Review: Umbra: Sentient Stars by Amber Toro

Blurb:

Umbra is the first book in the Sentient Stars trilogy, an intergalactic, space opera, adventure story, with a slow burn enemies to lovers romance, told from 3 POV’s with fully sentient starships, a militaristic society, alien worlds, and a signal in the darkness that threatens to destroy humanity.

Earth That Was has faded into myth. After millenia spent wandering, humans are no longer nomads. Twelve tribes stand allied under the United Tribal Axis; but there is a signal in the darkness that threatens to destroy everything.

All Skyla wanted after leaving the Navy was to be left alone. Just her ship, the stars, and a new adventure. But when a strange virus disables her ship, she is thrown into the middle of a conflict she doesn’t understand, forcing her to take on responsibilities she swore she never would again.

Hinata always followed the rules, honor above all else. He always won, until he didn’t. Sentenced to exile for his failures, he is determined to prove himself, until a mysterious woman arrives on his station and chaos threatens to break already fragile alliances.

Freyja was always angry, an outcast, playing the part of admiral and black ops operative. But she is tired of being a pawn in the Empress’ games and when she’s stranded on the wrong side of enemy lines after a vengeful battle, she’s forced to ally with her adversaries to clear her name.

A Rogue.
A Commander.
And an Admiral.

Brought together by circumstance, held together by duty.
Can they find a way to work together to save humanity?

Review:

Let me start off by saying, I desperately need the next book now. May 20th can't come soon enough!!

“I am the blaze in the flame. I am the calm in the storm. I am the force behind the machine.”

From the very first page I was ensnared by this space odyssey. It had everything you could want from a great trek amongst the stars. AI ships that bond with their pilots like dragons do in fantasy, which I thought was a super fun concept. And I of course adored Pele with her sass, and being a meddlesome romantic. She's the best! Also the materials they're made from, being a mix of organic and metals was also really cool. I can't wait to see more of these fascinating ships, and I'm hoping for more on Tentei in the next installment >_> I need answers!

In addition to those awesome sentient spaceships, you also get cool space battles which give all the epic Star Wars vibes! I was so here for it. I'm an avid fan, particularly of the OG movies/books. Growing up my brother and I watched the VHS (oops, I'm dating myself) of the trilogy so many times we actually broke it. Blue screened and/or just spans of snow. That's how much we loved those movies. So reading this book?? My little nerd heart was over the moon! Only after finishing the book did I learn the author herself was a huge fan and it was inspiration for the book. It totally made sense since those were the vibes I was getting the entire time I was reading. Just proves I basically go into books completely blind lol. I mean, at some point, I've read the blurb for it to make it onto my tbr. But between the time I read the blurb and when I actually read a book, well…that blurb is no longer in the brain archive. So this was a really fun surprise to read.

While this obviously gives Star Wars vibes in spades, the story itself is uniquely different. We have an engaging plot full of political intrigue and espionage, military school rivalries, the search for signs of alien life, cartels, mysterious computer viruses, dealing with manipulative power-hungry mommas (all three of our characters have the misfortune of dealing with these lol), and so much more! This book is just jam-packed with ALL the good stuff! 

We also get other really cool tech like mech armor (think Samus from Metroid games), weapons of all sorts, some with power options that make them quite similar to lightsabers, and other nifty things. There's all sorts of scientific stuff in here and loads of interesting ideas revolving around it all. We have potential mysteries of alien life, strange signals coming from deep space that has yet to be explored by the UTA. There's just so much amazing stuff in here!

We follow 3 PoVs: Skyla, Hinata, and Freyja, and the chapters alternate consistently between the 3. They are nice short chapters, as well, which I love. I was fond of two of the characters and enjoyed reading their chapters, but the third character not so much. At least not initially, but more on that later.

“When you are done chasing ghosts, come find us. Your people need you. I need you.”

Skyla Karsten, our fearless space explorer. After serving her tour of duty in the UTA navy, she just wants to live freely among the stars and explore the unknown. The way I saw her was the Indiana Jones of ancient galactic civilizations. Her adventures of exploring old ruins while orbiting unknown planets makes for highly engaging reading. Amusingly, I learned the author based Skyla off Han Solo, so that also makes so much sense with all her illegal contraband from her exploratory missions into uncharted space. Han or Jones, same actor, so I was close lol. 

