fluctuating dark matter or highly volatile something floating around the outer “edge” of the universe which is so strong it’s causing planets to move and space to constrict, as well as various factions competing for control in the galaxy. Aside from the plant alien thing, we don’t have aliens, but some people have been altered either by their planet over the centuries or on purpose, and they seem almost alien in culture and appearance. But none of this is info-dumped; we either are left to infer this or the information is deposited gradually.
I liked the characters, though, because there are so many POVs, I didn’t love any of them. All of them are distinct, and how they act makes sense, but I found I wanted to know just a little bit more about each character than what I got.
The one thing about the book which I could critique is that it does take a little bit to get going. The first scene is exciting and fast-paced, but a little bit of exposition on the Insiders’ life in the pipes might have helped a little. (This could also be because Shannon gave me this book a few months ago, and I forgot the premise.) The book really gets going around twenty percent, though, as this is when the world-building and characterization start to gel, and the plot takes off. After that point, I was utterly hooked.
While the medical science and space aspects were rooted in reality, one thing I had a little bit of trouble with was how much time had passed in transit. The entire story takes place on moving ships and it seems like they move from place to place rather instantaneously. It’s possible I missed something about that, but even sub-headings that said something like “ten hours later” or something like that would have helped in this regard. Or perhaps a few scenes of the crew interacting in transit. We often see the characters interacting one-on-one or in threes, but rarely as a big group.
But those two things are honestly very minor. The book was really engaging, exciting, and fun, with great tension and fun word-building. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it!
October 10, 2023
Review originally on
JamReads
Insiders is an interesting space opera novel, heavily character driven, written by Shannon Knight. The universe is overrun with the Hibravian virus, a deadly and easy to spread infection that is quickly exterminating populations; onboard the Jack, a long-haul small vessel, a strange body has been found attached to it after departing from a deep space station.
Surprisingly, this body reveals to be a small girl, Sachi, who seems to have attached a plant to herself, a sentient organism, Botan. At first sight, the crew doesn't realize the importance this discovery has for the universe; their major worry is about not catching the Hibravian virus, as it is a total death sentence, and if they could profit on safely delivering Sachi to somebody.
However, soon they discover that inside this symbiotic relationship between Sachi and Botan is hidden the key to overcome the virus; and if the importance is not clear, the sudden approach from a mercenary corp which wants to recover Botan makes it totally clear. The Jack's crew will have to deal with many things just to survive.
Knight narrates this story using the crew members as the different point of views, adding some additional ones to illustrate more aspects of the world, such as the Eleusyan mysteries; building each one of them from the inside, creating complex characters whom you end connecting. From the captain Karasi, a cleaver leader, to the navigators and even the "doctor" inside.
A detail that I certainly appreciated is how well researched the science details are in this science fiction novel; especially when medical themes are touched. This made much easier to accept the new data, and the made up virus as part of the novel.
Personally, I found the pacing to be rather slow for my taste, probably as a consequence of how much time is spent developing and building the characters, while introducing small worldbuilding details; so we could say the payoff is worth.
If you like character driven space operas, you should give Insiders a try, as Knight has nailed many of the details that can make this kind of novels memorable.
Insiders is an interesting space opera novel, heavily character driven, written by Shannon Knight. The universe is overrun with the Hibravian virus, a deadly and easy to spread infection that is quickly exterminating populations; onboard the Jack, a long-haul small vessel, a strange body has been found attached to it after departing from a deep space station.
Surprisingly, this body reveals to be a small girl, Sachi, who seems to have attached a plant to herself, a sentient organism, Botan. At first sight, the crew doesn't realize the importance this discovery has for the universe; their major worry is about not catching the Hibravian virus, as it is a total death sentence, and if they could profit on safely delivering Sachi to somebody.
However, soon they discover that inside this symbiotic relationship between Sachi and Botan is hidden the key to overcome the virus; and if the importance is not clear, the sudden approach from a mercenary corp which wants to recover Botan makes it totally clear. The Jack's crew will have to deal with many things just to survive.
Knight narrates this story using the crew members as the different point of views, adding some additional ones to illustrate more aspects of the world, such as the Eleusyan mysteries; building each one of them from the inside, creating complex characters whom you end connecting. From the captain Karasi, a cleaver leader, to the navigators and even the "doctor" inside.
A detail that I certainly appreciated is how well researched the science details are in this science fiction novel; especially when medical themes are touched. This made much easier to accept the new data, and the made up virus as part of the novel.
