Verdict: The aliens' motivations and actions are sensible and intelligent, from their perspective, and the interactions between humans and aliens are well handled. Plot twists at the end are genuinely startling, and leave the reader anticipating the sequel.

Dr. Cassiopeia Baros is a scientist with a mission – to create a self-contained, transversible wormhole in her laboratory.

Her partner and fiance, Dr. Julian Saunders, has pulled more strings than she knows about to ensure her project’s funding and success. But she is haunted by dreams of a peculiar place, and an even more peculiar man who greets her as “my Queen”. When she, Saunders, and their team finally succeed, and they find themselves in the place of her dreams, greeted by the man (literally) of her dreams, can their relationship survive the changes they will undergo? Will they ever make it home intact at all? And what future has been planned for Cass by the mysterious and shadowy Master?

The book could be improved by more attention to the emotions of the human characters, who too often resemble petty, childish teenagers rather than trained adult scientists. The military personnel are drawn more believably – the only issue I have there is with the overuse of swearing among the military team, which is an uncomfortable distraction at times. Additional attention to grammar and word usage would also give the book a more polished feel [NOTE: A re-edited version of the book is now available].

On the positive side, the alien culture of the brajj, to which Cass and her team are transported, is deftly revealed over time, not over-explained or tediously described (as is too often the case in other books). The aliens’ motivations and actions are sensible and intelligent, from their perspective, and the interactions between humans and aliens are well handled. Plot twists at the end are genuinely startling, and leave the reader anticipating the sequel.