-- I received an e-ARC of this title via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher! --

I used to really enjoy Colleen Houck's Tiger series when I was an actual teen (though more as a guilty pleasure looking back from a 2020 perspective) so I was really excited to read Terraformer - without the cultural appropriation. However, sadly, everything about this was very mediocre in execution. There were some interesting ideas, but they did not carry through for more than a short period. Most of the elements were very predictable and rather YA-in-2013, which made me feel like I had read this book before. I failed to connect to it even if nothing was particularly bad about it. So, a rounded-up three stars from me and a short review.

I will admit immediately, this is not the kind of book that has an impact so big I will think about it for years to come. It is mostly a dystopian young adult with a love triangle and teenage coming of age in an unsafe world, while the main character cannot be sure who she can trust. And that is completely fine, I love reading those books sometimes. (I do wish the love triangle was over and done with though! I've learned it's a common feature in these books, and I don't give lower rates for it anymore, but one love interest is quite enough, thank you!)

It is a book that I easily read on after I picked it up yesterday. I saw the 500+ pages here on goodreads (my e-arc doesn't show page count), and I expected to be reading for a lot longer. The story had a fast pace, but never felt rushed. The world was build around what Astra did and learned herself, so it felt very natural. And yes, I love the concept of young people having to build up a colony and their lives on a strange world.

This is a very fun young adult sci-fi title. A little bit of a love triangle, but the ending is satisfactory. I'm already pumped for the next title! Just gotta know what happens next!

I really, really wanted to love this book, but ultimately couldn't get through it.

The premise is very interesting--young girl with something odd about her travels to help terraform an alien planet, finds out she's connected to the plants--and I think if I were 13 or 14 I might have enjoyed the book. But as an adult, there was just too much about the execution of the story that frustrated me to the point of not wanting to finish it.

There's a lot of showing rather than telling. I felt like I wasn't getting to know any of the characters, despite the narration saying things like "I felt like I could trust him whenever I was around him." Well, there hadn't been any scenes with the two of them interacting, so why does she feel like she can trust him? He's only just been introduced! "We had a lot of witty banter." Okay, can I hear some of it? It felt like I was looking through a window at a story rather than actually experiencing it.

The other thing that frustrated me was the main character. She's supposedly very smart, but doesn't make logical connections. Very early on, she wakes up because of a ship malfunction, hears clanging in the ship, discovers a water bottle with unknown DNA on it and a sleep pod that's unregistered and been busted out of, and goes "hey computer, is someone else here?" to which the computer essentially says "uhh.... I'm malfunctioning and can't answer." And what does the main character do? Shrug and go back to work. I wanted to shake her and say "Go investigate, something is clearly very wrong!!!" For someone who is supposedly unusually smart, she's surprisingly dense.

In the end, my annoyance at the narration and disinterest in any of the characters overpowered my curiosity about the plot, and I decided to move on.

Terraformer is like nothing I’ve ever read before. Yes, as a YA novel, there are some tropes, such as the “saviour” and the cliché of the romance, but these were handled masterfully. The romance was not the point of the story. Astra is not the saviour randomly. She was genetically altered the be the perfect specimen to be that saviour. Astra Meador is a genetically altered human due to her mother’s use of a fertility drug to get pregnant. This results in a lung disease that she has to hide from everyone on The Venture, a ship setting out with colonists to terraform and colonize the planet Crillian IV. But things are immediately going bad. Murders, native flora revolting against the transplanted plants, and a lack of knowledge about their new planet stymie the colonists’ efforts. When Astra realizes the planet and its flora are not what she thought, she steps up and does what is needed to protect the only planet she can actually breathe on. While being intriguing to the young adult, this book also intrigues the scientific mind of anyone. It is well-researched, and none of the technology described seems to be too far of a leap from what we currently have so as to make it unbelievable. Overall, an amazing book, and I can’t wait to read more about Astra and this world.

TERRAFORMER is a new Science Fiction by New York Times bestselling author Colleen Houck. I’ve read and enjoyed TIGER’S CURSE, so I went into her latest work with high hopes.

“Nature has a way of balancing things.”

The story opens with Astra waking early from hypersleep to find that her father had died from a pod malfunction and her mother never made it onto the ship. As the rest of the crew wakes, beginning with the team leader and his attractive son, Astra wrangles with her new life on a terraforming colony while hiding a big secret in an environment where everyone is supposed to have perfect DNA.

The plot moves quickly, immediately thrusting Astra into romances with both the team leader’s son and a down-to-earth engineer as she seeks to solve a mysterious murder in the colony. Each of the boys has their own dark secrets. But so does Astra. She’s not perfect. She has an interesting defect that could cost her life if she’s found out.

