A review by geethr75
Dalí by E.M. Hamill

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 

This was quite an enjoyable read. The voice, the prose, the characters and plot, everything was good. 

Dalí Tamareia is a changeling or third gender, a human who has been evolved to be without gender but who can assume either gender. They're also an empath who grew up in the planet of Zereid whose natives are highly empathic and telepathic. Even though they practise a martial art, they're a peaceable race who don't believe in killing. 

When the story opens, Dalí is lost in a sea of grief and pain following the death of their two partners and unborn child in a terrorist bombing. They're subjected to bullying and hate by some bigots who consider the third genders as abominations. Dalí is also spiralling into addiction, and ignores the people who try to set them right. Changelings like them are disappearing from all over, but Dalí doesn't care. 

An encounter with some bigots have Dalí  nearly dead, which makes them realise that they doesn't want to die. They're recruited by a group to discover what's happening to the missing changelings, and Dalí realises that the group has links to the bombs that killed her family. 

I loved the plot, and Dalí's characterisation as well as that of the minor characters. The world building is done well and the inner workings of various societies are interesting. Even with all my focus issues, I finished the first book in a week and has started the second book of the series. 

If you love scifi, space operas, advanced technology, alien civilisations, flawed characters and personal stakes, this is the book for you.