Reviews with content warning for Bullying - The First Sister

This book has been in my TBR pile for some time and I’m so glad I finally got to it!

At first, I was afraid the lore would be too confusing - I am not very familiar with space-related fiction and never had much interest in it. Here, the story started straight away - I liked how we discovered things along the way, without long and boring history lessons. Each chapter has a short passage before it, which could be a letter, a quote, or other short piece that gave more insight into the world. I love good exposition and, I’m my opinion, Linden A. Lewis here did a great job.

The main character are interesting, flawed and have their own priorities and desires. There are some flaws, but I’ll talk about them later.

I loved how unique this world is. It really stands out with how logical historical development of each nation is.

Why the religion is the way it is, or why there is no AI anymore.

And guess what? It’s THAT easy to include queer folks! And it only enriches the plot, the world building and everyone’s satisfaction from reading.

However, I got quite disappointed by the end. The ending felt rushed, used mostly explanation rather than exposure, and gave a bit of flat character development. I saw how some things before could be linked to the plot twists, but still it wasn’t satisfactory. I felt that the ending was made that way to create reason for the next book. I am afraid that the next books will turn to obvious conflicts and will greatly worsen in world-building. In my opinion, the book by itself is great as stand-alone (if the ending was changed). I hope I’m wrong, because I still enjoyed it most of the way.

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booksthatburn's review

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adventurous reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

The short version is that I loved this book and found it to be one of the more satisfying sci-fi books I've read in a while. Fantasy is my preferred genre, and I like my sci-fi squishy, conversation- or thought-driven, and not worried overly much about making sure I know how the FTL functions. This ticked all those boxes in addition to being a thoughtful exploration of various structures of power and how they are used to justify and perpetuate exploitation in the name of some other good.

THE FIRST SISTER is relationship-driven in the sense that their decisions have implications for other people and they're very aware of this as they proceed. Lito, in particular, has been ordered to hunt down his former partner. While he does want to find Hiro, he hasn't totally made up his mind about what he will do when that confrontation comes. First Sister has been ordered to spy on Captain Ren, also finding herself drawn to her. She's both terrified and intrigued by the captain's condition that restores some parity between them, but also places First Sister in even more danger.

I love the way the world is built here. There's a history of colonization and and an ongoing conflict, with main characters from different sides of the war. This means there's several places where he get to know what each side's propaganda is about the basic events, which shows what they actually do, what they say about themselves, and what their enemies think of them. I understand why this book gets compared to THE HANDMAID'S TALE, and while I do think some of that comparison is appropriate, it also made me nervous before I started reading, and gave me a distorted anticipation of how traumatic this book might be. While it does deal with systematic sexual exploitation (mostly of women but implicitly some men as well), it focuses much more on the systems and structures that are controlling and perpetuating this exploitation and lack of agency -- as well as the way that the sister within this exploitative system are encouraged to work against each other in order to support the group as a whole and eke out some measure of comfort and privilege at the expense of those around them. There are many moments when First Sister is terrified of what might happen to her, but much of my trepidation was soothed when it became clear that I was not going to have to read a graphic assault scene just to have the book hammer home how frightening a loss of bodily autonomy can be. Instead, THE FIRST SISTER takes a multifaceted approach to exploring different kinds of exploitation and loss of autonomy, from classism and financial precarity making people vulnerable to medical experimentation, loss of individual freedom and mental autonomy in military settings, to commodification of emotional labor and sexual exploitation in the Sisterhood.

I like the soft sci-fi approach; things work because they work, they have particular ways that they function, but the story never grinds to a halt to make sure I understand exactly how a mercurial blade can do what it does. The things that it does take the time to specifically explain are much squishier things, like the various ways that people synced by an implant can or can't access each other's minds. Even those come up in the moment as they're needed, when a character is trying to do something and it either succeed or fails.

There's a pair of revelations towards the end which completely reframed my understanding of some dynamics which had been been in play for most of the book. The reveal is a very cool moment and I absolutely do not want to spoil it, but one of them sits in that sweet spot of being a twist in a deeply personal sense related to one of the main characters without quite changing what the rest of the story means. It's followed up with a different discovery in the same incident, in a delightful moment of revelation and confusion as three seemingly disparate plot threads cohere and the main characters actually meet.

I like the trio audiobook narrators, in particular I appreciate Emily Woo Zeller's performance, as always. She's narrated several other audiobooks that I've enjoyed and this was no exception.

As the first book in a trilogy, THE FIRST SISTER resolves several major plot points in a way that gets the three main characters to each have a new status quo and an idea of their plan for what's next. Because of the way the story is structured, it makes sense that all three of them would have new situations and goals as the result of what transpired, especially with the upheaval towards the end of the book. I'm excited for the rest of the trilogy, especially for how the structure of the Sisterhood is affected by what transpires next.

*A quick note that this follows a Western anglophone trend of naming the only significant Japanese character “Hiro”. No one instance is automatically a problem, but over time it starts to seem like the main Japanese name fiction authors reach for. Part of what bothers me particularly in this instance is that the name “Hiro” is a traditionally male name in Japanese, and while nonbinary people are not limited to ambiguously-gendered names, I get the sense that this name was chosen for the “Hiro”/“Hero” pun (which is made explicitly at one point.

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lanid's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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thoughtsontomes's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This is a solid space opera that combines similar vibes and themes of red rising, the handmaids tale, and the expanse to create a war torn future. There are elements of the world building that are a bit hand wavy for my tastes, particularly in the how and why various political structures are set up. But it does keep you on the edge of your seat wanting to keep reading and figuring out the mystery of it all. Plus there is a lot of rep, including disability, mental health (ptsd and anxiety), sign language, queer relationships, and non binary characters. The next two books in the series are much longer so I’m hoping more of the world gets fleshed out and I plan to continue with the series.

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wellintendedbibliophile's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective tense fast-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

5.0

Diverse cast and a respectful approach to incorporating characters with disabilities, both mental and physical. This book is dark, but so well-thought out. I loved every character and appreciate how the author humanized each character. This is still a top favorite. I need to read the sequel soon.

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anniereads221's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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foreverinastory's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

Still love this book with all my heart. Cannot wait to pick up The Second Rebel!

Rep: Bisexual mute female MC (unknown ethnicity), Japanese achillean nonbinary MC, Spanish-Italian demisexual male MC, sapphic mute female side character, Asian female side character with chronic pain, arm prosthetic and leg prosthetic, queer-normative world.

CWs: Blood, body horror, bullying, death, gun violence, injury/injury detail, medical content, medical trauma/nonconsensual experimentation, murder, violence, war. Moderate: abandonment, past mentions of child abuse, colonisation, deadnaming/misgendering, religious bigotry, sexual content, slavery/forced sex work, vomit.

Content Warnings

peachmoni's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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