Review: Fukusha Model Eight by S.J. Pajonas

About Fukusha Model Eight

Fukusha Model Eight (Hikoboshi #3)
by S.J. Pajonas

Rating: 5 stars
Genre: Science Fiction

Blurb:
“Being human is the apex of life. It’s the top, not the bottom.”

Yumi is pretty sure someone’s trying to kill her… and she can’t remember who. Undercover and alone in one of the most dangerous cities on the Southern Continent, she’s struggling to live through every day until she can find her new allies and get back to Rin. But when the mission goes wrong and Rin is kidnapped and held for ransom, Yumi must act fast. Not only are the yakuza on her tail, but the fearsome Fukusha Model Eight androids are after her too. With her short-term memory failing and war just around the corner, she can only stay alive by determining who’s telling the truth and who will do anything to lie to her and steal everything she has, including her life.

Fukusha Model Eight is the third book in the Hikoboshi Series, an action adventure, space opera series that explores the worlds settled by the Japanese who fled Earth a century ago. Culture, history, technology, and swords clash in a fast-paced future society on the brink of war.

My Review

I received a free copy from the author and voluntarily reviewed it.

Gah this was such an awesome read! I am not sure what it is about SJ Pajonas’ books, but they always manage to grab my attention completely. I was really looking forward to this book and it was just as good as I had hoped. I’ve been having a bit of a weird reading mood lately, so it was awesome to have a book that kept my attention from start to finish and where I just wanted to keep reading.

Fukusha Model Eight continues the story of Yumi. At the start of this book she is in a very bad place, she spent months undercover in a small town in a bad house without any contact with her friends. In Fukusha Model Eight we see the aftermath of what happened in book 2 and also how that’s the building blocks for more that’s happening now. And so many things are happening and going on, I wonder how things will turn out at the end of this series. We also get to see another side of this civilization and I like how this whole world comes alive and while we’ve seen things from the northern continent, now we get to see more of the southern continent and how different that is.

Yumi has to go through a lot again in this book and at times it almost felt like too much. She has bad thing after bad thing happening to her. And she not only has her migraines, but other medical injuries as well and rarely has time to rest and recover. I wasn’t a fan of her memory issues tough, which is a personal pet peeve and it was difficult to remember sometimes what she did remember and what not. And it just made me feel sad she couldn’t remember some things. I wouldn’t have minded a few more calm and happy scenes, but it’s not like those aren’t there at all. The happy moments are sprinkled throughout the story and they are real gems. It’s great to see that even with everything going on they have some fun and peaceful moments as well.

I was happy when she meets up with Rin again as I love seeing those two together. I feel like their relationships gets even stronger in this book, but they do have some troubles to overcome first as well. I like how much they acre about each other and how great they are as a couple. There’s also a new side character Ninjin, who was such an awesome dog and companion for Yumi. I was so happy she had her dog and I like seeing how protective he was on Yumi and how she cared about her dog and never left him behind.

It also was interesting to see the whole android situation develop in this book. The title sure fits the book as a lot is about the model eight androids in some way. There also are some great twists and reveals throughout the book and it was great to read about and see how the characters dealt with everything. Many of the twists I hadn’t predicted, but there were a few hints that I remember and figured they would be important later on. And then with how things end I am so curious to see how that al impacts the next book and what’s going to happen next.

I love how we discover and understand more of this world with each and every book. It’s like each book adds even more to the world building and the different factions and corporations and how they work together and oppose each other. What everyone’s goals are and all the different factions make their moves and change what’s going on as well. It was interesting to see how things were different on this continent with almost no androids and more free form the corporations, but instead they had the yakuza ruling a lot. In many sci-fi books you only get one glimpse or overlap image of a plane,t so I liked how this book illustrated that even on the same planet, the different continents were different as well.

To summarize: this was another awesome book in this series. It’s full of twists and reveals and a strong story. The story kept my attention from start to finish and I just wanted to keep on reading. I liked reading about Yumi and how she handles everything going on. Although I did feel sorry for her at times and she goes through so much, both mentally and physically and at times it almost felt a bit much. But I do like how realistic these books are and there are no instant recoveries or medical issues that suddenly disappear. I loved the addition of Yumi’s dog Ninjin in this book, he was such a good dog and I liked how well he took care of Yumi and she of him. I also love the romance in this series, Rin and Yumi are great together, although they also have some obstacles to overcome together I do feel like their relationship is even stronger at the end of the book. With the way things end I am very curious to see what will happen in the next book!

Links

– Goodreads
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Amazon.

Tell me about a dog side character in a book you read?