wanderinglynn's review against another edition
The book had an interesting idea but failed to execute. I felt this book was supposed to be funny, almost like a satire of a space opera, or maybe it was just supposed to be light-hearted fun. Then again, the cover made me think this was a book for middle grade. So I think the entire problem stems from no one, from the author and editor to the publisher, really knew what to do and the result was a bit of a mess.
There are a few potentially good moments and a handful of what might have been funny moments, but those were overshadowed by the constant action and constant world jumping without any real movement on the crux of the story. Just as we’re settling into one scene and one world, albeit without any understanding of that world, the scene shifts and the plot jumps. I felt that the individual scenes were more important than the overarching plot, and so there were some tenuous transitions crammed in between just to make these individual scenes work for the overall story. But it didn’t work. Eva, who’s supposed to be over thirty and an experienced captain/spacer, spends too much time going getting out of one bad situation after another, mostly based on luck, all towards the goal of helping her kidnapped sister. She even mentions, more than once, that she needs to get info on the bad guys and become a “player of the game” instead of a pawn. But one bad situation leads to another then another without any movement on the entire point of finding her sister. And as someone who is supposed have been on a crew with people, like her dad, who does illegal/bad things,, Eva came across as naive and lacking any common sense.
And why, for the love of catnip, is there a big deal both on the front cover and in the blurb about psychic cats that have NO actual purpose in the book except for a bit in the first chapter? Oh yes, the cat leader, who nearly took over the bridge of the ship in the opening scene, randomly shows up in Eva’s lap every once in a while to be a typical, normal cat. But other than that, the <i>psychic</i> cats have NOTHING to do with the story. Psychic cats was one of the reasons I wanted to read this story. Again, why include them on the cover (“Kidnappers. Alien emperors. <b>Psychic cats.</b> And she’s out of coffee.”) if the cats have no bearing on the story at all. And that’s the problem with expectations—they ruin enjoying the story because I kept waiting for the psychic cats to do something. Help the mission, take the crew somewhere, hypnotize the bad guys. Something, anything. And yet, total disappointment.
The emphasis on the psychic cats was just one of several things that was confusing. So many times I wondered why something was being noticed/pointed out/mentioned when those things became nothing to the plot? It was as if the author was just throwing in random spacey kitchen sinks just have the random spacey kitchen sinks. And so, I spent a lot of time asking questions instead of enjoying the story. For example, it wasn’t until page 174 that it finally becomes clear what a “cycle” is: instead of “day,” the author uses the term “cycle,” which, on page 174, is defined as a 28 hour period. But is an "hour" 60 minutes? Most likely. So the author opts to use a different word for day but sticks with hours? The inconsistency makes me ask more questions. Of course, had there been better world building early on, I wouldn’t have had these questions. I found the world building was basically nonexistent unless something needed to be there for one of the many the lucky escapes. For example, the Fridge and BOFA seemed to operate with no real method to the madness other than to do bad guy things (the Fridge) and run a space bureaucracy (the BOFA). Of course, it felt that both "Fridge" and "BOFA" were meant to be funny but honestly I'm at a loss.
That also leads to the lack of character development, which I found shallow and mostly superficial. Not only was it difficult to visualize this world (especially when the plot jumps from world to world before there’s even an explanation to where they were in the first place), but there’s minimal character description much less development. This is a crew of 5. Apparently Pink and Eva have history. Min connects, somehow, someway, with mechanical things, or at least ships. Leroy has PTSD and a lot of baggage. Vakar is an alien-species. But that's all we really get. For example, there’s a whole thing, apparently, about Eva being called “Bee.” Both Pink and her father call her this and apparently there’s a story behind it, but at least by page 174, that story is never told.
This book could have definitely used better editing and some fleshing out the cast of characters as well as the world. But sadly, Eva’s crew are basically one-dimensional beings with names. And that leads me to another question—was this supposed to be an ensemble adventure or a solo protagonist story. I’m not sure and I’m not sure the author knew either. And what in the holy name of space gods is the deal with Vakar and Eva’s sort of love interest? Honestly, mostly I'm guessing because of the lack of character description and development, felt bizarre and I just didn’t get it.
