To Spy a Star (Agent Renault Adventures), by Jonathan Nevair
The Book
Synopsis:
One star can break a galaxy.
Agent Renault plays cloak and dagger against her most formidable opponent yet – a ruthless and cunning expert at cards and more deadly arts besides. Her mission: retrieve a stolen asset known as the Star Eye.Aided by her eccentric agency team and armed with state-of-the-art gadgets, she races to solve a devious conspiracy and bring down her elusive foe.
But a specter haunts the agency’s halls, whispering secrets from its past. Allies and enemies alike wear masks in the espionage game. Lilline must decide who to trust if she hopes to take down a sinister and vengeful mastermind before a wave of terror crashes across the stars.
TO SPY A STAR: a fast, fun, and furiously entertaining standalone spy-fi adventure.
My Review
To Spy a Star is the second book on the Agent Renault Adventures, a spy-fi novel, which can be read as a standalone, and that continues with this excellent series written by Jonathan Nevair. In this second instalment, Lilline and GAM-OPS will have to confront a really formidable opponent, while retrieving a lost asset that is extremely dangerous to the galaxy: the Star Eye.
In a style that feels an homage to Mission: Impossible, we will see agent Lilline having to travel from place to place while trying to recover the Star Eye, aided not only by the eccentric team that works with her at GAM-OPS, but also by some characters that will appear during the adventure, and whose personalities definitely contrasts in comparison with the own Lilline.
And in front of these cast, we have a rather interesting villain, an intelligent and machiavelic ex-card player, whose past will slowly be revealed to us; a mastermind whose conspiracy is threatening to take control over the government. Something I really appreciate is the amount of depth given to this particular character, getting to a grade where you understand her motivations and the logic behind her actions.
To Spy a Star shares some similarities with the previous book in the series, however, you can feel how the stakes have raised; definitely it's much more tense, and I feel there are more action scenes, keeping the pace balanced by some moments where the characters become the focus instead of the complot.
It's interesting to note how the universe in this second book has been expanded, showing the big political picture and understanding better the powers behind the scenes; Lilline and GAM-OPS are not acting in a vacuum, but have to deal with the consequences of their acts.
If you like spy thrillers, and would like to read some more science-fiction focused, run, don't walk, and pick the Agent Renault Adventures series; both are excellent books, and Jonathan Nevair has proved his ability to write a hooking story.
The Author/s
Jonathan Nevair
Jonathan Nevair is a science fiction writer and the pen name for Dr. Jonathan Wallis, an art historian/Professor of Art History. After two decades of academic teaching and publishing, he finally got up the nerve to write fiction. Jonathan grew up on Long Island, NY but now resides in southeast Pennsylvania with his wife and rambunctious mountain feist, Cricket.