Majera by Gideon MarcusMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Six years after the publication of the first book, what looks like being the final book in this four-book series is here (for certain values of "here"; I received a pre-publication review copy from the author, because I'd reviewed the previous books in the series).
Time for a retrospective.
Book 1: Pacy, dramatic, scientifically reasonably plausible. An accidental circumstance means a group of young people have to work together to overcome a serious issue and get back home, and they work together well. There's some light flirting that doesn't come to anything.
Book 2: People who aren't action heroes have to cope with rescues, escapes and drama caused by engineers not thinking about safety (that part I found implausible). There's a coincidence in which they arrive at the exact right moment to be of help, but I forgave it because of good pacing and overall good execution. We learn that all of the human crew are bisexual, though romance and sex are emotional complications during the action rather than a focus.
Book 3: Still lots of action, lucky and unlucky chance, and the protagonist seems to distort narrative probability around her so that a rag-tag young crew can achieve what they shouldn't be able to. There's a political dimension, but they choose sides based on emotional connection rather than principle, which I thought was a missed opportunity for more depth. Some pairing up occurs, and more is attempted but fails because it's not the right time.
Book 4: Some action still, and again they arrive just in time to help after a disaster (this one probably centuries in the making), but can't really do much other than call in help from their government this time. In the course of their investigation of the circumstances, they're in some danger a couple of times but manage to avert it relatively easily; the circumstances are more significant in activating the characters' past trauma than in actually threatening their lives or physical wellbeing. We get some theories about what happened, but no definitive answer. There's a much stronger focus on relationships, which are now poly as well as bi, with clearly implied (but not described) sex, and the biggest question is (view spoiler).
For me - and others will no doubt differ - there was a steady, though not sharp, decline in how much I liked the books through the series. More coincidence, less focus on action and more on relationships, and in this last book less of a compelling threat than previously and less working together in desperate circumstances to resolve it. It doesn't drop out of the four-star level; it's still solid YA space opera, well executed. But for me, the first book was the best, and the others were, while still good, not quite at the same level.
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