NYXIA UNLEASHED
by Scott Reintgen
Genre: Young Adult, Space Opera
Pub Date: July 17, 2018
Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers
Length: 400 pages
Spoilers: MARKED
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I received this free physical ARC from the publisher via Rockstar Book Tours in exchange for my honest review.
Emmett Atwater thought Babel’s game sounded easy. Get points. Get paid. Go home. But it didn’t take long for him to learn that Babel’s competition was full of broken promises, none darker or more damaging than the last one.
Now Emmett and the rest of the Genesis survivors must rally and forge their own path through a new world. Their mission from Babel is simple: extract nyxia, the most valuable material in the universe, and play nice with the indigenous Adamite population.
But Emmett and the others quickly realize they are caught between two powerful forces—Babel and the Adamites—with clashing desires. Will the Genesis team make it out alive before it’s too late?
Fast & Actiony
This is definitely a fast story. There are lots of action scenes to keep the reader on their toes and each one tries to shake up the story a bit more by either upping the stakes or offering new information, which gives the reader another chance to guess at what’s going on. There are also slower sections interspersed, which allows the reader a breather and a chance to absorb everything they’ve just read.
Safe & Un-Unique
Not sorry to be making this statement: the world where the Adamites live and their society is nothing new. Every piece of their world and their culture was clearly pulled from Earth. Nothing about them was even remotely unique, which meant that I really had no interest in getting to know them or their culture or society or anything. It was very bland. It was very safe. And I would have liked to see more cultural differences between the humans and Adamites to offer an interesting story and some fun twists, but it just wasn’t there.
Active vs Passive
Unfortunately, the characters in this sequel are not active in the slightest. A lot happens to them. A lot is out of their control and they spend a good portion of the book making decisions and trying to figure things out. Honestly, it read like a middle book of a trilogy (oh, the cliche!) Stuff did happen. Things were revealed, but the main characters just didn’t DO much. It was like they were along for the ride for 90% of the book and that makes it difficult to become invested in the story.
Character Deaths
Really? Oh, yeah, there were totally some character deaths and they were definitely fantastic and amazing and suspenseful, but they were safe. They were SOOOO safe. All of the characters who died were really not major characters. They were whole-heartedly side characters, disposable and emotionally distant from the reader. Their deaths meant nothing to me as a reader. The only time when I was worried about a character dying was when Morning got blasted by the bomb towards the end. Only then did I care about someone and then she was perfectly fine.
Melanie Noell Bernard 
I just recently read this book and agree with a lot of what you said. I definitely liked the first book more, the majority of Unleashed the characters just felt like they were following Speaker around and doing what he said, discovering a new planet. The stakes were pretty low. Hopefully the excitement picks up in book 3!
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Discovering a new planet? Psha! There was nothing interesting about that planet. Nothing unique. What exactly were they discovering, I ask?
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