The Segonian (Aldebarian Alliance, #2)

by Dianne Duvall

[EBookObsessed]

After meeting Eliana in Broken Dawn and reading the first few teaser pages after The Lasaran, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on The Segonian and once again, Dianne Duvall didn’t disappoint me. The Segonian dives further into Dianne’s unique galaxy far, far away, introducing us to even more interesting characters and shows the galaxy just how much fun an Earth girl can be.

In Broken Dawn, we met Eliana and were delighted by her lively nature and humor. She does what she can to protect her fellow Immortals and even plays matchmaker so her friend Nick can find happiness. In The Lasaran, Seth chose Eliana to act as a guard for the female gifted ones who want to travel to the Lasaran home world to create a new life but the ship was attacked by the Lasaran’s enemies while traveling in what we would call a worm hole leaving the escape pods to be jettisoned out and scattered along the galaxy making rescue even harder as their allies try to locate all the missing Earth women.

In The Segonian, after getting all her charges to escape pods, Eliana helps get as many of the Lasarans on the ship to escape pods as well. As the ships shields begin to fail and an explosion knocks Eliana unconscious, she was stuffed into a space suit before the ship exploded.

Eliana awakens after hearing a call from a Segonian battleship searching for survivors. As she comes to, Eliana has to face something more frightening than any battle against vampires or mercenaries has ever spawned. Eliana is drifting alone in a spacesuit with only 22 hours of oxygen and the closest ship is nearly a month away. Okay, since this is a SciFi romance, I am not giving anything away by saying Eliana will use her Immortal strength and abilities to survive until Segonian ship can reach her, because it would be a really terrible story if she didn’t, but every time she spoke with the Dagon, the Commander of the ship, knowing they couldn’t get there any faster was torture to Eliana, the crew and to us, the readers. As the crew raced across the stars and spoke to other rescue ships, they learned more about the brave woman who put others before her own safety, even asking the Segonian crew not to risk themselves to try and get to her sooner. Even though they all knew there was no real chance of Eliana still being alive by the time they could reach her, they couldn’t just leave this brave woman to die without trying to get to her and every time they reached out to her, they were amazed she was still alive. This was only my second audiobook from the Dianne Duvall series but I am glad I was listening to Kirsten Potter’s presentation through this because she really brought out the tension felt both from Eliana and the crew and when Eliana tries several times to record a message for Seth in case she doesn’t make it, I was tearing up as much as Eliana.

This whole first section was so well written. We knew Eliana had to survive and be rescued but every conversation between her discovery and her actual rescue were equal parts wonderful and painful. It obviously sets up the meet between the main characters and in such a way that they immediately bond and we get a strong understanding of their basic characterization: Eliana’s bravery and temper, making jokes and lightening the mood even when terrified; the mettle of Commander Dagon and the crew that they would continue on what they would believe is a worthless quest to rescue a woman who couldn’t be saved.

Not only does Eliana’s bravery and wit win over the crew but also her kindness in the simple fact that she personally thanks every member of the crew, from Commander Dagon to the maintenance crew, for coming to her rescue. Even before her rescue, Eliana has become one of them and it doesn’t take long before Commander Dagon isn’t the only Segonian enamored by this tiny warrior who is nothing like the volatile, selfish Earth creatures they have been warned about.

But finding and rescuing Eliana is only the beginning of this story. Even after floating for a month before she was rescued, Eliana then finds out that none of the other Earth woman have been recovered by the Lasarans or their allies. With only two months of life support in the escape pods, the rest of the Eliana’s charges are now running out of time and Eliana feels responsible for each and every one of them.

We meet some amazing new characters aboard the Segonian ship, as well as some interesting new aliens, along with tons of alien technology (all of which Eliana wants to get her hands on). We will also get our first look at the bad guys of this series, the Gathendians. I have no idea who Dianne will be introducing us to next, but I am absolutely looking forward to more adventures in the Aldebarian Alliance.

Reviewed a review copy from Tantor Audio in exchange for an honest review.

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