Children of Scarabaeus
Scarabaeus, Book 2
Sara Creasy

Harper Voyager / HarperCollins
March 29, 2011/ ISBN 978-0061934742
Science Fiction
Amazon

Reviewed by Carmen Ferreiro

Edie sha'nim was dying.

Thus read the first line of Sara Creasy's new novel, Children of Scarabaeus, and I was hooked.

I was also aware that I was coming in the middle of the action for that single sentence raises a million questions. Who is Edie? Where is she? Why is she dying? What happened to her before? What will happen next?

The author answers these questions soon enough not to alienate the readers who, like me, have not read the first book in this series, yet leaves enough unanswered to keep us guessing.

Edie is a cypherteck, a human technologically enhanced to be able to interact with data streams. From childhood she was used by the Crib as a pawn in their schemes to transform barren planets into Earth-like ones (terraforming). But Edie has gone rogue and has plans of her own: to free Crib-exploited worlds and make them self-sufficient.

As the story begins Edie and her bodyguard/would-be lover, Finn, are in their way (once she solves her "being dying" problem) to complete this mission. But the Crib needs Edie desperately because their terraforming projects are failing, and will stop at nothing to get her back.

They need her, especially it seems, because of what happened in Scarabaeus, the planet where Edie was stranded in the first book.

The fact that Finn is bonded to her by a chip in his brain that would explode if they are separated for over a mile, gives the Crib a powerful bargaining tip to convince Edie to cooperate.

Desperate to keep Finn alive, Edie agrees. On the surface, at least. Behind her captors' back, she will use her skills to continue with her secret mission, and, also, to save the children the Crib is training as pawns in its schemes. But to succeed will require the ultimate sacrifice in a world that holds a surprise of its own.

With a satisfying mixture of action and romance, Children of Scarabaeus is a great read for everyone. It will not disappoint science fiction fans either, for, once we allow for the 'fiction' component of the story, it does keep the science part right.

Well done.