Book Review – Devastation Class by Glen Zipper and Elaine Mongeon

8 January 2021 /
devastation class cover

An annihilation force of invading aliens. Human civilization on the brink of extinction. Earth’s only hope – seven cadets and the legendary starship they were never meant to command. No matter the cost, they will stop at nothing to survive. No matter the odds, they will fight to save their future.

The distant future. Earth’s Alliance forces have emerged victorious from a brutal nine-year war with the mysterious Kastazi – a vicious, highly advanced alien race. In the dawn of a new peace, the Alliance Devastation Class starship Californiaembarks on a mission of science and learning with a skeleton crew of seasoned officers, civilian students, and inexperienced military cadets in tow.

For JD Marshall and Viv Nixon, gifted cadets and best friends, the mission holds special meaning: It offers an opportunity to prove themselves and begin to escape the long shadows of their legendary war hero parents.

Suddenly ambushed by a second wave of invading Kastazi forces, JD and Viv make the impossible decision to spearhead a mutiny to save the California and everyone on it. In command and quickly out of options, they are forced to activate the ship’s prototype Blink Reactor – an experimental technology they expect to send them to the safe, distant reaches of space. When their escape transports them to a reality they don’t recognize and reveals unimaginably terrifying secrets, they must fight their way home to save not just everyone they love but also humanity itself. Standing in their way are an insurmountable enemy, saboteurs from within, a mystery eons in the making, and the fabric of time and space itself.

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My rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.
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I received this book from the published via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

I found the premise of Devastation Class really intriguing, but it is sadly plagued with a slow start and two-dimensional characters. Towards the end, it does pick up a lot, but I did consider stopping throughout the first half. It’s still enjoyable, just a little flatter than it should have been. Additionally, in the e-galley, the formatting made it hard to determine whose POV we were in and to read the first sentence or two of each chapter.

From our main characters, we spend the most time with JD and Viv. I found JD quite flat and couldn’t connect with why he didn’t seem to want to be in the cadets anymore. But his arc gained a little traction, even if some parts of his storyline played out exactly as I predicted. Viv is slightly better, albeit dragged by unnecessary romance BS. She is interesting and fierce, and I struggled to see why she gave Julian the time of day.

All the characters are a little hard to connect with – they have no depth. I quite liked Bix but struggle to even really remember defining features of the rest (other than the pun for Ohno which is funny for about 1 second).

The overall twists didn’t quite play out as I thought, but there’s definitely some real predictability to it. All this said I did quite like the elements around Nick and the blink drive. And the second half, where we see elements of politics are interesting, I think there’s some real potential in what happens with that. As well as the more obvious parts around Fuller and whatever he’s plotting!

It ends on quite the cliffhanger which means I’m likely to search out book two which will hopefully delve more into the politics and rebellion as well as the science. 3 stars.

Buy Devastation Class from Waterstones.

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