Review of The Alien Scientist by Eryn Ivers

The Alien Scientist (Goodreads) by Eryn Ivers My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received The Alien Scientist (Amazon) as an ARC and these are my genuine opinions about it.

Highly Recommend the Whole Series

First off let me just say I love the Interspecies Alliances series in which this book is an installment. Every story is heartfelt and sweet and spicy. This installment, The Alien Scientist, is no exception to this overall trend. I loved this story so much. If you’ve been reading the Interspecies Alliances series this installment will not disappoint. It might be my favorite of the series.

I should not have to warn that this review will be rife with spoilers but here is my blanket warning. Don’t read more if you haven’t read the book yet or do not want major spoilers. You can stop here by reading once more that I highly recommend this story because it’s very good and critical to the series as we get more into the overarching plot of the series. Go read it as soon as it’s out!

⚠️⚠️Spoilers Below! ⚠️⚠️

You have been sufficiently warned.

The STORY

I enjoyed the continuing development of the overarching story: The known sectors of space have been infiltrated by a mysterious race of aliens that resemble Insects and the three main dominant species are trying to deal with their encroachment. The first few books saw these Insects and full-on villains but it came out in (maybe, my memory is bad) the last story that they are just looking for a home of their own. And in this story, we have our MC, THE alien scientist Sazahk, who is completely driven by his curiosity and scientific zeal to both understand this race of intelligent aliens better and determine if there is a way for them to inhabit an area on a planet that had previously been decimated by a biological weapon of mass destruction that killed everything in the area.

The Qesh

I have long been intrigued by Sazahk’s race, the Qesh. Their ability to intimately sync with computers through their neural implants, and the fascinating way that they display emotions through various colors displayed on their face and body, they are just fascinating to me. They are an advanced race and extremely scientific and rational. Being tall and slender with long hair, coupled with their mental acuity, they remind me a bit like a cross between elves of fantasy lore and Vulcans. This may just be my own personal imagining of what the Qesh are like as a race. I have enjoyed the Qesh characters in each book so much.

The Alien Scientist: Sazahk

Sazahk, our alien scientist, is no exception, we met him in previous books and his character is even more rational, science science-driven than most Qesh. He’s quick, completely straightforward and rational, and science is his primary drive and interest, sometimes to the detriment of his own health and safety. He’s also the brother of the prominent emissary who has been a recurring character throughout the series, and if you’ve read his story, a sort of prequel to the entire series, you know that he can do special things with his neural implant and his ship that has foreshadowed events that happen in this book.

Sometimes Sazahk reminds me of Bones from the TV show in his completely blunt, no emotions just statement-of-fact way of speaking. As a neurodivergent person, his perspective and personality really appealed to me.

Sazahk is what we might call demisexual on Earth. I enjoyed that aspect of his character so much. While it does make sense that the specific term demisexual wasn’t used since this is a futuristic sci-fi story, I feel like there could have been a bit more about Sazahk coming to realize what his sexual identity means.

His not wanting all that before was perfectly normal. But his wanting that with Garin when he never has before makes it that much more special. Garin is special because he broke through all the barriers to be the one for Sazahk. I feel like Sazahk realizing his sexual and romantic attraction to Garin could have been explored more.

Sazahk states several times that he has no emotional attachment to sex, and hasn’t ever wanted a romantic relationship. Exploring his feelings and experiencing him coming to the realization that he in fact does want that with Garin could have been examined in a bit more depth to really flesh out his thoughts.

The Alien Scientist’s Bodyguard: Garin

I loved Garin’s character a lot. He was the most gentle bodyguard ever, and loyal loyal loyal. I really loved him. Right away he is struck by how pretty Sazahk is but he’s often driven to annoyance by his frequent dashes off into danger to find a sample. He is tasked with keeping the alien scientist safe, and that proves to be quite the challenge.

We’ve seen Garin several times through the series, he’s the one who drops off Oliver Turner in the first book setting the whole series in motion. But in this book, we finally get to know him as a character and discover his motivations. While on the surface he is a soldier, a good one at that, we learn that there’s a squishy center that motivates him and to me, makes him immediately a green flag.

The SPICE 🌶️🌶️🌶️

The spice in this book really hit for me for several reasons. Partly because the ramp-up to feelings was perfect and the feelings of the main characters moved well from annoyance to ‘oh but he’s so pretty and maybe I like that’ to full-on woah momma smut. And then secondly, the author seemed to have direct access to the part of my brain that houses the master list of all things that really freaking take me there and was busy checking things off that list in glorious fashion.

Things I loved very much in the Alien Scientist:

• Enemies to lovers is my favorite thing ever. In this case, they were definitely not super enemies at first, but the trope works well all the same. Mostly Garin didn’t want to be diverted from his duties guarding Dominic Turner to galavant off into the Dead Zone with Sazahk but oh no look at him he’s so pretty and fascinating maybe this isn’t so bad after all.
• Peril leads to physical closeness. Look this just really does it for me when one character sees the other in danger and it triggers something protective and emotional in them and causes them to examine the surprising desire they have for the other character. It. Just. Works.
• Also, there was only one bed sleeping bag. This trope also works so freaking well I don’t care if you think it’s overplayed. Awkward morning experiences, waking up tangled together because their sleeping bodies are drawn to one another. Just.. chef’s kiss.
• Two words: SEX. POLLEN. (In this case sex mycelium?). I don’t need to say anything more.
• Clinical ‘experiment’ sexual encounters with one person acting as the (not really) impassive facilitator while the other writhes in uncontrolled desire? Um, that’s high on that list of mine.
  Mysterious character motivations come into clarity. We’ve wondered about what’s driving Sazakh in previous stories and now we get to find out.
  More of Squad M because I love them.
• The return of the fleximetal tentacles thank you very much!
  

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