I'm afraid I didn't finish this one. I was so intrigued by the synopsis and couldn't wait to dive in but upon reading it I felt bombarded with info, and I didn't appreciate all the box-checking on social issues. Once the "band of mercenaries" came into the story I completely lost interest and was pulled out when they started describing themselves as "female, for now," etc. I, personally, don't find those details anywhere near interesting or plot-moving and it ultimately just pulls me out of the story. Also, the sheer amount of info about each mercenary made it hard to follow after that. I couldn't keep the characters straight and put it down, never feeling the inkling to pick it up again. 
I do want to thank Orbit and NetGalley for the opportunity to read/review this book.

This is a wonderful debut novel from Essa Hansen who clearly has a promising future as an author. It's an exciting story containing well-written characters (especially our hero Caden) in a captivating universe of awesome alien worlds. Looking forward to the next book in this series.

This is an impressive debut. In Nophek Gloss, Essa Hansen has spun a very imaginative coming-of-age/found-family space opera, with many creative trappings and inventive elements. Fan's of Becky Chambers's "Wayfarers" series who find themselves yearning for something a bit darker and grittier (at the expense of Chambers's lighthearted, optimistic feel) will appreciate Hansen's creativity and colorful, inclusive cast of characters.

I wouldn't go so far as to call the story pessimistic, but there are dark, intense elements, including violence, trauma, abuse, enslavement, and torture, at times involving both children and animals. However, none of it felt gratuitous to me, and on the whole, the story was balanced with wonder, beauty, kindness, and fun. While Chambers's work tends to take a more character-driven approach with a utopianist sociocultural lens, Hansen's novel skews more plot-driven. As such, the coming of age elements and some of the relationship development feel a bit thin and breezed-through, though some of this seems intentional, based on narrative and plot devices.

Now, readers who find themselves tired of classic space opera tropes should be cautioned not to expect anything groundbreaking here. That said, the story is well done, and the shining strength of Hansen's worldbuilding ties it all together. Her vivid, descriptive prose brings to life the many intriguing aspects of the story: wild starship design, futuristic technologies, human and alien morphology and communication, xenoarchaeology, metagenomics, cosmic physics and metaphysics. It's a compelling opening chapter, and I look forward to the next entry in the series.

A multiversal space opera featuring a sole survivor whose desire for revenge brings him into a conflict far larger than he could imagine.

Full Review at NOAF

I finished this book a few days back but needed some time to think about it before reviewing. It’s one that will stay with me for a while. Truly one of the more intense reads I’ve read. This book is amazing. Solid story, quality characters, incredible world building, thoughtful and thought provoking plot, and a full on sensory overload as you read that mimics what the characters are experiencing. This book puts you into the heart and mind of the lead character better than most any I’ve ever read. It is amazing. Highly recommend!

His whole world shattered – family dead, planet gone, everything he knew as truth a questionable memory – Caiden finds himself in a new world, with a new name. He wants revenge, but the first step is learning about the universe, which is much, much bigger than he ever imagined it could be. 

Nophek Gloss is a rush of a read. From a rather sedate orientation on Caiden’s home planet the reader is thrust (with the main character) into the broad sprawl of the universe and left (again, much like Caiden) to figure out who’s who and what’s what. Hansen stuns with detailed world building, intriguing diversity of characters, and twisty, thrilling plot elements. Caiden smolders with emotion, pulling the reader into his world and viewpoint. It’s not always pleasant – Caiden spends a lot of time being very angry, it seems – and there are some truly excruciatingly painful moments in the story, but the world he makes accessible to the reader is truly something extraordinary. It’s brutal, cruel, heartless, even evil, but also wondrous, almost miraculous in places. Sometimes I found Caiden somewhat tiresome, even nudging into Gary Stu territory at points, but the Graven universe is the real star of Nophek Gloss, and is definitely worth exploring. I was also happy to find out that there’s a sequel in the works for the book, and to get a taste of it.

