When I first started reading this book, I have to admit, I was confused. I had no idea what was going on. And as someone who likes to visualize what I'm reading, I couldn't visualize this one. And that had me worried. I thought the book was gonna be bad. But more i read, more I got drawn in. I began to understand that in order to make this book understandable, the author had to set up a story that the reader can understand. It took a while, but it got done. And what you got introduced to is a sci-fi novel the likes of which I haven't seen.

You're introduced to the "Fahr". An alien race that in order to ensure their survival genetically modified themselves. A few times. Which resulted in them being able to stay alive for 70 millennia, but as a result, they can only be sexually aroused by song. Yes, a song. A song they can't produce themselves, so they had to invent interplanetary travel in order to go to other planets to collect "pets" who can produce song. Which leads them to Earth, or as they called it "Planet Song". Which is where they discovered humpback whales, whose "song" bring them pleasure, that if heard in "virgin state", meaning unfiltered, can actually kill them. Hell of a way to go if you ask me, but back to the story.

Through the book we get a detailed look at the Fahr and their society. We get to see how their exploration mission helped Planet Song advance much faster technologically than they were supposed to. And we get to see how that became a problem when a Fahr ship that came back to Planet Song for a retrieval mission, to collect humpback whales, encountered a planet that was able to present a problem to the said retrieval mission. You are introduced to different Fahr, who have different agendas on the mission. Some who only want to collect the "singers" by any means necessary. Some who are just itching for a fight, and some who care about the residents of Planet Song & wish to see no harm befall them.

While all this may sound funny, ridiculous, crazy, far fetched, and who knows what else, it is actually an extremely well written book, with detailed developed story and characters. It may be slow at times, it is necessary in order to better understand what is actually happening, amd to get the full grasp of the situation. While it may not be the best book you pick up this year, I can promise you it will be the most unusual and unexpected one.

And the best part is that it is only book one in a trilogy, and I for one can't wait for the next two books to come out.

The Fahr are an ancient and long-lived race of aquatic aliens. Songs are like drugs, and recordings of the sounds animals make are strictly controlled. It's a lucrative business to bring new songs to their planet. A song that was found on a scanning mission was so addictive and potentially lethal that high ranking religious, political, military and company Fahr are interested in getting new recordings and taking a breeding population back with them. Usually, planets that they found the animal on are too primitive to really fight back, and this one is no different: Earth.

It's definitely an interesting take on aliens coming to Earth. They're not interested in humans at all, only the whale species that make the addictive songs the Fahr males crave.

There aren't chapters in this book, exactly, but scenes intercut between the Fahr homeworld and back on Earth as it spans the centuries. It was difficult for me to picture what the Fahr look like, but the characterizations were familiar. There are the scientists, the political figures, the company staffers that fully admit it is all about profit and not the Will of the Giver.

This is book one of a trilogy, so the ending felt abrupt. What happens next? There's nothing to give a hint of what will occur in the second book. I can't decide if I'm curious enough about what will happen next, as some of the characters aren't particularly likable. For that reason, I'm not sure if I like this book or not.

I certainly liked it enough to finish and was curious how the different threads of the story would tie together. From a worldbuilding perspective, this was fantastic and had so many details in it to really flesh out the worlds that the characters inhabit. They felt real, and their motivations were believable.

I am sorry to say that despite multiple tries, I could not get into this one. The premise still sounds fascinating so I may try again at a later date. Thank you for giving me the chance to try this novel.

I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

DNFing at 50%

In Planet Song, an aquatic alien species known as the Fahr, survive off of the, for-lack-of-a-better-term, orgasmic properties from the songs of aquatic animals. The fahr travel the universe, searching for "pets" to acquire and add to their aquatic facilities, for the purpose of harvesting and selling their songs.

The fahr happen upon Planet Song (Earth)--referred to as the home of the Homines--and discover the musings of the whale, which quite literally, blows their alien ballows. The properties of the whale's songs are thus that it causes harm to the fahr, enveloping them in song rage and leading to addiction.

Interesting enough, a subspecies of the fahr, the femfahr, are not affected by the "virgin song" of the aquatic animals. Teracia is hired in by Song Corp. to be a song chaser, and aides exobiologist Derath, who studies these creatures to discover what they will need to survive in "cages" that will be constructed back on their planet.

This is a strange mix of historical fiction, aliens, and science fiction. There even are appearances made by Leonadro da Vinci, Galileo, the Medici family, and Einstein?

Sounds interesting, right? I thought so too.

The first few chapters of this book were interesting. Honestly, the premise of the book was appealing to me. However, the further I got along, the more frustrated and more confused I became.

There was too much happening in the story to have it told in multiple viewpoints. We never get to know our characters' purposes, personalities, or much about them whatsoever. (What do they even look like? Their descriptions are just not clear enough.) We don't unravel the mysteries of the fahr religion or their culture, or actually understand how the songs affect the fahr. The list goes on from there.

The timeline is messy. The way the book was split up made it nearly impossible to follow. It varies in setting, time, and species too often without preparing the reader for the transition besides a non-descriptive title---making it too choppy for a fluid read.

I gave it a chance, but couldn't make it past the first half of the book.

1.5 stars.