{"id":876,"date":"2024-11-01T22:06:53","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T22:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=876"},"modified":"2024-11-01T22:06:53","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T22:06:53","slug":"review-the-callista-alignment-by-steve-gay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=876","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Callista Alignment by Steve Gay"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/div>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018No one remembers the moment they were born, but I do\u2026 the second time at least\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

Abducted and thrust into a bewildering alien world, Kali has no idea that she\u2019s the only Earth-born \u2018natural\u2019 in a population of enslaved humans scattered across the stars. She\u2019ll push the limits of her captivity, turn her owner\u2019s life upside down, and challenge everything he believes about her species. Then, when the public spotlight suddenly turns to her, she\u2019ll drag him into a revolution.<\/p>\n

The Callista Alignment is the first instalment in a new science fiction series, an epic saga of prejudice, redemption, and human courage in all its forms. Join a new kind of heroine for an extraordinary adventure in an alien civilisation.<\/p>\n

If you enjoyed reading \u2018Divergent\u2019 or \u2018Silo\u2019 you\u2019ll be captured by The Callista Alignment and swept into a world you\u2019ll never forget.<\/p>\n

Meet the cast:<\/span><\/p>\n

The Professor:<\/span>
Yan Feyrsten is worried that he\u2019s made a big mistake. The human he\u2019s just bought is upending his quiet academic life. Kali won\u2019t settle, won\u2019t eat, won\u2019t comply. She can\u2019t even grasp that here on Antaris, she\u2019s nothing more than an animal.<\/p>\n

The Naturalist:<\/span>
Henik Varkesen understands why. He\u2019s imagined meeting an Earth-born \u2018natural\u2019 his entire professional life. But he realises the trouble Kali could bring, that she\u2019s either a wonderous scientific discovery or the most dangerous human on the planet.<\/p>\n

The Bounty Hunter:<\/span>
Torsta Jai knows an opportunity when she sees one. Reduced to hunting feral humans in the Derelict Zone, the disgraced police chief is looking for a way to restore her position. She realises Yan\u2019s human could give her the political leverage she needs, and will stop at nothing to possess her.<\/p>\n

The Human:<\/span>
Kali is just trying to get by in a baffling alien world. She\u2019ll start with Yan, use her gift with language to confound his expectations, force him to reassess everything he believes. But when she is stolen away from him and thrust into the public spotlight, she\u2019ll discover the truth, that a restive human population has been waiting for a sign, waiting for their moment. They\u2019ve been waiting for\u00a0her<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Favorite Lines:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSomehow the battle for survival, and the knowledge that she had taken lives herself had steeled her for further losses. Some would be warriors, but others were innocents like this one, knowing nothing of the forces that shaped the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen followed the moment when he knew she\u2019d gone, that his Kali had turned to nothing more than a falling object, mass subject to the force of gravity. And in that moment, he mourned, he felt the loss of her as if his whole world had tilted irretrievably, and what he\u2019d found with her had gone forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt not be heart that do miss me in prison \u2013 it be stomach.\u201d<\/p>\n

My Opinion:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.<\/p>\n

This story takes place in Antaris, a world where humans are considered feral, enslaved, and are looked upon as no better than wild animals. When Kali, a human woman from Earth is kidnapped and taken to Antaris, she is the first of what is considered a \u201cnatural human\u201d in that part of the universe in a long time and sets off a chain of events that revolve around themes of both political and philosophical topics.<\/p>\n

I will admit that I went into this a bit blind but as a lover of science fiction, I was excited to read it and it did not disappoint. I thought this was an excellently written story that takes a deeper look at some difficult subjects such as slavery and prejudices from a science fiction perspective.<\/p>\n

At times, Kali reminded me of Leeloo from The Fifth Element\u00a0<\/em>and at other times, some plot points in this reminded me of\u00a0Cloud Atlas<\/em>, both of which I am huge fans of and, despite the reminders to those stories, Gay still managed to create a world and a story that is uniquely his own. I found this to be captivating, creative, and quite frankly, refreshing.<\/p>\n

While I really enjoyed the creative world building in this story, I also enjoyed the character writing and the fact that the characters were not written as one-dimensional beings; I would say that there isn\u2019t one character in this story that is simply black and white. Despite not being human themselves, a majority of the characters still had very relatable, very human traits and motivations, which I found added to the authenticity of the story and drove home some of the overarching points being made in the writing.<\/p>\n

While this was my first book by Gay, it certainly won\u2019t be my last. This story wraps up quite nicely at the end and I felt like I had pretty sufficient closure. However, I know that this is going to be a series so I am excited to see where Gay takes it next.<\/p>\n

Summary:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Overall, if you are a fan of science fiction that touches on philosophical and political topics surrounding prejudice, humanity, and what it means to be human, then this book could be for you! Happy reading!<\/p>\n

Check out\u00a0The Callista Alignment<\/em> here!<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Synopsis: \u2018No one remembers the moment they were born, but I do\u2026 the second time at least\u2019. Abducted and thrust into a bewildering alien world, Kali has no idea that she\u2019s the only Earth-born \u2018natural\u2019 in a population of enslaved humans scattered across the stars. She\u2019ll push the limits of her captivity, turn her owner\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}