Book Review- Explorer X-Alpha

I just finished reading Explorer X-Alpha.

From Phenomenal One Press:

For most kids, a trip to space camp is a trip of a lifetime, for Aadi it was life altering. After receiving a camp immunization needed for travel to Mars, Aadi finds that the immunization is the catalyst of an insidious experiment. Lucky for him, he was engineered to survive, thrive, and dominate. Without realizing he is being trained to conquer worlds, and manipulated under the guise of a camp, he unfolds the plot too late for a change of fate. Aadi’s world is shaken upon the revelation that life before camp was not what it appeared. This solidifies his plan to save them all from the company that seeks to control him, only for his rescue to end abruptly due to a freak accident on a field trip to Mars. The full experiment is set in motion when he and his co-pilot, Eirena, crash in a distant galaxy called Shrenas, where they change and realize the full extent of their power. Holding onto his humanity, in the midst of turning into a god is Aadi's biggest battle yet. This turn of events causes him to put his childish thoughts away, forcing him to accept his change, and to decide to save a world, or to do what he was trained to do, dominate it. In the midst his struggles with his changes, his power is coveted by the warring leaders of Shrenas, and he is forced to choose sides to save a life, or to save himself. A decision that may prove just how much humanity he has left.

This book was different from books I normally read.  I'm not normally into Sci-Fi type books but the author is so nice and its a YA book, so I agree to review it.  And I enjoyed it!

The characters were okay for me.  I thought that the main character, Aadi was a strong, positive character.  And I liked that the females were strong (both mentally and physically) as well.  But I have to admit that I got a couple of secondary characters confused often.  There were two characters named Dakota and Damien that I often got confused and had to go back and figure out which kid I was reading about.  There were also times toward the end when the story was talking about the different species that I got confused. 

But other than that, the plot was good and well-thought out.  I thought the idea of an experiment on these kids and what happened as a result was fresh and new.  And I liked reading about all of the technology that was in the book in the year 2080.  There were several that I thought that I wanted now! 

The book ends on a cliff hanger and you don't really know if they are safe or not.  I want to read the next book in the series to find out more!



I gave this book a rating of 3/5.

Explorer X-Alpha will be released on February 2, 2010.
Watch for a guest blog by LM Preston and a contest tomorrow!

This book fulfills items in the following challenges:

A to Z Challenge: P
2010 100+ Reading Challenge: 7
2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 7
2010 Debut Author Challenge: 4
TwentyTen Reading Challenge: New in 2010 #2
ARC Reading Challenge 2010: 6

*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free for an honest review by the author.