A Strange Chemistry - M.T.Miller

Synopsis:

A novella from the world of the Nameless Chronicle, a bestselling Dark Humor series.
Aaand, stepping into the center ring!
—the streak of color with the dirty mouth!
—the pummeling you never saw coming!
—five time champion of the level two fighting pits, Ruuush!
Or so it used to be. Made into a killing machine by a unique combination of drugs, Rush has been living like a force of nature, always moving forward, never once looking back.

But after helping overthrow the city’s Management, Rush is bored. Bored. Luckily (or not), a conspiracy is brewing in the city of Babylon, threatening everything Rush ever fought for. Dragged into its gaping jaws, Rush is forced to fight for her fix and her freedom, as well as her life.
And she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Featuring the faster-than-light violet-haired cage fighter from Ascent: the Second Book of the Nameless Chronicle, this novella takes place between Ascent and Strife, due out in 2017

Review:

A Strange Chemistry takes place after Ascent and is a little shorter than Risen which was the first instalment of The Nameless Chronicle. The whole of this story is told from Rush's point of view, we saw her in the last book and didn't have a chance to get to know her much. I have to start by expressing how happy I am to see Rush and the city of Babylon once more.

Rush still has nightmares about her part in overthrowing Management, she just can't seem to shake it and any sound that comes anywhere close to snakes coats her in anxiety and panic. She has since moved into a new apartment much like the one Bones received in Ascent and she doesn't use half of what lies within it.

On the second floor now lies a 10 foot tall statue, in a long coat. the day Nameless declared he will be taking over, the stand that once belonged to The One True Church Of America was gone and now a 10ft tall Nameless stands in it's place.

We end up seeing the cages once more, a place where steam is let out but even now Rush is feared by most competitors, no one is betting against her, this means no money for her or Jake. She's forced to take a break from the scene and it forces her into an even deeper pit of boredom.

Once finding out that she had injured the Turtle so badly that he was taking a long time to recover, Rush cant help but think she's growing stronger and after the last time she goes in search of answers only finding trouble.

The book switches from current Rush to Valentina and Khalid and shows their arrival and start of life at the City of Babylon.

It was really interesting to see how the whole Rush thing came along, seeing her frail and un-Rush like felt so right just so we could see that she was human before now, she was just an ordinary human willing to do whatever she needed to to survive the time in Babylon even if that meant becoming a tester of concoctions created by Khalid.

Everything was pretty much a shock to me, there was always a surprise factor to the novella. Each chapter grips you and urges you on into the next one. I absolutely love how all of these books are written. M.T.Miller has truly got a skill to write not just books but also novellas, even though small and easy reads, they help fill in blanks and build up suspense for whats next to come. It's a definite 5/5 for this novella, it was great to explore a character more more deeply and to have some suspense built up for whats to come.