The Queen's Gambit (Rogue Queen)

I first read The Queen’s Gambit when it was available on Jessie Mihalik’s blog as a free online serial and I enjoyed it enough that I purchased the final, edited version when it went on sale. The story was officially edited and expanded upon before official publication and I enjoyed the story as much, if not more, the second time around.Samara is a great character, she’s the queen of a ragtag group of refugees and rebels who are living in the outer reaches of the solar system and just trying to get by without drawing attention of two warring factions. The war has made food and other supplies scarce and her people are struggling just to survive on very low rations. Samara has done everything she can think of to get food for her people but desperation has made her a little reckless and now she’s decided to kidnap Valentin, the new Emperor of the Kos Federation hoping to use the ransom for food and supplies. After all Valentin’s war is the reason her people are suffering in the first place so the least he can do is provide the means to save them.I don’t want to say much more about the story but things with Valentin aren’t all what they first seemed and Samara may have bitten off more than she can chew by abducting him. Now she just has to decide if she can work with him for the good of her people or whether he will stab her in the back at the first chance he gets.Jessie Mihalik has created a fun futuristic world with lots of interesting technology but even though this is only a novella I never found myself lost or struggling to keep up. There was a nice amount of action, a good selection of side characters and I also enjoyed the developing romance. I’m already looking forward to reading the sequel and luckily I don’t have to wait long because the author has already started posting instalments of The Queen’s Advantage on her blog!

This was a really fun and exciting read. I liked the strong, tough heroine, and I really liked her back story: voted to be queen of a small planet. There were some twists and turns, certain lots of ground work was laid about Samara, her 'people' and the Kos Emperor shes 'kidnaps'.What make it only 4* is that, while Ms Mahilik is describing her new scfi world, I felt that the story was a little like painting by numbers. Very nice, but something that has been done before, and done much better.Yes I do want to know what happens next, so I will buy the next instalment. But I don't want the kick-ass heroine to become secondary to the hero - Valentin, the Kos emperor.

I generally prefer longer books to shorter, sequential publishing but, in this case, the low page count is reflected in the low price and the story itself is great. If you want to get your teeth into a longer piece of this author's work, check out Polaris Rising which is fantastic.

Like most others here I read this in serial form on the author's website, and enjoyed it enough to buy the novella. This is an engaging story, with strong characters, and a decent amount of world building for something that isn't a novel. It's a first in the series sort of book - there's more to come Im sure.

Really enjoyed this book, couldn’t put it down ended up going to sleep 3am as I wanted to finish it just started on the 2nd and really becoming one of my fast favourite

Kind of lost it once it got going - easy reading

Excellent as her other. Wish it was full length

Looking forward to Book 2.