Unapologetic Reviews

Symbiosis by Nicky Drayden is the sequel to Escaping Exodus, which I read for the 2026 PopSugar Reading Challenge . As this is a duology , I continued straight on to finish the story. I rated this book four stars, and this review will include spoilers for both books. SPOILERS AHEAD!!! The novel takes place three years after the events of the first instalment. Seske now has an almost complete family unit, structured around the same multi-partner system established earlier, though her triad remains incomplete. The narrative perspective shifts noticeably. Adala is no longer a point of view character, while Doka becomes the second POV character. This change moves the focus away from the worker class perspective that was important in the first book. That layer of society is largely absent here. Instead, the book centres on the evolving relationship between the humans and the Zenzee , the living space organisms they inhabit. The core idea is an attempt at true symbiosis. The inhabitants ha...

I read Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden for the 2026 PopSugar Reading Challenge, prompt number 50, “A book about Afrofuturism .” The label fits, as the author herself describes it that way, but the book is more complex than a simple “Black people in space” premise. I gave it four and a half stars, which I round up to five in most places. The story is set in a society that lives inside large space creatures called beasts . These creatures travel in herds, and humans attach themselves to one, enter its body, and modify its internal structure to create a functioning habitat. The setting is very concrete. Biological structures are repurposed into living spaces, corridors, and systems that support daily life Each beast lasts approximately twelve years. When it dies, the society moves on to another and rebuilds everything. The key distinction is how different social classes experience this process. The elite class recreates their previous environment in exact detail, including layout and ...