ARC Review – Antimatter Blues

From Goodreads:

Summer has come to Niflheim. The lichens are growing, the six-winged bat-things are chirping, and much to his own surprise, Mickey Barnes is still alive―that last part thanks almost entirely to the fact that Commander Marshall believes that the colony’s creeper neighbors are holding an antimatter bomb, and that Mickey is the only one who’s keeping them from using it. Mickey’s just another colonist now. Instead of cleaning out the reactor core, he spends his time these days cleaning out the rabbit hutches. It’s not a bad life.

It’s not going to last.

It may be sunny now, but winter is coming. The antimatter that fuels the colony is running low, and Marshall wants his bomb back. If Mickey agrees to retrieve it, he’ll be giving up the only thing that’s kept his head off of the chopping block. If he refuses, he might doom the entire colony. Meanwhile, the creepers have their own worries, and they’re not going to surrender the bomb without getting something in return. Once again, Mickey finds the fate of two species resting in his hands. If something goes wrong this time, though, he won’t be coming back.

I really enjoyed Mickey7 (You can find my review HERE) so I jumped at the chance to get to read the sequel. It takes part after the events of book one and Mickey is no longer an expendable. I thought this was a nice twist to extend the story.

i will admit I did find this one a lot harder to get into. There wasn’t much progress in mickey’s character and it didn’t feel like much was happening and I even found it a little boring at times. While I enjoy Mickey’s humour and was interested in how his relationship from book one, the start was just too slow. Once we got into the action, it returned to a fascinating and entertaining read.

I adore the worldbuilding, particularly the construction of the world of Niflheim and the communication with the Creeper’s. I really liked how much detail we got into the nature and habits of the creepers as well as getting to explore other speicies on the planet. I thought the way Mickey’s decisions from book one came back to haunt him and how they escalated was really entertaining and overall I enjoyed this sequel.

It is definately a fun read, Mickey’s voice is very entertaining and really keeps you engaged. It does have its faults but if you found yourself liking book one I think you will enjoy this one too.