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sarah984's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This book wrapped everything up from the trilogy and had some great moments (I loved the ending) but I do feel like there were too many characters - none of the Seven really got the focus they needed to make them feel like distinct characters I should care about, and characters I was invested in barely showed up. Way too much time spent on the Elu/Akavi drama which I have not cared about since book 1, and the wrap up on this plotline had a lot of really bland exposition dialogue about emotions (like "I did this because I felt this" stuff like talking to a therapist).
Overall through a great instalment in a great trilogy.
Overall through a great instalment in a great trilogy.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Homophobia, Self harm, Sexual content, Torture, Vomit, and Religious bigotry
anxiousnachos's review
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
5.0
Firstly, let’s all just stare in AWE at the exceptional cover design for this trilogy-ending book. I seriously want a poster of it on my wall. Secondly, THANK YOU ADA HOFFMANN. My 2023 reading was off to such a shaky start but I knew picking this up would make everything good again.
This is a fantastic, bittersweet ending to my favourite scifi series. I adore the way this series explores religion and godhood in such a unique way to what you often see in SFF. Instead of gods creating humanity, we have humanity creating gods, and I love the difference in perspective this gives. One of the things I loved most about this book, was that we actually got flashbacks to the creation of the very first god. It adds such a layer of complexity to the whole story: when you see the position the humans were in, what should they have done? I love that morally grey, complex ethical decision shit.
This book, and this trilogy as a whole, is full of complex characters trying to build a better society; of supercomputer gods that you discover are far more complex than you first think; and of cosmic horror mysteries that can tear apart the universe (with lots of tentacles). There are beautifully tender moments, queer relationships, several autistic main characters, other disabled side characters, it pains me this series is not more beloved.
Content warnings: violence, war, blood and gore, loss of limb, death, confinement, domestic abuse (minor), genocide, grief, kidnapping, medical content / medical trauma, mental illness (major theme), religious bigotry, sexual content (minor), suicidal thoughts (minor), torture (mentions only), toxic relationship
This is a fantastic, bittersweet ending to my favourite scifi series. I adore the way this series explores religion and godhood in such a unique way to what you often see in SFF. Instead of gods creating humanity, we have humanity creating gods, and I love the difference in perspective this gives. One of the things I loved most about this book, was that we actually got flashbacks to the creation of the very first god. It adds such a layer of complexity to the whole story: when you see the position the humans were in, what should they have done? I love that morally grey, complex ethical decision shit.
This book, and this trilogy as a whole, is full of complex characters trying to build a better society; of supercomputer gods that you discover are far more complex than you first think; and of cosmic horror mysteries that can tear apart the universe (with lots of tentacles). There are beautifully tender moments, queer relationships, several autistic main characters, other disabled side characters, it pains me this series is not more beloved.
Content warnings: violence, war, blood and gore, loss of limb, death, confinement, domestic abuse (minor), genocide, grief, kidnapping, medical content / medical trauma, mental illness (major theme), religious bigotry, sexual content (minor), suicidal thoughts (minor), torture (mentions only), toxic relationship
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, and War
Minor: Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture