"Science fiction with a spoonful of romance"
Reviewed by Make Kay
Posted February 2, 2024
Science Fiction Space Opera
Another fun entry in the Verdant String science fiction series with a helping of romance, author Michelle Diener brings us ENTHRALLER. Book seven in the series, ENTHRALLER is loosely linked to the other novels in the series based on the location in outer space, but can easily be enjoyed as a standalone. There are some brief mentions of other characters from prior books which feel more like little Easter eggs to me.
There are seven planets of the Verdant String- the green, fecund sources of life spanning five solar systems- which comprise the Verdant String Coalition. There is both an evil planet of cruel beings and a group of greedy soulless corporations who are out to screw everybody else in an attempt to grab resources and control of the Verdant String. Our hero and heroine are inadvertently dumped into a fight for their lives and for those of a whole group of planets against these evildoers.
I like how Diener jumps us straight into the action without any prior explanations. Unfortunately, I read the blurb at the beginning of the book before I read the story. I feel it would have been much more enjoyable to have gone in blind, without the blurb to warn me, before leaping into the ongoing rush of action. Readers take heed: skip the intro!
ENTHRALLER is heavy on sci-fi and light on romance, especially compared to some others in her series. That said, I was delighted with the story overall, and the light touches of romance were just right in my opinion. Both Ed and Wren are Special Forces. They’re both such engaging characters: honest, smart, and tenacious. Wren Thorakis had been working as an Aponian Special Forces artifacts consultant before she was hung out to dry by her team in a hostage situation. Aponi Special Forces soldier, Ed Zeneri walked away from service two years ago after a betrayal from those serving around him. These two outsiders meet and mesh instantly, and it's glorious.
The rapid pace of fighting and intrigue keeps the story boiling. I finished this in one sitting, left wanting more by Diener right away. The curse of following the works of a successful writer- having to wait for them to write the next book! Readers of space opera and science fiction will be well rewarded by diving into the Verdant String series, and Diener’s ENTHRALLER will be sure to engage.
SUMMARY
The planet Aponi sits at the outer edge of the Verdant String.
For Wren Thorakis, working as an Aponian Special Forces artifacts consultant, it means interesting assignments and unusual discoveries. Being captured and held for ransom by a strange cult while working on the moon Ytla was not something she expected, though. However, while escaping her captors, she stumbles across what could be the discovery of her career—one that no artifact consultant could possibly ignore—a genuine ancestral mothership.
The mothership isn’t just amazing in itself, though. Wren finds herself the recipient of crazy-powerful nanotech. It helps keep her alive and one step ahead of those trying to hide the ship’s existence.
When Wren starts working out who’s behind keeping her discovery secret, and why, she is plunged into a bigger plot than she ever imagined.
A shadowy organization has its eye on Aponi, and isn’t shy to use the Verdant String’s fiercest enemies, the Caruso, to help them take it from the Coalition.
When an Aponi Special Forces soldier, Ed Zeneri, who’s existence is also inconvenient to Wren’s enemies, is lured into a trap with Wren and they both come under fire, Wren’s nanotech does whatever it has to to keep her safe—including enthralling Ed to protect her at all costs.
Ed knows his reaction to Wren isn’t normal, or even sane, but as the compulsion to put himself in front of anything coming at her recedes, he finds he’s more than inclined to do it of his own volition.
He joins forces with Wren to try to stop the takeover of their home planet, and as they race the clock to find the answers they need, he also has to convince Wren that what he feels for her is real.
As real as the enemy battleships hovering in Aponi’s nearspace. As real as the deadline to bring them down.
As real as it gets.
Excerpt“What’s the job?” Ed leaned back against the smooth metal of the petral hull and crossed his arms over his chest.
Guttra lifted his hands in hope. “A transport came in yesterday. Scanners clocked it in as having one occupant. Sure enough, only one occupant stepped out to register.” Guttra paused. “Problem was, the traveller was a Verdant String woman, average height, slim.”
“What’s the problem with that?”
“The occupant the scanner clocked coming in weighed three tons and was the size of a light travel pod. Which was why they were watching what got out at the docks.”
Ed cocked his head. “A shape changer?” He whistled. “Thought they were all gone over a hundred years back.”
“Exterminated, you mean?” Guttra raised his eyebrows.
Yeah, Ed had meant that, but it was generally frowned on to talk of extermination on Aponi. Not the warm, fuzzy, happy families image the VSC liked to project.
Not that they hadn’t had cause, in the case of shape changers.
An Aponi exploration unit had stumbled on the tiny satellite moon, Nai, that was the original habitat of the shape changers. What no one back home had realized, until it was too late, was the shape changers had killed most of the explorers, shifted to replicate them, and come back to Aponi to wreak havoc.
It had been days before the authorities had realized the mild-mannered scientists who had come back from Nai were actually cunning predators who could hardly believe their luck in landing in Demeter, Aponi’s capital city, with all its unsuspecting inhabitants.
It had been a slaughterhouse until the VSC Special Forces had managed to stop the killings.
“So Captain Hyt thinks the scanner will work in identifying a shape changer? What does he think it will pick up?”
Guttra tilted his head. “Given the Guan scanner your fellow Halatian created is still considered the most accurate way to see inside a ship and work out how many people and weapons are in it, Hyt thinks it’s worth a shot to have you use it on the suspected shape changer.”
“So he wants me to walk up to her, scanner engaged, and see if I can see by looking at her if she changes into something that weighs three tons?” Ed shook his head. “She’s not a spaceship.”
“I think Captain Hyt was told the scanner’s been used for more than just ships in the past. This is highly classified info and we weren’t given further details. Whoever it was who spoke to Hyt said it was possible the scanner could give us a reading that would let us know, one way or another.”
“I’ve used the scanner for years, and I’ve never used it on anything other than a ship or building. And I haven’t heard of anyone else using it any other way, either.”
Guttra lifted his shoulders. “You haven’t worked for Special Forces for two years. Don’t worry, there’ll be a full crew around you, and it’ll be people from my team. Just do your thing. Like usual.”
Like usual? The Guan scanner could not give an accurate reading if there was anything between it and the ship or building it was scanning, so for years that had meant free floating in space, equipment attached to his head, the readout a thin transparent screen in front of his eyes.
Standing in a hover port, scanning an individual person, was not usual at all. In fact, he doubted it would even work, no matter what some high-up had whispered in Captain Hyt’s ear.
Guttra claimed this was a real case, but it smacked of the obvious ploys Special Forces had used before to woo him back into the fold. It wasn’t so much that they were sorry that one of the idiots in charge had pointed him at the wrong target, then tried to lay the blame on him for the political fallout. It was more to do with the fact that Guan, the architect and engineer who’d developed what became known as the Guan scanner, made it impossible for anyone who didn’t have Halatian DNA to operate.
It was why, he was sure, Guttra had kept in touch with him all this time. Ed would like to have believed Guttra was an actual friend, but he suspected he kept up a connection on the orders of Special Forces, in case they could find a way to lure him back.
And the reason for their tenacity was that Special Forces missed having accurate information on whatever ships were approaching them than they’d had before Ed left, especially as things got uglier and uglier between the VSC and the Caruso.
They were desperate to get him back, especially now they’d been so careless with Lily.
“It’s not just like usual, though, is it?” Ed clenched his fists. “Even if the scanner can somehow see what’s really there, if we close in, what’s stopping it changing into its real self?”
“Does that mean you won’t do it?” Guttra asked.
Ed considered the petral he’d been tinkering with. That had been the third time he’d taken that porthole window off and put it back on anyway.
“When is this happening?”
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