YA novels for me lately have been very hit or miss. It seems like once the genre exploded authors were just haphazardly slapping stories together that made no sense or were filled with inappropriate content. Fortunately this isn't the case with Nyxia. The story is well thought out and builds suspense from the first few pages. There is the typical teenage angst, love story and conflict but it all very real and makes perfect sense within the story.

I would say it's almost like The Hunger Games in space. The characters must fight to survive but can't help becoming friends. Throw in a last minute twist and a cliff hanger of an ending and you have an incredible start to a trilogy that I cannot wait to complete. This is an absolute must read for all sci-fi fans, especially if you also enjoy YA.

Wow! Incredible premise that was a mix of The Hunger Games meets Red Rising meets Ender's Game. Nyxia was an action packed sci-fi story that had me hooked from the first chapter.

Emmett finds himself the winner of a lottery and packed up on a space ship heading to a new planet called Eden with 9 other teens from all walks of life. During the year long journey, the teens are brutally competing against each other to win a spot to land planetside to be able to mine the substance Nyxia. If they win, they become millionaires and their families benefit tremendously. Along the way, the reader learns about Emmett and each of his shipmates. We also learn about the sinister corporation funding the entire operation.

I seriously couldn't get enough of this story and wanting to learn more of the seemingly sentient nyxia, and the world it comes from. The protagonist comes from a poor but good hearted family and he brings those values to the competition. ...Most of the time.

I devoured this book and it's going to be extremely hard to wait until the rest of the series is released.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an advanced copy!

This book is Ender's Game mixed with a shadowy corporation.

My main complaint though:
This is part of a Trilogy. I think a trilogy should be three related stories that tell an overarching story. For example, Star Wars Trilogy has three movies that have a beginning, middle and end. This seems more like the first third of one story, sort of like the book ending just as the Millennium Falcon reaches what is left of Alderaan.

Characters are ok and nice to have all the characters be minorities and not stereotypes. Would I read the rest of the series... if I had it right there ready to go after I finished this one, probably. However if it is going to be months/years before a sequel comes out, probably not

Book received free for review from publisher.

It kind of feels cliche when reviewers compare a book to Hunger Games, but this book used the same idea. Take the Hunger Games, but make all the kids willingly involved, and you get this book.

Set in the near future, some company founds a material (Nyxia) on another planet. Nyxia is able to be almost literally anything. Need a universal translator? Need a camera? Need medical equipment? Need a power supply for your iPod? It can be anything just by thinking about what you want it to be. It can do anything. (I'll admit I had some issues buying it, but... fictional book. I tried to just accept it and go with the story. And, by the end, I was suspecting that the future books would make me believe it.)

Problem was, the planet had aliens on it, and the aliens kept trying to kill off the humans. For whatever reason, aliens really like children, so the company recruited a bunch of kids to go to the planet and mine the Nyxia.

The company, being a typical coldblooded, money-grubbing company, set up a contest to see which kids would get to go to the planet. Typical fighting, breaking them, testing them, giving them an okay to kill each other, all that.

I actually stopped reading the book at the 30% point, but I did something I've not done in years: I went back to it and finished it. And amazingly, even though I returned to it after a book I loved (Warchild), I got back into Nyxia and read the whole thing. (I never ever usually like the book I read a book I loved.)

When I finished the book, I was somewhat frowny. There was so much I had a hard time believing (including multiple characters, which is usually the kiss of death for a book), I had felt sure I wouldn't read the rest of the books in the series. But it's been a couple days now, and oddly I cannot stop thinking about this book. I'd read the second book if it were out now. While the book did not end on a cliffhanger (kudos for the author!), it did leave a whole lot of the story left unexplored, including the true nature of Nyxia.

It's rare that I question so hard what to rate a book. There was a lot about Nyxia that didn't work for me, and at the time I was reading it, I wasn't hooked or completely liking it, but it's like it hooked me once the book was finished and now I want to read more about it.

I received an ARC copy of this book via Netgalley and Random House/Crown Books Publishing in exchange for a fair review.

This was or is one of the most diverse books I've ever read with characters from different places and ethnicities and I'm very pleased about that. It's one of the main reasons I wanted to see if this was different from the usual teen gets thrown into a death game scenario that originated after Hunger Games popped up.

This is not that. In fact I'd go a bit farther and say that this book explored that idea a bit better and turned things on its head (I'm remaining spoiler free here but there were a few surprises in this book and I can't wait to see how those are expanded upon). Every time there was a moral dilemma the book presented Emmett with things and I was surprised to find that I was left with the idea of wanting more answers (I'm wanting a sequel). The writing here is vivid and imaginative with what seems to be the layout for a very well thought out universe.

Lastly, Nyxia, what is it?

Oh my goodness!! This book was VERY interesting. I had trouble at the beginning understanding what was going in though. It would have been nice to know the year and background information on what was going on in the world at the time. I'm nice I was past the confusion though the book pulled me in and I couldn't put it down. It was definitely different from other stories I've read. I also loved the twist at the end. It was not expected. I want to know what happens once he gets to the planet now.

I recieved a copy of this book from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Nyxia is the story of a poor boy called Emmett given the chance to leave earth and go to another planet called Eden. The story follows his journey, where he discovers the competition involved in actually making it to this planet, while he travels through space, hoping for a place on Eden to mine a new material called Nyxia.
The characters are so well written, all of them picked for the mission for the same reason, but still all so different, and not just because they are all from different countries. They all have their own reasons to fight for their spot, money, family, love.
Right from the first page I was taken into this world, rooting for my favourites and hoping against the characters who were written in such a way that you had no other choice but to root against them.
I loved this book, every page of it, and can't wait until it comes out and I can add the physical copy to my bookshelves.

"Nyxia" is garnering a lot of praise for its ethnic diversity, its complexity of human motivations, and its vivid portrayal of the emotional struggle between personal integrity and doing what needs to be done. All those things are very true and to the novel's credit.

And yet I was left cold.

I don't even want to blame it on YA perhaps not being my demographic because I enjoy plenty of the genre. There were two other problems with the book that I couldn't get over.

First, it was just too derivative. Comparisons to Pierce Brown's "Red Rising" have been made, but they have to be restricted to theme only, as "Rising" is much more enormous in scope and emotional heft, not to mention much more ambitious. There are scores of other YA novels which tackle this gladiatorial strife between (more-or-less) peers, and I just really don't need to read another one.

A much more egregious fault, for me, was the novel's world building - and I have to admit here that it might be applicable to my personal tastes only. I like my fantasy and sci-fi to submerge me in their worlds slowly and vividly, in rich detail. "Nyxia" throws you violently into deep water and drowns you with torrential gallons of info in what seems like a blink of an eye, and is actually the first chapter. Then it moves on with its adventure and expects you to swim. I would like to learn more about the water first, and the land it surrounds, and my fellow swimmers.

Not a book for me.

This is going to be a series to watch without a doubt!

Though it contains the cliché requirements found in so many YA books, Reintgen turned them into something magical with a fantastic level of diversity and a bit of something reminiscent of that cult favorite movie – Starship Troopers which coincidentally is about to become part of pop culture again with a rumored sequel that is actually worthy to be part of the name. It also has a bit of Hunger Games – esque quality to it with the idea of teens being pitted against each other but at least this time it’s not for the enjoyment of the 1% but for a chance to have a better life complete with financial security.

Like the other books/movies it has a faint resemblance to, this one is full of action that will have you turning pages to stay glued to this adventurous storyline and great character work, particularly Emmett thanks to his tough fighter with a heart of gold personality. The multitude of moral dilemmas he faces will have you thinking about this one until the sequel arrives to hopefully provide another mind churning plot.

With such an ethnically diverse cast of characters, fresh plotlines, fast pacing and addicting writing style I wouldn’t be surprised to hear Nyxia has become the next big series to fly off shelves and receive its own movie franchise.

OHMYGOODNESS this book was 10/10 and I am so in love and I need the sequel now and you need to read it now.

It's kind of like Divergent meets Ender's Game, and if anyone loved the Remnants series as much as I did, I have a feeling the sequels could have the same amount of philosophy.

And I could not put it down.

So nyxia is a substance found on another planet that can be manipulated in many ways, and that gives this book a fantastical element. But a realistically fantastical element. Like sci-fi with a bit of magical realism thrown in. It makes for a really unique plot that, though it incorporated elements of other books I've loved, was different to anything I've read before in many ways.

