Review: Nyxia by Scott Reintgen

Nyxia
(The Nyxia Triad #1)
by Scott Reintgen
Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers
Publication date: Sept. 12, 2017
Genre: SciFi Young Adult
Rating:

Emmett Atwater isn’t just leaving Detroit; he’s leaving Earth. Why the Babel Corporation recruited him is a mystery, but the number of zeroes on their contract has him boarding their lightship and hoping to return to Earth with enough money to take care of his family.

Forever.

Before long, Emmett discovers that he is one of ten recruits, all of whom have troubled pasts and are a long way from home. Now each recruit must earn the right to travel down to the planet of Eden—a planet that Babel has kept hidden—where they will mine a substance called Nyxia that has quietly become the most valuable material in the universe.

But Babel’s ship is full of secrets. And Emmett will face the ultimate choice: win the fortune at any cost, or find a way to fight that won’t forever compromise what it means to be human.

Wow! I just. Yeah. That was an amazing story. I wasn’t overly sure what I was getting into when I picked up this debut novel  by Scott Reintgen but I wasn’t expecting THAT. I thought I was going to get some fluffy fantasy novel about teens being on a spaceship heading to a new planet. Maybe find a little love, butt heads, and in the end be your typical young adult read, but in space. What I wasn’t expecting was this high energy mash-up of Hunger Games, The 100, Ender’s Game, and Avatar.

Without going into too much, Emmet and nine other teens from around the world are chosen for an important mission. Go to a planet currently inhabited by a species called Adamites and mine a very precious and unique substance called nyxia that has the ability to transform into any object. However, things aren’t as easy as that. Even though the company Babel allowed ten teens on the ship, only eight are allowed to step foot on Eden. Those eight will not only reap the rewards of exploring a new planet and interacting with the Adamites, they will also get $50,000 a month along with free medical care for them and their family for the rest of their lives Given that each of the kids on the ship all came from poor families and/or have family members with life threatening medical conditions, they all want that money. The selection process of who gets to go to Eden is determined by daily challenges that will not only test their physical strength, but their mental strength as well. If only the story was just that, but of course the author put in some twists and turns that always keeps the main character and the reader on their toes right up until the very last word, and there’s no way I’m ruining it for you guys.

Even though the book follows Emmet, it’s so hard to not become attached to all the other kids on the ship. Okay, maybe not all the kids. There were a few that made it really hard to like, but you never truly wanted to see them hurt. Even when they were trying to sabotage and sometimes kill the other, it was hard to hate them. Some of these kids have family members back home who need the medical care in order to live, while others didn’t even have a roof over their head prior to boarding the spaceship. Each and every one of them were fighting for something other than themselves. So, when one of them gets hurt, it was hard to not be affected by it.

Like I said, the author didn’t write a straight forward story. There’s so much more that goes on in this book that really ups the ante. The fact that Nyxia is just the introduction of the big picture and only follows Emmet while he goes through the rigorous competition, leaves me clamoring to get my hands on the next book. We never even got to see Eden or the Ademite population. It’s said that they cherish children and won’t hurt the teens but you have to wonder how much of that is true. Especially given all the stuff that Babel put the kids through. It makes you wonder what will really happen when they step foot on Eden. Will the Adamites really welcome them? What about when the teens start mining their nyxia? Is Babel only interested in the nyxia or do they have something else up their sleeve? One thing is for sure, I will be impatiently waiting for the next book to come out. 

Favorite quote…

“It’s hard to tell the difference between rich and wrong.”