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thatlibrarynerd's review against another edition
1.0
Reading this book was an agonizingly dull experience.
frostbehemoth's review against another edition
5.0
As a queer person who loves giant robot stuff, this book is perfect for me. Lots of queer drama and giant robot fights. I can't wait to pick up the sequel.
__theblackthorn's review against another edition
4.0
All wrapped up in Gearbreakers for the past few days, really digging the relationship dynamics and characters here. Some feel more fleshed out than others but based on my read, we could be seeing a sequel to this..? Unsure if one has been announced but it’s ripe for it. Sona and Eris are incredibly strong heroines, each with their own personalities and tragedies which build their characters well. Zoe Hans Mikuta deftly evolves not only the protagonists but the way we perceive them throughout the novel. What a journey they have!
Pick this up and enjoy if you’re into cool mecha fights with Pacific Rim-type machines, strong characters, and non-typical ones at that, with a great story focused around the lengths we go to maintain our humanity when losing that aspect is exactly what might lead to victory.
Pick this up and enjoy if you’re into cool mecha fights with Pacific Rim-type machines, strong characters, and non-typical ones at that, with a great story focused around the lengths we go to maintain our humanity when losing that aspect is exactly what might lead to victory.
mechahendrix's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
jjhowick's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I always give 5 stars for books I read for free at the library. This book was really cool and reminded me of Pacific Rim, Host and the Iron Widow. The POV was in first person and switches a lot so it was difficult for me to distinguish who was talking. The fight scenes were cool and easy to follow and beautifully written. TBH I only got truly hooked at the 45% mark because that’s when the story had higher stakes. There wasn’t a lot of romance but that was good because there was a lot of action and I assume the next book will be developing relationships. I could tell the author put in a lot of work and tons of research. I wish it was a bit easier for me to understand but I believe it will make better sense and be even more enjoyable if I read it a second time. It reminded me of Arcane as well with the main female cast as they were tough as nails and extremely admirable.
tjcossor's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
4.0
wintersorbit's review against another edition
1.0
After I finished Gearbreakers at 1:30 am, I looked up from my phone and for a few minutes pondered how I felt about it, what I liked and what I didn’t. The list of dislikes was endless. The list of likes was near-empty. Honestly, I don’t know if this is a case of “this book wasn’t for me” or the book just not being very good. I have a lot of thoughts, which I have tried to put into words in this (for my standard) long review. If you’re interested in hearing my thoughts, feel free to continue reading, but be aware that this is an overwhelmingly negative review with a lot of messy thoughts.
The book opens with Sona, one of the two main characters, having been transformed into a sort of cyborg-type creature who can pilot one of her city’s mecha-deities (also called Windups). Her story, in the beginning, takes place in Godolia, a sort of city-state that worships Gods in the form of giant robots, and pilots use those robots to… defend the city? And also to wipe out towns in the “Badlands”, the wasteland around Godolia. Some information is provided about wars from the past that have transformed the area into a wasteland, and at this point, there are only a few towns left that exist to provide resources for Godolia.
The other point-of-view character in Gearbreakers is Eris, who is part of a group of people called “Gearbreakers”, whose mission is to take down the Windups that enter the Badlands. She captains her own crew of underage Gearbreakers who work together to take down Godolian robots. On one of her robot take-down missions, Eris is captured by the Godolians and taken to the Academy, where the mecha pilots, including Sona, reside. The entire first half of the book follows Eris as she gets captured, is tortured by the Godolians, and plots her escape with Sona, who is secretly anti-Godolian.
One of my major problems with this book is the worldbuilding, which simply does not make sense. Vague references are to wars that have happened in the past, but it never quite becomes clear how Godolia came to be. At some point in the past, people have decided to merge all the major world religions, but it never becomes clear whether those are the religions on our Earth, or whether this book takes place in a secondary world. It would make sense for it to be a future version of Earth since some of the Windup classes are named after figures from religions in our world, for example, Valkyries or Archangels. Eris also mentions that she is named after one of their world’s gods of discord—Eris is the Greek goddess of discord. The problem is that if in this world, all the major world religions have been merged, it would make no sense for Greek and Norse polytheism (see Eris and Valkyries) to be merged with Christianity (see archangels). The characters also speak of “twin hells”, suggesting that two different religious concepts of hell have been combined, which, to me at least, also just makes zero sense. If you are going to make references to real-life religious concepts from past and present, I would at least like some more explanation for how these have been merged.
