I love most genres, but science fiction will always be my first love. And, as a sci-fi lover, Romina Russell’s Zodiac does not disappoint.
In the not too distant future, there is another solar system populated and given new hope by the people of Earth from generations long gone. Each sign of the Zodiac has a home planet, and people are born into their sign in the ultimate show of your sign defining you. Each house is known for the things that make them strongest, and together, they form the Zodiac. But, what happens when a dark force begins to show itself? There have been 12 houses living together in harmony for centuries – but what about the 13th house? Is there a darkness about to enter the rule?
At the heart of a struggle she isn’t quite prepared to face is Rhoma Grace, house Cancer. Smart, funny and likeable, Rhoma is an alcolyte learning about the solar system when she sees something dark in her studies. She can’t quite place what it is, but when the things she sees (that no one else can see) start coming true, Rhoma knows that she has to convince an entire solar system that the boogeyman from their fairy tales is real.
I don’t know how to say it. I loved this book. So much. It is full of beautiful quotes, and amazing prose. It’s sci-fi through and through, and reminded me of many of the other sci-fi books that I loved growing up. Russell creates worlds within worlds. Each sign of the Zodiac has it’s own strengths and weaknesses, and those live on in the children born and the generations that past. Russell creates in Rhoma a girl who is willing to think “What if we are stronger together than we are apart?” Zodiac is not just a stunning debut, it’s a stunning novel.
It’s one of our greatest human flaws: arrogance. We look up and dare to assume we know, when the universe is unknowable.
In Zodiac, Romina Russell dares us to look up and see the wonder of the universe – and see how we are just one part of a bigger, unknowable story.
I cannot wait to see what happens to Rhoma and her friends next. Zodiac is full of beauty and tragedy; full of questions, answers and more questions; full of vulnerable hearts and broken dreams.
When the world as you know it ends, what’s left?