As for the MC Eva, who also narrates the story, I didn’t like what little of her there was. She has a strong voice but it fails, mostly, IMO, because she’s selfish, hypocritical, liar who seems to think that accepting her own mistakes makes everything ok, even when she’s doing illegal and horrible things. And I’m all for diversity in stories, but I still need context. Eva uses a lot of Spanish without context, and so that was another thing I was having to put the book down to figure out. Of course, since I’m not a Spanish speaker, I have to rely on things like Spanish-to-English dictionaries and translation apps. But these things don’t always capture the idioms and nuances of language. So I felt like I was missing a lot. In the end, I didn’t like Eva and despite the fact that she was willing to risk her life for her sister, I had a hard time rooting for her.
I found myself skimming more and more and getting more irritated. While there were some potentially funny moments and while the story is fast paced, there isn’t enough world building or character development to stabilize the story. Although there is potential, this was a miss for me and I DFN’d at 45%.
There are a few potentially good moments and a handful of what might have been funny moments, but those were overshadowed by the constant action and constant world jumping without any real movement on the crux of the story. Just as we’re settling into one scene and one world, albeit without any understanding of that world, the scene shifts and the plot jumps. I felt that the individual scenes were more important than the overarching plot, and so there were some tenuous transitions crammed in between just to make these individual scenes work for the overall story. But it didn’t work. Eva, who’s supposed to be over thirty and an experienced captain/spacer, spends too much time going getting out of one bad situation after another, mostly based on luck, all towards the goal of helping her kidnapped sister. She even mentions, more than once, that she needs to get info on the bad guys and become a “player of the game” instead of a pawn. But one bad situation leads to another then another without any movement on the entire point of finding her sister. And as someone who is supposed have been on a crew with people, like her dad, who does illegal/bad things,, Eva came across as naive and lacking any common sense.
And why, for the love of catnip, is there a big deal both on the front cover and in the blurb about psychic cats that have NO actual purpose in the book except for a bit in the first chapter? Oh yes, the cat leader, who nearly took over the bridge of the ship in the opening scene, randomly shows up in Eva’s lap every once in a while to be a typical, normal cat. But other than that, the <i>psychic</i> cats have NOTHING to do with the story. Psychic cats was one of the reasons I wanted to read this story. Again, why include them on the cover (“Kidnappers. Alien emperors. <b>Psychic cats.</b> And she’s out of coffee.”) if the cats have no bearing on the story at all. And that’s the problem with expectations—they ruin enjoying the story because I kept waiting for the psychic cats to do something. Help the mission, take the crew somewhere, hypnotize the bad guys. Something, anything. And yet, total disappointment.
The emphasis on the psychic cats was just one of several things that was confusing. So many times I wondered why something was being noticed/pointed out/mentioned when those things became nothing to the plot? It was as if the author was just throwing in random spacey kitchen sinks just have the random spacey kitchen sinks. And so, I spent a lot of time asking questions instead of enjoying the story. For example, it wasn’t until page 174 that it finally becomes clear what a “cycle” is: instead of “day,” the author uses the term “cycle,” which, on page 174, is defined as a 28 hour period. But is an "hour" 60 minutes? Most likely. So the author opts to use a different word for day but sticks with hours? The inconsistency makes me ask more questions. Of course, had there been better world building early on, I wouldn’t have had these questions. I found the world building was basically nonexistent unless something needed to be there for one of the many the lucky escapes. For example, the Fridge and BOFA seemed to operate with no real method to the madness other than to do bad guy things (the Fridge) and run a space bureaucracy (the BOFA). Of course, it felt that both "Fridge" and "BOFA" were meant to be funny but honestly I'm at a loss.
That also leads to the lack of character development, which I found shallow and mostly superficial. Not only was it difficult to visualize this world (especially when the plot jumps from world to world before there’s even an explanation to where they were in the first place), but there’s minimal character description much less development. This is a crew of 5. Apparently Pink and Eva have history. Min connects, somehow, someway, with mechanical things, or at least ships. Leroy has PTSD and a lot of baggage. Vakar is an alien-species. But that's all we really get. For example, there’s a whole thing, apparently, about Eva being called “Bee.” Both Pink and her father call her this and apparently there’s a story behind it, but at least by page 174, that story is never told.
This book could have definitely used better editing and some fleshing out the cast of characters as well as the world. But sadly, Eva’s crew are basically one-dimensional beings with names. And that leads me to another question—was this supposed to be an ensemble adventure or a solo protagonist story. I’m not sure and I’m not sure the author knew either. And what in the holy name of space gods is the deal with Vakar and Eva’s sort of love interest? Honestly, mostly I'm guessing because of the lack of character description and development, felt bizarre and I just didn’t get it.
