Unearthed Review

8:24 PM


Title // Unearthed
Author // Amie Kaufmann and Meagan Spooner
Publication Date // November 2017
Publisher // Allen & Unwin
Readership // Young Adult
Genre // Science Fiction
Australian RRP // $19.99
Rating // ✭✭✭✭

I received a copy of Unearthed from the published in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Synopsis

We are the last of our kind. We will not fade into the dark. We will tell our story to the stars - we will be Undying.

When Earth intercepts a message from a long-extinct alien race, it seems like the solution the planet has been waiting for. The Undying's advanced technology has the potential to undo massive environmental damage and turn lives around, and Gaia, the Undying's former home planet, is a treasure trove waiting to be uncovered. 

For Jules Addison and his fellow scholars, the discovery of an alien culture offers unprecedented opportunity for study... as long as scavengers like Amelia Radcliffe don't loot everything first. 

Despite their opposing reasons for smuggling themselves onto the alien planet's surface, they're both desperate to uncover the riches hidden in the Undying temples. Beset by rival scavenger gangs, Jules and Amelia form a fragile alliance... but both are keeping secrets that make trust nearly impossible. As they race to decode the ancient messages left by the alien race, Jules and Amelia must navigate the traps and trials within the Undying temple and stay one step ahead of the scavvers on their heels. They came to Gaia certain that they had far more to fear from their fellow humans than the ancient beings whose mysteries they're trying to unravel. 

But the more they learn about the Undying, the more Jules and Amelia start to feel like their presence in the temple is part of a grand design - one that could spell the end of the human race...


Review

Unearthed is a science-fiction adventure story that will leave you wanting more.

As one of my most anticipated reads of 2017, there were so many aspects of Unearthed that I enjoyed - the adventure, the mythology and the clever puzzles that the main characters needed to solve. I also enjoyed the interactions between Jules - a dedicated scholar - and Amelia - a scavenger. They had great rapport and their wariness of each other due to their differences made for plenty of interesting interactions.

In the distant future, Earth receives a message from an extinct alien race, the Undying, whose technology and own experiences might provide an over-populated and under-resourced Earth with the solution it’s been looking for. The secrets lie on Gaia - an alien landscape favoured by scavengers looking to find whatever treasures were left behind by the Undying.

Both on Gaia for different reasons, Jules and Amelia must form an unlikely alliance and work together to unravel the mysteries of the Undying before opposing groups intercept them - and the truth.

I enjoyed the mystery elements, too, and the cliff-hangar (yes, there is one) at the end is what made the story for me. I did find the first half of the book to be a bit slow to start moving, and there was a bit of repetition that bothered me, but once I hit the halfway mark I was hooked and the secrets of the Undying were something I was looking forward to uncovering. 

The ending? Left me with a lot of questions, in a really fabulous way. I want to know what’s going to happen next and I can’t wait for the second book to be released.

Overall I gave Unearthed 4 out of 5 stars.


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