Defending the Galaxy

Defending the Galaxy is the third book in Maria V. Snyder’s Sentinels of the Galaxy trilogy, which began with Navigating the Stars and continued with Chasing the Shadows. The series is set roughly five hundred years in the future, in a human civilization that has spread across the galaxy and is now dealing with the discovery that the Terracotta Warriors of ancient China were not the only ones of their kind. Similar warrior figures, dating from across human history but now scattered across many distant planets, are being discovered everywhere, and they are connected to a much older mystery.

The protagonist is Lyra Daniels, the seventeen year old daughter of two famous archaeologists, who has spent her life moving from one excavation site to the next. Lyra would be a typical bored teenager except that she has discovered she is one of a small number of humans who can use a strange new technology and who can connect with the warriors and with the much larger threat that is approaching. By the third book, the war has come to her, and the question of whether the human worlds can be defended at all is on the table.

Maria V. Snyder writes young adult science fiction and fantasy with a particular knack for plotting. Her series have clear arcs, her cliffhangers land, and her romances are integrated into the larger story rather than tacked on. The world building in the Sentinels of the Galaxy series is interesting because it grounds the science fiction premises in real archaeology, with the Terracotta Warriors as a starting point and a wider history of ancient mysteries that get reframed through the trilogy.

For longtime Snyder fans who came up through her Study series or her Healer series, this trilogy is a strong return. For new readers, start with Navigating the Stars, since the references and stakes in Defending the Galaxy depend heavily on the earlier books.