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bookishdi's review against another edition
3.0
Centuries ago, the rulers of a vast interstellar empire created the planet Artemis. Designed as an elite, yet primitive getaway, they furnished the planet with adapted animals and humans to serve them and their pleasures. But when war broke out and tore the empire apart, knowledge of Artemis’ location was lost and the planet gradually faded into myth. To Griffin Dane, a young archeologist from a well-off family, rediscovering Artemis would be the find of a lifetime. Everything’s going according to plan until he crashes his shuttle on the surface and saved by the huntress, Adara, and her bonded puma, Sand Shadow. Determined to solve the mystery of Artemis, as well as find a way back to his shuttle, Griffin partners with Adara and Sand Shadow. Along the way, however, they become entangled in a conflict over control of the planet and its future.
Artemis Awakening had a lot of elements that I love: capable ladies, exploration of new worlds, and cats, but in the end, it left me feeling a little “meh” and unsure if I want to continue reading the inevitable sequels.
Despite the fact that the blurb on the dust jacket solely focuses on Griffin, Artemis Awakening is as much Adara’s story as it is his. Although his crash landing on Artemis serves as the catalyst for the action, Adara plays an important role in the events that happen after, often being the one to save Griffin instead of the other way around. Adara’s consistently portrayed as being very capable at her job and respected within her community for her abilities. We also get depth to her: she likes writing poetry, she has moments of uncertainty and feeling out of place once she leaves the town she’s based out of. The book also, for the most part, avoids having her simply be an object of Griffin’s inevitable desires. While their is a physical attraction present, Ms. Lindskold never makes Adara a prize to be won by either Griffin or the secondary male character, Terrell. The potential for a love triangle is there, but it’s never truly acted upon, because all characters have other problems to focus on and don’t need the complications of forming a romantic relationship at this time.
Griffin is another decently interesting character, although I latched onto him far less quickly than I did Adara. His arrival serves as the catalyst for the action in the book, and struggle to accept that he’s stranded on Artemis grounds his arc. He’s very much a fish out of water in this book, and part of his growth is learning more about Artemis other than just a playground for the rich, and instead view it as a complex society that has its own issues and complications.
The premise itself was also intriguing. It’s incredibly easy to see the elite of a society creating a world just so they can have a fantasy vacation where they are “roughing it”. The level of technology and the resources needed to accomplish this are mind-blowing, even to the characters. With most of the technology destroyed in the war that left Artemis disconnected from the rest of the universe, it makes sense that knowledge of the planet’s location was lost for so long. The questions raised about Artemis’ populace and what selective breeding or genetic modifications might have meant for them, as well as questions of consent, are all present and interesting and I wish there could have been more time spent on them.
Unfortunately, the writing really threw me out of the book. There were many segments of internal monologuing by both Griffin and Adara that felt unnecessarily expository. For example, when Griffin meets the Old One Who Is Young, he has a lengthy paragraph going on about how he recognizes the clothes the Old One wears from history books and how wasting cloth is a sign of wealth on Artemis. I also found the writing to be more of the telling variety than showing. We’re told, either in the internal monologues or in brief paragraphs, information about Artemis and the societies encountered in the book. It made it difficult for me to immerse myself in the story, since I just kept getting thrown out of it whenever I encountered another patch of clunky exposition.
The main plot of the book, other than Griffin trying to find a way off Artemis, is creepy, unsettling, and potentially triggering. While given the context of the world we’re presented, it makes some sense, it also is incredibly disturbing and raises questions of why sexual violence is so often used as a plot device. It also plays into how despite being in the far future, much of the same gender roles for men and women are still in place. Other than Adara and other adapted humans, we don’t really see women participating in life outside of the home. The views into Artemisian society are somewhat restricted, but it’s still jarring to see that despite the progress made, some things are considered so entrenched that they can’t be challenged. It brings to mind the quote about why are we going through the trouble of creating new worlds if we’re just going to give them the same limitations as ours.
I’m unsure about whether or not I’ll continue with this series. While Artemis Awakening was an enjoyable enough read, I’m still ambivalent about if I’m invested enough in the characters or the overarching plot to continue. I think it will depend on once solicitations for the sequel go out and if I don’t have anything more pressing to read.
Artemis Awakening had a lot of elements that I love: capable ladies, exploration of new worlds, and cats, but in the end, it left me feeling a little “meh” and unsure if I want to continue reading the inevitable sequels.
