Second Skin is a futuristic, spaceship-filled sci-fi story of Max Cody, a asteroid miner who has a close encounter just before the Mars space station comes under attack from nefarious politicians and Max and his shipmate Elaine must save the day!
Second Skin was the first physical book I received for review, but because of it’s slightly strange cover, I didn’t pick it up right away! I’m glad that I have an obsessive need to read all review copies before any library books, though, because once I got into the main story of Second Skin, I was hooked.
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Goodreads
Title: Second Skin
Author: Peter Darrach
Pages: 327 pages
Genre-ish: Spaceship Sci-fi
Rating: ????? - solid story, just missed “wow” factor
Setting: Mars has been colonized and asteroids are being mined, which is risky business when there are people stealing ships and illegally retrieving ice from the asteroid belt.
Premise: Max Cody is a worker on a legal asteroid mining ship, but on his latest mission a strange event occurs. It seems to change him physically and just in time, because the illegal ice miner “Suicide” Sam is about to make life difficult….
Strengths:
- A very realistic and scientifically grounded system (Darrach obviously did a fair amount of research!)
- Max and Elaine have a wonderful dynamic, made me all squee-y
- An enjoyable take on alien first encounters. It makes me hope there is going to be a second book that gets more into these new beings!
Weaknesses:
- For some reason, there just wasn’t that compelling “wow” factor for me. I enjoyed Second Skin, but wasn’t completely hooked.
- The cover art on the copy I got (and is picture above) kinda creeped me out. I understand what it’s about now, but it delayed me picking up Second Skin for a bit….
- I was more interested in the aliens than the central plot, which was probably the “hooking” factor that was missing.
Summary:
I really enjoyed Second Skin, and really look forward to reading more in this world, but it just didn’t quite reach it’s full potential for me. If you want to read some classic spaceship sci-fi, definitely pick up Second Skin, but it probably won’t be a complete speed read for most of you :).
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-A
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Similar Stories Reviewed
This World Must Die! by Horace Brown Fyfe – More space adventure!
Dune by Frank Herbert – Classic sci-fi, but on an even farther out planet!
Second Skin by Peter Darrach
© 2012, Anya. All rights reserved.
The post Four Stars: Second Skin by Peter Darrach appeared first on On Starships and Dragonwings.
