Goddess in the Machine

Lora Beth Johnson

Jun 2020 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

Andra wakes up from a cryogenic sleep 1,000 years later than she was supposed to, forcing her to team up with an exiled prince to navigate an unfamiliar planet in this smart, thrilling sci-fi adventure, perfect for fans of Renegades and Aurora Rising.

When Andra wakes up, she's drowning.

Not only that, but she's in a hot, dirty cave, it's the year 3102, and everyone keeps calling her Goddess. When Andra went into a cryonic sleep for a trip across the galaxy, she expected to wake up in a hundred years, not a thousand. Worst of all, the rest of the colonists--including her family and friends--are dead. They died centuries ago, and for some reason, their descendants think Andra's a deity. She knows she's nothing special, but she'll play along if it means she can figure out why she was left in stasis and how to get back to Earth.

Zhade, the exiled bastard prince of Eerensed, has other plans. Four years ago, the sleeping Goddess's glass coffin disappeared from the palace, and Zhade devoted himself to finding it. Now he's hoping the Goddess will be the key to taking his rightful place on the throne--if he can get her to play her part, that is. Because if his people realize she doesn't actually have the power to save their dying planet, they'll kill her.

With a vicious monarch on the throne and a city tearing apart at the seams, Zhade and Andra might never be able to unlock the mystery of her fate, let alone find a way to unseat the king, especially since Zhade hasn't exactly been forthcoming with Andra. And a thousand years from home, is there any way of knowing that Earth is better than the planet she's woken to?

Ratings and reviews

This book felt like a cross between "Across the Universe" by Beth Revis and the Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness. I love a good space travel sci-fi novel, and this book certainly has it all. Andra is such a spunky, strong, and intelligent character, and her voice captivates the reader and really pulls them into the story. I sympathized with her struggles, and I was always anxious to hear what would happen next. As I said, this book did remind me of other YA sci-fi novels, but never in a way that felt tired or repetitive. Johnson was able to hold her own in this genre and establish herself as an excellent writer. All in all, if you like sci-fi and strong female characters, this is the book for you.

The story starts as Andra awakens from what she believes is a cryogenic sleep that lasted one hundred years. In actuality, she has been asleep for a thousand years. Everyone she knew and loved in her life has been gone for years and she is now alone in a strange place where the people believe her to be a goddess, a savior of their world. The language is unfamiliar and Andra is lost. This premise alone was enough to draw me in, and the tension and stakes are high from the get go. It definitely helps that the writing is great! The world building is a huge aspect of the story as the world itself plays a major role in Andra's story, and the author has done a fantastic job at fully immersing the reader in this strange land. Then on top of that, there is plenty of court intrigue, mystery, secrets, and romantic tensions. The characters are well developed and sympathetic and the world building is rich and intricate. This is the YA sci-fi/fantasy story I've been looking for and I can't wait to read more from this author!

Such an interesting read!! Definitely a hard book to get started because of the world building/different language, but once you get going this book takes you on a ride. Some really great twists that I didn't see coming but they don't feel ungrounded, so they're jaw dropping but not frustratingly out of thin air. Can't say I'm super attached to any of the side characters but I really started to feel for Andra on her journey. I'm intrigued to see how the romance between Andra and Zhade builds up in the next book as that's a pretty minor part of this one. If you're a sci-fi reader I'd definitely recommend giving this book a chance, and pushing through the first like 70 pages.

About the author

As an only child, Lora Beth Johnson grew up telling herself stories and reading past her bedtime. She spent her adulthood collecting degrees, careers, and stamps in her passport before realizing her passion for creating fictional worlds. When she's not writing, she's teaching college English and learning new languages. She lives in Davidson, NC with her little roommate, Colocataire the Yorki-poo. Goddess in the Machine is her first book.

Find Lora Beth on Twitter @LoraBethWrites