Godolia as a state is also a vague concept. There are some descriptions of how the city looks, but it does not become clear how the city operates on, for instance, a political level. It is apparently led by five “Zeniths”, but it never becomes clear who these Zeniths are, what they do, or how they come into their positions. Apart from that, the only aspect from Godolian society that is explored is the Academy, where soldiers are trained, and the pilots who control the mecha-deities. Other than that, I have so many more questions about Godolia. Why do they want to erase the Badlands people? They are mentioned to be at war with other nations, but where are these nations? Who are they? How did Godolia come to be? Do all Godolians believe that they are somehow superior to the people who do not live in Godolia? These questions just scratch the surface of my frustrations with the lack of insight that is provided into the setting of Gearbreakers.
A significant part of the book also takes place in the operation base of the Gearbreakers, a place called the Hollows. This seems to be a collection of buildings where crews of Gearbreakers all live on their own floor, which is clear enough. The side characters introduced in this setting, however, are simply unmemorable. Eris is the captain of her own Gearbreakers crew and leads a bunch of kids in their effort to take down Godolia’s Windups. The problem is that none of these kids are memorable. They form the found family that is at the core of big parts of the story, and yet I could not keep most of them apart. I finished this book some 15 hours ago at the point of writing this review and I cannot remember most of their names, let alone tell you anything about them. That is a problem when large parts of the book focus on the connections between Eris, Sona, and these kids.
Eris and Sona as characters also were not very memorable to me, if I’m honest. There were points in the book where I could not keep their points of view apart because both of their inner narratives are so heavily defined by anger and hatred for Godolia. Their anger is righteous, that is true, but without a clear background for the conflict between Godolia and the Badlands, I simply could not care less. Both characters are feral, angry, and aggressive, and I’m not necessarily opposed to that, but sometimes it felt like these characters were being aggressive for the sake of being aggressive and it got to a point where I started rolling my eyes at Eris in particular. As I wasn’t the biggest fan of either of their characters, I also did not particularly care for their romance. Also, when an author calls the book “a rom-com with robots” in her acknowledgments, I expect a bit more focus on romantic development.
The plot and structure of Gearbreakers also left a lot to be desired for me. For a large part of the book, there does not seem to be a central plotline other than vaguely trying to rebel against the Godolian state. Towards the last third of the book, they finally seem to be working towards a final goal, but even then it is not structured well. There is a big battle happening around two-thirds into the book, but the final part of the battle is just… skipped over with a scene break? I was so confused and frustrated. In general, there are parts with emotional and romantic development skipped over in the last third that I would have been interested in seeing, whereas there are parts in the first two-thirds that I think could have been skipped over. Honestly, I sort of got the idea that the author first came up with characters and a romance and then realized that maybe the book also needed a plot and a world to take place in… and never properly developed them.
All in all, Gearbreakers was just a massive disappointment. I can hardly pinpoint a single thing about the book that I actually liked, and I think this is genuinely one of my least favorite YA speculative fiction books I have ever read. I would be interested in reading more of Zoe Hana Mikuta’s work in the future because she is a young writer who does seem to come up with really cool concepts. I definitely won’t be reading the sequel to Gearbreakers, though, even though that ending was mean.
Content warnings: torture, blood and gore, mass murder, familial death, gun violence, immolation, body mutilation
The book opens with Sona, one of the two main characters, having been transformed into a sort of cyborg-type creature who can pilot one of her city’s mecha-deities (also called Windups). Her story, in the beginning, takes place in Godolia, a sort of city-state that worships Gods in the form of giant robots, and pilots use those robots to… defend the city? And also to wipe out towns in the “Badlands”, the wasteland around Godolia. Some information is provided about wars from the past that have transformed the area into a wasteland, and at this point, there are only a few towns left that exist to provide resources for Godolia.
The other point-of-view character in Gearbreakers is Eris, who is part of a group of people called “Gearbreakers”, whose mission is to take down the Windups that enter the Badlands. She captains her own crew of underage Gearbreakers who work together to take down Godolian robots. On one of her robot take-down missions, Eris is captured by the Godolians and taken to the Academy, where the mecha pilots, including Sona, reside. The entire first half of the book follows Eris as she gets captured, is tortured by the Godolians, and plots her escape with Sona, who is secretly anti-Godolian.
One of my major problems with this book is the worldbuilding, which simply does not make sense. Vague references are to wars that have happened in the past, but it never quite becomes clear how Godolia came to be. At some point in the past, people have decided to merge all the major world religions, but it never becomes clear whether those are the religions on our Earth, or whether this book takes place in a secondary world. It would make sense for it to be a future version of Earth since some of the Windup classes are named after figures from religions in our world, for example, Valkyries or Archangels. Eris also mentions that she is named after one of their world’s gods of discord—Eris is the Greek goddess of discord. The problem is that if in this world, all the major world religions have been merged, it would make no sense for Greek and Norse polytheism (see Eris and Valkyries) to be merged with Christianity (see archangels). The characters also speak of “twin hells”, suggesting that two different religious concepts of hell have been combined, which, to me at least, also just makes zero sense. If you are going to make references to real-life religious concepts from past and present, I would at least like some more explanation for how these have been merged.