A boy of 14 finds out he and his people are slaves. He watches his mother be torn apart in front of him by animals known as Nophek which turn on each other and fight to the death. After the fight he finds a beautiful stone inside one's head. This, he later finds out, is Nophek Gloss. He vows revenge on the slave masters.

The rest of the story follows this boy as he finds a new family in his shipmates. Unfortunately, his lust for vengeance puts them in danger. 

Nophek Gloss is one of the best books I've read this year. The universe building is unique and very well done. If you enjoy found family and/or coming of age stories and love science fiction, this is the book for you!

DNF at 58%
While the core premise of this novel looked very promising, and despite the hair-raising beginning which rapidly plunges the reader into the thick of the action, I found myself increasingly unable to immerse myself in the story: for starters there is a huge amount of background information, but very little time to process it before more details are added, creating a sensory overload effect that proves to be quite distracting.  
Then the main character - who should have been quite intriguing since I always enjoy a good revenge journey - becomes very frustrating because his total focus on vengeance, while understandable, seems to erase any other facet of his personality, which made it impossible for me to connect with him.
I felt compelled to move forward because I wanted to know how the situation would progress, but once I realized I had to somehow force myself to keep reading, I knew it was time to give up and I regretfully had to admit defeat, assigning a medium rating of 3 stars because of my inability to reach the end of the book.
Still, I want to thank Orbit and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this work.

After the destruction of Caiden’s home planet, he finds a mysterious ship and joins up with a group of misfit aliens. With the goal of revenge in mind, Caiden travels the universe, finding new dangers and plots everywhere he turns. 

Nophek Gloss certainly starts out with one of the most memorable scenes I’ve read. The destruction of Caiden’s planet is gruesome, and gory, a very visceral scene, laced with the fear that Caiden experiences. It really sets up a story that should be exciting, with mysterious violent monsters, and slavers that rule over the people. 

From that first bit of the book, I thought I would love every page of this. The first scene sets it up more as a Sci-Fi horror than a space opera, which I was all over. Unfortunately, the rest of the book didn’t continue in much the same, and veered more into traditional science fiction, space opera territory. While this won’t detract others from the story, I was a little bit let down from how the book started to where the middle of the book took us. With such an action packed start, it did feel like the middle of the book was overly full of technical details, and moved a lot slower than I was hoping for. 

Despite the slow pacing though, the story of found family was really good, and the goal of Caiden’s revenge was interesting once it really picked up. The ending is where the story really picks up again, and pulled me right back in. When you learn more about what Nophek Gloss really is, and the interactions with the slavers, it really gets the story moving. 

This is definitely a book for fans of science fiction though. Because of the slower pacing, and leaning heavily into technical details, it wasn’t an easily accessible Sci-Fi, and I think those new to the genre would struggle with this one. This is a great debut though, and I know fans of the genre will be looking forward to more from The Graven series after reading Nophek Gloss. I know with the ending the way it was, I’m definitely looking forward to more from this.

I used this review copy of Nophek Gloss to interview Essa Hansen on the Fantasy Inn podcast (episode link included).

Nophek Gloss is a gritty coming of age story centering around revenge, trauma, and overcoming it's consequences.  Caiden belongs to an agrarian race of humans who's planet has outlived it's usefulness.  He survives a genocide and learns that he was much more than an enslaved farmer all along.  He teams up with a plucky band of misfit space adventurers and sets about avenging his peoples' murder.  

There's some proper hard sci-fi concepts going on in this book, but there's also a lot of technobabble that doesn't make much sense and doesn't add anything to the story or the world Essa Hansen has built. The age acceleration Caiden chooses to go through is interesting.  His childhood and innocence have already been destroyed by violent trauma, so he opts to go through a process to catch his body and his learning up, even if his emotional maturity remains that of a 14 year old.  Another concept I liked was the idea that some races are genetically inclined to revere and obey other races.  This introduced a new aspect of the free will conversation that is ever present in sci-fi, that I had never encountered.  

