She killed the man who trained her. She killed the fleet that came for her. She killed the planet that caged her. Now she must confront her father.

Mars Xi is on the run, a bounty on her head and a kill count on her conscience. All she has left are her mutant cat Ocho and her fellow human weapon Pale, a young boy wracked by seizures who can kill with a thought. She needs him treated, and she needs to escape, and the only thread left to pull is her frayed connection to her father, Marius Teo. That thread will take her to the outskirts of the galaxy, to grapple with witch-cults and privately-owned planets, and into the hands of the man who engineered her birth. 

*closes Static Ruin* 

*checks & double checks that this is the last book in the VoidWitch Saga*

*cries*

*sinks into state of deep denial*

Well, fuck. I guess that’s it? This is not a series I am ready to say goodbye to. So I’ll keep my fingers crossed that somehow, someday, there will be more of this gloriously gut-punchy & violent space opera. 

Really, all three books in Corey J. White’s series are just fucking brilliant…incredibly fast paced, yet also very character driven. Shockingly violent in places, but with a fair amount of humor mixed in. There’s also so much diversity contained in each of these novellas. And our main character is a foul-mouthed space witch FFS. A TELEKINETIC SPACE WITCH!!! If the VoidWitch Saga is not on your radar, it should be! 

In a way, Static Ruin is the quietest book of the series. It’s very somber in its own way, with a more reflective Mariam Xi (better known as Mars) on a quest of sorts, digging deeper into her own past than she ever has before. Mars & Pale & Ocho are still on the run after the events of Void Black Shadow, with Mars settling in to a protector role of sorts. The bond between her & Pale is really quite sweet at this point in the story, the two of them having so much common ground, much of it heartbreaking. And as always, the connection between Mars & her regenerating mutant cat thingy, Ocho, is just fucking delightful.

As with the first two books, the action sequences in Static Ruin are just fucking blistering & bone-jarringly violent. For some reason, there’s always one heavy metal song or another running through my head when Mars is crushing spaceships with her mind & fucking things up!! 

This is the longest of the three novellas, and still, I wish there was more to this story. It’s such a badass world that White’s created here, and an incredible cast of characters. Mars is for sure one of the more memorable characters I’ve encountered in sci-fi. I’m sad her story is over (still in denial), but I’m really glad to have met her. 

Static Ruin releases 11.6.18! Huge thank you to TOR.COM Publishing for sending me a copy!!!