Review: “The Seeker Star,” Susan Jane Bigelow

Pros: Wonderful characters and plot
Cons: …
Rating: 5 out of 5

Please note that it’s pretty much impossible to review this book without giving away details of where we left off in The Daughter Star. If you haven’t yet read that, go read it and decide whether you’d like to go further afterwards.

In Susan Jane Bigelow’s The Seeker Star (Grayline Sisters Book 2), we get to see a lot more of Violet Grayline. She’s the sister who’s supposed to be walking the Gideon tight-and-narrow–getting married, having babies. She manages the first part, but finds out she can’t have babies. Luke, her husband, immediately divorces her and she gains only a very small payment from the divorce proceedings. Her beliefs regarding how she’d live her life have been crushed.

Of course Violet wallows in self-pity for a while; I feel like she earned that right. Eventually she ends up sitting down with her Aunt Melody.

But Melody kept dropping hints here and there in her magnificently unsubtle way.

Finally Melody offers that if Violet will bring home her missing sisters, Marta and Beth, Violet can have Melody’s house. A mysterious General Winter starts to keep an eye on Violet, referencing the fact that the Grayline girls are all under watch. Violet doesn’t want to leave to find her sisters, but her own stubbornness keeps her going. (She’d give Marta a run for her money!)

Violet goes through being kidnapped and being freed; being caught by Tercia, an enemy of Marta’s who’s keeping Beth hostage. Beth no longer seems like herself, but Violet is determined to do something to get her free. Even on Earth–now that the sisters know Earth was never destroyed–things have gone wrong. The Abrax did everything they could to blend with humans in order to save their race (the blended creature is called an Alil), but for some reason births have gone way down and they’re dying out despite all of their best efforts.

One of my favorite concepts in this book is that the Abrax, which are in the process of evolving into energy beings. aren’t welcoming that change–they believe it’s just another form of death! I don’t think I’ve ever seen this version of events before; always it seems like aliens are gung-ho to turn into energy beings as the next step in their evolution.

There is of course a “Human First” coalition on Earth. It’s not surprising that it’s there, but even the name of the group itself is familiar.

Violet comes up with an idea to bring the Alil to Nea, but things get extremely dangerous once the humans figure out how to damage the domes over the Alil cities, and then drop a whole lot of nuclear missiles on those cities. Violet wants it to be as easy as bringing them and asking for asylum, but of course it isn’t that simple. Violet is going to have to find a whole lot of strength inside of her to take chances, maybe make some mistakes, but ultimately save an entire race from extinction.

My only negative is that we really didn’t learn much that was new about Beth. She was a convenient goal for Violet and Marta, but she doesn’t feel like she’s actively a part of this tale.

The ending gave me goose pimples. I love this series so far, and hope there’s a next installment!