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spookshow's review
3.0
You can find this review and all my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Actual rating of 2.75
Paul Tarseus is a Lord of the Tuyet Voi. He is known across the Galaxy as Lord Nefarous, and his reputation precedes him. So when he ends up on the run from the very thing he's a part of, after ending up on a planet with a strange ship on it, he's not too sure what to do with himself other than finding out the reason behind the bounty on his head and what it has to do with the strange ship he found himself inside of. Ending up on Kanchi, he never expected to end up entwined with a young drone-smith called Ramona, her droid Eights or her mother. And he certainly never intended on ending up involved with the mercenaries that inhabit the planet. But, all in a day's work for Lord Nefarous. He will roll with the punches and put in a hundred percent, because that's all he knows how to do. Whether he'll survive this time though, he'll have to wait and see.
I was approached to receive an ARC copy of this book for review, and I have a soft spot for science fiction so I figured why not. I did find that the Goodreads synopsis only sort of touched on what the story is about, in a rather vague way, but I can also understand why that is, because there is a LOT going on in this story. I mean, A LOT. To the point that it felt super convoluted at times and as though it really didn't need to be this confusing.
So the main person we're following is Paul, he's an interesting character who gives me kind of Darth Vader vibes, but with more heart. He's a Lord for the Tuyet Voi, an elite army that battle across the galaxy. To be honest, that's all I got from them because I just couldn't take everything in that was going on. Then we also meet Ramona and her mother when Paul lands on Kanchi, this is where I became more invested in the story as I was super intrigued by Ramona and to be honest, Eights, her droid, was my favourite character. The little droid had so much attitude and personality, it was amazing. After this we also meet Prince Rayleonard, the Son to the...emperor, I want to say? Well anyway, the son of the guy who's basically put the bounty on Paul's head. So the story is jumping between the three lots of characters and all of their story lines are trying to get started at the same time and it's like one big battle throughout the book as to which plot line the story wants to focus on. I feel like it would have been better to maybe focus on Paul and Ramona in this book, and maybe bring the Prince into it near the end so as to lead into the second book, or even wait until the second book to even bring his story line into it. It was just very confusing is all and I feel like each plot line having a chance to get going and gain traction before being over taken by the next one would have been a better idea for the story itself. Don't get me wrong, the plot lines all seem to tie into each other, but they all just felt like they were fighting against each other for page time, and it just didn't really work that well for me. I liked the mystery of the artifacts and I was super keen to learn more about them and see what they were all about, but it wasn't really touched on too much in this story. I feel like this was mostly a set up book for the coming novels and the rest of the series, just world building, character introducing and laying down the basic outline for what's to come. I did find the pacing to be severely lacking for me and at times this was a hard slog to get through, I did consider DNFing, but I hate DNFing ARCs, so I rather try to push through and give my honest opinions at the end.
The characters were interesting and well written, but it took me a bit to wrap my head around them all because we meet a lot. I was mostly interested in Ramona's story, closely followed by Paul, and didn't really care too much for the Prince, I think because my brain was already full and I just couldn't fit him in their too and empathise with his plight. I did feel that the characters have a lot of room for development, and at times Paul came across pretty flat for me, but I'm wondering if it's because he is meant to be this stoic character that doesn't really care about anyone, and it just translated as flat in my mind.
The story itself, as said above it quite confusing as there's so much going on, but the idea behind the story is really good and I feel like definitely has promise, but could do with another round of editing to help smooth it out and make it a bit more linear. The characters have a lot of room for development and I'm hoping the characters themselves and their relationships get to grow as the series progresses. I'm not really feeling like I'll continue with this series, and I just didn't enjoy the first book enough to be invested for the long haul. I do feel that there will be a myriad of people out there who will love this, I just think it wasn't the right book for me.
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Actual rating of 2.75
Paul Tarseus is a Lord of the Tuyet Voi. He is known across the Galaxy as Lord Nefarous, and his reputation precedes him. So when he ends up on the run from the very thing he's a part of, after ending up on a planet with a strange ship on it, he's not too sure what to do with himself other than finding out the reason behind the bounty on his head and what it has to do with the strange ship he found himself inside of. Ending up on Kanchi, he never expected to end up entwined with a young drone-smith called Ramona, her droid Eights or her mother. And he certainly never intended on ending up involved with the mercenaries that inhabit the planet. But, all in a day's work for Lord Nefarous. He will roll with the punches and put in a hundred percent, because that's all he knows how to do. Whether he'll survive this time though, he'll have to wait and see.
I was approached to receive an ARC copy of this book for review, and I have a soft spot for science fiction so I figured why not. I did find that the Goodreads synopsis only sort of touched on what the story is about, in a rather vague way, but I can also understand why that is, because there is a LOT going on in this story. I mean, A LOT. To the point that it felt super convoluted at times and as though it really didn't need to be this confusing.
So the main person we're following is Paul, he's an interesting character who gives me kind of Darth Vader vibes, but with more heart. He's a Lord for the Tuyet Voi, an elite army that battle across the galaxy. To be honest, that's all I got from them because I just couldn't take everything in that was going on. Then we also meet Ramona and her mother when Paul lands on Kanchi, this is where I became more invested in the story as I was super intrigued by Ramona and to be honest, Eights, her droid, was my favourite character. The little droid had so much attitude and personality, it was amazing. After this we also meet Prince Rayleonard, the Son to the...emperor, I want to say? Well anyway, the son of the guy who's basically put the bounty on Paul's head. So the story is jumping between the three lots of characters and all of their story lines are trying to get started at the same time and it's like one big battle throughout the book as to which plot line the story wants to focus on. I feel like it would have been better to maybe focus on Paul and Ramona in this book, and maybe bring the Prince into it near the end so as to lead into the second book, or even wait until the second book to even bring his story line into it. It was just very confusing is all and I feel like each plot line having a chance to get going and gain traction before being over taken by the next one would have been a better idea for the story itself. Don't get me wrong, the plot lines all seem to tie into each other, but they all just felt like they were fighting against each other for page time, and it just didn't really work that well for me. I liked the mystery of the artifacts and I was super keen to learn more about them and see what they were all about, but it wasn't really touched on too much in this story. I feel like this was mostly a set up book for the coming novels and the rest of the series, just world building, character introducing and laying down the basic outline for what's to come. I did find the pacing to be severely lacking for me and at times this was a hard slog to get through, I did consider DNFing, but I hate DNFing ARCs, so I rather try to push through and give my honest opinions at the end.
The characters were interesting and well written, but it took me a bit to wrap my head around them all because we meet a lot. I was mostly interested in Ramona's story, closely followed by Paul, and didn't really care too much for the Prince, I think because my brain was already full and I just couldn't fit him in their too and empathise with his plight. I did feel that the characters have a lot of room for development, and at times Paul came across pretty flat for me, but I'm wondering if it's because he is meant to be this stoic character that doesn't really care about anyone, and it just translated as flat in my mind.
The story itself, as said above it quite confusing as there's so much going on, but the idea behind the story is really good and I feel like definitely has promise, but could do with another round of editing to help smooth it out and make it a bit more linear. The characters have a lot of room for development and I'm hoping the characters themselves and their relationships get to grow as the series progresses. I'm not really feeling like I'll continue with this series, and I just didn't enjoy the first book enough to be invested for the long haul. I do feel that there will be a myriad of people out there who will love this, I just think it wasn't the right book for me.
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