Hybrids, Volume One: Trouble Book Review

---

Trouble is the first volume of the book Hybrids, published in four volumes; a sci-fi saga, it’s both ambitious in its plot as well as audacious in its world-building. The protagonist, Theo, wants to explore new places, however, after her father betrays her, she escapes to Eridan – an ocean planet where kidadakhs (whales) live, and the people there have the gift of telepathy. When she abducted by a bounty, hunter and then saved by a Savalwoman just before arriving, Theo begins a journey to become one and starts to realise the power she could harness. However there are those who believe she needs protecting, but can she convince them that she wants to stay? Because the alternative would be going on the run again, with nowhere for her to call home.

In all honesty, when I first started reading this book, I was confused. As it’s sci-fi, there’s a whole lot of world-building and Dorny throws the reader right in at the deep end from page one. However, I persevered and slowly the pieces began to fall into place. What was really helpful is there is a character list and glossary for all the fictitious jargon at the back of the book – this was so helpful in clearing things up for me as I was reading as I was able to consult it before I continued.

The premise and the world-building in this book are really cool. I absolutely loved some of the ideas and that is what kept me interested. However, I also think that’s where the problem lay. While the ideas were interesting, they weren’t quite executed as well as I would have hoped, just because there was way too much information being thrown at me at once. Obviously the glossary helped massively, but I think it still needed a bit more to help me fully understand all the ideas.

My favourite character and storyline was that of Nand; I loved her connection with the kidadakhs and I also just liked her as a character and the obstacles she had to face. While Theo was intriguing, I think Nand was who really kept me interested.

The chapters were relatively short was which good because it kept the pace up, however, it did add to the confusion, because, as a reader, you are constantly been thrown around to different places with different characters. The author tried to help by adding little descriptions at the beginning of the chapter of the location and date, but actually, I think this served to only make it more complicated.

All in all, this was definitely not a bad book. As an author, I think Dorny had a good writing style and I felt her character development and unique ideas were great! However, as a story-teller, I struggled to get on board. While the plot was interesting and the ideas unique and compelling, there needed to be about another 100 pages of filler to help slowly break the reader in, rather then chuck them in at the deep end. That being said, I commend her for this ambitious premise and complicated plot, and I think that while it wasn’t perfect, it was the marker of someone and something with a lot of potential.

Thank you to the author, Jennie Dorny, for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.