(Side note: I’ll admit that the two love interests tend to get a little too touchy with Astra, constantly fondling her hair or touching her shoulder/arm/hand/back without asking. Maybe social distancing during COVID has made me more aware of physical proximity, but a little consent would have gone a long way.)

As the story moves toward the big reveal, the themes become apparent—particularly the way we define life forms and the damage that humans can do in the name of exploration and colonization.

This is a romance-driven SciFi that will appeal to fans of Twilight and Passengers.


*** Special thanks to NetGalley for the free advance review copy

While I am not a huge space fan myself (I find it kind of scary), I very much enjoyed this story of a space mission to colonize a new planet.

This book will take your imagination on a wonderful journey full of mysterious things such as talking trees, plant animals and advance technology. You’ll root for Astra as she tries to navigate her new norm, solve who is sabotaging the mission and figure out who her heart belongs too.

This book at first reminded me of the movie Passenger. Then as I kept reading I would say this is for fans of Across the universe series and has the earthy quality of Uprooted. This may be for fans of these series but is unique and original. I always love what a unique writer Colleen Houck is. She does a great job with her world building.

I first wanted to read this just based on the stunning cover. The cover did feel more fantasy then Science Fiction. This is not a fantasy novel. I then was like OMG a new Colleen Houck book. This is a fun read that I highly recommend.

I took a chance on Sci-fi as it is not usually my genre.
I had a lot of trouble getting into it and reading the whole thing, there was a lot of technical talk that just made it This was the first Colleen Houck novel I've ever read and I enjoy her writing style so I will definitely give her books a try again, but I will stay away from sci-fi,

I have to start by saying that I absolutely love a good imagination, and I can usually discover such an author in the sci -fi /distopian world. This author does not disappoint! This was one of the most imaginative and exotic books I have ever read, to date! I loved the fact that I could never anticipate the most wonderfully surprising events that took place throughout this magnificent book!

Ms. Houck takes us into the world of a future population that has reached a point of genetically adjusting and perfecting the human body, as well as many other species. A well chosen group of individuals are sent on a project to discover and settle another world outside of our own galaxy, many years away, so they must sleep for much of the time of travel in special chambers on the aircraft. However, much happens during this time of sleep, and one of the crew members wakes up early. This is the beginning of a truly wonderfully imaginative journey that leads to self awareness and growth in a couple of the main characters of the storyline.

I find it hard to describe much more without giving away too many of the wonders of this book. Even though many events may not give away the actual ending (this is rather impossible to do before the literal ending), I find all of those little discoveries throughout the book to be equally thrilling. I find that I don't want to spoil one bit of this for anyone who may read the book for themselves.

So, I suggest the reader to buckle up, and plan to have a lot of trouble putting this book down for any amount of time once you begin reading it until the very last line. This is not a short story, and it is not at all drawn out by any stretch. You won't want to miss a single part of this story. So, I suggest you get comfortable, and enjoy!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Colleen Houck via Trident Media Group through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I recieved this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was amazing.

I love science fiction and this book didn't dissapointed me.

This books begins when Astra wakes up too early from hypersleep and then, she discover 2 things: first, his mother nerver made it on board because she was arrested and two, her father is dead. Obviously she was very scared because she thinks her mother was arrested because of her, her family have a very depest secret about her and that is the reaseon because they decided to enter on this mission to colonize Crillian IV.

One of the many things I like about this book was Astra have asthma and never in my lifed I read a book with an asmathic main character. And why? yes, I have asthma and I feel very happy to meet Astra.

I find to many issues in this story like, characters left over, the writer made a love triangle in which she obviously made who was going to win Astra's love and the other was like an idiot (I hated him from the beginning) and this was very innecesary, poison mushrooms are missed and the characters are: ok I dind't find them maybe somebody die but oh! I forget them already. And her brother Nash was created only for the end of the book (I don´t say anything because spoilers)

BUT I loved this book so much that the things I didn't like didn't bother me as much.

A beautifully crafted world with mysteries, science, and creative world-building. Where it may falter in the human Characterization, but alien personalities she created were fun and intriguing. We also follow AS the MC works her way out of the struggle to choose to save her people or save her planet.


