Review - Song of Scarabaeus by Sara Creasy

Title: Song of Scarabaeus (Scarabaeus, book 1)

Author: Sara Creasy

Publisher: Harper Collins

Publication Date: April 27, 2010

Genre: Science Fiction

Other Books in the series:

Children of Scarabaeus, book #2

How I Got It: I purchased it

Summary:
Trained since childhood in advanced biocyph seed technology by the all-powerful Crib empire, Edie's mission is to terraform alien worlds while her masters bleed the outlawed Fringe populations dry. When renegade mercenaries kidnap Edie, she's not entirely sure it's a bad thing . . . until they leash her to a bodyguard, Finn—a former freedom fighter-turned-slave, beaten down but never broken. If Edie strays from Finn's side, he dies. If she doesn't cooperate, the pirates will kill them both.

But Edie's abilities far surpass anything her enemies imagine. And now, with Finn as her only ally as the merciless Crib closes in, she'll have to prove it or die on the site of her only failure . . . a world called Scarabaeus.

Review:

Song of Scarabaeus has been on my wish list for awhile now and I'm so happy that I finally picked it up.  Creasy has created a world of depth and detail with some really interesting "science", and a hero and heroine that you just want to take care of.

The Crib empire uses something called biocyph to terraform worlds.  The biocyph is programmed to create a world like earth.  It's placed inside a BRAT and then shot into the planet.  The BRATs will communicate with each other, using the biocyph to completely rewrite the genetic code of the planet.  the process takes years and the success rate is very low.  The chosen world cannot have any type of advanced life - nothing more complex than a protozoa.  This is not only to help protect alien worlds and their developing ecosystems but also because the terraforming process might not work.  Sometimes it just never starts and other times it goes wrong.  In fact, when the process goes wrong, it goes horribly wrong.  Planets just become giant balls of dead matter, there is no way to fix what has been destroyed.  Humans keep demanding more room and the need for food is great, so the Crib continues to terraform worlds despite the fact that is an extremely expensive hit or miss process.

Edie is very special.  As far as the empire knows, she has a 100% success rate when it comes to terraforming worlds.  (Her one failure is a secret that haunts her.)  The Crib has raised her and they thought indoctrinated her.  They cannot afford to lose her skills; Edie is theirs wether she wants to be or not.  She might have grown up extremely sheltered but Edie recognizes that she is not much more than a slave.  When rovers kidnap her she goes along with it because they might be the key to her freedom.  She soon realizes she has a new set of masters who need her talents.  The mercenaries want Edie to steal biocyph from brats on planets where the terraforming never started.  Granted she'll have more freedom with them then she's ever had before, but she's still not in control of her life.  On top of that, they've have forced a man, Finn, to be her bodyguard.  They've leashed the two of them together: a microchip in Finn's head must constantly receive signals from a similar chip in Edie.  If Finn were to move out of range of her signals, he'll die.

Edie grows attached to Finn very quickly.  He's quiet and has led a very hard and violent life since his capture at the end of the war.  She's never had anybody depend on her before and she's going to do everything she can to ensure their freedom.  Of course we all know what they say about the best laid plans.

Song of Scarabaeus was  a nail biter of a book.  It starts with action and kidnapping and explosions and never really lets up.  Edie had no idea how to survive in the world, but she was going to give it a try.  I loved how brave she was despite her fear, and she was so protective of Finn.  He was also another great character.  While he seemed like the typical dark and brooding hero at first, Creasy lets her personality shine through his protective facade as he begins to trust Edie.

There is a lot happening in this book: a lot of science, action, details, and plot threads.  But it never gets overwhelming or confusing.  My only complaint is that sometimes the programming aspect of the story got a little too detailed for my taste, but I think that's more of a personal negative.  Creasy has done a wonderful job of pacing her story and her information so that everything flows wonderfully.  There were twists that I never saw coming and the ending was one of the best cliff hangers ever.  The one good thing about waiting so long to read this book was that the sequel was already out.

Verdict:

The story just shoots ahead at a breakneck speed and by the final page you're feeling just like Edie: tired, anxious, and hopeful.  Song of Scarabaeus has been one of the most enjoyable sci-fi books I've read in a long time.  This isn't a "light" science fiction book like Gini Koch's Kitty Katt series.  Creasy has created a great world with it's own jargon, gadgets, and science.  She does a wonderful job of showing and explaining the world to the reader.  I highly recommend it to readers who enjoy the genre.

Related Links and Reviews:

Read the first few chapters HERE

Angieville review

The Discriminating Fangirl review

The Spinecracker review

My Bookish Way's review