But the characters are really what sell this book. I am in love with each and every character because I feel like I got to know them all and they are all so very human and flawed and perfect and real. And there was such a variety, too! I do wish that some had been fleshed out more, but I felt like there was respect given to each of the different cultures that were represented as well. Even the medics in this book have their own stories and purposes.

I was especially enamoured with Morning and with Kaya. Oh, and Bilal--finally, an accurate representation of Middle Eastern culture casually in a book. The least interesting character was Emmett, our main character, but I love him anyway. His self-doubt and self-determination and adoration of his family made him a really easy narrator to follow beside.

The book has a futuristic element to it that gives Earth more intrigue too, and I loved elements such as music that were incorporated into it. I loved the commentary on healthcare and on money and on morals.

This is an excellent book. If you've ever enjoyed sci-fi or YA, I 100% recommend it. Though maybe wait until the sequels are out so that you don't have to deal with a cliffhanger! :)

Ahoy there me mateys! I received this young adult sci-fi eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. So here be me honest musings . . .

nyxia (Scott Reintgen)

Title: nyxia

Author: Scott Reintgen

Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: TODAY!!! (hardback/e-book)

ISBN: 978-0399556791

Source: NetGalley

Arrrrrr mateys this book be amazing! It has been compared to maze runner and illuminae. While I read both and enjoyed them, this one blows the competition out of the water. The characters are diverse, the plot is enthralling, the pace is blazing, the tension is fierce, and the story drew its hooks in me and wouldn't let go.

Ten poor kids from all over Earth have been recruited by a corporation called Babel to travel to a distant planet to help mine a substance called nyxia. In doing so, they immediately benefit their families back home. There is one catch - they have to compete on the journey to earn the spots to be part of the final mission. Only 8 out of 10 will proceed.

The story is told from the perspective of Emmett. He is an awesome protagonist who is determined to win but finds himself questioning the other players, the terms of the competition, and his own thoughts and motivations. Even though we see the world through Emmett's eyes, we still manage to learn plenty of the other characters and their motivations as well. I particularly loved Bilal and Kaya.

The substance nyxia is crazy. I loved how it was used in space life and in the trials. There are also the hints of potential uses in the future. It kinda creeps me out and fascinates me all at the same time.

This novel takes some of the tropes of the dystopian sci-fi young adult novels and turns them upside down. Also this has one of the best endings of a book one in a trilogy that I have read in a very long time. I cannot wait to get me hands on book two.

So lastly . . .

Thank you Crown Books for Young Readers!

Netgalley's website has this to say about the novel:

Emmett Atwater isn’t just leaving Detroit; he’s leaving Earth. Why the Babel Corporation recruited him is a mystery, but the number of zeroes on their contract has him boarding their lightship and hoping to return to Earth with enough money to take care of his family.

Forever.

Before long, Emmett discovers that he is one of ten recruits, all of whom have troubled pasts and are a long way from home. Now each recruit must earn the right to travel down to the planet of Eden—a planet that Babel has kept hidden—where they will mine a substance called Nyxia that has quietly become the most valuable material in the universe.

But Babel’s ship is full of secrets. And Emmett will face the ultimate choice: win the fortune at any cost, or find a way to fight that won’t forever compromise what it means to be human.

To visit the author’s website go to:

Scott Reintgen - Author

To buy the novel go to:

nyxia - Book

To add to Goodreads go to:

Yer Ports for Plunder List

This book has a lot in common with several other popular books out at the moment or in the recent past. They're even cleverly eluded to in the introduction. There's nothing wrong with that. Often if you read a book you love, you're in the mood to read more books like it. Unfortunately that was not the case for me. I found this book rather derivative and very repetitive. The writing was good. It flowed well and kept me interested, but it reminded me a lot of teen movies where all the characters have snappy, witty, dialogue full of big vocab words and historical and pop culture references. Fun to listen to and it flows well, but no one actually talks or thinks that way in real life. I had trouble connecting with the characters. While I was entertained, I really didn't feel anything. This was kind of a superficial read for me. I'm not super invested in the world or characters at this point. I'm not sure whether I'll pick up the sequel or not.

First there was the Hunger Games, then the Red Rising series and the 5th Wave trilogy. 

Now there is Nyxia, and a more worthy addition to those novels there could not be.
 
Tightly written with an attention grabbing beginning that melts into finely chiseled characters in a story that is both frighteningly possible and wildly inventive.  This is by far and away such a superior entry into the YA world of fiction that all I could think when I finished it was "where has Scott Reintgen been hiding?" and "how can I possibly fill my days until the next Nyxia book comes out?".

Teenagers Emmet, Bilal, Kaya and 7 others are recruited from their impoverished, struggle-filled lives to take a journey to a distant planet and work its mines harvesting Nyxia, an element with mystical-like powers.  They are recruited with promises of riches and a comfortable life for themselves and their families back on earth.  Only after they are aboard the ship and have embarked on the months long journey do they find out there are actually only 8 spots for jobs on the planet, and they will spend all their time fighting each other, gaining and losing points in a quest to be the 8 highest ranking who will be granted the spots for harvesting Nyxia.  Each teen comes slowly to life, gradually revealing back stories and histories that explain why the job, and its promise of millions of dollars once they qualify, means so much to each of the combatants.
 
While a few alliances develop between the teens, there is, thankfully, very little of the typical teen romance that most YA novels rely on as filler.  There is no sudden love at first sight, no constant drama about whether or not he or she loves him or her, no moronic decisions made based on hormones alone.  This is a sharp exploration of reactions of smart, capable teems thrust into the untenable situation of fighting for their lives, which is really what they are doing as each ones circumstances are such that they would return to a life of hopelessness and squandered chances if they lose.

I loved this book, in case I haven't made that clear yet.  It was engrossing right from the get-go, with fascinating, well developed characters and non-stop heart beating action.  The story is fantastical without having to trot out hidden super powers or unknown royal heritages.  The kids (and adults) are real people thrust into amazing situations that could very well happen in our future. 

With an ending that both satisfied and whetted your appetite for more, all I can say is it's going to be very hard to patiently wait for the next book.  I hope you're writing it now, Mr Reintgen, I hope you're writing it now...

Unique in its own way. A little bit of hunger games meets Firefly. The authors voice was engaging and fresh.

Takes you away!
I was all prepared to not like this novel and dismiss it as another YA sci-fi wanna be, but Scott Reintgen proved me wrong. I found myself picking up my reader anytime I had the chance, sometimes even when I probably shouldn't have been reading.
Briefly, it's Hunger Games meets Ender's Game. Teens fight for a spot to go to Eden, and they will be showered with untold riches if they win. But there is a greater entity manipulating the system and the teens can't quite figure out how they are being manipulated because they are too busy trying to win a spot. You can even map some of the Nyxia characters to characters in Hunger games and Ender's Game. The medics in Nyxia are the stylers in Hunger Games. Ender's Graff is Emmett's Defoe.
Character similarities aside, Nyxia is a well told story. Story flows well, didn't feel slow at any point. I liked the characters. I thought they were well developed and relatable. The world building was fairly well done. As I said earlier, it took me away. Looking forward to reading the rest of the books in the series. I would recommend this book to sci-fi fans as a light space epic read.

The first thing I want to say about this book is that I hope there is a sequel soon. This was one of the best books of this genre that I've read in a very long time. Great story - great plot - absolutely wonderful character development. Great job!

i received an advance copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

it's more of a 3.5 stars for me but i'm rounding up because i totally plan to read the sequel and thus it gets an extra half star.

do you like Hunger Games? do you like Red Rising? than this book may be for you. it's basically the exact same thing. even a lot of the situational plotting is the same.

example:
remember when katniss gets in the tube to shoot up to the surface and cinna is there being all, here's your jacket and i believe in you? ditto here between emmett and his handler.

or when darrow has to kill julian to enter the Institute? a facsimile of that happens here too.

i know that's just two kind of generic examples, but if you've read all 3 you'll see a lot of similarities, i promise. this doesn't make Nyxia bad or uninteresting in its own right but it is a bit derivative.

one of the differences that people are freaking out about is that Nyxia is super ethnically diverse. and, yes, that is a WONDERFUL thing to see in YA sci-fi.

a good plot, character development, world building, and dialogue are equally or more important to my enjoyment of reading as well. Nyxia MOSTLY delivers on those things. the main problem i had with this book is that it was mostly filler. i knew within 20 pages that we were never going to see the planet in this book. little plot background - some teenagers are chosen to go to another planet to mine some valuable stuff called Nyxia. there are reasons for why it has to be teenagers, i won't bore you. on the space ship going to the planet, the 10 kids will compete because only 8 of them will be chosen to go planet side.

