3 stars for book one of the The Devoured Worlds series. The plot kept me reading well into the night as Tarquin, geologist and heir to the Mercator family galactic empire, tries to survive crash landing on a doomed planet with his only ally an enemy from the past. Naira was ‘reprinted’ into an unfamiliar body and must help Tarquin unravel his father’s lies before their entire universe is destroyed. There were so many cool things in this book that I don’t want to spoil for you, gentle reader: intrigue, romance, conspiracies, biology gone wild, spaceships crashing, etc. Suffice it to say, if you enjoy a ripping good space yarn with weird, wild, and yet oh so plausible tech then you will devour this book. It takes a couple of chapters to really get going and you have to figure out who is who but when it takes off you will be glued to the pages. The ending was awesome and the hints of what is to come in the next book make O’Keefe a must-read. Add this one to my list of books I was given for review that are so good I would have gladly paid cold hard cash to read!