The Burning Son by T.H. Leatherman
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

A great sci-fi adventure in a wonderfully detailed universe. If you love space opera, you should definitely check out The Burning Son.

While it took me a while to warm up to the main character, astro-navigator Mark Martin, the world building and uniquely developed alien races kept me engaged. The story kicks off with the fall of Martin's home world to an invasive race of religious zealots. Martin and his sister flee the planet aboard, basically, a pirate ship. The story lost a little bit of focus as the crew took on various jobs, but we got a good look at some of Leatherman's alien cultures that made up for it. Then the pacing in the second half of the book really picks up as Leatherman shifts the focus back to the main plot.

This story had a lot of action, unique settings, excellent species creation, and while some of the reveals were easily anticipated there were enough twists that I couldn't be *quite* sure I knew where everyone stood until near the end. The one place where it fell down a bit for me was in the development of the main character. It's not that he wasn't likable... for me he just felt a little flat. Maybe it's because he always seemed unfazed even when everything was going to hell around him. The more pronounced personalities of some of the secondary characters made up for that however.

Fair warning: this book is very much a cliffhanger, so don't expect a tidy resolution at the end. That said, the second, and even third, book in this series is available.

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