On a Rogue Planet (Phoenix Adventures) by Anna Hackett Format: eARC
Source: author
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Genres: science fiction romance
Series: Phoenix Adventures #3
Pages: 334
Published by Anna Hackett on April 21, 2026
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble
Goodreads
Unlucky-in-love salvage mechanic, Malin Phoenix, didn’t intend to get caught up in a coup and kidnapped by a sexy cyborg. But she finds herself swept into an adventure to help the deadly, emotionless CenSec, Xander Saros, retrieve an ancient Terran artifact and save his planet.
Soon she’s racing across uncharted space and is magnetically drawn to the cyborg whose strong arms and muscled body ignite a desire that burns brighter than a supernova. But Mal can never let herself forget that she can’t fall in love with a cyborg who can never love her back.
The crowning glory of the Centax Security program, Xander is heavily enhanced, his emotions dampened to nothing to allow him to be the most efficient, lethal killer in the galaxy. As he and Malin hunt for the remnant of the galaxy’s first computer, the Antikythera Mechanism, their quest leads them into the lair of a dangerous technomancer. But Xander can’t identify his greatest threat—the enemy or the fascinating woman who’s making him feel.
My Review:
Eleven years ago I fell hard into this book, and the same thing happened again in this reread. I mean that completely. When the Phoenix Adventures series originally began in 2015, I loved them all and remembered them very fondly, but eleven years is a LONG time and a lot of books ago.
However, I must confess, this was probably a case of the right book at the right time, as I needed a guaranteed escape from reality, and this author and especially this series has always delivered.
And did it again.
The first time around, I said this book combined bits of Firefly, Deep Space 9, Babylon 5 and Linnea Sinclair’s truly excellent science fiction romance Games of Command, all of which weren’t all that distant in the rearview mirror at that time.
Those antecedents still hold, although the world has changed. Ace scrapper/engineer Malin Phoenix is still Kaylee’s sister-from-another-galactic-mister, the jumpgates that help the Phoenix cousins/brothers are a well-used and VERY convenient bit of tech also featured in DS9, B5 and Mass Effect, while unfortunately Linnea Sinclair seems to have stopped writing some years ago. (If you love SFR and can find her books, they are ALL excellent).
I’d also throw the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the pile, as the Technomancer in On a Rogue Planet and the Grandmaster in Thor: Ragnarok are brothers-from-another-galactic-mother – who they probably murdered along their evil way.
There’s a big part of me that’s gobsmacked at just how long ago 2015 feels from a real-world perspective, how many of those references that were current then are dated now, and just generally how much the world has changed in the intervening years.
What hasn’t changed, not one little itty-bitty bit, is just how good of a story this was then – and is now.
Escape Rating A-: That’s the same grade I gave On a Rogue Planet back in my original review, and it earns that grade again today. On the one hand, it’s even a bit better than it was before, in that as a long term fan of the author I can see the seeds of some of her (then) future SFR and Action/Adventure Romance series, especially Eon Warriors, Oronis Knights and (literally in this particular case) Treasure Hunter Security.
On my two other hands, I have to admit that I liked the original cover better. More importantly, and this is a “me” thing, the background plot twist about saving the women of Centax from being sold into slavery for breeding purposes is starting to ring a bit hollow. It works in the story, and it provides one hell of a motivation for throwing the evil usurper OFF Centax, but the whole “women in the fridge in jeopardy” is just getting old for me. He was plenty evil without that added incentive to remove him from his stolen power. But, as I said, that’s a “me” thing.
What I loved about this story, then and now, is the way that Malin Phoenix knows just who she is and what she’s capable of, and isn’t willing to compromise those things or make herself smaller or lesser because she doesn’t fit the box that so many men want to place her in.
And, that instead of Xander being the stereotypical uncommunicative and unemotional alpha male, he is who and what he is for a reason that makes SFnal sense. He’s been trained and programmed to be unemotional because emotions are inefficient and get in the way of his duty. Whether the way that was done began as tradition or child abuse depends a LOT on perspective in a way that is thought-provoking rather than judgmental. (Although I’d have loved more about Centax because THAT would be a fascinating discussion in its own right.)
All of that being said, I had another fantastic reading time with the Phoenix brothers and cousins. So much so that I’m looking forward eagerly to the next re-release in this series, In a Dangerous Orbit, as well as the author’s next contemporary romance, Never and Always, in her Langston Hotels series.
But the Phoenix Adventures have always held a special place in this reader’s heart, and I’m beyond thrilled at this opportunity to experience all of their adventures again!
