The Dark Moon

Atrophy, Book 3

By: Jess Anastasi

Narrated by: Raquel Beattie

After his unusual reaction to a weapon, Commando Varean Donnelly is accused of being a shape-shifting alien and imprisoned onboard the Imojenna. Sure, he has abilities he keeps hidden from everyone—including the gorgeous doc examining him—because the government makes sure people as different as him disappear. For good.

Imojenna doctor Kira Sasaki knows there's something different about the handsome commando the captain's thrown in their brig. She doesn't think he's Reidar, although he might have been a victim of their cruel experiments. But when Kira learns the stubborn commando's racial make-up, she finds herself torn between defending him to Captain Rian Sherron and his crew or urging Varean to escape while he still can.

Contains mature themes.

©2017 Jess Anastasi (P)2022 Tantor

Tepid romance- but series arc progressed

The romance between Kira and Varean didn’t do much for me but the series arc about the Reidar threat moved forward in slightly better ways than in the previous book. It’s frustrating that the enemy continues to be just this nameless group. Although Rian still spends an inordinate amount of time in his own head with pity parties, or being irascible and jerky, this book does a much better job of explaining why (it’s still more tell than show, however).

Random thought: more than the previous ones, this book had so many Firefly parallels, right down to that Serenity scene where the crew goes to meet with a rebel ally, shows up to his pad, and finds the ally and his girl and … if you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know what happens. Then there’s Ella/Inara, who challenges the broody veteran Malcolm/Rian. Or the doctor Kira/Simon, a member of the elite cast out and on the run. And of course, the characters who end up having unbelievable powers that make them uber weapons. The Firefly comparisons actually helped flesh out the story, which is decent, but not stellar and runs overlong.

Meh

so trite, this concept that you should hurt yourself and the one you love for some misconcieved notion of "it's for the best". 🙄 Most of the characters are so extremely unlikable, and each love interest in the series spends all their time talking themselves out of a good thing until the bitter end, uggh.