Not all of Hansen's ideas sat so easily for me though.  The signature piece of technology in this book is the ability of Caiden's ship, and that of his crewmates, to traverse the "multiverse".  I've read many multiverse type novels, but this was the first one that suggested universes are small bubbles, with borders that can be entered and exited.  That's not really what a "universe" is.  Anytime Caiden's ship started navigating these little pockets of finite space it was immersion breaking.  The universe traversing didn't add anything to the story for me, and could have been left out completely.

The coming of age aspect, and the story about the aftereffects of trauma are real in this story!  Caiden's initial traumatic experience is vividly written and gruesomely haunts him throughout the book.  He goes on to put himself in violent situations again and again.  Now, I like graphic violence in my sci-fi, I really do.  But by the end of this novel I was feeling trauma fatigue.  In Caiden's world medical technology is advanced enough to repair physical trauma more quickly and efficiently than in ours, but you can only have so many shattered bones, or mangled limbs, or ruptured internal organs, before it becomes commonplace, and it's recovery process lessens the impact that these events should have on the reader.  Give Caiden a chance to recover, learn from his trauma, and humanize before throwing him back into the meat grinder!

All in all Nophek Gloss was a fun read, if not a first rate sci-fi novel.

What a lovely science fiction that does not read as dry. It was so poetic. Nice to read about an alternative to alternate u++.Nice to read from an aro ace young male man protagonist. It was predictable found family story but those work for heartwarming reasons. It is always wonderful to read about truly alien creatures not just earth creatures with extra limbs and eyes

DNF @ 25%

Note: there will be spoilers below in a section that will be clearly marked.

So. I was expecting a space opera. Honestly, not sure what I was expecting that may be more detailed than that. The typical space opera portions (non-human beings that aren't simply human-adjacent, for example) were quite interesting. Overall, though, this had kind of an epic fantasy vibe: young male character dramatically loses everything at a very young age and must go on a quest for revenge. But in space. We even had dramatic feasting scenes where every piece of food was described in vivid detail.

What we also had was really lazy writing. The main character is 14 years old. The author thinks that's inconvenient so why not introduce a technology that would accelerate his age. But wait, there's more! This technology can also insert knowledge jnto his brain! So rather than having to deal with a character who was raised in a sheltered life who knows nothing, we'll just zap him to be normal protagonist age and give him all the basic knowledge. There's also an immediate deep connection between the characters we only just met, but I guess that's fine.

***SPOILERS HERE***
What's absolutely NOT fine is how we introduce an autistic character at the very beginning (hyper focused, difficulty communicating, stims and over stimulation, shutdown, etc) only to have her BRUTALLY MURDERED. Okay so the actual slaughtering happens off-screen but we leave her in an exposed place and then watch other people get mauled to death by some alien beast. She's 100% dead. So... Why make an autistic character just to kill her? And not just kill her but kill her violently and brutally? To give the MC a kind heart and a sob story? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Essa Hansen, in her debut novel brings us a well-developed science fiction story about revenge, loss, and a coming of age tale that leads the reader on an epic adventure. The world-building took a little getting used to, but after that I was totally impressed with this story. I loved the descriptions of the visuals of what the characters were witnessing. I found this book rather unique and definitely worth reading for any science fiction fans, or any fans of action/adventure as well. Libraries should consider this to purchase for their collections. The action-scenes were fantastic and I really fell in love with the characters and the universe is really fascinating. Worth a read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit Books for this ARC.

