Reviews

Middle of the road, always ambitious but Muir's writing doesn't always live up to it. I do believe she sees everything she writes, but I'm not always sure it all comes out on the page. (The editing also happened too quickly.)

Muir once again leans on the writing trope of a character who doesn't know something because they are damaged. Harrow had her lobotomy last time, and here, Nona was born yesterday. I kind of miss our MC just being a himbo. (Though Gideon Nav is super himbo here and an asshole, not in a fun or beloved way either.)

It was good to finally see regular people having to deal with Jod and the Lyctors, dying planets, resurrection beasts, and intergalactic rebellions. The citizens are having none of it. Nor should they. I did expect more citizen commentary, outside of the children.

I cannot figure out if every character is just genderqueer or trans, or if Muir just read reviews from trans people and ran with it. Nona wanted to melt her body into her own that nobody else would dare want was highly relatable.

I did enjoy Muir building some sympathy and humanizing Jod. At least when he was more human. Alecto's identity was guessable almost immediately after the first John scene.

Imo, these books are not as clever as they want to be unless you don't get the reference (Christian, solar systems, memes), get bored and miss details, or Muir purposely removes details.

Palamedes and Camilla are the best.

thenamesjanice's review against another edition

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funny mysterious medium-paced

3.0

fireheart77's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

johnwillson's review against another edition

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5.0

As different from the first two books as the second was from the first. I read it twice in a row, and discovered on the 2nd reading much that I had missed on the first!
Complex. Unpredictable. Full of rich characters and character play.
Loved it.

ohcatherinemayi's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

econsidine's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I honestly have no idea if I like this series or if I just like trying to figure out what the hell is happening in this series, but either way, I'm loving the experience of reading it, and the third book adds to delightful confusion. It just gets weirder and weirder, and it's exactly the kind of inscrutable fantasy I enjoy thinking about in the back of my head for hours and hours.

Not sure if I could recommend it to anyone in my life, just because it's so damn bizarre. To paraphrase the guys from don't call it a book club: "This might be the least relatable book I've ever read." It's an unreliably-narrated epic giant ensemble of characters (mostly women, manyy LGBT+) in way-futuristic space with magic bone powers, fighting each other and bodyswapping and soulswapping and fighting planet-soul-beasts and looking cool while doing it. There's a six-legged dog and the soul of Earth condensed into a Barbie and a guy who is literally God but also he's kind of just a regular dude named John. If it sounds like something you'd enjoy, give it a whirl.

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