Review: Alien Minds by Christina Bauer

Creative and innovative, this Dimension Drift series is blend of sci-fi/fantasy concepts that I thoroughly enjoy. I normally do not go for YA stories because of the overly done drama. This is a YA story I can fully support and I liked. I read the first book and missed my chance to pick up the 2nd book. This 3rd book was easy to dive right back into this dystopian world.

In a society which takes the "undesirable" definition to an extreme, Meimi wakes up in a hospital with no memory of events or people prior to waking up. For those who have read at least 1 of the books prior to this one, we know that Meimi is the underdog fighting against the government. A government which is scarily how several governments in world seem to be heading.

Meimi knows that to survive, she needs to work on a project assigned to her by an evil scientist. What I enjoyed about this story is the world building and specifically the tech involved. Sentient nano technology and traversing across parallel universes is definitely up my alley. Females who are hardcore fringe scientist also capture my attention. My biggest regret for reading this book is waiting so long to have read it. I wish I read it earlier because it is really quite well done.

The characters are funny and contrary. The adults in this story realize pretty quickly that teenagers, especially ones who have very little to lose are hard to intimidate. When their IQ is also off the charts, fakers those who steal other people's ideas will always feel threatened by these teenagers. I would have liked a little bit more character development for Meimi, but it could be missing out on book 2 is the problem. Meimi's conflicted relationship with her bodyguard Thorne is a bit predictable. Since the story does flip back and forth between the two character's view point, there are no surprises as to how they feel or what they think about the other. This does not mean that there are no plot twists in the story. There is a little one whch helps set up for the final book in this series.

The pace of this story flows smoothly and the ending comes all too soon. Most of the threads are tied up by the conclusion. There are a few open threads that should be carried through book 4. After reading this book and the hook of an ending, I want to read the next book to see what happens. I have a guess as to how it ends, but I want to experience the full journey. This sci-fi book is recommended to readers who enjoy speculative fiction and futuristic technology.

*provided by NetGalley