Joey got separated from her twin brother Jesse when their luxury spacecraft broke apart halfway to Mars. The terrorists are dead, but so are most of the passengers who escaped a dying Earth for a new life on a new planet.
The remaining survivors, the future of humanity, are scattered across the lush planet of Mars. Joey and Kami are in a mountainous forest, and they’re locked in a power struggle to guide the people. Jesse and Rai landed on the coast, and are desperate to reach their sisters.
This new world can be a fresh start, where everyone is equal and class sectors are finally made obsolete, if only Kami would give up her self-appointed position as Commander of Mars. Both Joey and Kami are willing to die for their beliefs, even sacrificing the lives of those who’ve chosen to follow them, unless cleared heads can prevail before it’s too late.
My Current Thoughts on Serpents and Saviors:
I love this series so far! I haven’t quite finished the novel, and I want you all to have my complete thoughts on it. All I can say for now is that the second book is just as addicting as the first, and check in tomorrow for when I will finally get the chance to post my review for this novel. This book is definitely worth the wait. Check below for my complete, spoiler-free review of Emergence, the first book in the Project Emergence series.
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My Review of Project Emergence:
An ancient Hopi myth says people arrived on tiny silver pods that fell from the sky.
But the truth is far more terrifying.
Two-hundred fifty-eight teens are sent from a dying Earth to a terraformed Mars as part of the Emergence Program, mankind’s last hope before solar flares finish off their planet and species. Among the brave pioneers are sixteen-year-old Joey Westen and her twin brother, Jesse.
After only minutes in space, something triggers a total ship lock down.
With the help of their roommates, the Matsuda twins (notorious hackers and shady secret-keepers), Joey and Jesse stumble onto an extremist plot to sabotage the Emergence Program.
But Joey and Jesse didn’t travel to the deepest pits of space and leave their mother behind to be picked off in a high-tech tin can. They’ll lie, hack, and even kill to survive the voyage and make it to Mars.
Usually, I struggle to get into science fiction novels that take place throughout space. Sometimes, they get so technical and clunky that reading it is awkward. Other times, the plot is simply filled with endless battles with no character building. Zakian’s book suffers from none of these issues, as readers are thrown onto a ship of nearly 300 teens that are going to Mars as a part of a special program. Many of them are twins, including Joey and Jesse, but some of them are only children or simply siblings.
Before the ship takes off, the captain is warned that the previous 5 buses had been attacked by a group of Christians who claimed that man’s place was on Earth and that it was against God’s will to go to Mars. None of the people on those ships had made it, but the group was determined to see at least one group of teens successfully make it off dying planet Earth and to start the new human colony elsewhere.
This book is fast-paced, but it is not so fast that the characters are missing personalities. Even though the kids are stuck on a ship for the duration of the book, the world-building is incredible. Many flashbacks occur that allow the readers to see what life was like on the radiation-filled version of Earth. The ship also has many rooms and hallways that the story takes place in, so it is easy to visualize where the characters are almost at all times.
There is romance in this novel, which is always a tough topic for me in YA novels. Luckily, it did not take over the story and just seemed like a normal amount of average teen romance. It was neither over-played nor under-played.
The action scenes were intense, and I loved to be able to hear the story also told from the POV of the Christian extremist as he thought that he was doing “God’s work” by trying to sabotage the teens. I really enjoy books that toy with the ideas of people being swept away by thoughts of religion, until they can no longer tell wrong from right.
Lastly, I really liked the pairs of twins, Jesse and Joey with Rai and Kami. I hope that their relationship will continue in the next book. It was really interesting to see how the twin’s had a stronger bond than the other siblings on the ship.
Overall, this was a really intricate, addicting, and amazing read. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a new YA science fiction series.
Overall Rating: 4.5/5
Author Information!
Jamie Zakian is a full-time writer who consumes the written word as equally as oxygen. Living in South Jersey with her husband and rowdy family, she enjoys farming, archery, and blazing new trails on her 4wd quad, when not writing of course. She aspires to one day write at least one novel in every genre of fiction.
Bri's Book Nook 