Caeli Crys isn’t living—she’s surviving. On the run after the genocide of her empathic people, she witnesses a spaceship crash near her hidden camp. When she feels the injured pilot suffering from miles away, she can’t help but risk discovery to save his life.

Commander Derek Markham awakens stranded on an uncharted planet. His co-pilot is dead, his ship is in ruins, and he’s only alive because a beautiful young woman is healing him with her mind.

As Derek recovers, Caeli shares the horror of her past and her fear for the future. When Derek’s command ship, Horizon, sends rescue, Derek convinces Caeli to leave with him. But his world is as treacherous as hers—full of spies, interplanetary terrorist plots, and political intrigue. Soon the Horizon team is racing to defend an outlying planet from a deadly enemy, and Caeli’s unique skills may just give them the edge they need to save it.

I received a free copy of this book courtesy of the author in exchange for an honest review.

Horizon is a fast-paced sci-fi with plenty of twists and turns. It follows two leads: Caeli, a member of a race of people, some of whom have empathic abilities. She always looks to use her abilities to help, especially as she has the added ability to diagnose and heal patients just by touching them. She finds herself on the run from a fractured community of her people. A community not gifted with empathic abilities. A community that, while once amicable, has been whipped up into a fervor of fear and hatred against their neighbours. When the worst happens, their community is attacked and survivors carted back to be reintegrated into a society that worked to get rid of them. Commander Derek Markham finds himself stranded on a mysterious planet, Caeli’s planet, having crash landed his spacecraft in the forest.

Circumstances bring the pair together as Caeli does everything to avoid being found while feeling driven to nurse Derek, critically wounded in the crash, back to health. During this time she shares with him the story of her past, and what has led her to be where she is, living in a cave and subsisting off the land. It’s a story of mistrust, hatred and civil unrest. When his crew rescues him, he takes Caeli off planet with him in the hope of giving her a sense of safety. Together with his crew, Derek and Caely seek to uncover who shot his spacecraft down, and uncover who is plotting a terrorist attack against an Alliance-protected planet.

I loved the way Horizon is written. It alternates from chapter to chapter, telling the story from the perspective of Caeli and Derek in turn. This makes for a fantastic read, especially once their stories combine and intertwine. It gives the reader a sense of the feelings and emotions of each character in turn. I enjoyed the way the story seemed to primarily focus on one character, then in the later stages the focus swaps. Horizon is an easy-reading sci-fi that is entirely enjoyable, and I am glad to have its sequel to dive straight into.

My rating: