@instafreebie Read of the Month

Running Out of Space (Sunblinded #1)

by SJ Higbee

Genre
Dystopian SciFi

Audience
Anyone who likes feisty characters & tons of action

Reader Rating
4 STARS

Lizzy Wright is serving her time on a merchant spaceship. She’s fed up with the restricted life of a fertile female; always chaperoned and guarded. So together with 3 other strong willed young women, she heads off to territory they’ve been banned from exploring. Here things take a nasty turn and it’s due to chance that the help of a stranger means they only leave one dead body behind. Disobedience has consequences and Lizzy’s about to discover just how severe they can be.

The action is full on from the very first page of this read. The majority of the story takes place onboard a spaceship run by an uncompromising military minded captain. There’s tension between characters from the get go as the feisty babes’ forbidden territory shore-leave jaunt finds them in a very tight spot.

Themes revolve around the desire for independence, the value of fertility, discrimination and the misuse of power. Lizzy is desperate to shrug off her fertile female label, be an officer and love whomever she pleases. There are echoes of The Handmaid’s Tale as fertile women are essentially used as breeders and their value as anything else in society is discounted. The book tells the classic tale of corruption at the top.

Varying dialects are used in abundance to distinguish between different ships and ‘dirtside’ locations. I found this engaging and also entertaining, especially the mix of the colloquial with the formal. There’s political intrigue too, though at times I found some of it a bit confusing.

If there’s one criticism it’s that sometimes there’s so much action it can become rather exhausting. When the scenes move to a more domestic setting there is less action and more reflection from Lizzy.

This is a good fast paced read with some uncomfortable issues as part of the plot. I’m invested in Lizzy now and would most definitely want to read more in the series.

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