Scan barcode
A review by graculus
Artemis Awakening by Jane Lindskold
3.0
I've read a few books by this author but, as far as I can recall, nothing that has really grabbed me. Regardless of this fact, I still picked up a copy of Artemis Awakening, pretty much based on the blurb, as I was willing to give it a shot and see if this book was the exception for me where Jane Lindskold is concerned.
This book, and its planned sequels (of which [b:Artemis Invaded|23168787|Artemis Invaded (Artemis Awakening, #2)|Jane Lindskold|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1418113319s/23168787.jpg|42713937] is the first), are set on the planet of Artemis which was once used as a pleasure planet by the seegnur, a people who terraformed it and then tinkered on a genetic basis with those who would become its inhabitants. As a result some who live there, like a number of the major characters, have abilities - Adara has a mind-link with a similarly-adapted animal and can also see very well in the dark, for example. However the seegnur were massacred some time back and while they still seem to play a significant part in everyone's lives on Artemis (so much so that 'what would the seegnur want?' seems to be that planet's WWJD?) and much technology used in the past was lost.
Enter Griffin Dane, literally, falling from the sky in a crashing shuttle; he's an archaeologist who has come to see if Artemis really exists and, if so, become famous for discovering it. Which would be fine if he wasn't now completely reliant on Adara and her friends because he literally escaped the crash with the clothes on his back and no equipment. Taking him to her former mentor, Adara and Griffin are then drawn into a plot-line around rape for the purposes of forced impregnation that someone they know is alleged to be masterminding. The rest of the book is spent investigating that claim and also with Griffin getting himself kidnapped too at one point and discovering a mind-link of his own with another of the inhabitants. Towards the end, it seems that the planet itself is waking up and Adara has some kind of connection with it, which will probably be explored further in the sequel.
Artemis Awakening is an entertaining enough book but I still can't quite find one of Lindskold's books which really works for me. This all felt a bit formulaic, as Adara and Griffin form two sides of a putative love triangle (and anyone who reads my reviews regularly will know how I feel about that!) although personally Adara comes across as really not being into it and that makes me feel very uncomfortable. Griffin comes across at times as being a bit of an obnoxious know-it-all and I don't find that an attractive quality in a main character, to be honest. Anyway, I didn't struggle to finish it despite that, but it seems pretty unlikely I'll be picking up Artemis Invaded unless my local library ends up getting it and I run out of other stuff to read.
This book, and its planned sequels (of which [b:Artemis Invaded|23168787|Artemis Invaded (Artemis Awakening, #2)|Jane Lindskold|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1418113319s/23168787.jpg|42713937] is the first), are set on the planet of Artemis which was once used as a pleasure planet by the seegnur, a people who terraformed it and then tinkered on a genetic basis with those who would become its inhabitants. As a result some who live there, like a number of the major characters, have abilities - Adara has a mind-link with a similarly-adapted animal and can also see very well in the dark, for example. However the seegnur were massacred some time back and while they still seem to play a significant part in everyone's lives on Artemis (so much so that 'what would the seegnur want?' seems to be that planet's WWJD?) and much technology used in the past was lost.
Enter Griffin Dane, literally, falling from the sky in a crashing shuttle; he's an archaeologist who has come to see if Artemis really exists and, if so, become famous for discovering it. Which would be fine if he wasn't now completely reliant on Adara and her friends because he literally escaped the crash with the clothes on his back and no equipment. Taking him to her former mentor, Adara and Griffin are then drawn into a plot-line around rape for the purposes of forced impregnation that someone they know is alleged to be masterminding. The rest of the book is spent investigating that claim and also with Griffin getting himself kidnapped too at one point and discovering a mind-link of his own with another of the inhabitants. Towards the end, it seems that the planet itself is waking up and Adara has some kind of connection with it, which will probably be explored further in the sequel.
Artemis Awakening is an entertaining enough book but I still can't quite find one of Lindskold's books which really works for me. This all felt a bit formulaic, as Adara and Griffin form two sides of a putative love triangle (and anyone who reads my reviews regularly will know how I feel about that!) although personally Adara comes across as really not being into it and that makes me feel very uncomfortable. Griffin comes across at times as being a bit of an obnoxious know-it-all and I don't find that an attractive quality in a main character, to be honest. Anyway, I didn't struggle to finish it despite that, but it seems pretty unlikely I'll be picking up Artemis Invaded unless my local library ends up getting it and I run out of other stuff to read.