Personally, I found the pacing to be rather slow for my taste, probably as a consequence of how much time is spent developing and building the characters, while introducing small worldbuilding details; so we could say the payoff is worth.
If you like character driven space operas, you should give Insiders a try, as Knight has nailed many of the details that can make this kind of novels memorable.
April 22, 2023
I received a copy of Insiders for free and am leaving this review voluntarily.
Insiders is a science fiction space opera story revolving around a small ship in the business of long-distance hauling of materials over vast distances, even between galaxies. As with any great story, Insiders is heavily character driven with a cast of diverse individuals. Characters are developed over time in the tale by the changing of point of view - each chapter is a snapshot of the activities and thoughts of the players. I wasn't long before I began caring about the people on the small ship who, through no fault of their own, became entangled in a series of life-threatening events presented in multiple situations focusing on one character in particular who turns out to be the unlikely hero.
I enjoyed this book. It was engaging right from the opening and the action never lets up until the end.
The universe is being overrun by a deadly virus, and everyone has to be very careful. The Hibravian virus is robust. It spreads easily and kills quickly. A planet touched by this plague can be wiped out almost instantly. Those who are infected are promised a painful and swift death.
Onboard the Jacks, a small, long-haul vessel, a "barnacle" is discovered to have attached itself to the hull after departing a deep space station. When the crew investigates this, they find they have taken on a young girl and an unusual companion in the form of a sentient plant. The crew of the Jacks soon establishes that the girl's plant guardian may be the key to a cure for the virus.
There are others who believe the plant to be the path to a cure, and they all head for the Jacks to claim the lucrative prize to be had.
It is a race for wealth and health, and there are numerous sacrifices and many deaths along the way.
This tale is heavily character driven. Each chapter is from the point of view of a single character, and that is how we get to know them. The crew of the Jacks are a collection of diverse people who each have their own talent. The reader will soon learn that each crew member is a vital part of the story. Particularly enjoyed how the author developed each character from the inside out and did a fine job of giving each their own voice.
My favorite character was the captain of the little ship, Karasi. She is a strong character who knows how to lead. She is clever and knows how to get out of a bad situation and land on her feet. Her leadership style is to allow her crew to do their jobs, and they are all very capable.
My favorite point of plot in Insiders is just how much the crew of the Jacks is facing. They have to evade an empire, mercenaries, and the virus itself to survive, and on top of all that, there are obstacles in space itself that get in the way. Each crewmember brings their special talents to the table, and it is fascinating how they work together while also fighting their own personal demons.
My takeaway from Insiders is that no matter how many obstacles stand in the way of reaching a goal, perseverance and imagination will win in the end.
Insiders is a great space opera that has a flavor reminiscent of Firefly. Each crew member contributes to the whole, but each also has their own identity. The action starts from the beginning and doesn't let up until the last page. I found the ending quite satisfying and was entertained all the way through. There are several scenes of death some readers may find disturbing, but they are not over the top or gratuitous in any way.
I look forward to future sci-fi books from this author! Her command of creating characters to care about and the use of voice is amazing.
Insiders is a science fiction space opera story revolving around a small ship in the business of long-distance hauling of materials over vast distances, even between galaxies. As with any great story, Insiders is heavily character driven with a cast of diverse individuals. Characters are developed over time in the tale by the changing of point of view - each chapter is a snapshot of the activities and thoughts of the players. I wasn't long before I began caring about the people on the small ship who, through no fault of their own, became entangled in a series of life-threatening events presented in multiple situations focusing on one character in particular who turns out to be the unlikely hero.
I enjoyed this book. It was engaging right from the opening and the action never lets up until the end.
The universe is being overrun by a deadly virus, and everyone has to be very careful. The Hibravian virus is robust. It spreads easily and kills quickly. A planet touched by this plague can be wiped out almost instantly. Those who are infected are promised a painful and swift death.
Onboard the Jacks, a small, long-haul vessel, a "barnacle" is discovered to have attached itself to the hull after departing a deep space station. When the crew investigates this, they find they have taken on a young girl and an unusual companion in the form of a sentient plant. The crew of the Jacks soon establishes that the girl's plant guardian may be the key to a cure for the virus.
There are others who believe the plant to be the path to a cure, and they all head for the Jacks to claim the lucrative prize to be had.
It is a race for wealth and health, and there are numerous sacrifices and many deaths along the way.