3-3.5 stars. Caiden and his family and all the other individuals on his settlement are transported to a different planet when the bovine herds they’re caring for all die. The humans are almost immediately slaughtered by ravenous, terrifying creatures. Caiden manages to evade them and ends up hiding in a spaceship that's marooned on the planet. His best friend Leta doesn’t appear to be as lucky, and in addition to his parents, Caiden assumes she, too, has been ripped apart by the animals. 
While aboard the ship, he discovers why the toothy creatures, called nophek, are so much more important than Caiden and everyone he knew—there’s a strange crystal in the creatures’ brains, which Caiden discovers is called gloss.  Gloss, it turns out, is used to generate power, so Caiden uses the crystal to bargain himself off-planet with his rescuers, who are a motley band of aliens and humans, who call themselves Passengers. They leave in the spaceship, which, it turns out, can create a multiverse around it, allowing it to transit other multiverses and environments.
Though relatively safe, Caiden suffers crippling nightmares and deep trauma, and after going through a variety of physical and mental transitions, decides he’s going to take on the organization responsible for managing the nophek, and killing his family and friends.
He also discovers there are different multiverses, and multiple organizations involved in the gloss trade, with his family’s murderers being a super-powerful and massive organization, with a separate and similar sort of organization using the gloss to power ancient artifacts by the long dead Graven. Knowing how complex it will be, Caiden still dedicates his life to destroying his family's murderers.

Phew! And That’s the setup! There is a surfeit of really neat ideas, aliens, cultures and technologies in this revenge story, set against a backdrop of secrets, greed, and profits, so, at least the story's foundation is familiar. In fact, I was a little overwhelmed by the huge number of details I had to absorb in short order once I started this book (there is a glossary, thankfully, which I did not consult till the end, as I didn’t feel like disrupting my reading flow).
I was also somewhat dubious about the term multiverses in this story, no matter how cool the idea sounds. In implementation, the author’s multiverses seemed to me to be bubbles of different environments, inimical to species not from the bubble, with the bubbles’ boundaries, or rinds, requiring care to pass through and ships made to do so. A ‘verse seems like it should be a beyond comprehension, massive thing to me, not something that contains a several rooms, for instance.
I also had a hard time wrapping my head around the main supporting characters, the Passengers, whom Caiden falls in with. I could not keep them straight, and had to keep returning to their introduction on the nophek planet to figure out who Caiden was talking to. 

Did I like this book? I liked parts, like 
-the sheer diversity of aliens, and by extension, the world building
-Caiden’s multiverse-generating ship, which seemed intriguing
-the nophek

Will I continue the series? I’m not sure, though I was mildly curious to know how C developed.

Caiden has spent his whole life being a simple mechanic doing a simple job, with no plans for anything bigger. But when his entire settlement is killed, Caiden is forced to flee for his life. After literally stumbling onto a spaceship, he discovers his planet is only one of thousands in the multiverse. Adopted by an eclectic crew, Caiden adjusts to this vast new life, but is driven by a singular goal: revenge on the group who killed his family. Caiden will have to leverage new technology, questionable alliances, and a rare ship with a unique power if he’s going to accomplish his goal, but what cost will prove too high for his revenge?

NOPHEK GLOSS is an absolutely mesmerizing piece of world-building. After a harrowing opening, the reader joins Caiden in being nearly overwhelmed with new aliens, ships, alliances, locations, and more. The sheer size of the worlds the author creates isn’t an onslaught, but a deep pool you are thrown into, and it is a delight to get your bearings. I absolutely loved being in a setting that was completely foreign to me, getting to know the rules and the aliens and everything in between.

Readers will need to throw their original conception of the multiverse out the door. Here, multiverse doesn’t mean “parallel universe” as it has come to be defined in popular culture. Instead, it, means that there are other, self-contained universes outside the main one that have their own physics, biomes, etc., not all of which are suitable for all species, and crossing between universes can be a dangerous or even lethal situation. Caiden falls in with a group of explorers called passagers, those who chart regions and exchange the knowledge back home for money and resources.

The first half of NOPHEK GLOSS I absolutely devoured. With its devastating opening and imaginative worlds, I kept wanting to see more and more of these universes. The back half of the book didn’t click quite as well for me, ironically because it was so fast paced. The first half of the book revels in introducing the reader to the world, spending all of its time on just a few days, so when events started moving in the back half, it felt oddly rushed. It frequently felt like a problem was introduced one chapter and resolved by the next one, with no chance for the tension to simmer and breathe. Combined with Caiden, who spends most of the book (deservedly) being an angry, impulsive character, and I felt myself falling off a bit.