Despite the fact that the blurb on the dust jacket solely focuses on Griffin, Artemis Awakening is as much Adara’s story as it is his. Although his crash landing on Artemis serves as the catalyst for the action, Adara plays an important role in the events that happen after, often being the one to save Griffin instead of the other way around. Adara’s consistently portrayed as being very capable at her job and respected within her community for her abilities. We also get depth to her: she likes writing poetry, she has moments of uncertainty and feeling out of place once she leaves the town she’s based out of. The book also, for the most part, avoids having her simply be an object of Griffin’s inevitable desires. While their is a physical attraction present, Ms. Lindskold never makes Adara a prize to be won by either Griffin or the secondary male character, Terrell. The potential for a love triangle is there, but it’s never truly acted upon, because all characters have other problems to focus on and don’t need the complications of forming a romantic relationship at this time.
Griffin is another decently interesting character, although I latched onto him far less quickly than I did Adara. His arrival serves as the catalyst for the action in the book, and struggle to accept that he’s stranded on Artemis grounds his arc. He’s very much a fish out of water in this book, and part of his growth is learning more about Artemis other than just a playground for the rich, and instead view it as a complex society that has its own issues and complications.
The premise itself was also intriguing. It’s incredibly easy to see the elite of a society creating a world just so they can have a fantasy vacation where they are “roughing it”. The level of technology and the resources needed to accomplish this are mind-blowing, even to the characters. With most of the technology destroyed in the war that left Artemis disconnected from the rest of the universe, it makes sense that knowledge of the planet’s location was lost for so long. The questions raised about Artemis’ populace and what selective breeding or genetic modifications might have meant for them, as well as questions of consent, are all present and interesting and I wish there could have been more time spent on them.
Unfortunately, the writing really threw me out of the book. There were many segments of internal monologuing by both Griffin and Adara that felt unnecessarily expository. For example, when Griffin meets the Old One Who Is Young, he has a lengthy paragraph going on about how he recognizes the clothes the Old One wears from history books and how wasting cloth is a sign of wealth on Artemis. I also found the writing to be more of the telling variety than showing. We’re told, either in the internal monologues or in brief paragraphs, information about Artemis and the societies encountered in the book. It made it difficult for me to immerse myself in the story, since I just kept getting thrown out of it whenever I encountered another patch of clunky exposition.
The main plot of the book, other than Griffin trying to find a way off Artemis, is creepy, unsettling, and potentially triggering. While given the context of the world we’re presented, it makes some sense, it also is incredibly disturbing and raises questions of why sexual violence is so often used as a plot device. It also plays into how despite being in the far future, much of the same gender roles for men and women are still in place. Other than Adara and other adapted humans, we don’t really see women participating in life outside of the home. The views into Artemisian society are somewhat restricted, but it’s still jarring to see that despite the progress made, some things are considered so entrenched that they can’t be challenged. It brings to mind the quote about why are we going through the trouble of creating new worlds if we’re just going to give them the same limitations as ours.
I’m unsure about whether or not I’ll continue with this series. While Artemis Awakening was an enjoyable enough read, I’m still ambivalent about if I’m invested enough in the characters or the overarching plot to continue. I think it will depend on once solicitations for the sequel go out and if I don’t have anything more pressing to read.
sugarbear's review against another edition
1.0
The story starts out slow and is immediately smothered by constant hints at a romance that surpasses the awkward middle school "my heart was beating so hard but I just don't know, oh dear she is so close yet so far". They bring up maybe one example of truly dangerous technology when you are led to believe through annoyingly cryptic interludes that the entire planet is going to massacre them. Halfway through the book the entire plot swings from killer robots to uncovering a rape farm. Overall just not my cup of tea.
leida's review against another edition
2.0
This book typified a problem I have with a lot of science fiction, where the ideas are interesting but the characters aren't compelling enough to keep me engaged. The lack of characters that interested me, combined with constant refocusing on the love triangle between the three main characters, meant that Artemis Awakening wasn't the book for me right now.
spiringempress's review against another edition
3.0
The only comment I have is this: whoever wrote the synopsis for this book obviously did not read this book. Never have I ever, read a book that had absolutely nothing to do with it's supposed synopsis on the back cover.
graculus's review against another edition
3.0
I've read a few books by this author but, as far as I can recall, nothing that has really grabbed me. Regardless of this fact, I still picked up a copy of Artemis Awakening, pretty much based on the blurb, as I was willing to give it a shot and see if this book was the exception for me where Jane Lindskold is concerned.
