Book Review – Priestess of the Eggstone by Jaleta Clegg

·  Paperback: 278 pages

·  Publisher: JournalStone (August 10, 2012)

·  Language: English

·  ISBN-10: 1936564475

·  ISBN-13: 978-1936564477

This sci-fi fantasy is the second book of The Fall of the Altairan Empire series featuring Dace, a space pilot who manages to get into trouble everywhere she goes. She was introduced in  the first book, Nexus Point, as was another recurring character, Tayvis.

Dace is flying for a company that hired her to courier sensitive materials, but she does not know Beliff  is a front for the Targon Crime Syndicate, until she goes to get paid and discovers the Patrol is raiding the company offices.  She manages to evade the Patrol, only to discover another major problem. Jerimon, her copilot, stole a god from the Sessimoniss, and the entire sentient species is chasing him, wreaking havoc throughout space. Now the challenge is to find the Eggstone god and return it before the Sessimoniss declare war; a challenge made more difficult because they also have to avoid getting caught by the Patrol and the Targon Syndicate.

Even though I am not a fan of sci-fi and fantasy, I was pulled into this story and, for the most part, enjoyed the read. Dace is a strong character, and strong female characters appeal to me. We have come a long way from the melodramas where Pauline had to be saved by the hero.

The secondary characters were well done as well. I liked Jayla, Jerimon’s sister, who joins the adventure when they need a navigator. Leon, who hijacks Dace’s ship, is a fun character, and how Dace and Jerimon deal with him is a clever bit of plotting.

There were some things in the story that didn’t work as well for me. First was the incessant fighting between Dace and Jerimon. They are attracted to each other, but use the bickering to keep each other at arm’s length. Dace, especially, is not open to any kind of romance because she still has feelings for Tayvis based on something that happened in the first book. The bickering just went on too long and kept repeating the same complaints against each other.

The romantic triangle did not work for me either. I found it hard to believe that Dace could have the same strong feelings for both Jerimon and Tayvis, but maybe that was just me. I also thought the romantic issues interfered with the flow of the rest of the story, which was much more compelling.

This was a good introduction to some fascinating alien species and a believable futuristic world.

Jaleta Clegg will be my guest this coming Wednesday, so I do hope you will come back and meet her and her character, Leon. You can see why I liked him so much.

Also, please stop by tomorrow for the Genre Favorites Blogfest,  hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/  Those of us participating will be sharing about our favorites in books, movies, and music and revealing one guilty pleasure.