Review: Home World by Bonnie Milani

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Published August 22nd 2013 by Promontory Press

Source: I received a copy in exchange for an honest review

From Goodreads: Centuries of ruinous war have left Earth little more than a dusty tourist world within the star-flung Commonwealth she founded. Now, amid the ruins of a post-apocalyptic Hawaii, Jezekiah Van Buren has found a way to restore Earth – Home World to the other worlds of the Commonwealth – to her lost glory. 
The most ingenious prince even the genetically-enhanced, Great Family Van Buren has ever produced, Jezekiah has achieved the impossible: he has arranged a treaty that will convert Earth’s ancient enemies, the Lupans, to her most powerful allies. Once he has the treaty sealed, it will not only make Earth rich again, but it will grant him the chance to escape the Ring that marks him as Earth’s next ruler. Once the treaty is signed, he will be free: free to create his own future, and free to marry Keiko Yakamoto, the warrior-trained woman he loves. His future and Earth’s is assured. Assuming he can convince his xenophobic sister to accept the Lupan’s alpha warlord in marriage before the assassin she’s put on his tail succeeds in killing him. Assuming he can thwart another deadly uprising by the interstellar criminal organization called Ho Tong. And before his ruling relatives on competing worlds manage to execute him for treason. 
Jezekiah manages to stay one step ahead of his foes, until his Lupan warlord-partner reaches Earth. And these two most powerful men suddenly find themselves in love with the same woman. A woman who just may be the most deadly assassin of them all.

First, I have to say that this is not my usual genre of book, so I don’t feel comfortable giving a star rating in comparison with other books I’ve read lately, simply because the faults I found with it were mainly due to my personal preferences, and I wasn’t quite sure what to do with that when assigning a numerical rating, so I won’t be doing that.

I was scared, truth be told, because I am not always into overly science-y books. And this was a long book, so I was even more apprehensive. The book starts off immediately with action, we are thrown right into the story. Admittedly, it took me some time to figure everything out, though I did get the general gist of the plot very quickly.

What worked for me: The characters were seriously amazing. All very multi-faceted, they were neither all good nor all bad, which is not only realistic, but makes for some very good plot moments. There were moments where the author would provide a character insight which made you think “wait- do I love or hate this character?”, and for me, that was quite wonderful and refreshing.  I kept wondering who was going to redeem themselves, who would fall to to the “bad” side, and it was so fun to “watch” them evolve! And even though the world was unlike our own, taking place with different and numerous technologies, and even encompassing different planets, the plot itself, the heart of it, felt like something you could see any high profile family, any political groups, enduring.

What did not: As I mentioned, I am not a typical sci-fi reader. I love my dystopia, but when I see some technological aspects, I have a tendency to glaze over a bit. There were some parts in this story that are quite tech-heavy, and I had some trouble with those. There were also a few times, especially early on in the book, that I couldn’t quite remember who was who, and who came from what planet, and who was on what side. There is a lot of story going on, and sometimes I had wished I had a desk reference! But after I got it all squared away in my mind, it wasn’t really an issue, but it did take a little time.

Bottom Line: I enjoyed the story, and found myself unable to put it down at the end- I had to know what happened! I don’t think you have to be a lover of science fiction to enjoy this story, it has something for everyone: romance, adventure, politics, betrayal, family relational issues. I do think that if you like science fiction though, you would appreciate even more the amount of detail Ms. Milani put into creating her world.