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Chilling Effect
"Jam-packed with weird aliens, mysterious artifacts, and lovable characters... a tremendous good time and an impressive debut." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred)
A hilarious, offbeat debut space opera that skewers everything from pop culture to video games and features an irresistible foul-mouthed captain and her motley crew, strange life forms, exciting twists, and a galaxy full of fun and adventure.
Captain Eva Innocente and the crew of La Sirena Negra cruise the galaxy delivering small cargo for even smaller profits. When her sister Mari is kidnapped by The Fridge, a shadowy syndicate that holds people hostage in cryostasis, Eva must undergo a series of unpleasant, dangerous missions to pay the ransom.
But Eva may lose her mind before she can raise the money. The ship's hold is full of psychic cats, an amorous fish-faced emperor wants her dead after she rejects his advances, and her sweet engineer is giving her a pesky case of feelings. The worse things get, the more she lies, raising suspicions and testing her loyalty to her found family.
To free her sister, Eva will risk everything: her crew, her ship, and the life she's built on the ashes of her past misdeeds. But when the dominoes start to fall and she finds the real threat is greater than she imagined, she must decide whether to play it cool or burn it all down.
A hilarious, offbeat debut space opera that skewers everything from pop culture to video games and features an irresistible foul-mouthed captain and her motley crew, strange life forms, exciting twists, and a galaxy full of fun and adventure.
Captain Eva Innocente and the crew of La Sirena Negra cruise the galaxy delivering small cargo for even smaller profits. When her sister Mari is kidnapped by The Fridge, a shadowy syndicate that holds people hostage in cryostasis, Eva must undergo a series of unpleasant, dangerous missions to pay the ransom.
But Eva may lose her mind before she can raise the money. The ship's hold is full of psychic cats, an amorous fish-faced emperor wants her dead after she rejects his advances, and her sweet engineer is giving her a pesky case of feelings. The worse things get, the more she lies, raising suspicions and testing her loyalty to her found family.
To free her sister, Eva will risk everything: her crew, her ship, and the life she's built on the ashes of her past misdeeds. But when the dominoes start to fall and she finds the real threat is greater than she imagined, she must decide whether to play it cool or burn it all down.
Editorial Reviews
"Jam-packed with weird aliens, mysterious artifacts, and lovable characters... Eva and her family are Latinx and often include un-italicized Spanish in their dialogue, a rare find in a genre that usually uses whiteness as the default. A tremendous good time and an impressive debut." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Featuring memorable Cuban-descended characters, this engaging space opera debut delivers a story that dances between hilarity and seriousness, with all the joy and frustration psychic cats can bring to the mix."
-- Library Journal (starred review)
"Valdes' debut novel follows starship captain Eva Innocente and her crew... The mixture of space adventure and interpersonal relationships comes off as a more light hearted take on the video game Mass Effect and should appeal to anyone looking for its particular brand of light, fun space opera. -- Booklist
"Valerie Valdes delivers a hilarious and heartwarming story of a lovably screwed-up found family pinballing through a galaxy of spies and villains. My crops are watered, my skin is clear, my shields are at full strength, and my heart is ready for Eva's next adventure." -- Patrick Weekes, author of Feeder
"Imagine if Firefly and Mass Effect got together and had a baby, and that baby were delivered by Guillermo del Toro. This book is that baby. ¡Esto fue un triunfo!" -- Curtis C. Chen, author of the Locus Award finalist Waypoint Kangaroo
"Mass Effect meets The Expanse in this energetic space opera adventure. Eva Innocente is unforgettable starship captain and I love every member of her crew-slash-family. This book has enough twists to keep you up way past bedtime, and I can't wait for the sequel." -- Michael R. Underwood, author of the "Stabby" Finalist series Genrenauts
"Eva's fiery spark of devotion and spirit will keep readers captivated until the very last page of this winding, backtracking and space-jumping ride." -- BookPage
"Chilling Effect is a funny, fast-moving, richly detailed space opera set in a sprawling universe of aliens and flashy tech, and Eva Innocente and her rag-tag crew make for excellent company while you're hurtling from one planet to the next. While the ending satisfies, it will also leave you very much looking forward to another tour of the galaxy with this band of rebellious misfits." -- B&N Sci-fi and Fantasy Blog
"Featuring memorable Cuban-descended characters, this engaging space opera debut delivers a story that dances between hilarity and seriousness, with all the joy and frustration psychic cats can bring to the mix."
