Series: Genre: Publication.Date: September 2, 2015 Pages: 325 (paperback) Published By: Future House Publishing Website: Josi Russell Writing Caretaker on Goodreads My review copy:
Where to get:
“Fifty years in space—alone.
Ethan Bryant was supposed to
fall asleep on a ship leaving Earth and wake up fifty years later
with his family on the planet Minea. Instead, after the ship’s
caretaker—the lone human in charge of monitoring the ship’s vital
systems—suddenly died, the ship’s computer locked Ethan out of
his stasis chamber and gave him the job. That was five years ago.
Five years of checking to make sure everything runs smoothly on a
ship Ethan knows almost nothing about.
Who wouldn’t dread
the years ahead? Who wouldn’t long for their once-bright future now
stolen away?
Ethan is resigned to his fate, until the ship
suddenly wakes up another passenger: a beautiful engineer who, along
with Ethan, soon discovers a horrible secret—a navigation room
hidden from even the ship’s computer. The ship is not bound for
Minea—but to somewhere far more dangerous.
With the ship
nearing its sinister destination, Ethan soon learns he is the only
one who holds the key to saving all 4,000 passengers from a
highly-advanced, hostile alien race.”
(Goodreads)
When I first
received the blurb about Caretaker by Josi Russell from Future House
Publishing, I was instantly intrigued. I used to be a huge gamer, and
from what I had read this book definitely had a “Dead Space” feel
to it. Ethan – suddenly being thrust into the position of the
ship's Caretaker – was the only human not in stasis for five years.
I was instantly hooked, as I cannot imagine myself in his position.
Ethan knew absolutely nothing about running a Space Ship, not to
mention caring for the other 3,999 human lives currently in stasis
sleep. One of them being his pregnant wife.
With all of that
being said, I felt that the book was extremely fast paced, but not in
a way that I would have usually enjoyed. The story almost felt
rushed, even from the first few chapters. There are aspects of
romance in this novel, that normally I would welcome, but even the
relationships felt a little fast paced. An unusual and often
unexplored dynamic in this genre was the infidelity of the main
character. I almost lost a little respect for the character of Ethan,
and gained some for the Series as a whole. The overall
characterization was enjoyable, and I did end up cheering for Ethan
in the end.
The author, Josi
Russell, created her own Alien Language called “Xardn” that is
based on overlapping circles, each symbol representing a word. The
creativity that went into this language is part of what I think saved
this book for me. The way that the language is incorporated into the
book really made me feel more engaged in the story overall. Xardn,
being a dead language, brought Ethan nothing but trouble in the past.
His peers in the past would constantly judge him for studying the
language, saying that it would not get him anywhere in life. However,
his wife was the one that supported him and told him to keep at it.
In the end, his immense knowledge of the language played a crucial
part in the story.
The overall story,
while being fast-paced, was a fun read. I read this in between
studying for exams and working on the weekends, and I actually found
myself looking forward to what happens next in Ethan and his
mysterious companion Kaia's adventure. The character development
being rushed in the beginning almost felt necessary to understand the
events that would take place as I progressed through the story.
Everything that the reader needs to know is eventually
explained throughout the book and questions that were raised were
answered. There were unexpected twists that had me swiping the
electronic pages in anticipation, and the writing was very well
thought out, albeit rushed. I would recommend this story for lovers
of Sci-Fi, or for anyone that is just settling into the genre. I'm
excited to read more of Russell's work.
Both Guardians and its prequel, Caretaker, will be available for $0.99 February 11th – 17th. Readers can enter to win an autographed copy of Guardians over at the Future House Publishing Blog on Launch Day (February 11th) -- Official LAUNCH post here.
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