The Biased Bibliophile‘s Spoiler-Free Review of A Song of Salvation
Expected Publication: 11 July 2023
Series: Standalone, loosely connected to The Sound of Stars and The Kindred
Genre: YA Science Fiction, Space Opera
Pages: 352
Rating: 5 Stars
Blurb
From the author of The Sound of Stars and The Kindred comes a YA space opera about a reincarnated god and a grumpy pilot on a mission to save a beloved space DJ and stop an intergalactic war.
Zaira Citlali is supposed to die. After all, she’s the god Indigo reborn. Indigo, whose song created the universe and unified people across galaxies to banish Ozvios, the god of destruction. Although Zaira has never been able to harness Indigo’s powers, the Ilori Emperor wants to sacrifice her in Ozvios’s honor. Unless she escapes and finds Wesley, the boy prophesized to help her defeat Ozvios and the Ilori, once and for all.
Wesley Daniels didn’t ask for this. He just wants to work as a smuggler so he can save enough money to explore the stars. Once he completes his biggest job yet—bringing wanted celebrity Rubin Rima to a strange planet called Earth—he’ll be set for life. But when his path crosses with Zaira, he soon finds himself in the middle of an intergalactic war with more responsibility than he bargained for.
Together, Zaira, Wesley, and Rubin must find their way to Earth and unlock Zaira’s powers if they’re going to have any hope of saving the universe from total destruction.
Review of A Song of Salvation
*Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from Alechia Dow in exchange for a fair and honest review.
At this point, I’m convinced that Alechia Dow literally cannot write anything less than a five-star book! A million thanks to Alechia for sending me an ARC of her latest novel, A Song of Salvation, especially because I don’t know that I would have survived the wait for its publication!
Everything about this novel is absolute perfection! If you’re a person that reads books based on their tropes, all I have to say is that this novel has the best found family trope I’ve ever read, and it has a GAY grumpy-sunshine relationship, the trope we didn’t know we needed!
One thing I especially loved about this book was that it ties in Dow’s first two books, The Sound of Stars and The Kindred, but it can also be read as a standalone. The fact that we get to see so many characters from her first two books is so exciting and helps develop the universe Dow created.
Additionally, Dow does an amazing job of showing two opposing sides of human (or in this case, alien) nature. With Zaira’s character, we see the power of a god inside a seemingly ordinary girl. The fact that Zaira is neither god, nor girl, but a mixture of the two adds a sense of strength to the story and makes her identity more personal. Likewise, throughout the novel different characters showed the way pessimism and optimism play off each other, both being an important part of life.
Finally, the themes throughout the novel are extremely moving. The entire book is simultaneously lighthearted and serious. On the surface it is a fun intergalactic adventure, but when you read closely, you’ll notice that Dow weaves in questions of how we should live our lives, the way prejudice affects humanity, and the importance of history (both living with it and learning from it).
Underneath it all this story is about hope and what it means to be alive in the world. It’s about acceptance and love. Alechia Dow is so much more than an author, she is a voice that is powerful enough to change the world if we only listen to the beautiful stories she shares with us.