so this first book, you can already maybe tell is going to be just the ship and just the competition. the second book is likely going to be the planet and the teenagers finding out more about what the corporation controlling it are up to. the third book will probably be a combo of Eden (the new planet) and Earth as the teenagers rebel in some way against the "evil" corporation.

thus, i found the first book to be mostly introductions to characters (but there's a lot of them and you don't get to know all of them very well), competition for the 8 spots, and no real, grander conflict. you get hints, sure, of what will come in book 2 but it's all mostly filler if you get what i mean. i'm pretty sure book 2 will be better because the basic bones of this were good. the ethnic diversity and a few strong personalities the reader gets to know, relatively snappy dialogue, semi-comprehensive world building - with a lot hidden still, particularly about the corporation and the indigenous life form on the planet, the Adamites, and action oriented plot and character development.

round-up: if you like teenage battle competition based books than definitely pick this up when it comes out. if you don't, avoid it at all costs.

I received copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. If you're a fan of the Hunger Games, you would definitely enjoy this book. Emmett is not your typical hero, but this is not your typical dystopian novel. Babel is a company that has discovered life, but more importantly a rare mineral on another planet. The beings on this other world don't trust human adults, but do trust teenagers, so Babel rounds up a group and brings them into space in order to mine Nyxia. The problem for Emmett and the kids? There are 10 kids on their shuttle and only 8 get to land. There are battles and contests, but the kids learn about each other. They also start to learn that nothing with Babel is exactly as it seems..

Nyxia is a well-written, engrossing book.that grips you from the beginning, takes you on a tremulous journey with the hero, and leaves you desperate for the next installment. I'm assuming there's another book and that this is going to be a long series of course!
I really liked Emmett, the hero in this novel. He's young but not naive and is written to be tough but has a heart of gold. All of this is formed when he was very young and with his mom developing kidney failure and his dad working many jobs to support them, Emmett had to sort of take care of himself. But his parents loved him - that was a certainty in the story - which made Emmett a stronger character than I would have expected him to be.
I liked the way Emmett "filed things away" in his head whenever situations or people came up that he didn't want to delve too deeply into but also didn't want to entirely dismiss. He built relationships in the story although he wasn't really suppose to and that's what made him unique amongst his peers. I liked that he was still a kid in a way but learned to grow up real fast in a space station isolated from his family and friends.
Nyxia is a story that takes place in the future and has elements of Guardians of the Galaxy where Emmett likes listening to old songs and has that bit of loner-hero quality to him, just like Starlord. There are also elements of Hunger Games as well since there is a steep competition among the kids to win a spot for a better future for the families. It's just not as gruesome as Hunger Games is. The prize is also a trip to Eden where the kids will have to mine a mystical substance called, Nyxia, hence the title of the book. The book is entirely devoted to Emmett and the other 10 chosen ones aboard the space station, Genesis 11 as they fight their way to be chosen as miners of Nyxia on the planet Eden. There are lots of fighting of course and manipulations between a few characters. There are even a few surprises along the way.
Nyxia is written where I can't help but immediately like Emmett and several other characters. As with any good sci fi book, there are certain descriptions and scenarios where you feel immersed in the science fiction of it all. The only drawbacks I noticed was how intelligent most of the kids were since most of them were chosen for their lack of financial status and education. I wondered how these teenagers were able to command ships and manipulate technology as if it were second nature. If perhaps the author had explained the experiences that these characters might have had using technology or mechanical equipment then it would have pushed the believability a bit more.
Overall, this is a well-written, fast paced sci fi book and I'm looking forward to the next installment in the series!

I can be generous when rating books sometimes, but I must say that this is a 5 star + title. There's no way it deserves any less. This is a FANtastic entry into YA science fiction. The world building and character building are exceptional. I found the title to be a super fast read as I couldn't wait to see what happened next. I appreciated the multicultural aspect and inclusion of characters of diverse ethnic backgrounds. I further appreciated that the title endeavored to show that the characters were stronger, despite their differences, when they worked together to solve the puzzle and mystery that is Babel. Somehow the corporation keeps upping their game. Characters are expendable and the rules seem ever-changing. I can't wait to immerse myself in the next title in the series.