Author Bianca Sierra-Luebke uses masterful plotting to create a
believable world that’s a blend of science fiction and fantasy. The
Replacement: Book 1 of the Replacement Series is an ambitious world-building
introduction to seventeen-year-old Angelica Franklin as she transitions away
from her humanity. Angelica’s captors use their own blood to mold her into a
being that’s supposed to be a replacement, a Lymerian that will find a place in
their highly-ordered society. They don’t get the what they were expecting. Angelica
emerges strong, fearless and wanting answers for the years of secrets and lies.
The ending is a cliffhanger that gives the reader a hint at the answers yet to
come.
The above is
what I wrote when I finished the book and wanted to get something posted to
Amazon and Goodreads to let the author know she had one more review. She’s up
to twelve. Not bad.
What I
didn’t talk about in my haste to get the posts up was how impressed I was with
her writing style. It’s crisp, clean and hits all the important plot points
without overdoing it. That’s good in this case because she has a lot of action
to cover timewise, fifteen years’ worth, in the small space of this book. On
top of that she’s worldbuilding a complex society of aliens that aren’t
necessarily all that alien anymore. She’s introducing new terminology. And, of
course, laying the groundwork for all kinds of conflict: between individuals,
between the main groups, between the long-lived Lymerian’s and those pesky
humans who aren’t as primitive as they once were.
Did I
mention Author Bianca Sierra-Luebke wrote her book in first person PRESENT
tense? It’s something YA authors strive for these days and not all can pull off
with consistent good results. It works well here, and I was quite a way into
the book before I caught on. Kudos for that.
My only
problem was losing track of who was speaking occasionally. Backtracking on
dialog tends to drop one out of the narrative. Using a lot of “He says” or “She
says” is a pain, but it keeps the reading pace going and they really don’t
register after a while.
Now, the
ending. The fact that this is part of a series was made clear up front. I can’t
find fault with that. The ending is good. We readers have a lot more to find
out about our protagonist. And there were a lot of juicy, tantalizing hints aimed
at a great world-changing struggle ahead, but I must admit I wanted a bigger
ending for this first book. However, I’m thinking that when the series is complete
maybe all the books can be combined into one volume—the story line will be
fluid and connected and grand—an epic saga in its own right. One can hope.
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