That said, this is still a fantastic adventure and worth a read for those who love big sci-fi worlds. There are plenty of emotional moments scattered throughout the rushing action, and one theme of “found or forced” with regards to friendships absolutely tugged at my heartstrings as Caiden struggled with feelings of isolation in this giant galaxy. For a 400 page book, NOPHEK GLOSS is a book that moves incredibly well, and sets up tantalizing new adventures in future books.

I got an ARC of this book. 

DNF at 40%. 

I didn't care about any of the characters and couldn't even tell most of them apart by this point in the book. There were just glimmers that there was something interesting about characters, but I have already spent days trying to care. I was really into the book, until the ship scenes started which was really quickly first four or five chapters. After they started, there were just so many characters thrown in at once that I never got a grip on them. There are so many words and rules that aren't explained and there is often not enough context for me to make it up as I went. I can understand some of that comes from the MC not understanding anything, but 40% of the book and I see no chances of that changing. The MC has been forced aged six years and suddenly he understands ships and all of these rules, but they still aren't made clear to me. The aging felt like it was thrown in just to make the beginning plot more horrific since it happened to a child and the rest of the plot more believable since he was an adult now, a real have your cake and eat it too scenario. It just didn't sit right with me. 

There were some things that could have made this a good book for me, but they were so few and far between that I was often left forcing myself to read. I would stop at the end of every chapter and just managed to not read for hours at at time. This was every chapter. I really wish I had liked it, but it just wasn't for me. I am bored and trying to not force myself to read a book that I am just not enjoying. 

This was described to me as hardcore sci-fi, but it doesn't even feel like it is. It just felt slow and boring. I  have read some hardcore sci-fi that was slow, but it was still fascinating. I think I just wanted a space opera, but was given an agonizingly slow adventure story. There were not enough emotions for me to care about this as a space opera. I will attempt every book labeled as a queer sci-fi, but this just wasn't one that worked for me.

Nophek Gloss is a story that pushes the boundlessness of the reader's imagination. It is innovative, harsh, extraordinary, and it is science fiction at its best. 

I am not sure how to classify Nophek Gloss as part of the science fiction canon. Is it hard science fiction? Quite possibly. There are elements of logic to the science used in the story. There is also a balance of drama to the narrative; the story is very character-driven, making me lean towards Space Opera.  Either way, with hard science fiction or a space opera, creatures, ideas, natural laws, and creatures all usually fall within human perception. i.e., "What goes up must come down." This makes a lot of sense, considering that humans will read the story, and you want it relatable to commonly shared experiences. But, human perception is so limiting. If there are beings from other planets, they will not look like us or react like us. Our natural laws would probably not be the natural laws of other worlds and galaxies when given an infinite palate of choices on what characters could look like, how they would act, or how things like time, gravity, and space behave; why not be different. So when I say that Nophek Gloss is one of the most creative science fiction stories I have ever read, you get where I am going with this. 

 Nophek Gloss by Essa Hansen is something else. 

Newcomer Essa Hansen's story is intriguing; here is an author who is steeped in a love of science fiction and fantasy. As a day job, Essa works as a sound designer for Skywalker Sound, where she worked on Dr. Strange and Avengers: Endgame, as well as Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Thor Ragnorak, Ant-Man, and Big Hero Six. She is also a falconer and horsewoman. It seems like she lives and breathes the coolest aspects of science fiction, and none of this is any surprise to me as I read Nophek Gloss. When I say that Nophek Gloss is something else, I genuinely mean it. The basis of the story is a hero's quest type narrative. But when we readers step past the hero's quest narrative and start paying attention to the detailing and imagination that Hansen has added into the fabric of this story, that is where Nophek Gloss soars and stands above its contemporaries.  It is visually rich and compelling storytelling.

