Review and Giveaway: Nyxia Unleashed

Title: NYXIA UNLEASHED (The Nyxia Triad #2)

Author: Scott Reintgen

Pub. Date: July 17, 2018

Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook

Pages: 400

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Audible, B&N, iBooks, TBD

Getting to Eden brought Emmett and his crewmates one step closer to their promised fortune. But surviving Eden may be the biggest reward of all. Discover book two in the trilogy Marie Lu called, “a high-octane thriller.”

Emmett Atwater thought Babel’s game sounded easy. Get points. Get paid. Go home. But it didn’t take long for him to learn that Babel’s competition was full of broken promises, none darker or more damaging than the last one.

Now Emmett and the rest of the Genesis survivors must rally and forge their own path through a new world. Their mission from Babel is simple: extract nyxia, the most valuable material in the universe, and play nice with the indigenous Adamite population.

But Emmett and the others quickly realize they are caught between two powerful forces—Babel and the Adamites—with clashing desires. Will the Genesis team make it out alive before it’s too late?

My Review:

With this book I was pulled back into the world that Reintgen began building in book one, Nyxia. I was so excited to start this book and it did not disappoint. The cast of characters is diverse, including both aliens and humans, and yet they meld together in surprising ways. The futuristic world setting is built up enough to give a basis, but not so overly detailed that we aren’t free to imagine it in our way. I loved the way that Reintgen designed the culture and class system of the Adamites, and how the crew reacted to it. The way that the crew reacted served to illustrate the ways that our own society is both good in some areas and lacking in others. What I also really appreciated was Reintgen’s take on how humans, those in power and those not, might react when faced with an alien race and a planet full of an important resource. I think he nailed that part of the story. With this overreaching topics populating the book the relationships between the crew members and also between them and the aliens, serve to bring us back to the heart of the story and to see the individuals in the larger plans. The book is wonderfully written and plotted, with enough twists to keep you reading long past your bedtime! The only teeny tiny flaw is that I wanted more about Nyxia itself. I find that aspect of the books fascinating and I’m hoping for more of that in book three! I can’t recommend this book enough! It is a must read for this summer!

About Scott:

Scott Reintgen was always a back-row dreamer. As early as kindergarten, teachers noticed his tendency to stare out of classroom windows and disappear to more interesting elsewheres. In high school, he began laboring away on the opening chapter of his first fantasy novel. One of his favorite English teachers agreed to read the pages and the very next day she switched him (illegally) out of Spanish and into a Creative Writing class. The story got tossed eventually, but he never lost the confidence he was given by that single act of empowering faith.

Convinced he would one day be a writer, Scott spent most of college and graduate school investing in the world of literature. This eventually led to a career teaching English and Creative Writing in North Carolina. He strongly believes that every student who steps into his classroom has the right to see themselves, vibrant and victorious and on the page. It’s his hope to encourage a future full of diverse writers. As he’s fond of reminding his students, “You have a story to tell and you’re the only one who can tell it.”

As for his own writing, Scott continues to follow in the footsteps of his favorite authors. It was Tolkien who once wrote, “The fairy gold (too often) turns to withered leaves when it is brought away. All I can ask is that you, knowing all these things, will receive my withered leaves, as a token at least that my hand once held a little of the gold.” And Scott hopes his books are a trail of withered leaves that might lead readers to the bright elsewheres through which he constantly finds himself wandering.

He currently lives in North Carolina with his wife, Katie, and family.

Website | Twitter | Goodreads