This world…Tree aliens…Groot family? I mean the idea is heck strange but I was totally sold since it seemed so down to earth (pun intended, sorry we learned about the botanical reaction to the environment in high school so, you get me) FURTHERMORE, I think it was quite well done giving clear foundations to future terraforming and human progress.
It’s quite apparent from the beginning the flora or the planets’ trying to communicate with Astra, which in turn unnerves her and ultimately, ultimately, dismisses it as her natural instinct instead.
We are shown from the very beginning how the planet seems to revolt against the human colonies, thwarting their attempts of settling down conspicuously. Alongside the colonists' work to stand against those allusive threats.
Flash forward we meet them sentient plants and it was a treat! I thoroughly enjoyed their interactions and how sometimes they were realistically limited they were in their scope of viewing the world. Their unique mannerism and also the blatant dedication for life, that we discover as we go were what feel made this book enjoyable.

THE STORY, had a lot of ups and downs, had strong interesting start: full wonder and surprises, mystery and intrigue but it sort of dwindled in the middle, it felt slow and drawn out she made weak choiceS and somehow no one was suspicious?
Just as I was getting tired of dealing with trio OF CHARACTERS, then it began to pick up in the last third and I was on the edge, couldn’t put the book down till reached the end. The story takes an unexpected turn full of uncertainties, and we see how that brings over an irreversible change on our MC.

A NOTABLE DOWNSIDE was how the characterizations OF, asides Astra, of the REST of characters, were done passively, THEIR information was, unfortunately, spoon-fed to us and we never really get to experience ThEm as much first hand as a reader.

ON THE FLIPSIDE, I quite enjoyed the technological aspects, we get a fair amount of dealings with some of those and they play A MAJOR role with how the plot plays out and I found that very cool!
While some of them were just told to us in the MC’s monologue, but I still found it creative and impressive. We don’t just get Barren futuristic earth and we also get Sci-fi –Esque bit too.

Thank you to Netgalley and Trident Media Group for providing an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have to be honest and say that I really wanted to like this book in the beginning, but at a certain point, I knew it had lost its promise. At first, it was giving me strong "The 100" vibes, which I enjoy. I was looking forward to a story that had a similar premise and feeling with it being a dystopian world where mainly young adults/teens were forced to live and repopulate on an unknown planet. I was also excited because almost immediately, the main character, Astra, and one of the love interests, Thane, reminded me a lot of Tahereh's Mafi's characters, Juliette and Warner, in her Shatter Me series, whom I adore. All of this hope quickly disappeared.

Here are the issues I had with this book:
First, there seemed to be very little character backstory or explanation. I just could not get into the characters all that much because of this. We were provided certain bits of sometimes far-fetched, crazy information about Astra or her family and then were meant to be satisfied with that. For all the characters, there seemed to lack an organic sense of character building and development. Particularly in terms of development, a favorite of mine, Thane, didn't just stay stagnant, but almost regressed. I was already upset that Astra chose Jax with what I felt was very little reasoning. To top it off, Thane was written to be a level-headed, capable, competent guy who seems to be the obvious choice, or at the very least a character an author knows readers would love. Rather than keep him that way, she had him become judgmental and almost nasty towards the end of the book. By the end, most of the characters had regressed in some way. The story itself fell apart and became unrealistic and almost absurdist, both far-fetched and oversimplified. Big things happened without proper, believable explanation. The last 15-20% of the story became a different book, one that was much less appealing and palatable, overly preachy and extreme. And with that, went the characters. Astra, a main character I didn't much care for to begin with because of her accusatory, stand-on-a-soapbox stance, became unbearable with her transformation. We basically lost any semblance of characterization she had built throughout the story. Just scrapped and replaced. The same could be said of Thane. He didn't just lose on the romantic front. He had to also become this mean, stereotypical guy that ultimately served no purpose. It wasn't true to the Thane we had been given up that point, at all. Very unnecessary. And Jax was never really interesting to me either, just concerned with obsessing over a girl he barely knew. In short, nothing played out organically and ultimately ended up sinking.

Also, I found the romance writing to be very juvenile. I hate it when authors randomly have their heroine fixating on a love interest or imagining things when we are in the middle of another, sometimes important, scene that is not at all focused on romance. It is very forced and poorly timed.

Last, Houck has a tendency of telling more than showing and a lot of times throughout this book, the telling was contrary to what was shown. Astra constantly thought and acted in inconsistent ways. She was untrusting and unsure constantly. She would be thinking something and then lash out and act contrary to what she believed. It made for an unstable story all-around.

Another thing I will note, that is, I suppose not necessarily good or bad, but just odd. There was a lot of intimate touching from the very beginning between Astra and the two boys. Lots of hand holding when not necessary, kissing (both chaste and romantic), and overall touching constantly. The romance was very much of the insta-love variety, but I was not expecting so much random touching, particularly when the characters technically didn't know each other all that well. Astra needs to walk down the corridor so she must hold Thane's hand. Astra is looking for flowers so Jax grabs her hand. Astra is hungry so one of the two guys must kiss her forehead or touch her face. Like...huh? Just strange.