"For a long moment, Laythan's piercing gaze assessed Caiden, judging what to say. "I know all this newness is frustrating, but we need more intelligence at a Cartographer Den before we jump to conclusions. That's where we're headed. You'll understand soon."

The story's basis is centered around a protagonist named Caiden, who is born into indentured life. His planet and homelife are destroyed early in the novel, and to survive, he must step away from who he thought he was and enter worlds and times beyond the scope of imagination. Everything he understands and knows to be the truth is a lie. A fabrication put upon him by his previous captors. After he survives an encounter with a Nophek, an otherworldy apex predator creature, "his only hope for survival is a crew of misfit aliens and a mysterious ship that seems to have a soul and a universe of its own. Together they will show him that the universe is much bigger, much more advanced, and much more mysterious than Caiden had ever imagined." This misfit crew becomes a found family for Caiden, helps him grow, often painfully, as he assumes a role that he is destined for in the universe. 

"Pan rarely eats," Taitn said. "Saisn have a very efficient metabolism. She drinks fluids and feeds on vibration, mostly. The dark and quiet is nourishment and medicine for her."

If I left the story at found family and quest, it would seem like Hansen didn't tread new material here. But Nophek Gloss is so much more. A universe, by definition, is infinite. But if a writer stops to think about what "infinite" actually means, anything is possible. The very way we perceive experience is limiting; if we could step outside how humans view the universe and expand our understanding, what would that look like? Would it be a universe balanced on the head of a pin? Or creatures that exist as the embodiment of a memory? How about creatures that create energy sources inside their minds, to be harvested to power ships? What about vessels that create their own universes like a bubble that some species can travel through while others can't. A story like this can be a wide-open field only limited by its creator's experience and imagination. I think Nophek Gloss is the perfect playing field for Essa Hanson's ideas. 

Outside ideas, the structure of Nophek Gloss is easy to read. Hanson keeps the descriptions rich but concise. Hanson does not get lost in the details; she has a particular idea she wants to share with the reader. It isn't overly flowery prose or so much detail that the reader's mind is squashed. Instead, Hanson helps you build something concrete in your mind's eye and gives you a chance to expound on it. This is incredibly important with a genre like science fiction, where the infinite imagination of the reader is an essential tool for building the story. 

"In front of a glowing wall, a stunning figure caught Caiden's eye. She was humanoid but ethereal and slender, with prosthetic scaffolding around tapered legs. Skin paper-thin and pearly. Her thick hair was so long it pooled onto the floor and clothed her body in dressy billows and braids."

Another thing I tip my hat to Hansen on is her exclusivity. In a universe with infinite possibilities, there will be people/creatures that are different than you. Whether that is defined by gender, and the story touches on the question of "what is gender?" Or how people want to represent themselves or communicate. Nophek Gloss also includes neuro-diverse characters in leading roles that offer meaningful relationships to Caiden. There are no token characters in this story, and the importance of respecting diversity is evident by the conclusion of the first chapter.  

Nophek Gloss also talks a lot about grief and how that is expressed. It is painful to read about Caiden and how he deals with the steps of grief. And how and if he can move on with his life. Caiden deals with grief for most of the book, and how that is defined and exercised is fascinating. 

I know this seems like a dark and dense story, grief, death, and slavery, and it is. However, there is a great balance to it. Hansen interjects humor and lightness into some scenes to give the readers a break. This mostly comes in the form of Caiden interacting with his rescuing crew members. And while it doesn't always hit the mark humor wise, it does enough to make sure that the reader isn't dragged down into pain and torment. There are also great fight scenes that step outside the normal and exercise the imagination. What does fighting an alien creature look like? 

Setting and worldbuilding are huge. When you have an unlimited palette of colors, sounds, tastes, and textures, your worlds can be anything. The ones in Nophek Gloss are brilliant colorful creations where technology and the natural world collide. Some so wild that I had to go back and reread things to understand what they could look like. 