This tale is heavily character driven. Each chapter is from the point of view of a single character, and that is how we get to know them. The crew of the Jacks are a collection of diverse people who each have their own talent. The reader will soon learn that each crew member is a vital part of the story. Particularly enjoyed how the author developed each character from the inside out and did a fine job of giving each their own voice.
My favorite character was the captain of the little ship, Karasi. She is a strong character who knows how to lead. She is clever and knows how to get out of a bad situation and land on her feet. Her leadership style is to allow her crew to do their jobs, and they are all very capable.
My favorite point of plot in Insiders is just how much the crew of the Jacks is facing. They have to evade an empire, mercenaries, and the virus itself to survive, and on top of all that, there are obstacles in space itself that get in the way. Each crewmember brings their special talents to the table, and it is fascinating how they work together while also fighting their own personal demons.
My takeaway from Insiders is that no matter how many obstacles stand in the way of reaching a goal, perseverance and imagination will win in the end.
Insiders is a great space opera that has a flavor reminiscent of Firefly. Each crew member contributes to the whole, but each also has their own identity. The action starts from the beginning and doesn't let up until the last page. I found the ending quite satisfying and was entertained all the way through. There are several scenes of death some readers may find disturbing, but they are not over the top or gratuitous in any way.
I look forward to future sci-fi books from this author! Her command of creating characters to care about and the use of voice is amazing.
January 31, 2023
Excellent sci fi adventure
The worldbuilding is....grim; the dedication is to those affected by Covid, but the virus in the book is even more deadly and horrific. The body count is very high, and there is graphic violence. Insiders was not the romp I expected, which doesn't mean that it isn't a fascinating, unique book. The crew of the Jacks is intriguing, and I loved Sachi and Botan. The ending is fantastical and upbeat, but the memory of the deaths of the plague victims overshadows the survival of the crew.
The worldbuilding is....grim; the dedication is to those affected by Covid, but the virus in the book is even more deadly and horrific. The body count is very high, and there is graphic violence. Insiders was not the romp I expected, which doesn't mean that it isn't a fascinating, unique book. The crew of the Jacks is intriguing, and I loved Sachi and Botan. The ending is fantastical and upbeat, but the memory of the deaths of the plague victims overshadows the survival of the crew.
February 22, 2024
If you're looking for a hard sci-fi with lots of big concepts and a great cast of characters, look no further. This is one of the coolest sci-fi I've read in a while. It's a grim spacey book about a virus, a strange plant entity, and a bunch of people trying to take control of said plant entity. The beginning was a bit confusing, but once I was twenty pages in I stopped having issues. Shannon Knight is a very talented writer and I'm looking forward to reading more from her.
February 15, 2024
Lively space opera with well-conceived characters, weird science, and even spaceship laser fights. If this is the sort of thing you like, you will like this one.
December 11, 2023
This was a book with a brilliant cover, some amazing and well-written characters, a very interesting premise and intro, a middle part that felt like 98% of the book, and an undeniably climactic ending. It also has Doyle Gridliner in it, the greatest character - or at the very least the greatest name for a character - since Jay Beerman. You probably don't remember Jay Beerman. Your loss. Anyway Doyle is great, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Sachi Inside (everyone in the space-Morlock underclass who live in the space station plumbing are surnamed Inside) and her brother Hochi are attempting to break quarantine and escape the deadly planet-killer Hibravian virus. Yes, this is a covid-era book and it definitely shows - but the Hibravian seems a little more dangerous. About as well contained though. Also the universe is unravelling at the edges, but that's an unrelated thing. Mostly. Like I said, 98% of this story is people in hermetically sealed spaceships figuring out new and exciting ways to infect each other with a deadly virus.
Sachi escapes from her doomed home of Kerberos space station and stows away on board (or actually on the hull of) the Jacks, with the help of Botan. Botan is a strange alien plant symbiote that covers her like an invincible exoskeleton and allows her to - among other things - sit on the hull of a spaceship and survive the Hibravian virus. When she's discovered by the ragtag crew of the Jacks, the ship's medic (generalist) Liam studies her and her miraculous symbiote while the whole lot are hunted by some shady government / military types. The Eastern Star Corporation, the Azure Peace Colony and the Elysium Empire are just three of the big players out to get themselves a slice of the Aetherus tomentosa M pie (that's the symbiote, Botan). Through it all, Captain Karasi Kwei is just trying to keep herself flying by pure expenditure of Reynoldsian energy (Mal, Alastair, they're like volts and amps frankly), and Doyle Gridliner is there to make money and get headaches because of his father's presence inside his head, and we might just unpack that a little bit later, yes indeed.
