Reviewed by Robert A. Groves for Readers' Favorite

A thousand-year secret, hidden at the edge of the galaxy, is the central plot of Syrenthian Redemption. Troy D. Wymer’s two-part space opera follows Sierra Shalinsky, a disaster medic and symphony metal vocalist. She first fights for the rights of two species to love freely, then is abducted into a mystery that she had no clue about. The book is divided into two parts, a thousand years apart. Part one is set in the present day, where Xenolfan galaxy law forbids relationships between humans and the Xenolfan aliens. A bitter leader is willing to kill to enforce it. Part two reveals a far older crime where a Xenolfan leader hid a third species. These were the winged Humolfans who were exiled to a dead part of space. The leader rewrote history to erase them. The book ties the two eras together through Sierra, who becomes the Humolfans’ advocate and the leader’s wife. What happens next is quite a story.

Flight is the measure of Syrenthian Redemption. It is all about who had wings, who kept wings, and who never had them among three very different species. And whoever has flight has power. Troy D. Wymer has done an excellent job of combining two novels, Xeno Tryst and Feathers of Shardaa, into a single novel. This construction naturally creates a long but interconnected story with a large cast of characters. His writing is so superb that I was easily able to follow them individually and collectively without any confusion. There are dark chapters that entail the outcome of genocide. There are also some illustrations. I was drawn to read the book by its cover, which depicts a strong warrior woman. The title page illustration shows two feathers interlocked. One is whole, and the other is broken. That illustration symbolizes what happened between the three species. The wedding at the end has a surprise twist that exemplifies how differences can be bridged for love to prevail. Best science fiction book I’ve read this year, and I give it my highest recommendation.