wardenred's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
“They’ve taken down your defenses.” The mental touch withdrew. Surit sounded blank, so blank that Tennal wasn’t expecting it when he said, “That’s barbarous.”
Tennal swallowed in shock. The elevator doors beeped a protest, unable to shut. “Welcome to the military,” he said. “Is this your first day?”
I remember back when I read Winter's Orbit, I absolutely adored the romance part of the story but kept getting lost when it came to worldbuilding. Apparently, that's just what I should expect with Everina Maxwell's books. At least with Winter's Orbit, I found my footing by mid-story or so. With this one, I'm sorry to say I only kept getting more lost.
I guess a big part of it is that worldbuilding is even more important here, what with the big focus on chaotic space and all. However, the way all the relevant information is delivered just fellt... off? If I tried to treat all the lore as mostly trappings for the interpersonal conflicts, I got lost. If I tried to delve deeper into it, too many things just didn't seem to work upon closer inspection. Or maybe the bigger ones actually did, but whenever I started overthinking, I couldn't get past even the arguably smaller stuff. Like the math. The gap between when the experiments that led to the emergence of readers and architects were conducted and when those talents became a genetically inherited thing is just too small. I don't understand how it works. Or even just the lingo: like, okay, we've got two kinds of telepaths here—[mind] readers who read and architects who write. Why not call the latter writers to keep things consistent? Where does the "architect" part even come from?
I fully accept it might be on me just overthinking the wrong stuff or approaching everything from the wrong angle! My brain can be weird! But alas, I kept getting confused.
I expected a lot from the romance/relationship arc, because at the beginning, it looked like very much my jam. I mean, forced proximity? Opposites attract? A lawful character who is solid and dependable in his principles and a chaotic one who is a mess of jagged edges? Count me in! And at the beginning, while the two were just getting to know each other and adapting to their situation, I was very much invested. Unfortunately, the more I read on, the less invested I became.
I can't say there was anything *wrong*, exactly, with this slow burn romance for me. It's more about what was lacking from it. I expected a bigger focus on the possible ethical conundrums specifically surrounding the whole mind control/mind link think, and there was some discussion of it, but more through the general lens of fraternization dangers and power imbalance within the chain of command. I also didn't get satisfactory and timely understanding of what made both Tennal and Surit the people they were on the page, which felt rather important. Like, there were certain aspects of both their personalities that just didn't feel 100% right / organic, but I was willing to roll with it because I kept expecting a backstory-related explanation, something to fill the gaps and tie the disjointed parts together... but it never came.
Honestly, now that I'm trying to tie all my thoughts and feelings about this book together into this rambly review, I think there's one thing every aspect of the story had in common for me. First, I saw it and thought, "cool." Then I spent time with it, and thought about it, and it became less cool the more I tried to inspect it. The worldbuilding seems cool on the surface; when I tried to poke at it and grok it, not so much. The two leads and their dynamic were absolutely cool at first, but the deeper their relationship and personal arcs ran, the more unanswered questions I had. Cool side characters appeared and had 1-2 brilliant scenes that suggested lots of interest stuff to come, and then plenty of it fell flat and those same characters turned forgettable.
With all that said, I did enjoy the beginning of the book enough to want to finish it even when it turned draggy. The way the dynamic between Tennal and Surit developed may not have been entirely to my taste, but it definitely had some very satisfying moments, and not only in the first part of the story. Tennal never stopped being entertaining in that way that had me torn between wanting to ask him to neer change and also wanting to give him a hug and punch whoever hurt him. There was plenty of engrossing banter. What I was able to parse from the lore was cool.
It's just that all of that never quite came together for me, I guess.
Graphic: Confinement and Violence
Minor: Alcohol and Drug use
mind control, self-destructive behaviorkal517's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, and War
Moderate: Death of parent, Violence, and Death
Minor: Torture
shelvesofivy's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Violence, Cursing, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Gun violence, Murder, Death, Drug use, and Addiction
Minor: Death of parent and War
nabecker13's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Grief, Torture, War, Violence, Murder, Death of parent, Drug use, and Medical trauma
tincrumbs's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Addiction
Moderate: Violence and Death
hendrixpants's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Moderate: War and Violence
pitsikakku's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Confinement, Violence, War, Death, Drug use, and Addiction
Moderate: Suicide attempt
kimu's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Violence, Medical trauma, and War
Minor: Death of parent
annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Cursing and War
Moderate: Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, Addiction, Gun violence, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Minor: Drug abuse, Grief, Medical content, Torture, Body horror, Murder, Vomit, Alcohol, Confinement, Abandonment, Blood, Death, Slavery, and Terminal illness
re: ableism: people have genetically-inherited mind-reading/commanding abilities, and mind-readers are stigmatized. re: slavery: discussions of aforementioned mind-readers being conscripted into the military and basically worked to death. re: terminal illness: mcs find themselves in an untenable, rapidly worsening mental statequirkykayleetam's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Tennalhin uses his charisma to cause chaos in the social situations he's forced into as the son of the Senator. Surit is a perfect soldier and serial loophole abuser who uses his perfect memory of army regulations to do The Right Thing...and the exactly opposite of what his superiors wanted him to do.
These two men find themselves forcibly linked in the midst of a much larger conflict involving military coups, alien remnants, government conspiracies, murder attempts, and mass brain washings as they learn to find themselves through loving each other...and maybe saving their galaxy along the way.
Extra points for going beyond one concept of non-binary genders and showing how that has always worked in this world.
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Drug use, Outing, War, Violence, Terminal illness, and Transphobia
Minor: Abandonment, Death of parent, Sexual content, Vomit, and Gun violence