So yeah, I guess I have to admit that after an honestly amazing setup, there's something of a becalmed middle-part of the book that felt much longer than I'm sure it was. The crew of the Jacks try to treat the virus they went and caught, and there's some cat and mouse with the massive powerful agencies I mentioned, and a lot of dashing from place to place inside ships and trying to fix things or break things or get away or whatever else, and it was all a bit too involved and unnecessary. But I totally get it. Those complex action-and-tension scenes are good chewy meat to add to any narrative, and the series of set-pieces were all interesting, mainly because of the characters. They were very good. But yeah, I don't know, they could have had a few different encounters and battles, and the ones already in the story could have been tightened up.
I did enjoy the occasional jumps to settings like Sheol, where the imperatrix (made of pomegranates?) and Sammael (covered in beetles?) have their whole evil alien thing going on. And yes, I think I did already mention that while all this is going on, the universe is contracting in a reverse Big Bang, the encroaching walls of antimatter nothingness taking out every survey ship to examine it, ushering in the birth of the afterworld, and creating a housing crisis as the mega-rich move to gated community planets a long way from the disaster. So yes, this is a covid-era book, but it is also a book very much aware that covid is a very tiny problem compared to the ongoing climate collapse. I may be reading into it a bit, but I don't think it's much of a stretch.
You know what else I enjoyed? This story, while it didn't have much in the way of infodumps itself, did have literal info-dumps as a media form. What a perfect and brilliant way to codify and lampshade infodumping. If only they had been used more!
The middle part of the story winds up at a very cool ending point which I won't spoil, but it was a respectable mind-blower. Let's pivot to the meters and see what they have for us.
Sex-o-meter
Everyone was a bit busy to get it on in this one, and that's understandable. One face gets licked, the occasional facial orifice gets stuffed and a bunch of unsafe needle-action goes on, but none of it is remotely sexy. I'll give it an Eddie Izzard beekeeper out of a possible Million Ants in terms of sexiness. Not that Eddie isn't sexy. Just, I don't know.
...
*whacks sex-o-meter discreetly and checks again*
Nope, nothing. We're not even unpacking Doyle Gridliner's daddy issues, apparently. Wow. Way to phone it in, sex-o-meter.
Gore-o-meter
Solid action and violence makes this an easy page-turner but it never gets so extreme as to be hard to read. There's assorted shootings and dismemberments and so on, some nasty viral stuff, and even if most of the violence happens to a character encased in an invincible symbiote, it's pretty relentless. The worst violence in my opinion is emotional trauma involving the Azure Peace Colony cult, very glad that got the closure it did. All in all it's not a super gory tale though, I guess I have to say. Two flesh-gobbets out of a possible five.
WTF-o-meter
The Aetherus tomentosa M is made of almost weapons-grade WTF, and I'm here for it. The use of 'vacuum' as a swear / slur was funny. Liam's decision to just straight up inject Sachi's blood into everyone as a treatment for a virus is ... well that's certainly a thing that happens in the story and I'm not going to argue with it. The alien forces were impressively alien, and seen just enough to remain interesting without getting over-exposed. The WTF-o-meter is giving Insiders a giant squid out of a possible Ants In My Eyes Johnson, which I think is because I whacked it a couple of minutes ago and it got stuck on comparative Eddie Izzard / Rick & Morty references. Sorry.
My Final Verdict
Insiders was a well-written and enjoyable space opera with well-defined characters, mega-cool side-protagonists and an outstanding premise, with a nice hint of über-weird to add scale and stakes. Three stars on the Amazon / Goodreads scale, I'd happily read more in the Aetheroverse - preferably with a couple fewer interchangeable INT. SHIP CORRIDOR. NIGHT (BECAUSE IT'S SPACE). scenes.
Sachi Inside (everyone in the space-Morlock underclass who live in the space station plumbing are surnamed Inside) and her brother Hochi are attempting to break quarantine and escape the deadly planet-killer Hibravian virus. Yes, this is a covid-era book and it definitely shows - but the Hibravian seems a little more dangerous. About as well contained though. Also the universe is unravelling at the edges, but that's an unrelated thing. Mostly. Like I said, 98% of this story is people in hermetically sealed spaceships figuring out new and exciting ways to infect each other with a deadly virus.
