chyina's review
4.0
Sewer dwellers. Pirates. And strange monsters that appeared out of a void in space. What's not to love?
brokebybooks's review
3.0
Received a free copy to review from Xpresso Reads
The Good:
• Interesting take on vampires
• Liked the Gaslamp factors and Claire’s engineering magic
• Liked the character progression and reveals
The Bad & The Other:
• Took some time to become engaged & warm up to Claire
• Predictable
• Knew Sawyer’s secret immediately
Claire, our reluctant heroine, was annoying at times in the beginning and felt off. I was very tired of hearing “I don’t know and don’t wanna.” It was also hard hearing her think she’s no one and nothing when that’s so clearly wrong. I was just waiting for her to get her shit together.
Once the pirates crash the scene it gets interesting. However, there was hamhanded foreshadowing throughout. Every time someone said “it’ll be fine” or ignored their instincts it bit them in the ass. Plus, there’s no self-awareness or fake outs. While I wasn’t 100% right about how, I was right about what would happen.
Even with all that, Claire grew on me as did Sawyer. For me, even if it was strained at times, the action and romance saved Crimson Sky. While the worldbuilding was interesting, I didn’t start caring until the characters showed up.
Towards the end, there’s a…complication, a romantic complication. While I went “Noooooo! But Sawyer!”, I didn’t hate him or the situation. It was fitting and Claire’s realization at the end was touching.
3 Stars: Solid. A rocky thus slow beginning led to predictable but enjoyable action and a budding romance I can cheer for. Finally engaged, I look forward to reading Midnight Sky. I think it’ll pay off and the unique worldbuilding will get to shine.
The Good:
• Interesting take on vampires
• Liked the Gaslamp factors and Claire’s engineering magic
• Liked the character progression and reveals
The Bad & The Other:
• Took some time to become engaged & warm up to Claire
• Predictable
• Knew Sawyer’s secret immediately
Claire, our reluctant heroine, was annoying at times in the beginning and felt off. I was very tired of hearing “I don’t know and don’t wanna.” It was also hard hearing her think she’s no one and nothing when that’s so clearly wrong. I was just waiting for her to get her shit together.
Once the pirates crash the scene it gets interesting. However, there was hamhanded foreshadowing throughout. Every time someone said “it’ll be fine” or ignored their instincts it bit them in the ass. Plus, there’s no self-awareness or fake outs. While I wasn’t 100% right about how, I was right about what would happen.
Even with all that, Claire grew on me as did Sawyer. For me, even if it was strained at times, the action and romance saved Crimson Sky. While the worldbuilding was interesting, I didn’t start caring until the characters showed up.
Towards the end, there’s a…complication, a romantic complication. While I went “Noooooo! But Sawyer!”, I didn’t hate him or the situation. It was fitting and Claire’s realization at the end was touching.
3 Stars: Solid. A rocky thus slow beginning led to predictable but enjoyable action and a budding romance I can cheer for. Finally engaged, I look forward to reading Midnight Sky. I think it’ll pay off and the unique worldbuilding will get to shine.
novelbloglover's review
5.0
Book Review
Title: Crimson Sky
Author: Amy Braun
Genre: Sci-Fi/Steam Punk/Dystopian
Rating: *****
Review: This book was sent to me by the author; Amy Braun and this is book 1 in the Dark Sky Series, so I can’t wait to read the follow up novels. I loved the opening sentence “The sky used to hold hope for me”, as it gives off a major sense of foreboding before the book has even really begun. A lot of books have great first chapters but the first line or page isn’t great, but Amy Braun got this opening so right.
I loved the Hellions they are scary and provide an epic survival scene on the first page, they also reminded me of the abbies from the Wayward Pines series by Blake Crouch which I absolutely loved.
I also enjoyed the fact Braun uses things we take for granted everyday like light and food are used as ways of maintaining secondary power and what I mean by this is the Hellions hold the primary power as they are the dominant force but the Electricians hold secondary power over everyone else and in their distress they create order in some way but overall its a dictatorship not a democracy.
We follow Claire and her younger sister Abbey, we look at their struggles underground. Claire is an engineer and is trying to escape for the Electrician; Garnet mainly for her sister. We learn that if Claire doesn’t get herself and Abbey out in the next 4 years (by the time Abbey is 12), she will be used for the repopulation program run by Garnet himself and Claire will end up dead. So immediately we sympathize with her cause and are counting on her to win, but in dystopian novels with a superior force like the Hellions it doesn’t really work that way so I’m intrigued to see what Braun does with this genre.
We can also see in this time of need Claire has a plan to figure out what her mother meant when she saved them and what the strange key on her necklace is for. This is great because Claire is struggling to unravel the secrets of her past while staying mental and physical present in the here and now and no one knows what the future will hold, if there is a future at all.
