Bea Reviews Dark Beneath the Moon by Sherry D. Ramsey

Series: Nearspace #2
Publisher: Tyche Books Ltd
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: August 31, 2015
Challenges: Finishing the Series Reading Challenge
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Blurb from goodreads:

Luta Paixon has plenty of trouble on the Tane Ikai, with relationships in flux and the sticky problem of two captains on one ship. But when an alien artifact, the remnant of a long-ago war, shows up on the other side of a newly-discovered wormhole, the crew also find themselves pressed into the service of the Nearspace Protectorate. The Tane Ikai‘s task: covertly deliver an alien historian to the site to decipher its meaning—and possible threat.

Jahelia Sord is a woman with a grudge against the world, and against Luta Paixon and her family in particular. She has her own secrets to guard, and an alliance with the notorious PrimeCorp—one she’ll keep only as long as it suits her own hunt for vengeance.

When a mysterious attack leaves them stranded in an uncharted new system, Luta, her crew, and Jahelia must try to put their differences aside and decide who to trust, while they uncover a shocking truth about the Chron war and what their old enemies are so afraid of.

Bea's Thoughts:

I enjoyed the first book, One's Aspect to the Sun, when I read it several years ago and was excited to read this one. While this one suffered from the same problems as the first one - the annoying pseudo language Esper, some convenient coincidences, and the story drags at times - it was a solid follow up. The crew of the Tane Ikai is back and we get to know them even better this time around. There's a new character, Jahelia, whose motivations are a bit murky but she's an interesting character who goes through a transformation during the story. She makes a good foil for Luta. 

We learned a lot more about Nearspace and the people who run it. PrimeCorp could still use some fleshing out, they're a bit too too much the stereotypical evil corporation, but we saw some intriguing new sides to the company. The Chron and the Corvid are fascinating species and I hope we'll see more of them in future stories as well as Jahelia. Then there's the Lobor, Cerevare Brindlepaw; you can undoubtedly guess her species from their name and her surname. Both Cerevare and her species are intriguing and I want to see more of them also. Some of the characterizations were lacking depth but despite that all of the characters were interesting and I want to see them again.

The story is not particularly complex and it does drag at times but there's a mix of action, mystery, espionage, and romance. It's really the characters who drive the story and I cared about them, wanted to know what would happen next. Some story lines are tied up while others are left open for future stories. There isn't a cliffhanger so no worries there. I'm not a big science fiction fan but I'm enjoying this series. It's fun.

My review of  book 1, One's Aspect to the Sun.