Series Review: Avalon by Mindee Arnett

Avalon
Author:  Mindee Arnett
Publisher:  Balzer & Bray, 418 pages
Publication Date:  January 21, 2014

From Goodreads:
Of the various star systems that make up the Confederation, most lie thousands of light-years from First Earth-and out here, no one is free. The agencies that govern the Confederation are as corrupt as the crime bosses who patrol it, and power is held by anyone with enough greed and ruthlessness to claim it. That power is derived from one thing: metatech, the devices that allow people to travel great distances faster than the speed of light.

Jeth Seagrave and his crew of teenage mercenaries have survived in this world by stealing unsecured metatech, and they're damn good at it. Jeth doesn't care about the politics or the law; all he cares about is earning enough money to buy back his parents' ship, Avalon, from his crime-boss employer and getting himself and his sister, Lizzie, the heck out of Dodge. But when Jeth finds himself in possession of information that both the crime bosses and the government are willing to kill for, he is going to have to ask himself how far he'll go to get the freedom he's wanted for so long.

Polaris
Publication Date:  January 20, 2015

From Goodreads:
Jeth Seagrave and his crew are on the run. The ITA, still holding Jeth’s mother in a remote research lab, is now intent on acquiring the metatech secrets Jeth’s sister Cora carries inside her DNA, and Jeth is desperate to find the resources he needs to rescue his mother and start a new life outside the Confederation. But the ITA is just as desperate, and Jeth soon finds himself pursued by a mysterious figure hell-bent on capturing him and his crew—dead or alive.

With nowhere to run and only one play left, Jeth enters into a bargain with the last person he ever thought he’d see again: Daxton Price, the galaxy’s newest and most fearsome crime lord. Dax promises to help Jeth, but his help will only come at a price—a price that could mean sacrificing everything Jeth has fought for until now.

Review:

Action-packed sci-fi adventure, I can see the comparisons to Firefly.  That said, the plot took priority over character development.  The book is told from Jeth's POV and while I feel like I got to know Jeth, I don't feel like I got to know the other characters very well.  This is one of those book series that would have been better as a TV show or a movie.

The implant technology was pretty frightening, with slaves and soldiers wearing these rubbery implants with tentacles attached to the backs of their heads.  It can make the person a mindless slave or make them obedient (and make them stronger and able to heal faster).  It also lets them communicate non-verbally, like a hive mind.  

A lot of deaths but I didn't care that much about them.  And some of the deaths even occurred off screen, so to speak, with Jeth just hearing about it.

The ending…hmmm…I can't really say anything because I don't want to include spoilers, but it's just weird and I didn't get it and I don't think it was explained very well.  At all.  Very rushed and underdeveloped.

I liked this series, but I didn't love it.

Posted by:  Pam