Book Review: Blood Reunion by J.C.M. Berne

Genre(s): Science Fiction / Superheroes

Content warning: There are a number of combat/fight scenes, themes of vampirism, and some mild gore.

Rohan is back on Wistful after his brief return to Earth, and has resumed his peaceful work as a tow chief. Except nothing is ever peaceful for long with Rohan…

During an investigation into the wormholes near Wistful, the Drs. Stone uncover a space station eerily similar, called Repentant. Repentant is at first unresponsive, then hostile, and as Rohan attempts to reason with the AI, it’s clear Repentant is also insane. They’re forced to flee, but after returning to Wistful, they learn something came back through the wormhole with them. Something ancient and deadly—and Rohan’s il’Drach father wants to use it as a weapon.

I really enjoyed this one, and it might be my favorite of the series so far. It was nice to have Rohan back with Wistful and his original group of friends from book one—and I particularly like the banter between him and Wei Li.

The action sequences in this book included not just fight scenes, but some space battles as well. Those were fun, and made more interesting by the fact that every ship is sentient. Yes, they follow orders, but they also communicate and react independently within the parameters of their orders. I liked that idea.

Getting to finally see some of the il’Drach after two books of only hearing about them was interesting. Rohan’s father was not quite what I was expecting, but he did make for a decent enough minor antagonist. The matron was definitely on point, though… And I suspect we’ll be seeing both characters again later in the series.

This was the last book that is currently available, but there’s a note at the end that it will be continued. Even so, this book tied up everything nicely and I’m satisfied with the temporary ending.

Blood Reunion is book 3 in The Hybrid Helix series.

Author website: jcmberne.com