I read the first book The Nova Chronicles: Survivor and almost immediately tore into the second entry, Pilgrim. I have to say that this one was as entertaining as the first. Saffron Bryant has written a great follow-up to the original.

 

I’d say that this book takes place roughly about six month after the last, and Nova has once again found herself stranded on another planet. And while it could have been a planet filled with cuddly, peaceful teddy bears who want nothing more that to deliver hugs and serve cotton candy, that just wouldn’t be Nova’s luck. A planet that Nova would find herself on would likely lead to her first encounter being crazed children who see adults as the enemy, and their first order of business is to sacrifice them to their god. Actually, that’s exactly what she finds.

 

Things go from bad to worse when she escapes the village of crazy children, only to encounter a nastier (and the term ‘nastier’ can be applied in multiple ways, here) enemy. Nova again combines her resourcefulness and experience to survive the hostile planet, and ultimately finds a haul native to the planet that could bring in some decent cash.

 

Bryant not only continues to write great action, but that vivid, macabre description is present in Pilgrim as it was in Survivor. I just have to say that anybody reading this book should not be eating when they reach the scene in the fight with the main antagonist.

 

The main difference in this entry is that Nova is not alone as she was in the first. This time around, there’s a welcome cast of additional bounty hunters, some of whom Nova considers friends. Each of these new characters comes with their own interesting background. In addition, there were some very creative pieces of technology woven into the story. I especially liked what was essentially if Google Maps could be downloaded onto a chip implanted in the brain, and it projected a constant interactive map to be used for personal navigation.

If I were to provide any sort of feedback on improvements, it would be that Nova gained a pretty powerful ability in the first book that was never explored in this one. It was only mentioned as a last resort at one point. Granted, it’s pretty scary every time she uses it, and I’m sure that it will come up again, possibly in Hunter. All in all, great job! This was as fun as a read as the first.