Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey

4 reviews

alisonvh's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved this book so much! I loved getting to hang out with the characters from Leviathan’s Wake, and I loved the new characters they introduced. I appreciated how adept they were at world building, action sequences, political power play, and relationship drama. Most writers can only do one really well, sometimes two. I suspect these books benefit from having two writers working really well together as one author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, and War

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Incest, and Sexual violence

jkpiowa's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

5.0

I liked the first book better by a small margin, but man, the ending to this one was a mindf*ck. Very excited for book 3!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Murder, and War

Moderate: Child death and Sexual violence

loxeletters's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Blood, and Vomit

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Death, Violence, Medical content, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Incest, Racism, Sexual violence, Excrement, and Kidnapping

caryndi's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

We're back for book 2 of The Expanse, this time with a new woman whose main characteristic seems to be the fact that she is Tall and men are Into It!  We also have a woman who is not hit on my nearly every man in the book, but never fear: She is a grandmother, so who would do that.  It amazes me that despite realizing it was good to have women in roles that do not depend on their relationship with the leading men, we somehow didn't get to the 'not sexualizing every woman' bit.  Ah well.

Story-wise, Caliban's War was decent.  To be honest, Praxidike was not one of my favorite characters though his storyline was pretty integral to the plot.  Bobbie and Avasarala were both great.  I felt like we got a tiny bit of insight into Amos' character but pulled the camera back a bit too early. 

I was also disappointed by Holden's arc, which was that he apparently had become more like Miller and less like himself, and he didn't want to do this.  I feel like we spent a lot of time getting told this and relatively little time actually seeing it play out.  There were a couple of good moments based on his fear of the protomolecule and if the book had gone into that more perhaps I would have found it more convincing and fulfilling.  Come to think of it, I wasn't super satisfied with Bobbie's emotional arc either, because for someone in denial about having PTSD she sure healed from it awful quick when the story needed her to.   So, character development: perhaps not our strong suit here. 

On the plus side, this book definitely came through on the promise of weird sci-fi and had some enjoyable political maneuvering.  I don't think I could have foreseen the ending (because who could have) but of course it paved the way for the next book in the series nicely.

Recommend? You won't find me raving over this book, but it is a fun read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Gore, and Gun violence

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, and Trafficking