Stellar Instinct: A Spy-fi Space Thriller (Agent Renault Adventures)

Stellar Instinct is an easy and quick read. Action, adventure, aliens and armaments in every chapter. It's a killer thriller!

Looking for something a little different? Lighthearted at times, fast-paced, full of spy hijinks and sci-fi action, Stellar Instinct could be the book for you. Spy-fi is the perfect name for this genre. Stellar Instinct has sci-fi worldbuilding with spy thriller sensibilities, and it’s just a joy to read.Lilline Renault is a super spy, but she’s really more interested in her poetry, though no one else seems to be very impressed with her attempts at verse. She goes undercover, finding out that a tech genius is behind a plan to basically take over the world. It’s a race against time to save the world…and save the people she loves.This story shines when we’re spending time with Lilline and her grandmother especially, or when Lilline gets the chance to interact at length with other characters. I will say that many of the side characters didn’t get much of a chance to let us get to know them, so some of those parts fell a bit flat, but I was so enamored of Lilline’s relationship with her snarky firecracker of a grandma.Like I said, the pace is fast, and sometimes there were moments that felt a bit brushed over–there was emotional weight to be had, but we never quite got it. Some of the reveals as the story went on were also a bit obvious. However, I was along for the ride, and Nevair’s prose and wit kept things interesting, and Lilline was a likeable protagonist. I listened to the audiobook, which was fine. The narrator was sometimes very monotone in her narration, but did well with character voices.Nevair makes a really interesting choice of having some chapters in 2nd person POV, and while it took a bit to get used to and make sense in the story, I really liked the reasoning behind it as the book moved on. My suggestion is to just let it happen and you’ll start to realize why the author made that choice. Nevair has a good command of prose and the novel is quite well written, so you should be able to speed through it!This is not a hard-hitting, emotional tale. It’s light, it’s fun, and it hits the spot. I wanted a bit more emotional weight, but I do think this would be a great palate cleanser! So the next time you’re looking for a fun spy-thriller sci-fi adventure, look no further!

Stellar Instinct reminded me of everything I loved about older James Bond films, but set in space and filled with aliens. It read like a very informed spy thriller, with betrayals, tactics, and spy-gadget-fueled action scenes. Lilline is a really cool character, and she feels both capable but not invincible. Add in her failure as a poet, and you have a unique spy to follow throughout Stellar Instinct. I grew attached to her boss, Lauden, an alien who smokes entirely too much but in a way that really brought out his character every time he entered the room. And who can’t love retired Super spy Granny Kissy, who brings the sort of snark and history to a spy thriller that we love in character a little like M, but with a flirtatious past. As a fan of both spy thrillers and science fiction, I absolutely loved this spy-fi novel.

Fast action. Great cast of characters. Tech stuff is amazing. Well written and well plotted. Will read another in the series.

Lilline is the sci-fi spy you didn't know you needed. Nevair plants his foot on the pedal and doesn't let up in this non-stop, thrill-ride! He leans into many of the spy-thriller tropes that I love, and shamelessly paints a tremendously fun story. Great characterization, fabulous prose, and great dialogue make this a wonderful read. Looking forward to reading about how Lilline saves the galaxy whenever a sequel is written!

I came in to the month of May looking to add more sci-fi to my library since I am doing my year end best of, based on categories rather than just a regular top 10 like I typically do. Another blogger had posted that they were planning to read Stellar Instinct this month, and when I saw the cover, I knew I had to add it to the other Sci-fi May reads. The description of it being a “Spy-fi” made me even more interested because I don’t read a lot of spy type of books either, so it added to intrigue of this sub-genre in sci-fi.I really hate writing negative reviews and contemplated not even writing it at all, but I felt it was my duty as a book blogger to do so. This had all the makings of something that could be really good, it was a little bit of Men in Black meets Gamer with its spy like nature and the plot revolving around a virtual reality game that is being used deviously. The first 30% was not very good, and I almost put this down after chapter 10, but I decided to stick with it hoping that it would improve. While it did get better, it just never got to where I was hoping it could get to. Bland characters, a predictable plot and sub-par narration made this something I just couldn’t like, no matter how much I tried to keep going in hopes that it would get better.Unfortunately, this just wasn’t for me despite how much I was looking forward to it. The story had its fun and interesting parts, but they were few and far between. The most interesting thing about the main character, Renault, was that her civilian identity Keely, liked poetry, which kind of reminded me of Sylvester Stallone’s character in Demolition Man where he’s programmed to like knitting, only her poetry matters in this story unlike Stallone’s. I like that Nevair wanted to add some depth to the character by doing this, but it didn’t change that she just wasn’t very interesting. With that said, her grandmother, Kissy, was actually a good character that I wish had a far larger role, but by the time I met her, I had already contemplated stopping and moving on to something else. I did like Carbrook though, he is a nerdy tech guy that likes video games and added some much needed goofiness, but like Kissy, just didn’t get the time that could’ve helped draw away from the main character.The narration by Erica Garraffa was something that I was left wishing was better for a few reasons, the first is that the narration of several characters was actually quite nice voice, like Renault, Kissy, Carbrook and Pin, but when in narration mode it was just a bit too monotone, which forced me to take more breaks than normal because I was losing focus, it reminded me of the way Siri’s voice sounds, always the same and a bit robotic. The other issue I had is something that feels like cheating, like using chatGPT to write or using AI to create a cover, and I don’t know if it’s the blame of the narrator or the production, but using a voice distorter for characters because the narrator can’t reach a deep voice was just the wrong choice and something I hope I never experience in another audiobook again.