Plot-wise, Nophek Gloss is a brilliant book. Probably one of the best science fiction stories I have read this year. However, some things did get muddled, and I didn't quite grasp Caiden's motivations for his choices. Most of these come in the middle chapters where we don't quite grasp who Caiden is, and his maturity level is iffy. I would think this was probably on purpose; humans go through weird growing stages where we are not thinking so clearly, just as a matter of maturing. 

Nophek Gloss is a science fiction book for science fiction geeks. It is almost a love letter to those out there who find their passions in the wild and uninhibited imagination that science fiction offers. It won't be for everyone, as some readers might not enjoy the story's expansive nature. It is also incredibly dark. If there is a genre for grimdark science fiction, this is it. It deals with pain, joy, and grief head-on and does not mince words or details. If you enjoy your reading to be lighter fare, this probably is not the story.  But for me, I loved it. Wholly and completely. Nophek Gloss is a thundering debut; it grabs the reader and tows you into unchartered territory.

Nophek Gloss is one of the most vividly imaginative science fiction books I’ve ever read; from the wild alien technology to the vast array of different xenid species, it has been one hell of a ride – it’s like Mass Effect with some lingering wisps of Red Rising but at the same time something of its own. Pick someone broken, add them into the mix of a found family, give them a dose of vengeance and drop it all into an expansive multiverse littered with the ancient tech of a lost people and you’ve scratched the surface of this terrifyingly original debut.

Caiden, is lost – not right – in many ways, and put together in even more. Hansen has done a great job giving us something very human mixed into all of this alienness, something very scarred, that also fits in well amongst the backdrop of super-advanced tech etc, but positions him to be strong enough to wear those broken pieces as armour. And a cause to make a change. It made him stronger, more capable than those around him, but not as mature. Due to several very Hansen-sci-fi plot points, he only matured in a forced, alien-tech sense. At times, I did feel like he was very brash, the artificer of his own failure. These parts played out in annoyance, in a face-palm, or an ‘Oh, Caiden, just stop!’ moment. But I cared, and that was what matters. And although he does stupid things and often messes up, he is trying his best to survive.

The plot, in simple, non-spoiling terms: Caiden is with his family unit on a planet designed to rear livestock for Nopheks. When all the livestock dies, the Casthen step in and their plan uncovered, Caiden is rescued. Taken off-world by a group of misfit passagers. There, he learns that his world is but a drop is a massive expanse of universes. The multiverse. When he finds out that the Casthen Prime, Cydanza, is responsible for his plight, he sets his eyes on revenge – at which point he meets Threi, an oily slick Casthen Enforcer who shares his goal. Kill the Casthen Prime. I have to say I loved the plot; it was exciting and bounced between action scenes. But A LOT did happen. And sometimes, for me, a little too quickly. There were chapters in which an entire plan was hatched, acted on, failed and defeated. Only for something new to happen in the next – the turnover of subplots were very quick. This lent itself to the feeling that the same might happen with the next chapter and left me wondering what mattered at time. And what did matter paid off well before the end, where the story petered out into preparation for the next book. Very cleverly executed, though. It still managed to surprise and shock.

Found family: when all was lost for Caiden, he found something new. Laythan, En, Taitn, Ksine and his whipkin, and Panca. At first, something that seemed ill-fitting – I didn’t initially buy the feelings that Caiden, now Winn, felt for his new family. It seemed surface deep, too quick. The connection only took place when he later is not with them, Hansen weaves a net of emotions, memories and the little things that one feels when their family is distant. On their return, my chest was tight, breaths quick. I was glad – the family felt real, genuine. Along the way, additions to this setup serve to pull your heart out, and add layers of disgust towards the Casthen, and questions about the Dynast, the ruling faction.

I thoroughly enjoyed Nophek Gloss; it is a cracking debut for what promises to be a fun series. If you love all the original, advanced technology you could possibly handle, a lovable, intriguing main cast with a lot of history and scars and an face-paced plot, then this is one you might want to pick up.

