I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Ninth Step Station by Malka Older, Fran Wilde, Jacqueline Koyanagi, Curtis C. Chen Published by Serial Box on January 8 2019
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
A few notes about how I’m going to review this series. There are ten episodes, and my plan is to put a review up each Wednesday as they become available. I’ve never done this before, so let’s see how it goes! Also, I won’t be giving star ratings to the individual episodes, but I will rate the series overall when I’m finished.
About Ninth Step Station:
A local cop. A US Peacekeeper. A divided Tokyo.
Years of disaster and conflict have left Tokyo split between great powers.
In the city of drone-enforced borders, bodymod black markets, and desperate resistance movements, US peacekeeper Emma Higashi is assigned to partner with Tokyo Metropolitan Police Detective Miyako Koreda.
Together, they must race to solve a series of murders that test their relationship and threaten to overturn the balance of global power. And amid the chaos, they each need to decide what they are willing to do for peace.
Episode 3: The Fallen Executive
Episode 4: The Blackout Killer
Episode 5: The Deadly Defection
Episode 7: The Loud Politician
Episode 8: The Clawed Limb by Jacqueline Koyanagi
We’re almost at the end of Season 1 and things are getting tense and exciting!
The story begins with our characters attending a formal government banquet hosted by the Governor. All three groups—the Japanese, the Chinese, and the American Peacekeepers—are in attendance, but despite the attempt to bring everyone together in a peaceful environment, tensions are high. Emma and Miyako are on high alert, on the lookout for anything that might go wrong in such a volatile setting.
Emma is surprised to see a woman named Fujida Kaori at the event, a face she recognizes from Miyako’s photo album. She immediately suspects that Kaori is Miyako’s secret girlfriend, but Miyako isn’t willing to talk about it.
Emma is instructed to send a drone up to keep an aerial view of the proceedings, but just as her drone gets into position, gunshots ring out and events spiral into chaos as people dive for cover. When the dust clears, Emma is shocked to discover her Peacekeeper boss, Major Vargas, has been shot. Despite her shock and despair, Emma must do her job and uncover the truth of what really happened.
This episode does a great job of bringing together all the pieces from previous episodes and showing us just how tense things are in Tokyo, both politically and personally. I love that this murder is never really solved. We’re presented with all kinds of possibilities of who the perpetrator could be, ranging from the Resistance involvement to a spy on the Japanese side to an unknown Chinese threat, but part of the fun is not getting all the answers.
One thing this series continues to do well is to show how corrupt many of the male characters are. I’m not sure if it’s intentional, but I wasn’t really surprised when Charles tries to strike a deal with Miyako by threatening her relationship with Kaori, in order to set someone else up for the fall. And I wasn’t surprised when Miyako makes her own choices regarding this threat, even if it could affect her future career. I loved the way she throws a wrench in Charles’ carefully laid out plan and ends up solving part of the murder by revealing important information at just the right time. Miyako and Emma continue to be two of the most complex and interesting female characters I’ve run across lately, and the serialized format of Ninth Step Station works in their favor. I’ve enjoyed their slow and careful character development, which is something you don’t always have room for in a traditional novel.
As we near the end, the bigger picture is becoming more clear. This episode in particular gives readers a tangled web of deceit, plenty of misdirection, lies and cover-ups and more. The Assassin’s Nest ends on a cliff-hanger—the first time this has happened in this series!—and perfectly sets things up for next week’s finale. I can’t wait to see how it ends! In addition to my usual recap review, I’ll be summing up my overall impressions of Ninth Step Station as well. Don’t forget to stop by!
Check back next Wednesday for a review of Episode 10: The Foreign Mischief by Malka Older.
Are you intrigued? You can purchase the entire series for $13.99! Click here now to learn more.
About Serial Box:
Serial Box brings everything that’s awesome about TV (easily digestible episodes, team written, new content every week) to what was already cool about books (well-crafted stories, talented authors, enjoyable anywhere).
Like TV, we release a new episode of our serials every week and serials typically run for seasons of 10-16 weeks. Easy to pick up, episodes are enjoyable on their own but build over the course of the season to tell a bigger story. Each episode is available in ebook and audio and takes about 40 minutes to enjoy.á
There has been a constant escalation in complexity and tension in these installments, and it would seem that the overall story will end with a huge bang: I can’t wait to hear your final assessment, but I already know this will be a book placed very high in my “wanted” list. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Maddalena@Spaceandsorcery recently posted…Short Story Review: THE NEAREST, by Greg Egan
Tense and exciting is what I like to hear! I’m continuing to enjoy your thoughts on this serial.
Huh looks interesting.
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The more you share about these, the more I want to read them. I have this on my wish list now!
Laura Thomas recently posted…All good things must end….. Phoenix Falling by Laura Bickle
I’m loving reading your feedback on these.
Lynn 😀
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