Rating: 3 Stars
The Last Human by Zack Jordan is a coming-of-age, space opera tale. It is the prefer book for fans of A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy.
It is a quirky tale about Sarya the daughter, the last of her kind. Her kind being humans. She is raised by an adopted mother of another species. A mother who loves her and will give her life to protect her. Yet, she has a burning desire to know where she comes from and if there is possibly more of her kind still alive.
How can Sarya find out any information about humans when humans are the most feared species in the galaxy? Since she was very young her mother has carefully kept her hidden. No one should know that she exists; especially, since the human race was eradicated over a thousand years ago. Sarya will find out this and much more when a bounty hunter tries to capture her and she is forced to change her view on all she has ever known.
Unfortunately, I never connected with Sarya. I think it was because I found the story was just weird and not in a good way. I struggled to finish it. I put it down multiple times to go on to something more enjoyable. Each time I picked it back up I hoped it would improve. Finally, it got to the point I just wanted to be done.
The writing was good and I liked that it was reflective towards the end. It made me think about humanity and what makes us different and what makes us the same. Also, I thought about race and inequality because these two things came up repeatedly throughout the story. Ultimately, this is what kept me reading even though I never connected to the MC.
I think in hind sight I can say this one was just not my cup of tea. However, I think there are lots of fans out there of this type of story. I also think this would be a great book for a Sci-Fi book club. The story lends itself to a good discuss about cultural and political issues.
I received a free copy, from the publisher, via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.