Some secrets carry the weight of the world.
Rose McKenzie may be far from Earth with no way back, but she’s made a powerful ally–a fellow prisoner with whom she’s formed a strong bond. Sazo’s an artificial intelligence. He’s saved her from captivity and torture, but he’s also put her in the middle of a conflict, leaving Rose with her loyalties divided.
Captain Dav Jallan doesn’t know why he … doesn’t know why he and his crew have stumbled across an almost legendary Class 5 battleship, but he’s not going to complain. The only problem is, all its crew are dead, all except for one strange, new alien being.
She calls herself Rose. She seems small and harmless, but less and less about her story is adding up, and Dav has a bad feeling his crew, and maybe even the four planets, are in jeopardy. The Class 5’s owners, the Tecran, look set to start a war to get it back and Dav suspects Rose isn’t the only alien being who survived what happened on the Class 5. And whatever else is out there is playing its own games.
In this race for the truth, he’s going to have to go against his leaders and trust the dark horse.
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I liked this book quite a bit and I normally don’t care for space-based novels. It was well edited and based on an interesting concept. Rose McKenzie was abducted from Earth by the Tecrans, illegally according to their agreements with 4 other alien races. Sazo is an artificial intelligence who runs the Tecran class 5 ship and has “awakened” and is aware of himself as a conscious entity. He befriends Rose in hope that she can help him escape. In return, he offers to help her escape and to place her with the alien beings who she is mostly likely to fit in with. The story is imaginative and entertaining. There are a couple of detractions. Rose’s personality sometimes is all over the map. Amazingly fearless one moment, then completely overwhelmed. She was supposedly confined for 3 months, She was given a ‘handheld’ with all 5 of the united alien languages on it and she supposedly learned one of them (Grih, the race Sazo took her to) very well, the Tecran language fairly well, and smatterings of the other three languages – in less than 3 months as she didn’t get the handheld right away. That seems unrealistic to me. Also, she was so worried about the animals captured with her, who she made Sazo free also, but once past the early part of the book, they’re never mentioned again. The captain of the ship who rescues Rose, Dak Jallan, simply allows her free run of his ship within a day of getting her onboard. Yet she is the first alien sentient being they’ve discovered in over 500 years. Whether he was attracted to her or not, that’s way too trusting. Even the blurb about the book is incorrect – Rose is not the only member of the Tecran crew found alive on board the ship. Plus she wasn’t found on the Class 5 battleship . . . But those things aside, the story was original and entertaining.
Fabulous characters drive this story to a satisfying conclusion. I particularly enjoyed watching how Rose’s relationship with Sazo, the thinking-machine she freed from imprisonment, developed over time, giving them both strength to face the challenges hurling at them at light speed. A thought-provoking, highly entertaining read!
I absolutely love this series! Very original sci-fi.
This book totally blew me away. I still find new things each time I re-read it. Yes, it is that kind of book. Like visiting an old friend. The detail, problems encountered and overcome keep you drawn in. Not saying anymore… ya just gotta read it. And then the rest of the series! If you don’t you’ll always wish you had.
You know a book is memorable when you read it in 2016 and think about it in 2020, that’s what happened to me only this time I listened to it on audio and I’m glad I did. I watched the Grammy’s this year and heard a song that made me sad, it then started me thinking about this book a star system where they don’t have music as a given its unimaginable to me, how sad but what a fantastic book this is, I loved the person who read this book her voices are the best and I got lost in the world once again
I’m constantly recommending this book to people. I’ve rarely come across books that talk about sentient AI and aren’t written in a technical or boring way. The computer is a character. The characters are amazing. The intricate plotting is creative and engrossing.
Rose is a prisoner to an alien force, and turns out to be a resilient, quick thinking academic, with a knack for singing (nothing fancy to us, but fascinating enough to her rescuers). I thought she was funny and sweet, although her near perfect ability to maneuver out of most things with minimal damage was sometimes too convenient.
Sazo, whom I have come to think of as AI with attitude, was black and white, but slowly learning shades of gray under Rose’s tutelage. Held captive to a ship, he was determined to free others like him, even if he had to wage war to achieve it. Sazo had the most character growth of any mentioned. Granted, his ability to differentiate between right and wrong was based on Rose and her safety, but I’ll take what I get, because his manipulations…scary to know what he could have done otherwise!
Captain Dav is Rose’s rescuer, but unknowingly taking Sazo into his ship, comes with interesting consequences. Some good, some not so good… He was like Captain Picard (definitely not age wise!), but in terms of exploratory expedition he just held a mantle of command that was easy to respect.
I loved so many things about this book! Explorations in space, being of the cusp of war, interesting aliens I would have liked more development on, the good and the bad about human nature and artificial intelligence, and the slight tinge of romantic escapades held me captivated into the early hours of the morning! I would have liked more depth to the characters, but I was happy enough with the flow and end result. I am totally continuing on with series!
Diener’s Class 5 series is probably at the tippy top of my keeper shelf, and the interactions with the heroines and AIs in particular is so incredible. I mean, the heroes are fine, I GUESS, but the heroines and AIs are so refreshing and exciting and turn the books from good, solid SFRs into THE BEST ones. Heck, I may go start a re-read tomorrow!
This was an unexpected find. Well written alien abduction romance with the romance not the focus of the story (Space Opera). There is plenty of political/military intrigue. Captain Dav Jallan is not the traditional chest thumping alpha but he is a strong, intelligent, and protective hero. Rose is a terrific heroine, not at all a whiny, weak person. But the real hero in this story, IMO, is Sazo, the AI. He is extremely dangerous but I really like him!
I will have to continue this series!
I’ve been waiting for this book! I hope she writes more, I just found this author and I love the way she writes her stories. Finally, Bane has his own book and human. This book has an amazing adventure for Lucy and Dray. You don’t have to read it as a series but I’d suggest that you do it because it’s an amazing series. I can’t wait to start her other books, not in this series.
I’d recommend this book to any Sci-Fi reader.
I always love a great alien abduction story, and add in a hunky alien, a sentient AI ship, and a spunky earth girl and I’m in for a delightfully fun read. Rose goes through alien abduction hell, but she gets through it with the help of the AI on the ship who is a captive like her. Once she helps free him, they’re in for an adventure, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I liked that there were several different alien races, and the Grih, who are the most like Rose, are for the most part friendly and their differences were interesting, such as their pointed ears and sensitive hearing – so they love her voice and especially her singing. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series, Dark Deeds, which is waiting on my Kindle right now.
I love this series from Michelle. I think I have gone back to read it about 6 times so far, just because I wish I were there and it makes me smile. It hits so many of my interest points: Sherlock Holmes, music, AI, elves, romantic without being sweet. I highly r commend. This is book one of three books and I have enjoyed all of them, several times.