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linda_wolf's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, and War
Spiders are frequently mentioned in case anyone has a phobiamaddie_can_read's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Aug 2024
I decided to reread because I read another Tchaikovsky book (Cage if Lost Souls) and it made me want to read the sequels to this book. A lot easier to get into this time, I didn't find it slow and I liked the characters a lot better. I found half the plot more compelling than the other half and that there was a bit of a mismatch in tension jumping back and forth between the spider and human parts . Also some parts were very difficult to visualize and I wished there was a bit more descriptions.
There's so much going on in the book that I wasn't bored rereading and I'd found that Ive forgotten a lot of the interesting details.
The most fun part of the reread was seeing themes across the author's workslike civilization destroying itself, things evolving, future generations loosing th technology of their ancestors, the vibe of like things just getting progressively worse/ a more realistic/ pessimistic view of future problems
--
Jan 2024 - 4.25/5
I had a super difficult time getting into this book but I'm glad I powered through because I ended up really enjoying it towards the end. I did find it a bit slow and a bit plodding throughout.
I had a difficult time vibing with the writing style at first. I think it was a combination of it being written in third person but then also being kind omniscient narrator (like they knew everything about past humanity - like comparing the spider pandemic to the black plague .
And I just could not connect with any of the characters until almost the half way point. I don't think the author is great at characterization.
I kept going because I liked the premise and I read all these reviews talking about how weird (in a good way) the book was and just thought I'd keep going and give it some more time.
And wow, I loved it when things got weird! Having the structure of the book set up the way it isspanning multiple generations made it so some really interesting things could occur. Really liked how the two story-lines came to a head.
Lots of wtf moments really was not expecting Arvana to turn away the last of humanity, the mutiny, the spiders holding a human captivity for decades, spider sexism, the captain wanting to become the ship and being kept alive by machines, the captain letting people out of some pods and them having generations of children that followed him like a cult leader, really loved the love story between the humans (how it was impacted by one of them staying out of their cold sleep for longer) and then the one between two of the spiders towards the end where the male sacrifices himself, and loved the twist/ fake-out at the end!
I decided to reread because I read another Tchaikovsky book (Cage if Lost Souls) and it made me want to read the sequels to this book. A lot easier to get into this time, I didn't find it slow and I liked the characters a lot better. I found half the plot more compelling than the other half and that there was a bit of a mismatch in tension jumping back and forth
There's so much going on in the book that I wasn't bored rereading and I'd found that Ive forgotten a lot of the interesting details.
The most fun part of the reread was seeing themes across the author's works
--
Jan 2024 - 4.25/5
I had a super difficult time getting into this book but I'm glad I powered through because I ended up really enjoying it towards the end. I did find it a bit slow and a bit plodding throughout.
I had a difficult time vibing with the writing style at first. I think it was a combination of it being written in third person but then also being kind omniscient narrator (like they knew everything about past humanity -
And I just could not connect with any of the characters until almost the half way point.
I kept going because I liked the premise and I read all these reviews talking about how weird (in a good way) the book was and just thought I'd keep going and give it some more time.
And wow, I loved it when things got weird! Having the structure of the book set up the way it is
Lots of wtf moments
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexism, Violence, Religious bigotry, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Blood, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, and Excrement
SPIDERS, insectstalonsontypewriters's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
maybe just the mood I'm in but it never quite clicked for me :( the spiders were cool though
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Genocide, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Sexism, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Cannibalism, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Ableism
Spiders, insects. Passing use of cr*pple/d, single use of the R slur.micheala's review against another edition
This book has a really cool premise, in terms of post apocalyptic SciFi. The set up is that humans had started terraforming the galaxy before a nuclear war destroyed all humans living off planet, and threw Earth into an ice age.
We then get a ship with a few thousand of the remaining humans centuries later, travelling through space (in stais) in the hopes of finding a new home.
The planet they do eventually arrive at was supposed to be an experiment to "speed run" evolution and create new humans from monkeys + an engineered virus. However, those monkeys died being sent to the planet, and giant senteant insects evolve instead.
Cool right? I had a few quibbles with the spider sections (they don't know what humans/earth is, and they don't know about the virus let alone how it functions, so stop talking about it in the narrative portions of their sections; and I was kinda disappointed that their society also was fundamentally sexist and pretty much a 1:1 of humans in the medial ages in terms of society)
The humans finally get onto the planet, and we get drop kicked into full on horror, specifically graphic body horror. So I noped out of a story I was otherwise enjoying at 37%
If you're cool with horror, I'm guessing this book is going to continue to play with some really interesting ideas, however as someone who cannot deal with horror, it's a DNF for me.
We then get a ship with a few thousand of the remaining humans centuries later, travelling through space (in stais) in the hopes of finding a new home.
The planet they do eventually arrive at was supposed to be an experiment to "speed run" evolution and create new humans from monkeys + an engineered virus. However, those monkeys died being sent to the planet, and giant senteant insects evolve instead.
Cool right? I had a few quibbles with the spider sections (they don't know what humans/earth is, and they don't know about the virus let alone how it functions, so stop talking about it in the narrative portions of their sections; and I was kinda disappointed that their society also was fundamentally sexist and pretty much a 1:1 of humans in the medial ages in terms of society)
The humans finally get onto the planet, and we get drop kicked into full on horror, specifically graphic body horror. So I noped out of a story I was otherwise enjoying at 37%
If you're cool with horror, I'm guessing this book is going to continue to play with some really interesting ideas, however as someone who cannot deal with horror, it's a DNF for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
nodogsonthemoon's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War
cookiecat73's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Sexism, Xenophobia, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War
Moderate: Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Kidnapping, Abortion, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Child death, Incest, Excrement, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
pkledgrape's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Xenophobia and Colonisation
spidersmanicpixl's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-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
4.25
Warning: If you have a phobia of spiders , be very careful approaching this book (I wrapped the object of the phobia in spoiler brackets, even though it becomes apparent very early on in the book, but if you prefer to go in completely blind, I don't want to spoil that for you).
That said, I have a pretty major case of exactly that phobia, and I managed perfectly fine until one scene towards the end, whenthe spiders actually meet and engage in battle with the humans . The detachement created by the books setting and tone worked very well for me, but please be aware that this might not be the case for you.
And I'm so glad that I took the risk, knowing about the content, and was able to read this book, because it was absolutely worth it!
It wove the science and the fiction together into a very engaging story, and I enjoyed the writing style very much.
That said, I have a pretty major case of exactly that phobia, and I managed perfectly fine until one scene towards the end, when
And I'm so glad that I took the risk, knowing about the content, and was able to read this book, because it was absolutely worth it!
It wove the science and the fiction together into a very engaging story, and I enjoyed the writing style very much.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement and Death
Moderate: Body horror and Gore