Review: Honor Among Thieves by Ann Aguirre and Rachel Caine

Honor Among Thieves by Ann Aguirre, Rachel Caine
Series: The Honors #1
Published by: Katherine Tegen Books on February 13, 2018
Genre: Adventure, Aliens, Science Fiction
Pages: 480
Source: Edelweiss
Book Details
Rating: ★★★

Petty criminal Zara Cole has a painful past that’s made her stronger than most, which is why she chose life in New Detroit instead moving with her family to Mars. In her eyes, living inside a dome isn’t much better than a prison cell.

Still, when Zara commits a crime that has her running scared, jail might be exactly where she’s headed. Instead Zara is recruited into the Honors, an elite team of humans selected by the Leviathan—a race of sentient alien ships—to explore the outer reaches of the universe as their passengers.

Zara seizes the chance to flee Earth’s dangers, but when she meets Nadim, the alien ship she’s assigned, Zara starts to feel at home for the first time. But nothing could have prepared her for the dark, ominous truths that lurk behind the alluring glitter of starlight.

Honor Among Thieves was a good book (and OMG look at that cover!) but sadly I didn’t really connect with it the way I hoped I would. This led to me being indifferent about the book overall. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either; it was just okay.

There were definitely some really interesting parts of the book, like Zara’s relationship with Nadim (the sentient ship). I liked the connection they had and seeing it develop over the course of the book. It was almost a bit romancey, which reminded me of Heart of Iron (review coming later this month!).

But ultimately I didn’t connect with the story style and some of the ideas. A few elements felt kind of whimsical, like singing stars, and it just wasn’t my thing I guess. Music was a really big part of the book.

Honor Among Thieves ended setting the stage for book two, but the big reveal at the end didn’t excite me. I just don’t think I’ll be interested in the rest of the series.

In short, Honor Among Thieves was a good book and I would recommend it if the synopsis makes you go HELL YEAH. It just didn’t totally click with me. That’s totally a “me problem” though — not a book problem. But definitely give this book a try if you like:

• Main characters who have a problem with rules and authority.
• A possible romantic relationship between a human and alien creature.
• A focus on music, deep physical and mental connections, singing stars, etc.
• Rebelling against authority.
• Space travel, aliens, and mystery.
• Some technical stuff like installing machinery and hacking software.