As for the MC Eva, who also narrates the story, I didn’t like what little of her there was. She has a strong voice but it fails, mostly, IMO, because she’s selfish, hypocritical, liar who seems to think that accepting her own mistakes makes everything ok, even when she’s doing illegal and horrible things. And I’m all for diversity in stories, but I still need context. Eva uses a lot of Spanish without context, and so that was another thing I was having to put the book down to figure out. Of course, since I’m not a Spanish speaker, I have to rely on things like Spanish-to-English dictionaries and translation apps. But these things don’t always capture the idioms and nuances of language. So I felt like I was missing a lot. In the end, I didn’t like Eva and despite the fact that she was willing to risk her life for her sister, I had a hard time rooting for her.
I found myself skimming more and more and getting more irritated. While there were some potentially funny moments and while the story is fast paced, there isn’t enough world building or character development to stabilize the story. Although there is potential, this was a miss for me and I DFN’d at 45%.
aasplund's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
harryhai's review
adventurous
funny
medium-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? It's complicated
4.0
numbuh12's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
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
4.25
I am so, so, SO glad I took a chance on this, despite the VERY mixed reviews- I enjoyed the HELL out of it! Chilling Effect is, from start to finish, a love letter to Mass Effect, as well as, near the end, another popular sci-fi video game that I won't name. The references are legion (ha,) but it still, for me, managed to be its own story with a large, diverse cast of characters and a protagonist who I wanted to hug tightly and sometimes smack upside the head. I also loved how Valdes balanced laugh out loud humor with nail-biting, high emotion scenes.
I can't wait to read the rest of the series!
I can't wait to read the rest of the series!
wanderonwards's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
3.0
This book was frustratingly ridiculous: I really disliked most of the plot decisions and the characters could have had a lot of potential if they had been allowed to explore it. Honestly, I'm not sure why most of the crew was included in this book when they could have easily been added in at about the 60% mark. That said, the 60% mark was about when I started to enjoy the story although there were still some plot choice issues.
emilygaynier's review
4.0
**2022 review**
So my rating is staying the same. I feel like I saw more references this time around and enjoyed the alien tech at the end of the book more. It was less jarring I think.
Really such a good book
*2020 review*
4.5/5 stars
If you romanced Garrus in Mass Effect 2, you need to read this book
All of my main thoughts about this book are spoilers, but I can say that I loved it and I need more like it! I've been looking for a book with a specific element of this book for so long!
That being said, this is the 'beauty and the beast' romance of my dreams. I've wanted a sci-fi that had a human falling in love with an alien that doesn't look human/conventionally attractive, but isn't erotica, for actual years. This specific trope just seems to be used most in erotica, but it's just not my genre. Although an actual sex scene would've been nice, instead of all of them being fade to black.
Read Infinity and Beyond - Spacesuit: Read a book where a character survives a crazy situation
Basically the whole book is one crazy situation after another
So my rating is staying the same. I feel like I saw more references this time around and enjoyed the alien tech at the end of the book more. It was less jarring I think.
Really such a good book
*2020 review*
4.5/5 stars
If you romanced Garrus in Mass Effect 2, you need to read this book
All of my main thoughts about this book are spoilers, but I can say that I loved it and I need more like it! I've been looking for a book with a specific element of this book for so long!
Spoiler
I hope in the next book we learn if Leroy is happy. I don't trust sibling relationships in books if one of them is kidnapped at the beginning, but I am glad that Mira isn't totally evil.Spoiler
So I think if the Portal Gun at the end of the book was less of a direct reference to the Portal games, I would've enjoyed the ending more. If the shape of the gun was just a bit different, I would've liked it better. This is why I took that .5 stars off my final rating.That being said, this is the 'beauty and the beast' romance of my dreams. I've wanted a sci-fi that had a human falling in love with an alien that doesn't look human/conventionally attractive, but isn't erotica, for actual years. This specific trope just seems to be used most in erotica, but it's just not my genre. Although an actual sex scene would've been nice, instead of all of them being fade to black.
Read Infinity and Beyond - Spacesuit: Read a book where a character survives a crazy situation
Basically the whole book is one crazy situation after another
ecbennettlibrarylover's review
adventurous
dark
funny
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
4.25
Had a lot of fun listening to the audiobook, great narrator. This series is definitely massively underrated. The only two reasons it's not a 5 star review is that the romance, while excellent, and definitely one of my favorites that I've read this year, could have been better near the end, especially where dialogue and tension are concerned. Also, I wish the cats had played a more prominent role.
linguana's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.5
jvilches's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
meiravaid's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
lighthearted
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