Jati’s Wager by Jonathan Nevair – 5 Star Book Review

A space opera heist brimming with action, twists, and turns that doubles as a story of personal growth, mentorship, and sacrifice.

Welcome to one of the September 1st stops on the blog tour for Jati’s Wager by Jonathan Nevair with Storytellers on Tour. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, reviews, more great content, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post. #jatiswager #windtide #storytellersontour #readindie

Read my review of book one here!

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About the Book

Jati’s Wager
Wind Tide Book Two
by Jonathan Nevair

Publishing 18 August 2021
Shadow Spark Publishing

Cover art: Zishan Liu
Cover design: Jessica Moon

Genre: Science Fiction, Space Opera, LGBTQIA+
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

CW: death of parent (mentioned), death of mentor, verbal abuse, graphic violence and death, blood, homelessness, trauma, guilt, kidnapping (mentioned)

A space opera heist brimming with action, twists, and turns that doubles as a story of personal growth, mentorship, and sacrifice.

Ailo is a streetwise teen surviving alone on the remote moonbase, Tarkassi 9. She wants nothing more than to flee into the wider world of the Arm. When her chance arrives, she makes it no farther than the first ship out of the system. That’s where Jati, the Patent War veteran and general fighting the Monopolies gives her a second chance. It’s an unlikely partnership, but Ailo’s rogue status is just what Jati’s People’s Army needs to drive the final spike of victory into a weakening Garissian Council.

A team of experts assembles and hope rests on Ailo’s skill, stealth, and tenacity to pull off the impossible. It’s a wild gambit, and a moral code may need to be bent, or broken, to achieve success. When an internal shadow rises, casting doubt on their plans, Ailo and Jati are forced to weigh the cost of revenge against honor and justice.

Jati’s Wager: a space opera inspired by the Greek myths of the Trojan War.

Amazon US | Amazon CA | Amazon UK

My Review

My Rating: 5 Stars
Consider liking my review on Goodreads

I was sent a complimentary copy of Jati’s Wager by the author in exchange for an honest review as part of my participation in a blog tour for this title with Storytellers on Tour. Thank you so much Jonathan Nevair and the SoT team! I’ve been on every SoT event schedule for this series so far and I’m really enjoying it. That said, as always, my thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

Jati’s Wager is the sequel to Goodbye to the Sun, and I do think you should definitely read this trilogy in order to fully appreciate it, you could probably read this book first if you had to. Jati’s Wager focuses on different characters than Goodbye to the Sun and does provide a “The Story So Far” pre-prologue summary. Personally, I think that’s better used as a reminder than a book-skipping tool, but if you’re chomping at the bit to try this series and this is the one you can get ahold of, go for it. But I expect you’ll need book one before book three for that one to make sense!

This book is very character-driven and thus slots itself firmly into the “space opera” camp of science fiction, but hard sci-fi fans should still find a lot to like in this trilogy as well. This book does an excellent job of asking and attempting to answer big “what if” questions, as hard sci-fi typically does, and it’s very clear that a lot of research, knowledge, and academic passion has gone into this book. While properties like Star Wars are held up as the flagships of space opera and certainly have their place in this genre, not all space opera gets technical terms wrong and shoves science to the side in favour of character arcs.

Jati and Ailo grow together as an unlikely mentor-mentee match throughout this fast-paced adventure, and I really enjoyed exploring their dynamic. Ailo is impulsive, complex, and rough around the edges. She’s both carefree and optimistic, yet weighed down by the oversized baggage her past. Having come into Jati’s life as an “I’ll do anything, just get me off this planet” sort of crew member, it does feel like she has something to prove. Jati calls her “Firecracker,” among other things, and it’s a very fitting nickname.

Jati is someone we’ve met before, but we get to know a whole lot more about them in this book, and I have absolutely fallen in love with them that much more in this book. Perfect choice for a title character and primary focus in a middle book! Obviously I know we already met Jati, but it really struck me this time around how deftly Nevair has written a non-binary identity into this world in a completely matter-of-fact way that neither shoves it in your face nor lets it slip into the background. You’re absolutely forced to realize what’s going on, but Jati’s gender identity isn’t their defining feature either. Take note, other authors wanting to do casual representation! This is how it’s done.

In a similar vein, I noticed and very much appreciate the visual descriptions of characters that stay well away from food vocabulary. “Deep umber skin,” for example, is both an excellent reference made as this is a common paint pigment and also a very neutral, sensitive way to phrase it.

The POV of Gerib was a really interesting one for me. I don’t think I’ve ever read the POV of a main character’s imaginary friend before, and it’s such a fascinating way to tell the story. This both is and isn’t an extension of Ailo’s point of view, but in a way that allows for the distance and teenage innocence that Ailo doesn’t grant herself.

I also really enjoyed the planet Tarkassi 9 being referred to as T9, for some reason. This isn’t particularly significant, but it reminded me of calculators (like the good old TI-83 I had to buy in grade 12, used for about 3 weeks of class time, and then never used again because university professors know you can program whatever you want into those bricks…)

The only “negative” that stood out to me was that certain characters frequently refer to Ailo as “the youth.” I admit I’m partially just prejudiced against this term because I’ve seen it used and abused in other works where it just didn’t fit or where it entirely replaced a character’s name, but I really don’t feel like it’s a concise term. Language, culture, and context can all change what exactly “youth” refers to, so “the youth” could be a small child, an adult who’s simply much younger than the speaker, or anything else in between.

All in all, Jati’s Wager is a great book by itself and a strong second book in what’s shaping up to be an amazing trilogy. I’m both very excited to read book three when it comes, but also sad to think the trilogy will come to an end with the next book. A loyal reader has been gained! Expect me to review anything Nevair puts out after this trilogy concludes.

About the Author

Jonathan Nevair is a science fiction writer and, as Dr. Jonathan Wallis, an art historian and Professor of Art History at Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia. After two decades of academic teaching and publishing, he finally got up the nerve to write fiction. Jonathan grew up on Long Island, NY but now resides in southeast Pennsylvania with his wife and rambunctious mountain feist, Cricket.

You can find him online at https://www.jonathannevair.com and on twitter at @JNevair.

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Giveaway Alert!

Prize: A print copy of Jati’s Wager by Jonathan Nevair – US/UK Only
Starts: August 29th, 2021 at 12:00am EST
Ends: September 5st, 2021 at 11:59pm EST

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