Title: Transformation (The Green Man #3)
Author Name & Publisher: Leona Carver (Less Than Three Press)
Publication Date: January 27, 2016
Katja Olesk, doctor of botany and supervisor of the Velikaya Knyazhna’s park—the acres of forest they are transporting to terraform their new world—wakes at the end of the ship’s journey to discover that one of the park laborers had died, seemingly of old age after a lifetime in the park. Consumed by rage and paranoia, Katja loses her status on the ship.
Two years later she is exiled to Yuri Gagarin, a tiny colony on a hostile world, and demoted to simple gardening. There she enlists the aid of Des, a boisterous terraformer, to continue the research she’s no longer allowed to do. But the research leads to horrifying discoveries of what the colony leaders have been hiding, and when a devastating illness strikes, Katja must face her greatest fears and return to the park…
I liked this book. Enough to look up the first two books in the series. This was a bit fast paced, and it ratcheted up the tension in the story nicely. First we have the unexplained happenings on the ship, which drive our main character, Katya, crazy. At least in the eyes of her shipmates. When she’s exiled to the colony, she meets Des, which leads to her furthering her research in terraforming. This is the catalyst to finding a new life form which threatens the success of the human efforts on this new world. Now it’s a race against time to see if a cure can be found, but the cure Katya thinks of has more to do with the mysterious life force back on board the ship.
The romance definitely takes a back seat here, which is ok because it isn’t really the focus of the story anyway. Which ties in to the end of the story and the resolution of the crisis. I’ll say that at first, I was a little disappointed in the end, not really seeing it as a happy ever after. Upon reflection, it is a happy ever after, just not in the way we think usually think of it. It speaks of hope for the future, and the determination of mankind to survive. I definitely recommend this book.
~AmyP
