Book Review: Through a Window Darkly by Helyna L. Clove

Noll and Jayce Morgan are lanehunters—that is to say they are used to perilous spaceship chases through the erratic, wormhole-like space-time tears that plague their cosmos. They are decidedly not used to one of those gateways suddenly changing up its game and separating the twins with only a slight hope of ever finding each other.

Now Noll has to ally with a reclusive alien, a traumatized spy, and a bizarre agent duo in service of the crumbling galactic empire ruining everyone's day to save her brother's life. The clock is ticking, but when the universe turns out to be even stranger than Noll imagined, she's not sure her fear disguised as swaggering grit would pull her through once again.

GENRE: Space Opera / Sci-fi Adventure

PURCHASE LINK: Amazon

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Helyna L. Clove (she/they) is a science-fiction/fantasy novelist, and a lover of all types of storytelling, hot comfort drinks, and a universe full of stars.

She was born in Hungary and raised in a small village a few miles off the shores of Lake Balaton. She was often described by her teachers as someone always having “her head in the clouds”, and she spent the first fifteen years of her life mostly consuming books from her parents’ home library, watching some great 90’s sci-fi shows, and working on her eclectic music taste. After several arduous years of obtaining her astrophysics degree, she currently lives in Wales with her small family of a wonderful boyfriend and Puddle, the tortoiseshell cat.

When not writing her stories, she can be found commandeering radio telescopes, reading, cooking, playing video games, or trying her hand at different art forms.

Review

This is an accompanying novella to Skylark in the Fog. The author herself has recommended that this is read after and, truly, it's more enjoyable that way — aside from the fact that this story takes place after the events of Skylark. Many of the worldbuilding elements are best appreciated with the background knowledge from the novel, including the lanes, the Window, and the Talalans. I mean, sure, you can still understand them, as much like in the novel they are presented in a relatively easy to digest way, but you probably won't be as excited about them. (You can check out my review of Skylark here, I highly recommend it!)

That said, this was an enjoyable read. Like in Skylark, Helyna takes the time to get us better acquainted with the characters, while slowly building up the plot around them. And the implications of the revelations in this novella were very interesting! I know I said previously that Skylark was wrapped up well enough to not really need a sequel... but now I want one. This universe is full of possibilities and we've only scratched the surface!

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

---

Skylark in the Fog

So when the universe falls to pieces, it doesn’t mean your life has to, right? That comes later.

Jeane Blake, captain of the spaceship Skylark, makes her living by looting dead worlds, planets fallen prey to naturally occurring wormhole-like rifts plaguing the cosmos. She survives the only way she knows avoiding commitment and arguing with her dead foster father's ghost. But when her crew stumbles upon an alien device that could collapse the wormhole network and wipe out all sentient life, they catch the hungry eyes of the Union, a tyrannical empire hunting the sinister tech.

As she flees the Union’s brainwashed agents, Jeane is forced to take on a shady mission and gets stuck assisting the runaway monarch of a technocrat planet. Queen Maura Tholis is seeking the aid of an interstellar resistance to reclaim her war-torn world, with another trouble-magnet device as her bargaining a glove that allows her to command AI systems. Jeane couldn’t care less about the whole deal, but things become personal when the Union annexes the place she calls home. And it might be her fault.

Reluctant to become weapons in the hands of power-hungry militants and desperate rebels, smuggler and queen join forces. But to save their homes, they must redefine themselves, work with the enemy, and face personal traumas they’d buried long ago—and only stars know which challenge might break them in the end.

---

Hi! I'm Marie, a Filipino SFFH author and book reviewer currently based in the UK. I’m the co-author of The Prophecies of Ragnarok, a Norse myth new adult urban fantasy trilogy, and I also have several short stories published in anthologies and literary journals.

You can find more info about me and my books, and also subscribe to my newsletter for more content, here. And if you like what I do, please also consider supporting me on Ko-fi! 🩷 https://ko-fi.com/mariesinadjan

If you fancy a short read, I have a cozy reimagining of the Norse myths about Hel, but it's just under 70 pages and can be read in one sitting. ✨ Plus there's a swag kit coming soon! Includes a "membership card," a bookmark, a sticker, an origami dog, and an exclusive 500-word story 🫶🏼

All things end, and all must die.

But death is not always the end.

When Geiravor Lokisdottir was stripped of her name and cast out of Asgard, torn from her family and the life she had known, she thought she’d lost it all. But in the shadows of Niflheim she discovers the path to her destiny, and what it truly means to be queen.

This is a prequel short story to THE PROPHECIES OF RAGNAROK trilogy by Meri Benson and Marie Sinadjan, and a retelling of the myths involving Hel, the Norse goddess of death and the queen of the underworld.