itsreyz's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Enjoyed this a lot more than Breach of Peace, the two kind of belong together anyway and make a whole. The characters feel real, we learn more about the world, the story's coming together; can't wait to see how it unfolds.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Blood, Gore, Murder, Body horror, Violence, and Death
itisnatal's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-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? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Gore, Blood, Body horror, and Fire/Fire injury
amartinios's review
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Just like the first book, Breach of Peace, this book was hard to put down. It was a real page-turner for me. Some of the world-building is expanded, though perhaps not as much as I would like. Other aspects I really look forward to seeing expanded upon.
My main gripe regarding the world-building is how this society seems to have accepted the Almighty astoundingly quickly. More than just through military conquest, but even in terms of culture. The wars to expand the Empire to it’s continent-spanning size ended only 20 years ago, and we have no information on how long those wars lasted, whether they were constant or intermittent, focusing on conquering one region and then taking some time to incorporate and assimilate it, before expanding further. My feelings of how plausible all this feels depend on the answer.
We still don’t have much information on the Almighty, other than that he had descended from the heavens to bring Salvation to humanity. How does the Almighty, whatever it is, actually rule? What does it *do*?
As for the story, it seems mostly just a continuation of Breach of Peace, more like a prologue than the main body of the series. Nevertheless, I hunger for more.
Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and look forward to the continuation of this series!
Spoiler
My main gripe regarding the world-building is how this society seems to have accepted the Almighty astoundingly quickly. More than just through military conquest, but even in terms of culture. The wars to expand the Empire to it’s continent-spanning size ended only 20 years ago, and we have no information on how long those wars lasted, whether they were constant or intermittent, focusing on conquering one region and then taking some time to incorporate and assimilate it, before expanding further. My feelings of how plausible all this feels depend on the answer.
We still don’t have much information on the Almighty, other than that he had descended from the heavens to bring Salvation to humanity. How does the Almighty, whatever it is, actually rule? What does it *do*?
As for the story, it seems mostly just a continuation of Breach of Peace, more like a prologue than the main body of the series. Nevertheless, I hunger for more.
Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and look forward to the continuation of this series!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Police brutality, Torture, Murder, and Blood
Moderate: Religious bigotry, War, and Colonisation
Minor: Genocide, War, and Colonisation
nick13's review
adventurous
dark
tense
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? Yes
3.25
For the first third or so the book kind of drags as it goes through the previous book but through Chapman's POV. While this part of the book was necessary, it seemed pretty rushed and a little unfocused, even dumbing down his character slightly. While the rest of book picks up pace and quality from there, there were a few things that rang slightly hollow such as This along with the characters all mostly talking the same and a lot of typos really just drag this one down for me and makes me question if Greene really cared about this one. I thought the events in the last book were really interesting and while I liked the fights in this one, enjoyed Holden and Jotch, and thought that the ending was actually really cool. It all just feels a little shallow as some things were expanded upon too much and others weren't expanded upon enough.
Spoiler
the main rebel girl - I have literally already forgotten her name - is shot in the street by some guards while the other characters easily dodged out of the way. Things like this just happened all along the book and it really dragged it down. The character development is not that great, especially with Holden and Recki who have a weird sex scene and that's about the most character depth you get of them before they are just fondling over each other at every chance which leads to her getting shot in the stomach in the sewers which leads to me not giving a shit about the rest of the fight because Holden just sits there crying over Recki.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Murder, Police brutality, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, War, and Genocide
Moderate: Alcohol, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Colonisation
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