talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Violence, Murder, Kidnapping, Confinement, and Torture
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Ableism, Genocide, Medical content, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, and Grief
Minor: Child abuse, Stalking, Vomit, and War
fin_pilot's review
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Torture, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Ableism, Confinement, Gore, and Kidnapping
sebwrigreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Graphic: Torture, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Self harm
carbinara's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Spoiler
I wish we knew some more about why the God’s needed human souls, and possibly a little more info about the ending in terms of Jai.One thing I particularly liked was how the book was written; often sci-fi can get a little difficult to keep up with, but it wasn’t an issue in this book. I know thats a personal preference, but I appreciated it.
Another thing about how it’s written is that the protagonist, Yasira, isn’t hugely emotional except for one scene where she lands on Jai, and throughout the ending. I found this made the scenes where she was emotional so much more impactful, especially the scene where she lands on Jai, as she is the most openly emotional then. This links to her autism, and I really love how her autism is written. For example, how in the start the book mentions about different fabrics and how those effect her, and how she repeatedly refers to Tiv as a ‘good girl.’ It also helps to empathise with her being shoved into this entirely new situation/environment.
I also really enjoyed the characters of Akavi, Elu and Enga. It’s easy for the Gods to be detached and uncaring towards humans, as we see that they hardly even communicate with the angels beneath them. However, we see the angels do have contact with these people (and once were them),
Spoiler
so it makes them seem almost worse that they would be willing to kill an entire planet. I especially notice this with Elu, as he seems kind and has a camaraderie with Yasira, especially in the scene where they land on Jai, which is what makes it so effective when later in the book he’s described as the ‘good cop’ instead of a good person.Spoiler
but it’s supplemented with his worries about being disposed of, as well as his mentorship of Elu and Enga. I warmed to him enough that his ‘death’ upset me, and I was glad to see he and Elu survived and stuck together. I hope the sequel explores Enga a little more, as she has reason not to be entirely faithful to Nemesis after her slightly botched journey to becoming an angel, but she’s also the only main character still in the God’s good books.Dr Talirr is a hard character to get a grip of, which I think makes sense since it seems like
Spoiler
her connection to the Outside has made her slightly detached from the reality that Yasira spends most of the book within.Another thing I really loved about this book was the imagination. This book had alien spiders, a spaceship which was alive (as in flesh and blood, not AI), and the descriptions of the Outside’s effects were always absurd in the best way.
Overall, I really liked this book :)
Graphic: Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, and Torture
Minor: Genocide and Confinement
evilscientist's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
5.0
-yasira was an interesting main character, i liked her. i almost never see books with autistic protagonists. AND to see her interact with an autistic mentor as well was good
-acavi was also a very interesting antagonist. he was clearly not a good person but the narrative managed to make him somewhat sympathetic. also i loved the genderfluid coding
-it was a slow start but the rest of the book hooked me enough that i kept wanting to come back to it, so i finished it very quickly lol
-i didn’t like some parts of the eldritch horror stuff. it’s a thing that’s very difficult to write well and it didn’t hit the mark for me
-also i felt like tiv’s character was kind of flat which annoyed me because i wanted to like her
-finally as a trans person it stuck out to me that the author tried to use trans-inclusive language in some parts but didn’t really consider trans people ever. the only trans character i remember is a non-human nonbinary minor antagonist. didn’t love that
-overall i really enjoyed this book. mind the content warnings though
-also i looked on tumblr and didn’t see ANY fanart for the book. this is a crime
-also i’m still thinking about the worldbuilding. just the idea of having these incredible AIs and choosing to call them gods and their cyborg servants are called angels. love it
Graphic: Kidnapping and Torture
Moderate: Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Genocide, and Blood
st_ender's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
To be fair I didn't really care for the technical stuff. I was in it for the world building and therefore I cannot tell you much about whether the science part checks out or makes sense.
There was a part where the tempo slowed down a bit and then sped up again at the end which was a bit of a rough patch but it's quite common in debuts and still didn't really matter on a big scale. Bought the sequel immediately and have big hopes for my boy Akavi (sorry).
Graphic: Torture, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, and Genocide
Moderate: Body horror and Ableism
sarah984's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I wouldn't call most of the characters "likable" per se, but they were interesting and dynamic. (Though unfortunately I found the love interest kind of bland) The horrors that Yasira comes into contact with are described in an engaging way and it’s interesting to see her thought process changing over time.
Graphic: Confinement and Kidnapping
Moderate: Ableism, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Violence
Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Genocide, and Stalking
notthatlibrarian's review
- 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? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Death, and Self harm
Moderate: Ableism, Blood, Confinement, Kidnapping, and Torture
Minor: Child abuse
Cosmic horror