This book, and its planned sequels (of which [b:Artemis Invaded|23168787|Artemis Invaded (Artemis Awakening, #2)|Jane Lindskold|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1418113319s/23168787.jpg|42713937] is the first), are set on the planet of Artemis which was once used as a pleasure planet by the seegnur, a people who terraformed it and then tinkered on a genetic basis with those who would become its inhabitants. As a result some who live there, like a number of the major characters, have abilities - Adara has a mind-link with a similarly-adapted animal and can also see very well in the dark, for example. However the seegnur were massacred some time back and while they still seem to play a significant part in everyone's lives on Artemis (so much so that 'what would the seegnur want?' seems to be that planet's WWJD?) and much technology used in the past was lost.
Enter Griffin Dane, literally, falling from the sky in a crashing shuttle; he's an archaeologist who has come to see if Artemis really exists and, if so, become famous for discovering it. Which would be fine if he wasn't now completely reliant on Adara and her friends because he literally escaped the crash with the clothes on his back and no equipment. Taking him to her former mentor, Adara and Griffin are then drawn into a plot-line around rape for the purposes of forced impregnation that someone they know is alleged to be masterminding. The rest of the book is spent investigating that claim and also with Griffin getting himself kidnapped too at one point and discovering a mind-link of his own with another of the inhabitants. Towards the end, it seems that the planet itself is waking up and Adara has some kind of connection with it, which will probably be explored further in the sequel.
Artemis Awakening is an entertaining enough book but I still can't quite find one of Lindskold's books which really works for me. This all felt a bit formulaic, as Adara and Griffin form two sides of a putative love triangle (and anyone who reads my reviews regularly will know how I feel about that!) although personally Adara comes across as really not being into it and that makes me feel very uncomfortable. Griffin comes across at times as being a bit of an obnoxious know-it-all and I don't find that an attractive quality in a main character, to be honest. Anyway, I didn't struggle to finish it despite that, but it seems pretty unlikely I'll be picking up Artemis Invaded unless my local library ends up getting it and I run out of other stuff to read.
This book, and its planned sequels (of which [b:Artemis Invaded|23168787|Artemis Invaded (Artemis Awakening, #2)|Jane Lindskold|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1418113319s/23168787.jpg|42713937] is the first), are set on the planet of Artemis which was once used as a pleasure planet by the seegnur, a people who terraformed it and then tinkered on a genetic basis with those who would become its inhabitants. As a result some who live there, like a number of the major characters, have abilities - Adara has a mind-link with a similarly-adapted animal and can also see very well in the dark, for example. However the seegnur were massacred some time back and while they still seem to play a significant part in everyone's lives on Artemis (so much so that 'what would the seegnur want?' seems to be that planet's WWJD?) and much technology used in the past was lost.
Enter Griffin Dane, literally, falling from the sky in a crashing shuttle; he's an archaeologist who has come to see if Artemis really exists and, if so, become famous for discovering it. Which would be fine if he wasn't now completely reliant on Adara and her friends because he literally escaped the crash with the clothes on his back and no equipment. Taking him to her former mentor, Adara and Griffin are then drawn into a plot-line around rape for the purposes of forced impregnation that someone they know is alleged to be masterminding. The rest of the book is spent investigating that claim and also with Griffin getting himself kidnapped too at one point and discovering a mind-link of his own with another of the inhabitants. Towards the end, it seems that the planet itself is waking up and Adara has some kind of connection with it, which will probably be explored further in the sequel.
Artemis Awakening is an entertaining enough book but I still can't quite find one of Lindskold's books which really works for me. This all felt a bit formulaic, as Adara and Griffin form two sides of a putative love triangle (and anyone who reads my reviews regularly will know how I feel about that!) although personally Adara comes across as really not being into it and that makes me feel very uncomfortable. Griffin comes across at times as being a bit of an obnoxious know-it-all and I don't find that an attractive quality in a main character, to be honest. Anyway, I didn't struggle to finish it despite that, but it seems pretty unlikely I'll be picking up Artemis Invaded unless my local library ends up getting it and I run out of other stuff to read.
ranaelizabeth's review against another edition
3.0
I clearly know this is bubble-gum pulp, not all that well-written but certainly fun. The only thing keeping me from loving this enough to continue the series is that the character building wasn't all strong, a little bumbling.
And the interludes that you finally figure out on like the last two pages? Would have been way, way, way more interesting if that happened about halfway through. They pissed me off the entire book so the payoff at the end was zilch. Especially as it was written as a cliff-hanger for the next in the series.
And the interludes that you finally figure out on like the last two pages? Would have been way, way, way more interesting if that happened about halfway through. They pissed me off the entire book so the payoff at the end was zilch. Especially as it was written as a cliff-hanger for the next in the series.
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