Sachi escapes from her doomed home of Kerberos space station and stows away on board (or actually on the hull of) the Jacks, with the help of Botan. Botan is a strange alien plant symbiote that covers her like an invincible exoskeleton and allows her to - among other things - sit on the hull of a spaceship and survive the Hibravian virus. When she's discovered by the ragtag crew of the Jacks, the ship's medic (generalist) Liam studies her and her miraculous symbiote while the whole lot are hunted by some shady government / military types. The Eastern Star Corporation, the Azure Peace Colony and the Elysium Empire are just three of the big players out to get themselves a slice of the Aetherus tomentosa M pie (that's the symbiote, Botan). Through it all, Captain Karasi Kwei is just trying to keep herself flying by pure expenditure of Reynoldsian energy (Mal, Alastair, they're like volts and amps frankly), and Doyle Gridliner is there to make money and get headaches because of his father's presence inside his head, and we might just unpack that a little bit later, yes indeed.
So yeah, I guess I have to admit that after an honestly amazing setup, there's something of a becalmed middle-part of the book that felt much longer than I'm sure it was. The crew of the Jacks try to treat the virus they went and caught, and there's some cat and mouse with the massive powerful agencies I mentioned, and a lot of dashing from place to place inside ships and trying to fix things or break things or get away or whatever else, and it was all a bit too involved and unnecessary. But I totally get it. Those complex action-and-tension scenes are good chewy meat to add to any narrative, and the series of set-pieces were all interesting, mainly because of the characters. They were very good. But yeah, I don't know, they could have had a few different encounters and battles, and the ones already in the story could have been tightened up.
I did enjoy the occasional jumps to settings like Sheol, where the imperatrix (made of pomegranates?) and Sammael (covered in beetles?) have their whole evil alien thing going on. And yes, I think I did already mention that while all this is going on, the universe is contracting in a reverse Big Bang, the encroaching walls of antimatter nothingness taking out every survey ship to examine it, ushering in the birth of the afterworld, and creating a housing crisis as the mega-rich move to gated community planets a long way from the disaster. So yes, this is a covid-era book, but it is also a book very much aware that covid is a very tiny problem compared to the ongoing climate collapse. I may be reading into it a bit, but I don't think it's much of a stretch.
You know what else I enjoyed? This story, while it didn't have much in the way of infodumps itself, did have literal info-dumps as a media form. What a perfect and brilliant way to codify and lampshade infodumping. If only they had been used more!
The middle part of the story winds up at a very cool ending point which I won't spoil, but it was a respectable mind-blower. Let's pivot to the meters and see what they have for us.
Sex-o-meter
Everyone was a bit busy to get it on in this one, and that's understandable. One face gets licked, the occasional facial orifice gets stuffed and a bunch of unsafe needle-action goes on, but none of it is remotely sexy. I'll give it an Eddie Izzard beekeeper out of a possible Million Ants in terms of sexiness. Not that Eddie isn't sexy. Just, I don't know.
...
*whacks sex-o-meter discreetly and checks again*
Nope, nothing. We're not even unpacking Doyle Gridliner's daddy issues, apparently. Wow. Way to phone it in, sex-o-meter.
Gore-o-meter
Solid action and violence makes this an easy page-turner but it never gets so extreme as to be hard to read. There's assorted shootings and dismemberments and so on, some nasty viral stuff, and even if most of the violence happens to a character encased in an invincible symbiote, it's pretty relentless. The worst violence in my opinion is emotional trauma involving the Azure Peace Colony cult, very glad that got the closure it did. All in all it's not a super gory tale though, I guess I have to say. Two flesh-gobbets out of a possible five.
WTF-o-meter
The Aetherus tomentosa M is made of almost weapons-grade WTF, and I'm here for it. The use of 'vacuum' as a swear / slur was funny. Liam's decision to just straight up inject Sachi's blood into everyone as a treatment for a virus is ... well that's certainly a thing that happens in the story and I'm not going to argue with it. The alien forces were impressively alien, and seen just enough to remain interesting without getting over-exposed. The WTF-o-meter is giving Insiders a giant squid out of a possible Ants In My Eyes Johnson, which I think is because I whacked it a couple of minutes ago and it got stuck on comparative Eddie Izzard / Rick & Morty references. Sorry.
My Final Verdict
Insiders was a well-written and enjoyable space opera with well-defined characters, mega-cool side-protagonists and an outstanding premise, with a nice hint of über-weird to add scale and stakes. Three stars on the Amazon / Goodreads scale, I'd happily read more in the Aetheroverse - preferably with a couple fewer interchangeable INT. SHIP CORRIDOR. NIGHT (BECAUSE IT'S SPACE). scenes.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews