Reviews

The Blue, Beautiful World by Karen Lord

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pyropaws's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

katy_bee's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I hadn't realised this was a series- and I haven't read the other book in it. That definitely made this one harder to follow, it felt like characters weren't well introduced or explained and I was constantly trying to match up which alien races had which characteristics. It also jumped between different groups and foci quite suddenly.
That's on me (although a quick precis at the beginning would have helped a lot and might have sent me to buy the first one). I did like the writing style.

bettylooksatbooks's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

2.75

aidymoose's review against another edition

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This book is apparently the third part of a trilogy, yet there’s nothing on my copy of this book to indicate this. No idea if it was any good or not as part of the trilogy, but it didn’t work for me as a standalone novel at all.

isabellediggle's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Despite this being the third in a trilogy, I enjoyed my time in Lord's universe. Her writing was fantasti ally crafted, incisive and sensory. I think the incl sion of climate change was thematically weak in this, we saw it's affects but not how the native Terrans had experienced the decline. I'd like to read the rest of the series to form a true understanding of this intergalactic political saga and to be able to fairly rate this novel.

derigibleplums's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

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? It's complicated

1.5

I feel like this is a tad unfair, I didn’t realise until I was over halfway done with this that it’s in fact the third in a trilogy and it really suffers for that.

Even giving it the benefit of the doubt, I really couldn’t stand this. The world-building and character development felt inadequate when included but also noticeably absent throughout which meant I spent most of this just feeling lost which never resolved into understanding. There was such a huge cast that I struggled to care or keep up with them all and it simultaneously felt like it moved at a snail's pace but also rushed through all the important bits.

I’m sure if I’d have read these in order a lot of my gripes would be unfair comments but sadly that's the risk of nominating the final book in a series for a major prize.