Asking for Trouble
Sarah Prineas
Read 13 reviews from the world’s largest community 
    for readers. The heartwarming and adventure-filled sequel to Trouble in the Stars , in which Trouble, an…
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October 27, 2022

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

After their adventure in Trouble in the Stars, Electra and Trouble are back on the Hindsight with Captain Astra. They have brought along the baby shapeshifter they rescued, who likes to assume the shape of a donut, so they call it that. When the Hindsight goes in search of the cargo ship the Skeleton, they are pursued by the StarLeague ship, Arrow, whose crew has been alerted to their actions due to Donut's shapeshifting. They find the cargo ship at the edge of the universe, but it's difficult to get the cargo off when the ship is wrapped in a blackdragon. They manage to complete their mission, but the Arrow is still stalking them. When Captain Astra tries to sell the supplies, the group meets Electra's mother, who tells them that her sister, Miracle, has also been taken by the StarLeague and forced into training as a cadet, just like Electra was. Electra goes back to the school to try to save her sister, but it's a little harder for Trouble to make it there. With the help of rats who get an identity chip for him (and program it with a fake identity!), he and Donut manage to make their way to the school. Trouble hopes to rescue some other children as well, since the academy procedures are very abusive. Trouble has embraced his human identity, shape shifting mainly when he is hungry and needs to scarf down a pillow, or when he needs to turn into the weapon form for which the Star League created him. He considers Captain Astra his mother, but will this change when he finds out even more secrets about his identity?

Strengths: It was interesting to see Trouble have to babysit another shapeshifter while he was still learning a bit about ontrolling his own powers and settling into his human form. Finding Electra's mother was fortuitous, and her desire to go back to the school and rescue her sister was understandable. The Hindsight's schedule is flexible enough for the two children to go on this mission while they are worried about what the appearance of blackdragons means for the StarLeague. There's plenty of action and adventure, and middle school readers who are always hungry will be sympathetic to Trouble's need to constantly eat!

Weaknesses: This started with an overview of all of the crew of the Hindsight, who are a colorful bunch from a variety of backgrounds. I struggled to keep them all straight, and then they really didn't show up again in the book! N.B. I have never watched the first Star Wars movie beyond the cantina scene, so apparently my tolerance for a large number of alien life forms at once is pretty low!

What I really think: This is a great action oriented science fiction tale for readers who enjoyed Fry's Space Pirates, Lander's Blastaway, Emerson's Last Day on Mars and MacDougall's Mars Evacuees. There is always a need for more books like this for fans of Star Wars and Star Trek. It seems like there should be at least one more book.

April 18, 2022

Read this sequel with my kids. My youngest had listened to the "Trouble in Space" audiobook twice, and was very anxiously awaiting this one.

It was really fun to read. I got a lot more enjoyment out of the experience of reading it with both of them (and experiencing their reactions to what was happening) than I would have had from just the book itself though.

Aspects of the story simply didn't make sense to me (It took Trouble 12 years to escape from the lab? What happened to enable that to occur?), but overall, if you enjoyed the first book you should definitely read this one.

I think the main disappointment was that based on how this one ends, it feels unlikely that there will be a third. That's really too bad.

This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.