Nyxia Unleashed

Great sequel

I read the first book in this series as an ARC before it came out, and I was more or less blown away. I loved it, and I couldn’t wait for the release of the sequel. So, I was so happy when I got the opportunity to read the ARC of Nyxia Unleashed too, and I had been waiting for so long to see what happened to Emmet and all the other kids from Genesis 11 and 12.

Nyxia Unleashed takes us on a very different journey than what the first installment in the series did. Now we find ourselves on an alien planet full of dangers and our cast is scarred and hurt from all that Babel put them through. They struggle with through of what they’ve been forced to do, which getting back home and who to trust.

All in all, I truly enjoyed this story and the twists and turns this story takes are enjoyable. I love seeing the relationship between Morning and Emmet evolve despite these harsh conditions, and it’s a joy to once and awhile get a glimpse of the lightheartedness we saw in book one. This sequel though, is dark and heart wrenching, so many dilemmas, so many ways to take and the slightest mistake might end in disaster. There’s definitely nothing wrong with the tension and conflict here.

There are, however, a few things that does take down the rating a bit for me here. In particular, I find that it has introduced too many twisty obstacles, and yet still manages to have large sections without anything really happening. We get thrown here and there without really getting anything fully explained or fleshed out. In a way it felt a bit rushed, as if the author wanted to include so much detail of this world and the story that it all in the end turned into a confusing mush embedded in a slow meaningless bubble.

The second thing is that there was a whole lot of namedropping in the beginning, and for me (who’s incredibly awful at remembering names) it was so confusing. I had no idea who these people were and therefore I could not relate to a single thing that happened. So, for those like me, I strongly recommend rereading the first book in the series to freshen up the memory.

I also fail to really see the point of having the two other POV put in there when one only appeared once and the other like three times. I would have loved to either have none of it, or more of it. The way it is now feels like a middle-way that didn’t work.

Lastly, I want to add that by the time we go to the 70% mark of the book, things really took off, and I once again saw the fast-paced action that I loved so much in Nyxia. When the pieces start to fall into place it’s such an incredible feeling, and just like in the first book, Nyxia Unleashed really manages to both wrap up the plot in a great way and hook us to read the next one. And I’ll surely read the next book too, even though I’m dreading to find out that my hunch regarding one of the characters is correct.

So, did you like Nyxia? Don’t miss the sequel.