Novella Review – Silver Shark (A Kinsmen Novella) by Ilona Andrews (4/5 stars)
Reading level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Size: 242 KB
Publisher: NYLA
Release Date: September 14th, 2011
ASIN: B0005N9FPOO
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd Kinsmen Novella
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5 stars
This is the second novella in the Kinsmen series by husband and wife writing team Ilona Andrews. This was another fast-paced science fiction story laced with romance. I really enjoyed reading it. I didn’t like it quite as much as the first Kinsmen novel,Silent Blade, but it was still a great read.
Claire Shannon is a psycher, she’s been trained to wage war with her mind. When the decades long war on her home planet ends Claire is deported and forced to hide her psychic abilities to survive. She arrives at a new beautiful planet and interviews for a job as an admin with the handsome Venturo Escana. Venturo is as deadly as he is handsome and Claire is drawn to his powerful psycher skills even as she is forced to hide her own psycher talents. When Claire tries to help out some people from her home planet she finds that she hasn’t completely left war behind.
This was a very good novella. I really enjoy the Kinsmen world and wish that Andrews would do a full length Kinsmen novel so that we could learn even more about this world. I love reading about the psychers and their powers and enjoy reading about all the worlds where the characters come from.
As with all of the Andrews books, the characters were wonderful and absolutely sucked me into the story. The romance between Venturo and Claire is perfectly balanced; they have wonderful chemistry together.
The plot was fast-paced and I never found it to be boring or too predictable. The story was wrapped up nicely too.
Overall I really enjoyed this novella and am glad that I bought it. If you enjoyed the previous novel, Silent Blade, then I think you will enjoy this one as well. If you enjoy the Kate Daniels book, you will probably enjoy this too. There is a good mix here of science fiction, action, and romance. Can’t wait to see what the next Kinsmen novella brings.