It's unfortunate I couldn't enjoy this book as much as I wanted to.

Astra wakes early on a mission to begin a new colony on a new planet. Unfortunately things do not go as planned and this brilliant botanist will do all she can to save what she loves. This was a twisty science fiction read with a hefty amount of romance. While I was quickly drawn into the romances and was entranced by the two young men, it still felt a bit rushed. The story itself was mesmerizing and despite the excellent vocabulary words (I had to look up a few myself!) that may throw off some teens, I think this book is compelling enough to keep readers from being able to put it down! Would recommend 9-12.

I absolutely loved this YA Sci Fi this is my first book by Colleen Houck. Astra the main character wakes up on a space ship from hyper sleep and that's when the drama begins. I loved all the characters and the world building was amazing I have missed reading great stories like this. I highly recommend.

I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley and voluntarily left this review

If you've ever read Colleen Houck, this certainly fits the mythology inspired writing style she is known for and quickly became my favorite from her. I don't typically understand how the protagonists of Houck's books fall SO hard so fast for the leading men and it is a huge hang up for me, but, unlike past protagonists, I feel like Astra had more back-bone and was a more reedemable and enjoyable character. My only major complaint is that I feel like I didn't get a clear enough development and sense of the brother-sister relationship in the story. If YA, The 100, and Avatar were to have a baby, it'd definitely be Terraformer. I did enjoy this book and found the overall ending very, very satisfying. Fans of Houck should absolutely give Terraformer a chance.

Also: how beautiful is that cover??

Terraformer felt more like a draft than a book. Not because its riddled with mistakes and plot holes necessarily because Terraformer has clearly been processed and edited expertly, but this feels a lot more like someone describing a story than like someone telling one. A lot of what feel like they should be important moments are narrated instead of being told through speech. Upon 2 of the main characters meeting, we're told they have several very witty conversations but see none of them and the trend continues throughout the book. It's not only showing not telling, it's not even showing.

The world building also feels incomplete. Almost like it was never really decided how far in the future we are. At one point it sounds like we're centuries ahead of modern time but then a character mentions Audrey 2 and MC instantly goes (paraphrasing) "Oh! From Little Shop of Horrors" which considering that Little Shop is already fading from notoriety (outside of off-bway and highschool productions of the musical version) convinced me that this can't be more than a hundred or so years forwards only to quickly be told that MC has never seen a book in person. Sci-fi/futuristic books have to be selective in including pop-culture and this book just... wasn't.

Anyways, because of the describing not showing and the weird world, I never really got involved with any aspect of this story. I wouldn't recommend it though I've heard good things about Colleen Houck's other works so maybe check those out instead.

Esse foi meu primeiro contato com a autora, e confesso que não atingiu muito minhas expectativas.
Gostei bastante da história e da forma que ela foi desenvolvida, mas em alguns momentos senti que a autora enrolou um pouco pra fazer as coisas acontecerem, jogando informações que ao meu ver foram desnecessárias e isso acabou deixando a leitura um pouco massante, me fazendo demorar pra engatar na leitura
Achei que o ponto alto do livro foi um pouco depois da metade, onde as coisas realmente começaram a acontecer e a leitura enganchou de verdade e o frenesi todo começou.
É uma história boa, interessante e legal, porém acho que o enredo poderia ter se desenvolvido mais rapidamente.

This book stays true to Colleen Houck strength of luscious world building, beautiful detail descriptions, thrilling adventure, and some romance. I hated thane and his dad right from the start i knew they were dirty, underhanded, and i really did not want Astra with him at all. I love Jax him and his uncle. Jax takes everything he learns about Astra and embraces it. The main reason Astra is on this mission so she thinks is to find a way to cure her “asthma” which makes her inferior cause she not a perfect human.

The whole concept of plants being alive is really portrayed well in the gorgeous cover on this book. Ya can pull out clues of what is to be unfolded within the cover of this story. Their is a subplot going on beyond Astra and her colleges establishing a colony. Once that is under covered the whole Terraformer concept comes into play. Colleen has done a great job in the sci-fi genre by keeping us intrigued and not going over the top with the concept. As far as I know this is a stand alone novel but we all know that sometimes that not always the case. Pick this up this month on May 12, 2020 wherever you get your books.

**I received an ARC of this book on Netgalley, courtesy of Trident Media Group, in exchange for an honest review**

I really loved this book. Not only did I finish Terraformer in only a couple nights, this book also managed to kick me out of a long reading slump. It reminded me of how much I love Colleen Houck’s writing. Now I just want to devour all the books she’s written all over again.

