Reviews

Duality by G.S. Jennsen

scathach42's review against another edition

4.0

I received this book as ARC copy.
As usual I loved it. I was there from the start and seeing where we are now... WOW what a journey.
Malcolm and Mia arc was my favourite. I have been waiting for this for a very long time. It was perfect and I love that Malcolm has conquered his block with re genesis and is back with her. I missed them so much.
Then the final big revelation... Mesme is Nina? the discussion Alex and Mesme had at the end broke my heart. I hope Nika will not have to go back and sacrifice her life and Dashiel. They deserve some peace.
The battle with the Rasu was epic but Alex technically dying was cruel, until Valkyrie and then Akeso helped. Now, Caleb died once, Alex did too... now they are even... be kind to them <3
Wonder what the future holds for all of them? a HEA eventually?

pheltzer's review

adventurous fast-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? No

4.0

danielles_reads's review

adventurous tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Well, I breezed through the last third of the book, and stayed up until almost 3 am finishing it lol.

DAMN, it was so TENSE. We’ve been leading up to this moment for SIX books and it definitely delivered.

The entire scene on Rasu Prime with Caleb, Nika, and Alex spreading the poison was so exciting!

But of course since the reader knows it’s the only thing that can stop the Rasu, it kind of made the rest of the chapters from the other points of view seem a bit pointless and just wasted time to get back to what would really save the day. I really rushed through a lot of the other characters’ chapters. But as with all of Jennsen’s books, this one also had a lot of heart. I really liked the discussion regarding the ethics of genocide, even if it is a genocide of a species threatening human annihilation. And of course, the scene with

Alex dying and Caleb going a bit insane was SO GOOD! I kind of wish we had more time with Alex in the Siyane, because I thought it was really in her character to be more impacted by that than by seeing her own dead body. I also enjoyed the discussion between Caleb and Nika afterwards, where he asked her why she didn’t tell him and Alex that the poison had to kill the Rasu across the galaxy first before it killed the ones on the planet they were on, because I think both of them are right in their own way. Lol, Caleb is unpredictable when Alex is in danger, but he also deserved to be prepared to fight. I also really liked the discussion around Akeso inflicting so much violence, and then switching from that violence to healing. It’s cool that now both Caleb and Alex have been resurrected by Akeso.

The big reveal at the end… I should’ve known Jennsen would do something like that lol. She’s always been good at that. But for this one, I can’t help but wonder why it took 18 books to get this information? Did Jennsen plan it from the beginning? Because it completely overhauls the reader’s perspective of pretty much this entire series.

The Kats have been ethereal mysterious beings for SO LONG, and now it turns out that Mesme is actually just Nika after time traveling and the other Kats are just remnants of other Asterions? Idk, it just felt like kind of a dud (I am curious which Kat is which Asterion tho lol). It makes me want to go back to some of the Asterion series book and see if there were any hints. But why did the Kats attack the humans in the first place? To prepare them for the larger wars I guess? It still doesn’t really explain how they had such god-like technology.

I just feel like it would have been better for the reader to have had this information sooner in order to look at the world and its characters as the author intended.

My major problem with this series is that it has grown WAY too large in scope. There are soooo many characters now that most of them don’t get much page time, and soooo many plot lines. I had a feeling the Gardiens plotline wasn’t going to be 100% resolved.

Like Olivia’s resurrected body just disappeared halfway through the book lmaaaao ok. Glad Vilane is dead tho lol

And I’m starting to really dislike more than one of the characters (Malcom and Marlee in particular are really getting on my nerves).

Malcom not telling Caleb that he found Mia was absolutely insane nonsense considering Caleb could just TELEPORT so his excuse that “there is no time!!” is fucking BS and felt like it was forced to lead to his death and surprise regenesis. A lot of his storylines have felt illogical and forced for the sake of the plot. His holier-than-thou attitude is really fucking annoying too, and I’m still bitter that Catholicism of all religions still exists 300+ years into the future (though the Church’s disapproval of regenesis makes complete sense lmaaao). Marlee’s impulsiveness is just annoying and her storyline seems so far removed from everyone else.

And like… I thought this was going to be the end. This series has eighteen books, and yet Jennsen is going to write MORE?! WHY?! And of course, her future books are just leading up to ANOTHER battle for humanity’s survival (

Tho Rasu being a descendent of the Dzvhar is pretty interesting. I should’ve known: everything in this series revolves around the three primordial species

). It’s just too much. It’s too repetitive. I’m tired of so many battles and so much focus on the military (my favorite part of this series was when they were exploring the Mosaic. Peaceful space exploration stories forever 💙). It’s like, dude, I know the formula. Devon and Parc and Dashiel (the tech geniuses of each human species) will come up with some technological advancement, and Miriam and Malcom will fight with everything they have. The Anadens will be just kind of… there like they were in this book. Then Nika and Alex and potentially Caleb will come up with some kyoseil / half-magic solution that will actually save the day once and for all. And I just don’t think we need that story. How many freaking enemies does humanity need? 

It also made me laugh when Jennsen included her usual “tell everyone you know about this book and how much you loved it!” author’s note at the end. Girl, this series is eighteen books long. Any new reader will have to read SEVENTEEN books first in order to get to this book a theoretical existing reader is raving about. Plus, there are a million fucking characters and that turned off a friend I recommended this to way back at the beginning of the series, when there were a lot fewer than there are now. The number of books is just such a turn off for most people. I’ve been reading these books over a period of almost TEN YEARS for god’s sake. Adding more is not going to convince more readers.

Anyway, I’m just bitter that the next trilogy is going to center around one of my least favorite characters, Marlee, AND seems to be completely unrelated to the main story. Yeah, I think I’m giving up. This book (and this entire series) was really good, and I’m so glad I found it. This series was the first feminist queernorm sci-fi I ever read and it was perfect for the time in my life when I discovered it. But there is so much more out there with more focus on character development and relationships and themes (and even writing style tbh) that I think I should spend my time on instead. I will always have fond memories of this series 💜