Waiting on Wednesday – Gamora & Nebula: Sisters in Arms by Mackenzi Lee

Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy. I run this segment in conjunction with the Can’t-Wait Wednesday meme that is currently running at Wishful Endings. Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them. In this latest Waiting on Wednesday article, I take a look at a very cool upcoming young adult novel that follows two captivating and popular members of the Marvel Comics universe with Gamora & Nebula: Sisters in Arms by Mackenzi Lee.

Gamora and Nebula - Sisters in Arms Cover

Mackenzi Lee is a bestselling author who has produced a wide range of intriguing and powerful novels in her impressive career. Lee is probably best known for her Montague Siblings series, which follows a cad and his sister as they explore some of the insanities of historical Europe. I personally know Lee best for her recent series of young adult tie-in novels based around characters from Marvel Comics. Lee is currently working on a cool trilogy of novels that follows teenage versions of iconic Marvel antiheroes as they embark in complex and exciting adventures. This series started back in 2019 with the very enjoyable Loki: Where Mischief Lies, which set the titular trickster god on an emotionally harrowing adventure in Victorian London. I very much enjoyed this cool novel about a young, insecure Loki, and I have been really looking forward to seeing which fantastic character Lee focuses her next book on.

The wait is over as I finally have some solid details about the second book in this young adult superhero series, Gamora & Nebula: Sisters in Arms, which is currently set for release on 1 June 2021. As the name suggests, this upcoming book will follow the siblings Gamora and Nebula, daughters of the ruthless tyrant Thanos, as they engage in a dangerous game of life and death on a desolate, western-inspired planet. A number of details about this book have already been released, and I have pulled together the following synopsis from a couple of sites to highlight what is going to happen in the book.

Synopsis:

The relationship between teenage adopted sisters Gamora and Nebula is as volatile as ever. When they end up on a deteriorating planet being mined for its valuable resources, the two sisters are faced with a series of events that force them to explore the source of their rivalry-and where their loyalty truly lies. This action-packed yet sincere story will tug on the heartstrings of anyone who has ever had to learn how deeply weird and changeable trust can be.

Gamora arrives on Torndune—a once-lush planet that has been strip-mined for the power source beneath its surface—with a mission: collect the heart of the planet. She doesn’t know who sent her, why they want it, or even what the heart of a planet looks like. But as the daughter of Thanos, the right hand of her father, and one of the galaxy’s most legendary warriors, her job is not to ask questions. Her job is to do what she’s told, no matter the cost.

What she doesn’t know is that her sister Nebula is in hot pursuit. Nebula has followed Gamora to Torndune in hopes of claiming the planet’s heart first and shaming her sister as vengeance for the part she played in Nebula losing her arm. While Gamora falls in with a group of miners attempting to overthrow the tyrannical mining corporation that controls their lives, Nebula allies herself with the Universal Church of Truth, whose missionaries wait on every street corner to recruit more followers and tithes for the Matriarch. Both sisters hope their alliance will give them access to one of the massive diggers capable of drilling to the center of the planet.

But they closer they get to the heart of the planet—and to each other—the closer they get to uncovering the truth of what brought them there and the role they may unknowingly be playing in a twisted competition with galactic consequences. A competition they can never win . . . unless they learn to trust each other.

And trust is the biggest lie in the galaxy.

Now this sounds like it is going to be an intense and amazing novel, and I cannot wait to see what cool magic Lee weaves together in her latest book. The entire premise of these two deadly siblings fighting to be the one to claim a mysterious object (which is probably going to be an Infinity Stone) has a lot of potential for action, excitement and manipulation, and I look forward to seeing how it turns out. It also sounds like Lee is going to dive into some interesting aspects of the cosmic-based Marvel Comics. Not only will Thanos, Gamora and Nebula be featured but the author is also going to look at somewhat obscure groups like the Universal Church of Truth, an old-school Guardians of the Galaxy antagonist. This should add some intriguing elements to the narrative of this book, and I will be curious to see what other characters and organisations make an appearance throughout Sisters in Arms.

While the plot of this book sounds very impressive, it looks like a great deal of this novel’s focus will be on the relationship between Gamora and Nebula. From what I understand, Sisters in Arms will be set in a period when Gamora is still loyal to her father, who regularly pits her against Nebula, resulting in her sister losing her arm, and probably more. As a result, the two characters will start off as bitter rivals and the novel will spend substantial time examining the complex relationship between the two warriors. This should prove to be an intriguing and compelling heart of Sisters in Arms, and I am very curious to see how deeply Lee dives into the hearts and minds of these fantastic characters. I felt that Lee did a fantastic job examining and exploring the true Loki in her previous novel, and I am anticipating some more great character work in this second book. It will be interesting to see how this turns out and I am hopeful it will turn out to be an impressive highlight of the novel.

Based on everything I heard above, and because of her awesome work with Loki: Where Mischief Lies, I think that this new upcoming novel from Lee is going to be extremely enjoyable. I really like the sound of the incredible story that is going to be featured in Gamora & Nebula: Sisters at Arms and I am very excited to see more of these two beloved comic characters. I really do believe that this upcoming book will be an awesome read and I am looking forward to it.