How is it already November in this forsaken year? With less than a month left before we put out our best of the year lists, our reviewers are hard at work chugging through all the books we wanted to get to before the year’s end. Part of that effort involves finishing up outstanding Dark Horses, like Nophek Gloss by Essa Hansen. Gloss was the debut I was most excited to check out this year, as its summary made it sound like a bizarre journey through space and time with a lovable crew of rogues on a spaceship that pushed the boundaries of the imagination. The good news is Gloss lived up to my internal hype and is somehow both more and less than what I expected.

Gloss tells the story of Caiden, a recently liberated slave that has lost everything and is looking for revenge. The start of the book is extremely fast-paced, as the reader witnesses Caiden’s picturesque life farming space cows turn into a traumatic nightmare. Caiden was a member of a group of humans who are kept in captivity, and ignorance, so they can raise cattle to feed nophek – giant murder cat things that grow space fuel in their brains. In the vast multiverse of this book’s setting, only a few realities can support nophek biology, so they are worth quite a pretty penny. However, when a virulent plague ends up killing most of the world’s cattle – the overseers of the harvesting project decided to feed the slaves (i.e., Caiden) to the nophek to keep them alive a little longer for harvest. Caiden watches his entire family get brutally torn apart by space lions right in front of him, manages to escape and find a futuristic spaceship, and falls in with a group of five side characters who help him get it off the planet and to safety. Caiden, at about twelve years old, vows to enact a horrific vengeance on the slavers who killed his family and sets out on an epic quest to throw them into the nearest sun.

The plot of Nophek Gloss left me with distinctly mixed feelings, especially because it is absolutely not the focus of the book. Everything feels contrived: Caiden falls into a powerful ship, a friendly and brilliant crew, and a clear plan on how to enact his revenge, in about 10 pages. But, that’s also not really an issue because all of the plot is window-dressing for the ideas, characters, and character growth. If you are looking for a hard science-fiction that has a thrilling and gripping plot that fits thousands of pieces together in an immersive experience, look elsewhere. If, however, you are the kind of person who likes their science fiction couched in the context of the human experience, wants to explore new ideas about how we grow into who we are, and love creative worldbuilding – then look right here.

The characters of Gloss are fantastic, though you should know what you are getting yourself into. The five crewmates that Caiden picks up are delightful, and exploring their individual stories through the chapters was moving and engrossing. On the other hand, Caiden is written, very effectively, to sound like a young boy, and that can make him occasionally extremely annoying. He struggles to learn lessons and often repeats the same mistakes, over and over again. However, through each successive error, we can see that Caiden is truly growing as a person and working through his trauma, which is a big part of the story. Trauma, and how to heal from it, is a cornerstone theme of Gloss. The book is filled with numerous sad stories, from Caiden’s to the crew’s, to any number of other side characters we meet. The trauma is the true antagonist of the story and the reader gets to watch each character they are attached to deal with their horrific pasts in their own way.

But if you aren’t into all of this touchy-feely goodness like I am, the worldbuilding and technology in Gloss are really fun. There are a ton of new ideas for technology – like a fascinating take on forced aging – that I had never read before that kept me thinking long into the night. Gloss also has some really interesting takes on multiverses and spaceships that made the inner child in me heel-click with glee. The prose is also quite vivid and evocative, and there are many instances of stunning imagery that are still sticking with me weeks later.

Interestingly, most of the things I didn’t really like about Gloss were clearly features, not bugs. Hansen has clear and well-realized methods on how she wants to tell her story that took me out of my comfort zone and helped me feel refreshed with the science fiction genre. Nophek Gloss was one of the strongest Dark Horses I have read this year and its weird story and weirder characters have me firmly invested in what happens next. I definitely recommend you use my breakdown of the book to decide if you think it’s for you because those that are drawn to Nophek Gloss are going to love it.

Rating: Nophek Gloss – 8.0/10
-Andrew