I loved the fight scenes, there are bloody battles one after another between the humans and Hellions and there are some Marauders thrown into the mix as well. I also like the romance feel between Claire and Sawyer, especially his nickname for Claire “firecracker”.
I also loved how the friendships bloomed between the four with the hatred of the enemy and their unity in their quest for survival and freedom from the tyranny of Garnet and the Hellions. I also loved how Amy Braun has weaved some absolutely elegant backstories into Crimson Sky despite it only being just over a hundred pages long.
My favourite thing about this novel is there is hardly any fluffiness, all the characters have tragic backstories, they are all broken and can’t be restored but they can accept their lives and move on. For a sci-fi/steam punk novel it is very real, it is almost similar to the Hunger Games.
My favourite character was Claire because not only is she an awesome character and developed well throughout the novel but she also serves a far higher purpose. She also does the impossible on a regular basis like fighting the Hellions on their ship, at first I though she was insane but then you realise it is the one move the Hellions won’t be expecting. It gives them the element of surprise and that makes Claire a genius.
And the ending was amazing. I honestly believe Amy Braun could have written Crimson Sky as a 300+ page novel with more detail on the world, the Strom and delving in deeper to the characters backstories especially that of Claires parents and Sawyers family. But the 100+ pages is a great length for this story as it allows something to always be happening whether its an action packed fight scene or a slightly romantic one. It always the story to be fast paced and gripping through its entirety and I loved it, I am definitely going to be reading more by Amy Braun.
If you liked the Hunger Games or the Wayward Pines Series read Crimson Sky. It just like these only with more steam punk!
Title: Crimson Sky
Author: Amy Braun
Genre: Sci-Fi/Steam Punk/Dystopian
Rating: *****
Review: This book was sent to me by the author; Amy Braun and this is book 1 in the Dark Sky Series, so I can’t wait to read the follow up novels. I loved the opening sentence “The sky used to hold hope for me”, as it gives off a major sense of foreboding before the book has even really begun. A lot of books have great first chapters but the first line or page isn’t great, but Amy Braun got this opening so right.
I loved the Hellions they are scary and provide an epic survival scene on the first page, they also reminded me of the abbies from the Wayward Pines series by Blake Crouch which I absolutely loved.
I also enjoyed the fact Braun uses things we take for granted everyday like light and food are used as ways of maintaining secondary power and what I mean by this is the Hellions hold the primary power as they are the dominant force but the Electricians hold secondary power over everyone else and in their distress they create order in some way but overall its a dictatorship not a democracy.
We follow Claire and her younger sister Abbey, we look at their struggles underground. Claire is an engineer and is trying to escape for the Electrician; Garnet mainly for her sister. We learn that if Claire doesn’t get herself and Abbey out in the next 4 years (by the time Abbey is 12), she will be used for the repopulation program run by Garnet himself and Claire will end up dead. So immediately we sympathize with her cause and are counting on her to win, but in dystopian novels with a superior force like the Hellions it doesn’t really work that way so I’m intrigued to see what Braun does with this genre.
We can also see in this time of need Claire has a plan to figure out what her mother meant when she saved them and what the strange key on her necklace is for. This is great because Claire is struggling to unravel the secrets of her past while staying mental and physical present in the here and now and no one knows what the future will hold, if there is a future at all.
I loved the fight scenes, there are bloody battles one after another between the humans and Hellions and there are some Marauders thrown into the mix as well. I also like the romance feel between Claire and Sawyer, especially his nickname for Claire “firecracker”.
I also loved how the friendships bloomed between the four with the hatred of the enemy and their unity in their quest for survival and freedom from the tyranny of Garnet and the Hellions. I also loved how Amy Braun has weaved some absolutely elegant backstories into Crimson Sky despite it only being just over a hundred pages long.
My favourite thing about this novel is there is hardly any fluffiness, all the characters have tragic backstories, they are all broken and can’t be restored but they can accept their lives and move on. For a sci-fi/steam punk novel it is very real, it is almost similar to the Hunger Games.
My favourite character was Claire because not only is she an awesome character and developed well throughout the novel but she also serves a far higher purpose. She also does the impossible on a regular basis like fighting the Hellions on their ship, at first I though she was insane but then you realise it is the one move the Hellions won’t be expecting. It gives them the element of surprise and that makes Claire a genius.
And the ending was amazing. I honestly believe Amy Braun could have written Crimson Sky as a 300+ page novel with more detail on the world, the Strom and delving in deeper to the characters backstories especially that of Claires parents and Sawyers family. But the 100+ pages is a great length for this story as it allows something to always be happening whether its an action packed fight scene or a slightly romantic one. It always the story to be fast paced and gripping through its entirety and I loved it, I am definitely going to be reading more by Amy Braun.
If you liked the Hunger Games or the Wayward Pines Series read Crimson Sky. It just like these only with more steam punk!
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