Zoe Dare vs. The Disasteroid promises action, space, and aliens. And more action. Plus some daredevil heroine sisters who also do stunts. It mostly follows through, and this is a pretty light read.

Premise: Zoe Dare is a motorcycle stuntwoman in the tradition of her now deceased father, with the mechanical and technological support of her sister, Danni. She's asked to go into space with a team of astronauts and another stuntman in order to destroy a giant asteroid plummeting toward Earth. But the other stuntman is Dare's archenemy, and the asteroid is actually an alien spaceship guided by someone with revenge in mind.

Let's start where the book starts: introductions. Brockton McKinney does a great job of introducing the reader to each character in a unique and thorough way. You meet Zoe doing a stunt; you meet her competition flipping his hair and talking about how great he is; and you meet the alien leader charming his way on board the spaceship and then violently taking over. Perfect. Character creation is also pretty good, and even though Zoe is supposed to be the main character, Danni is my favorite. She's supportive of her sister and so brilliant--not to mention fun and a bit geeky. Character development? Not so good. The closest we come to an emotional breakthrough is when Zoe admits that she's scared and then overcomes it to fight back against the aliens. There was a lot of potential with Zoe coming to understand her father and his professional enemy, as well as when the lead alien talks about his father's death and his scheme against Earth, and these both felt unfulfilled to me. I'm also not a huge fan of the illustrations--loved the cover and the aliens, didn't like the inconsistency of each character's body shape or the weird shadowing around their noses from time to time. The choice not to show Zoe's father's face when she talks to him was very smart and reflects how we zero in on details about the ones we miss, I think. I could go back-and-forth on this one all day, but I'll give it a solid three stars and say it was a fun, short space adventure.