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Reviewed by Keith Mbuya for Readers' Favorite
Twenty-four-year-old Nina Brandt, a paralegal in Salt Lake City, Utah, is dissatisfied with her ordinary life. While her job paid the bills, she didn’t particularly love it. If only she were better at mathematics and didn’t wear glasses, she wouldn’t have abandoned her childhood dream of being an astronaut, and certainly wouldn’t be feeling like she was in a rut. However, when she goes hiking in the Wasatch Mountains, she has no idea her dreams are about to become true. She bumps into three strangers—Rion, Tirk, and Elver—carrying an irkoy crystal, a sentient pendant, to which she unexpectedly attunes. Soon, as she finds herself in the trio’s spaceship, she learns that they are from a distant civilization within the World Alliance, an intergalactic government, and that she is a crystal bearer, a few chosen who can attune to the Irkoy crystal and gain enhanced special abilities, including telepathy, enhanced perception, and energy manipulation. As a Crystal Bearer, she is among the few who can fight the Mist, a malevolent force in the universe, capable of destroying worlds, and her help is desperately needed. Is she ready for what is ahead? Find out in Irkoy Crystal by Raylene Lyon.
The storyline moves at a dynamic pace, with moments of reflection, tension, and action. Lyon reveals the characters’ emotions and personalities through character-driven conversations. I found Nina relatable. Her feelings of stagnation and hollowness in her post-school life highlight the feelings most people deal with in jobs they are not passionate about. Her transition from an ordinary girl who spent most of her time singing in the church choir, playing the piano, sewing, and hiking, to a popular superhuman, traveling the universe, and bravely facing daunting forces, demonstrates how much she would have accomplished had she been born with the abilities she desired. If you are looking for a science fiction novel that blends adventure with suspense, fantasy, and a splash of romance, Irkoy Crystal by Raylene Lyon is a worthy pick.
