Chasing the Shadows (Sentinels of the Galaxy, book 2)

Chasing the Shadows picks up right after the first book in the series, Navigating the Stars. Lyra was almost killed, but she recovered and is now living under a new name so her nemesis won’t know she’s still alive. She’s working hard as a junior member of the security team on Yulin, training in various parts of the job, and still trying to figure out how to defeat the very talented wormer who seems almost invincible. He’s not only helped looters steal Warriors from several planets, but now he has blocked the communications of Lyra’s parents (who are in charge of the dig on Yulin) and security leaders with the space agency and the rest of the galaxy and made it seem that they’ve “gone silent,” like what happened on Xinji. A ship is coming with help, but it’s still almost two years away. So Lyra’s parents, the security team, and the scientists and archaeologists working to learn more about the Warriors on Yulin are all on their own and will have to come up with some answers and solutions — and fast.

Learning more about the Warriors and the deadly “shadow-blobs” in the pits (which they’ve dubbed HoLFs) is part of the key to staying alive. It’s interesting again to watch pieces of this mystery start coming together in this book: Why are the Warriors spread throughout the galaxy? What are they for, and who put them there? It’s pretty cool. And as a science and space enthusiast, I always find it interesting what kind of technologies are used in fictional space travel. Lyra is also learning more about the quantum net, or Q-net, and finding out that she’s able to do much more with it and in it than she could before — and even somehow more than anyone else can. It’s exciting but also worrisome because it could be an indication that her many hours spent entangling with it are damaging her brain.

Meanwhile, Lyra is still enjoying her relationship with Niall, though with their demanding schedules, they don’t have as much time together as they’d like. But their fate and those of everyone else working on Yulin are on the line, so there’s that!

I had a good time reading this book and am looking forward to the third.

Rated: Moderate. Language is not very frequent. Characters start saying the f-word twice, but it’s cut off. There are just a handful of uses of moderate language and around 20 instances of mild language. Sexual content includes kissing, makeout sessions, and roaming hands under clothing. One scene has the two teens remove their shirts and kiss and touch and then nap together. Violence is not too intense; there are weapons used that stun, and the bad guys use those and ones that kill, and a few lives are lost. The shadow creatures stab and cut, and they inflict varying levels of damage on the people at the research base.