Godolia as a state is also a vague concept. There are some descriptions of how the city looks, but it does not become clear how the city operates on, for instance, a political level. It is apparently led by five “Zeniths”, but it never becomes clear who these Zeniths are, what they do, or how they come into their positions. Apart from that, the only aspect from Godolian society that is explored is the Academy, where soldiers are trained, and the pilots who control the mecha-deities. Other than that, I have so many more questions about Godolia. Why do they want to erase the Badlands people? They are mentioned to be at war with other nations, but where are these nations? Who are they? How did Godolia come to be? Do all Godolians believe that they are somehow superior to the people who do not live in Godolia? These questions just scratch the surface of my frustrations with the lack of insight that is provided into the setting of Gearbreakers.
A significant part of the book also takes place in the operation base of the Gearbreakers, a place called the Hollows. This seems to be a collection of buildings where crews of Gearbreakers all live on their own floor, which is clear enough. The side characters introduced in this setting, however, are simply unmemorable. Eris is the captain of her own Gearbreakers crew and leads a bunch of kids in their effort to take down Godolia’s Windups. The problem is that none of these kids are memorable. They form the found family that is at the core of big parts of the story, and yet I could not keep most of them apart. I finished this book some 15 hours ago at the point of writing this review and I cannot remember most of their names, let alone tell you anything about them. That is a problem when large parts of the book focus on the connections between Eris, Sona, and these kids.
Eris and Sona as characters also were not very memorable to me, if I’m honest. There were points in the book where I could not keep their points of view apart because both of their inner narratives are so heavily defined by anger and hatred for Godolia. Their anger is righteous, that is true, but without a clear background for the conflict between Godolia and the Badlands, I simply could not care less. Both characters are feral, angry, and aggressive, and I’m not necessarily opposed to that, but sometimes it felt like these characters were being aggressive for the sake of being aggressive and it got to a point where I started rolling my eyes at Eris in particular. As I wasn’t the biggest fan of either of their characters, I also did not particularly care for their romance. Also, when an author calls the book “a rom-com with robots” in her acknowledgments, I expect a bit more focus on romantic development.
The plot and structure of Gearbreakers also left a lot to be desired for me. For a large part of the book, there does not seem to be a central plotline other than vaguely trying to rebel against the Godolian state. Towards the last third of the book, they finally seem to be working towards a final goal, but even then it is not structured well. There is a big battle happening around two-thirds into the book, but the final part of the battle is just… skipped over with a scene break? I was so confused and frustrated. In general, there are parts with emotional and romantic development skipped over in the last third that I would have been interested in seeing, whereas there are parts in the first two-thirds that I think could have been skipped over. Honestly, I sort of got the idea that the author first came up with characters and a romance and then realized that maybe the book also needed a plot and a world to take place in… and never properly developed them.
All in all, Gearbreakers was just a massive disappointment. I can hardly pinpoint a single thing about the book that I actually liked, and I think this is genuinely one of my least favorite YA speculative fiction books I have ever read. I would be interested in reading more of Zoe Hana Mikuta’s work in the future because she is a young writer who does seem to come up with really cool concepts. I definitely won’t be reading the sequel to Gearbreakers, though, even though that ending was mean.
Content warnings: torture, blood and gore, mass murder, familial death, gun violence, immolation, body mutilation
mstevensbooks's review against another edition
4.0
I read this book while on a 16 hour car trip and it was the exact book I didn’t know I needed. It transported me to a whole different woke away from rural Midwest into this dystopian futuristic world.
Gearbreakers in many ways is like any other dystopian rebellion novel. It had many tropes/elements I enjoy. Found family, gay, intrigue, and robots.
I don’t mean this in a bad way at all because it was exactly what I needed but there wasn’t too much special about this book. I throughly enjoyed it and will be reading the second one. I liked the discussions about who we are and how we define our sense of self. I will worn anyone who wants to read this book it ends on a MASSIVE cliff hanger.
Gearbreakers in many ways is like any other dystopian rebellion novel. It had many tropes/elements I enjoy. Found family, gay, intrigue, and robots.
I don’t mean this in a bad way at all because it was exactly what I needed but there wasn’t too much special about this book. I throughly enjoyed it and will be reading the second one. I liked the discussions about who we are and how we define our sense of self. I will worn anyone who wants to read this book it ends on a MASSIVE cliff hanger.