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Zodiac, a bestselling fantasy/sci-fi YA, is in a whole different galaxy from where my eyes usually roam, but I've enjoyed buddy reading it by phone with a teen whose school is closed for the year by coronavirus.

Sixteen-year-old Acolyte Rhoma Grace attends the Zodai Academy on Elara, Cancer's largest moon, and is playing a gig with her band when a fireball blows up Thebes, another moon where her brother Stanton works, triggering devastation throughout the Cancrian constellation.

In the aftermath, Rho is called upon to lead Cancer and to warn the rest of the Zodiac against Ophiuchus, vengeful Guardian of what has been thought to be a mythical 13th House, who launched the attack on Cancer and appears intent on destroying the whole galaxy. As she negotiates this new role thrust upon her, she's also conflicted by new feelings about both her bodyguard, Lodestar Mathias Thais, and Libran Ambassador Hysan Dax.

Romina Russell has created a marvelous world, with the peoples of each constellation reflecting different characteristics associated with their astrological profiles, and imaginative technologies and nomenclature, e.g. the drug Abyssthe. The writing is compelling and the pages fly by.

I'm looking forward to exploring the next book in this series, Wandering Star.

Zodiac