Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Immortality Thief

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Immortality Thief by Taran Hunt

6 reviews

lbelow's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense

I had to give this one two tries before I got into it. (A killer first chapter followed by several chapters of backstory is one of my reading pet peeves.) But once I got past the initial flashback, I was hooked. This is the kind of book that has you on the edge of your seat waiting to see what comes next. I am eager to read the sequel!

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welgan's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I liked this story a lot !
I've read it for the "Survival" square of r/fantasy book bingo and the less I can say is that it FITS. I'm glad I followed the recommendation of book bingo on this one because I'm not sure I would have picked it up otherwise !

You see, I am a sucker for abandonned starships and the cosmic horror of absolute loneliness among the secrets of the past. I LOVE it. Well, this book was not about that, at all. I don't think our main character spends more than 12 total pages alone in this supposedly abandonned starship (but if you have read the cover blurb, it is quite advertised as such so you shouldn't be surprised). And you know what ? It's fine, because the book is great in what it actually does.
It kinda feels like a survival action SF series to be honest, and the action was tense. It's what prevents it from being 5 stars of the heart for me, because it's not my favorite genre right now, but it was great nonetheless.
I especially liked the characters and their relationships. I think they were very human, relatable and complex. Sean, the main character, is unable to shut up even if his life depends on it, and this can be very annoying if that's treated as a comic relief, but it was not, and I think we really benefited from being in his head. I feel attached to him and I can say I liked reading him as a main character.
I also liked that the fact he is a translator actually is significatively usefull and that it shows in the way he approches situations and what he learns first from other people.
Minor spoiler :

I could swear there was some homoerotic tension between Sean and Indigo. I was very surprised that it seemed to go in this direction, as I wasn't expecting that from that story, and in the end nothing can confirm this theory, but I really like the fact the 3 survivors stick together in the end. We can then imagine what we want, and I think it's a fine way to wrap up a story with such strong relationships build on survival.

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_reese__'s review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.75

It’s a fun read; mostly just for entertainment though brings up some interesting ethical questions. Overall I’m happy to have read it but nothing to rave about and I’m not on the edge of my seat for the next book despite the cliff hanger.

A few things:

1) It’s a pet peeve of mine when authors take things exactly as they are from the real world and insert them into sci-fi without changing much besides the name. I understand taking inspiration from the real world but I’d like to see a bit more creativity. For example, in this book the religion centered on “The God who shed Blood for Us”…so basically Catholicism. And Kystrene seems to just be Irish.

2)

The budding relationship between Sean and Indigo was interesting but after finding out Indigo was the general that lead the battle/mass murder on Kystrom that wiped out Itaka (the largest city on Kystrom and Sean’s home) , it was kind of ruined for me. The author seems to try to make this ok by having Sean kill Benny so Sean and Indigo together made the people of Itaka extinct (Sean literally says this at the end of chapter 84) but the scale of murder committed but Indigo (it’s literally referred to as a genocide at some point) is no where near comparable to Sean’s killing of Benny. This is especially true considering Sean has repeatedly shown a distaste for killing of any kind (even the monsters that are trying to kill them on the ship) and only kills Benny (unintentionally at that) because he was going to destroy the data needed to save an entire population (the Ministers).

3. Someone else mentioned this in another review but the editing of this book could have been better. I caught a character referring to “degrees Kelvin”…. Just “Kelvin” is the unit of temperature. You only say degrees for Celsius, Rankine, or Fahrenheit. This is the kind of simple thing I expect to be right in sci-fi, especially if the author got a degree in physics.

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martinatan's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

Despite slow initial pacing that made it difficult to get into the plot, ultimately I came to appreciate the thrilling progression of events interspersed with endearing character moments. I appreciated that the story explored interpersonal and political dynamics with an ultimate message of unity and overcoming difference. I didn’t expect there to be a bio-horror angle but it came together decently and added to the disturbing nature of the setting. This book was not seamless in its plot and worldbuilding, but was still well-written and has a lot of heart.

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renettereads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Uh, so I really enjoyed this story. Seen entirely from pilot, criminal, and linguist Sean Wren’s perspective, this book starts out as a not-so-voluntary data-salvaging mission that soon turns into a sort of ‘space race’ for a stone that promises immortality.

Pacy with complex characters, this soft sci-fi novel was so compelling and readable thanks to Sean’s easy manner. Even when the book bordered on horror - cue gruesome monsters and confined spaces - his voice was a lighthouse. Although seen from his point of view, you do get a real in-depth understanding of the two other characters he meets along the way and that sort of development really pulled me into the story. I also love the idea of found family and some of the bonds forged in this book felt really special.

Parts of this were definitely tense, others scary (I’m a wimp, sue me) but it was also deeply moving and really raised a lot of questions about the importance of human connection and morality. It’s adventurous, it’s bold, it’s high-stakes, and although I saw a couple of twists coming, there were some that I did not predict. I’m excited to see where Sean, Indigo and Tamara go from here and can’t wait to see what manner of impossible gets thrown at them next.

Thanks to Rebellion and NetGallery for the eARC.

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boojumssnark's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

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

4.75

This review is a place holder for a properly thought out, constructive review.

While I work on that, the only thing you need to know is THE BOOK IS GOOD, YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY READ IT.

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