Can I just say that Colleen Houck has evolved so much as a writer! The prose in the first few pages are stunning. Colleen Houck’s writing is always in the Goldilocks Zone of being engaging, easy, and absolutely poetic. Terraformer just hooks you in and then keeps you reading until you reach the last page and realize that it’s over.

Colleen Houck also has a gift for writing SciFi and she definitely needs to write more in this genre. The worldbuilding in Terraformer is amazing. Now, there’s a fine line between a book that has Quantum-Mechanics-Level research and a book that just magically solves everything. I won’t say that this book is the most scientifically accurate, but I also don’t think it’s trying to be the next The Martian. The parts of it that aren’t scientifically sound didn’t really take me out of the story. Terraformer has a fine balance between proven fact and creative license. That’s what Sci Fi is—a little bit of science and a lot of fantasy that force people to see the world with new eyes. Colleen Houck really grasps the heart of what science fiction is. You can practically feel her excitement vibrating between the lines of this book. There is so much love of Sci Fi in it. Colleen Houck even calls out some cult classics and other films that had me feeling giddy when I could pick them out in Terraformer. I love that you can just feel how right this genre is for the book, especially because the author is so passionate about science fiction.

I especially loved the parts of this book that talked about futuristic Earth and the ways technological advancements have evolved and changed society. It was so interesting to learn about the culture and social structures of this alternate, futuristic Earth. So much of this book also deals with social stigma and exclusion. I think Colleen Houck has also grown so much as an author and become aware of how the world she’s created affects the characters living in it, the hierarchies they’re in, and how these social separations change how they view and think about and talk to each other. A sign of good worldbuilding is being able to recognize our own society to the dust of a fictional one. Colleen Houck is so much more aware of how certain factors in the society she’s created perpetuates problems like the city dwellers’ criticism of anti-stabbers. These problems are periodically touched upon in the book. I love how real this makes the worlds in Terraformer.

Colleen Houck is also still the best at melding mythology and reality together to create epic endings to all her books. Terraformer was no different. I was on the edge of my seat nearing the end of the book, because the stakes were rising and all the pieces were falling into place. There’s something so cathartic about how Colleen Houck ends her books with such savage, legendary scenes that are just so cinematic and badass. Terraformer had that powerful, myth-like conclusion that is so characteristic of her other books. I love it every time.

One of the problems I had with this book, though, were the characters. Astra Meador was so frustratingly blind in this book. She had so many moments of fierce intellect and strength, but there were also so many times where I wanted to strangle her, because the conclusions she was jumping to made no sense. She’s so suspicious in Terraformer and constantly contradicts herself, so the reader is left frustrated knowing that she keeps steering herself wrong. Nash also really annoyed me in this book, but he wasn’t in it so much that it took away from my enjoyment. I didn’t really connect with Astra or her brother much in Terraformer, but I think the plot and worldbuilding in this book make up for a lot of that, at least for me.

The romance in this starts insta-lovey, and hints at a love triangle, but turns that latter trope on its head in a way I appreciate. This book has a more pragmatic approach to romance and definitely exposes the warning signals of a subtly unhealthy relationship. I appreciate the way these signs of a toxic relationship are easy to identify and yet are still paired with the main character trying to justify an appreciation of the toxic character. I think this helps warn readers what signs—gaslighting, being overbearing and overcontrolling, etc.—to look out for and how the weak justifications are used to try and keep people stuck in those unhealthy relationships. I think pairing these things together in an obvious way can help younger readers recognize those signs and their own justifications if they’re ever caught in a relationship like that, so they can catch these warnings early on.

This book is also a bit more heavy and mature than Colleen Houck’s other books. There were moments when even I was shocked by some of the death and heavier moments in Terraformer. It has a kind of Annihilation-esq tone in some places, and is quite dark in some places. I’m not squeamish, but I’ve left warning tags at the bottom for other people to watch out for.

All in all, this was a solid science fiction novel that is fast-paced and incredibly fun to read! Definitely pick this up if you’re into SciFi/fantasy and mythology. It really is a wonderful read. Preorder the Hardcover at Barnes & Noble! Check out colleenhouck.com for more information about Terraformer, including the Book Trailer, launch party details, inspired Pinterest board, music playlist, quotes, and other exciting extras.

Terraformer is released on May 12, 2020.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51767540-terraformer

***CW/TW: imperialism, sexual harassment, mentions of slavery/enslavement, classism, ableism, eugenics, murder, mentions of corpses and tampering with dead bodies