Reviewed by Saifunnissa Hassam for Readers' Favorite

A.K. Duboff’s Infiltration (Mindspace, Book 1) is an exciting, fast-paced, and action-filled space opera. The story is set in the Taran Empire on the planet Valta. Tarans are human. The Taranian Guard is the primary military force for the Taran Empire. Several hundred years ago, three planets, Elusia, Mysar, and Valta, broke off from the Taran Empire. Valta has a unique natural ecosystem where animals share telepathic bonds, and some people develop telepathic and telekinetic abilities. Captain Kira Elsar is from Valta. A highly talented telepath, she is an officer in the Tararian Guard. MTech is a biotech research company on the planet Mysar, working on a secret research project with the Mysaran military. Kira finds information about alien nanotechnology experiments at an abandoned MTech civilian research lab on a remote moon. When Mtech builds a civilian research lab on Kira’s homeworld of Valta, Kira and the Tararians are highly suspicious of its objectives. The story twists and turns when Kira takes on a perilous covert mission to Valta.

With a gripping and immersive storyline and richly imagined characters, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Infiltration. I particularly enjoyed the character development of the principal character, Kira Elsar. I liked the introductory chapters, highlighting Kira’s role in the Tararian Guard and the unique origin of her highly developed telepathic and telekinesis abilities. As the story unfolds on Kira’s homeworld of Valta, I found myself on edge, riveted by Kira’s courageous actions when she puts herself in life-threatening situations to uncover MTech’s biological and nanotechnological research. I loved the vivid worldbuilding of the Taran Empire, the planet Valta, and the Mtech research lab on Valta. The novel gained great depth as Kira’s character and her abilities spring to life, particularly during her covert mission at the Mtech lab. The tension skyrocketed as the other characters emerged, particularly at the Mtech lab. I liked how subplots are interwoven into the overall story, revealing the political intrigue involving the planet Mysar. Finally, I loved the highly imaginative cover graphic depicting deep-space powered armor beings. A. K. DuBoff’s space opera is an intense, action-packed story of terrifying experimentation involving genetics and alien nanotechnology. I highly recommend Infiltration to readers of sci-fi space opera, with its intriguing and remarkable characters, fascinating story about genetics, telepathy and telekinesis, political intrigue, and military action.