-- Library Journal (starred review)
"Valdes' debut novel follows starship captain Eva Innocente and her crew... The mixture of space adventure and interpersonal relationships comes off as a more light hearted take on the video game Mass Effect and should appeal to anyone looking for its particular brand of light, fun space opera. -- Booklist
"Valerie Valdes delivers a hilarious and heartwarming story of a lovably screwed-up found family pinballing through a galaxy of spies and villains. My crops are watered, my skin is clear, my shields are at full strength, and my heart is ready for Eva's next adventure." -- Patrick Weekes, author of Feeder
"Imagine if Firefly and Mass Effect got together and had a baby, and that baby were delivered by Guillermo del Toro. This book is that baby. ¡Esto fue un triunfo!" -- Curtis C. Chen, author of the Locus Award finalist Waypoint Kangaroo
"Mass Effect meets The Expanse in this energetic space opera adventure. Eva Innocente is unforgettable starship captain and I love every member of her crew-slash-family. This book has enough twists to keep you up way past bedtime, and I can't wait for the sequel." -- Michael R. Underwood, author of the "Stabby" Finalist series Genrenauts
"Eva's fiery spark of devotion and spirit will keep readers captivated until the very last page of this winding, backtracking and space-jumping ride." -- BookPage
"Chilling Effect is a funny, fast-moving, richly detailed space opera set in a sprawling universe of aliens and flashy tech, and Eva Innocente and her rag-tag crew make for excellent company while you're hurtling from one planet to the next. While the ending satisfies, it will also leave you very much looking forward to another tour of the galaxy with this band of rebellious misfits." -- B&N Sci-fi and Fantasy Blog
Readers Top Reviews
aprilR. MainesJennyC
A bit too episodic, with event after event, just running on, and little development of characters or plot...reasonably funny, feisty and cute, with lots of cursing, sexual innuendoes, sexual shenanigans, exciting space creatures and evil villains, but, essentially, a good guys versus bad guys endeavor, where betrayal lurks in every relationship...a bit relentless in the quest for the next bad experience...a bit tirering and drawn-out...piling helion upon ossa...
Polly Morgan
This was a chaotic, crazy and bizarre read, but completely worth it! It is a wonderful mess of colourful worlds and new creatures. I can see it being a ‘marmite’ read, with some struggling with the mass of information and the story jumping from mission to mission, but I loved it! You find yourself falling in love with the smuggler crew, despite the air of mystery around each character. The psychic cats are adorable and the evil emperor hilarious. It is one that I will read over and over again and still be picking up tiny details I missed the last time! It feels full of secret Easter Eggs and fun references. It is definitely worth a read to see what you think!
Chad Thomas Valdes
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Chilling Effect's author is not a stranger to me as I've followed her writings in various short forms for a few years now, but this was a different and fun angle than her prior works. The world she has invented is worthy of its own wiki and I hope one day it grows into that. The protagonist (Eva) is very amusing, and has some serious flaws and baggage that get worked on in some good character development. The use of Hispanic culture in future space is both interesting and new as far as I have read (I imagine there are other examples, but this was my first), plus it makes the character's language and family highly relatable due to the touch of real / present life that is lived. The side cast and the villans of the piece are also interesting and leaving you wanting more at the end. The tech descriptions and sense of awe at the unknown vastness of space and what we could find there is here, and is part of what I would consider essential to good sci-fi. There's even a touch of sci-fi/horror at one point, which I thought was great as the author has done excellent horror stories before, and Im glad to see that continued. There are several nods at geek and pop-culture here that are very amusing in how they were weaved into the story. There are multiple levels of intrigue that are going to be rich fields for mining future stories, which I look forward to reading and of course seeing more of Eva and crew's adventures. I look forward to re-reading this book in the future and its (hopefully!) upcoming sequels! These days I dont have nearly the luxury of time I used to, and so me wanting to re-read a book is out of the ordinary considering the stack of unread books on my shelves. I highly recommend you read this amazing sci-fi romp through the near future and enjoy an amazing first outing for this author.
RDD
In “Chilling Effect,” Valerie Valdes introduces Captain Eve Innocente and the crew of La Sirena Negra, who work to eke out a living in the galactic gray market. When Eva’s sister, Mari, is kidnapped by the galactic crime syndicate known as The Fridge, she must work for them to earn her sister’s freedom. Along the way, Eva struggles with having to hide the truth of their jobs from her crew while avoiding an alien overlord who never learned to handle rejection and blames women for his own shortcomings. Further complicating matters are strange artifacts left behind by the Proarkhe, a mysterious extinct alien civilization that built the Gates which make galactic travel possible, but also left various other items behind that the various alien governments, mercenaries, and The Fridge all seek. Valdes’ story fully embraces the variety possible in space opera, with only a few human characters amid dozens of other featured species (and nearly a hundred named aliens). While she creates her own universe, she works in some fun pop cultural references, with Eva’s friend Pink metaphorically describing naiveté through a reference to “a sweet young moisture farmer with dreams of space travel” (pg. 318). She also pokes fun at academia and the way professors assign their own monographs in a manner reminiscenct of Douglas Adams’ humor (pg. 332). In terms of tone and the scope of her vision, Valdes’ universe most closely resembles Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ “Saga” comic book series, though this only approximates the feel of “Chilling Effect.” Valdes also works to decolonize science-fiction through her use of Spanglish, which both deepens her character portrayals and leads to some really creative profanity that can lighten the heavier moments. Fans of space opera should welcome Valerie Valdes’ work and look forward to the follow-up to this book, “Prime Deceptions”!
Daria
I'm a bit torn about this book. I loved the premise (who doesn't love psychic cats after all?), Eva's voice is strong from the first page and convinced me to buy the book, and her adventures, with action-packed moments and funny episodes that become at points surreal kept me entertained enough that I finished off the book in two sessions. The novel doesn't have a single glaring issue, but several smaller ones that added up to make me feel slightly dissatisfied when I reached the end. First, it was a question of tone between the more light-hearted parts of the story and the darker elements of it that left me a bit unsure how seriously I had to take the story. Second, while Eva is a layered character with a lot of grey - she wants to do good, but she does also a lot of terrible things, more or less intentionally - the rest of the cast felt pretty paper thin. And third, Eva herself is interesting and has a fun voice, but she is also a bit unfocused as a character and somewhere in the middle of the story it becomes really unclear what the hell she wants. I'll keep an eye for the follow-up. Three and half stars
