Review: The Ruins of Karzelek

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Kalish has been a successful treasure hunter for years, relying on only herself to deal with deadly predators, impenetrable jungles, and diabolical booby traps. But with her father kidnapped, and a notorious pirate demanding an ancient alien artifact that may or may not exist, Kalish needs help. She hires a mercenary company because she needs their combat experience and their piloting skills—the intelligence officer with the background in translating alien hieroglyphics could come in useful too. Sedgwick Thomlin is charming and handsome, when he isn’t busy sneezing at something from his long list of allergies. But she’s not sure if she can trust him or the mercenaries, not when the most valuable and coveted relic in the galaxy might turn out to be real.

Genre: science fiction romance

Publication date: December 2014

Mature content: yes

Review: The Ruins of Karzelek is book 4 in the Mandrake Company series by Ruby Lionsdrake, and the one I loved the most so far - at least from the science fiction adventure point of view. 

 

All books can be read as stand alones, but since the characters from previous books make lots of appearances in the following ones, I found it useful to read the series in the correct order. You can also read my reviews of Mercenary Instinct (book 1), Trial and Temptation (book 2) and The Assassin's Salvation (book 3).

 

As mentioned above, The Ruins of Karzelek is a great adventure, including the exploration of an alien planet, a system of caves full of amazing life forms, old ruins, outstanding technology, killer security robots and great characters to go along. The banter between the Mandrake Company men make me laugh out loud in several places.

 

 

   

 

 

The romance between Kalish and Sedge is great too, maybe even better than average if you take the previous books into consideration, but a few of the sex scenes made me cringe a bit - and at least one of them I found pretty much unrealistic, taking into account that Sedge had been severely wounded a short time ago and they were in a pretty public place...

 

In any case, if you love the genre and want to follow the series, The Ruins of Karzelek is a must read book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy readings,

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