Look. (Listen!) I actually really *like* the plot twist in this book. It was satisfyingly weird and creepy, and it lay the groundwork for potential sequels that might still improve upon the existing template. Which still, unfortunately, is dominated by really skeezy men. REALLY skeezy. And willing harems. (Um, hard pass. The whole "we must breed as many babies as possible to stave off apocalypse" is ... a very ... male-author solution.) And are we just not going to talk about the guy who creates a sex slave out of a traumatized, grieving woman using sedatives? Gear uses her character to illustrate the heinousness of his most heinous character, but ... using women to illustrate or define men's character or character arc is ... another very male-author solution. My general rule of thumb is: If Alien and Aliens didn't need drugged-out sex slaves or harems to be fantastic, your book doesn't either.

But yeah, cool twists. Some cool women in leadership positions. Let's just ... maybe not include ... any ... men ... in the next book. Unless sex really is necessary to your book, because I definitely, 100% do NOT want to see Gear take on a lesbian sex scene. That's, like, guaranteed to make me cry. And snicker. Maybe at the same time.

I almost did not read this book. After I read book 1 in this series, Outpost, I was not sure I wanted to continue with the series because, to be frank, there were no characters that I felt deserving of my empathy. However, after I let the story churn around in my head for a few days, I came to realize I had invested my brain in a truly amazing story. I had to continue.

I am very glad that I did. Abandoned continues what was a fantastic mesh of individual story lines and expands it to include a critical group of people. The Mundo Research Station, though abandoned long ago, has actually been home to a group of people who have managed to live, if not in comfort, at least a substantial step above eking out a living. The Mundo people are cut off from Port Authority and they like it that way. I liked this group. Among the group is Kylee and her pet quetzal Rocket. I like Rocket for his bond with Kylee. But before you get all mushy about Rocket, you need to know that quetzals are apex predators. They eat anything they like, including humans. Also part of the Mundo group is newcomer Mark Talbot. His journey is dangerous and during it, he engaged me as the reader. He is a great character.

“Hey, did you hear me?” Talbot cried. “I’ve been lost in the toilet-sucking forest for months. I’m half-starved, and without my armor…”

“Such a crier. Don’t bawl. Follow us. But stay back. I don’t trust you. And if you try anything, Rocket will know.”

“I’m not going to try anything. And what kind of animal is Rocket, anyway? It looks like something that tried to kill me.”

“He’s a quetzal.” She glanced back at him as she turned away. “Don’t you know anything?”

A quetzal?

Talbot warily inspected the creature as it turned to keep pace with Kylee. Sure enough, it was a miniature version of the thing he’d shot in the forest.

“Isn’t it a little dangerous for you to be wandering around out here in the forest? With a, um, quetzal, no less?”

Again she shot that irritated glance over her shoulder. “I’m not the one who walked under the nightmare. It’s not like anyone doesn’t know about the nightmare. He’s been there for as long as any of us remember.”

“I’m not from here. Get it?”

“As Rebecca would say, no shit.” She was headed slightly northwest, away from the direction he was headed when he encountered the nightmare.

“Which way is Mundo Base?”

“This way.”

“How do you tell in all the trees?”

From the look she gave him, he might have been an idiot. The quetzal hissed, the sound almost like laughter.

—–From Abandoned by W. Michael Gear.

In the meantime, supervisor Kalico is trying to set up a mining operation for the Corporation, constantly fighting the planet. Wirth is trying to run the town through his less than legit gambling operation. And Talina and the rest of her Triune are just trying to keep the peace while making sure the settlement doesn’t fall down around them. Survival on Donovan is never guaranteed. Donovan can be considered the supporting planetary character. You can never let your guard down on Donovan. Okay, I am a little mesmerized by Donovan.

These intertwined stories make Abandoned a truly compelling, complex novel. Talina, with her quetzal DNA silently egging her on, is perhaps the most interesting character. She has always had a pivotal role in the series and it continues in Abandoned. Her relationship with the people of Mundo station was critical and as a reader, I was glad to see her involve herself in it even though her past relationship with Mundo was extremely contentious. Teaching us all that life is a series of compromises, especially on a planet like Donovan.

Off planet, there is something just as intriguing going on. Freelander is the ship that just popped into orbit after being missing for three years, but actually being gone for over a century in transit. Freelander is just plain creepy. In Abandoned, you don’t learn anything new about what happened to Freelander, but, since it did not go away, I assume that story will continue in a future book. I hope so. Unanswered questions are annoying.

Like Outpost, Abandoned has a disturbing cover. Take a look. It depicts key aspects of the story. It is a great cover!

There are so many things going on in this book, my review would be three times as long if I were to comment on all the stuff I liked. So I will leave it at this. This Scifi story that plays out on a frontier world has me hooked on the Donovan series, and yes, even the characters. I will be reading more. No doubt about that.

Through NetGalley, the publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The story did not lag in details of life on Donovan, in fact it kept growing. The story progressed forward and never got tiring or boring. This was a book that did not stall the series like many 2nd books in a series. I was intrigued to keep reading it.
Michael made sure the story still progressed forward, and his character development was stronger. The one you hated in the first book is still pond scum. You still want him to die the Donovan way. But there are others that grew and stood out to be barely above the pond scum layer, while others shined because of their desires to succeed on Donovan.
I am definitely looking forward to how some of these characters will fall and how some may succeed?

Abandoned is the 2nd book in the Donovan series,a sci-fi thriller involving colonist on a planet that the Corporation had hopes of developing because of the vast mineral riches it holds; however no resupply ships have arrived for years and the Corporation control has fallen to a struggle to survive.
Donovan Is a brutal planet with plant and animal life that seeks to destroy human life. Just as most things are breaking down and hope is at a low a ship arrives and the Corporation tries to reestablish control but things spiral out of control , the ship spaces back to the solar system (they hope) and and original colonist , corporation workers and corporation marines must learn to coexist and survive, because they are literally abandoned with no real hope of any further contact from the solar system.
The world-building is exquisite and the characters are crystal clear - likable or detestable. The plant and animal life on the planet are mostly lethal. The struggles are very real. This is the most enjoyable series I have read in quite some time. I have read other works by this author and he never disappoints . I am totally looking forward to the next book in this series!!!