Hinata Azai, rank of commander of the UTA Navy. He is ambitious, determined, and just wants to make a name for himself in the navy. When things don’t go to plan for him, his mother unfairly has him exiled to Medina outpost where he’s supposed to contemplate his failings. This was so unjust of her and so frustrating to read! He gave me Kylo Ren vibes, IF Kylo didn't have anger issues and a penchant for tantrums. Hinata is his calm, by-the-book twin or alter ego. He always keeps his head down and follows the rules, much to Skyla's chagrin. But once he meets her he does start to bend the rules a little bit. The banter and chemistry between these two makes for such fun reading. They are super cute together, much like Han & Leia <3

She had traveled beyond the boundaries of the Known Galaxies, seen countless wonders across as many planets; and yet he was all she wanted.

Now Freyja Nygaard…

Let me preface this by saying Toro is a story whiz! She wrote a character I completely and thoroughly disliked, to put it mildly, and THEN she turned it around and made me like that same character by the end! The audacity! (Just kidding). That alone tells you what a phenomenal writer Toro is. I am the type of person that gets very emotionally invested in books, and I either get extremely attached to characters OR really repelled by them. I can't lie, Freyja was one who fell into the latter category for a large portion of this book.

For starters, she was the personality type that just rubs me the wrong way. She was haughty, arrogant, and constantly filled with rage ready to lash out at anyone around her. In addition to that, I was incredibly frustrated with her seeming complacency with anything and everything her mother ordered her to do. It was like she refused to question what her mother's motives were, what the end goal was, so long as no lives were lost. Being duplicitous in these political schemes did not make her likeable in the least, nor free her from guilt of the eventual results of those plans. I know she was forced into her role in the navy against her own desires, but that doesn’t mean she shouldn’t still do her best to uphold the integrity of the position of admiral, and due diligence in her duties, rather than be a puppet for her entitled mother’s whims. So from my perspective, she was rather weak-willed, and quite undeserving of her role. 

So with my strong feelings against her, I thought there was no way my opinion could be changed. Well, I had a 75% feeling it couldn't be anyway. I have seen it happen on a few occasions, so I was curious to see if this would be one of those rare instances where I was forced to have a change of heart. And wouldn't you know it? It was! This really is the mark of a superb author, in my opinion, when they create a character you feel strongly one way about, but then they have the skill to force you to totally change your mind about them. I love being surprised and being convinced to change my stance. And Freyja herself had to have a change of heart as well, or this wouldn’t have been at all possible. The way Umbra ends with Freyja doing things her own way for a change was super refreshing to see! I look forward to seeing her grow more into her own self in the coming sequel.

“I have sat too long in the Empress' shadow, but no longer.”

The idea of the events behind the Exodus from Earth That Was was fascinating. Humanity wandering through space for centuries and yet still retaining their old earth lore, cultures, customs, and fashion was great as well. This is an all inclusive book of our real world, and I loved seeing it. Even though they’ve been scattered across the galaxies for a millennia, the different ethnic groups originating on Earth That Was stuck together in cohesive groups that then made up the twelve “tribes” of the new human order. And those tribes are united under one ruling body, the Senate. And each of these tribes has their own version of the “destruction myth” that drove humanity to seek safety in the stars. All of this added excellent depth to the history of this new world order. 

I just had some minor quibbles. There were a couple instances where time lapses seemed a tad confusing, or maybe I was just too tired when reading in those moments. And then Skyla's furry friend–any description of him makes him sound like a big awesome cat (I would love to own him), but he has a famous wolf’s name. So I was a little confused on what his species he was supposed to be. I'm sticking with his being a big lovable kitty. I was also slightly bummed he was absent for most of the book, only being mentioned when it seemed convenient, but otherwise you'd almost forget he existed. I'm hoping for more of him in Parallax.

“From the stars we came, to the stars we return,”

Overall, though, I had a fantastic time reading Umbra! And like I said in the beginning, Parallax can’t come soon enough! That ending!!! Oh, did I not mention it was a cliffhanger? Here’s me telling you now, and man is it a doozy! Love it!