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A review by wordsofapaige
The House of Styx by Derek Künsken
adventurous
mysterious
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? It's complicated
5.0
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
When my first reaction to a finishing a book is to shout about how it can't end like that and to immediately scour the internet for mention of the sequel and when I might get to read it, you know you've found a winner. That's exactly what happened with House of Styx.
After pushing through the world building of the first 50 pages and being slightly confused by some of the descriptions, I soon found my stride and after that I struggled to put House of Styx down. Whether I was imagining what Derek Künsken had envisioned I'm not sure, but it worked for me and who doesn't add their own imagination into books anyway? I soon found myself looking in wonder at the mystery under Venus, seeing the sun through the clouds and enduring the storm Venus can throw out. Despite the fact very little of the action takes place on solid ground Künsken has crafted a deadly environment for our characters to work around. They're always working against Venus, and the planet is almost the antagonist for the majority of the book.
This is Sci-Fi filled with rep, and incredibly well-handled rep at that. We have LGBTQ+ rep, Autism rep and trans rep all within this story. As I don't identify with any of these reps I can't say they're perfectly handled examples, but I feel like everything is done well, and nothing is there purely for the sake of it. I loved reading Pascal's journey, as with all of the characters we encounter in this big, messy family. They fight, the love and they fall for all the wrong people, but ultimately this book is the story of them pulling together to get out of the situation they are in.
This is Sci-Fi at its best and I'm off to explore more of Künsken's work. House of Styx is actually a prequel series so I have more of this universe to explore while I wait on the rest of the series to come out!
The mystery of Venus stays unexplored for now, but seeing as this is a series I believe we will be seeing a lot more of it!
When my first reaction to a finishing a book is to shout about how it can't end like that and to immediately scour the internet for mention of the sequel and when I might get to read it, you know you've found a winner. That's exactly what happened with House of Styx.
After pushing through the world building of the first 50 pages and being slightly confused by some of the descriptions, I soon found my stride and after that I struggled to put House of Styx down. Whether I was imagining what Derek Künsken had envisioned I'm not sure, but it worked for me and who doesn't add their own imagination into books anyway? I soon found myself looking in wonder at the mystery under Venus, seeing the sun through the clouds and enduring the storm Venus can throw out. Despite the fact very little of the action takes place on solid ground Künsken has crafted a deadly environment for our characters to work around. They're always working against Venus, and the planet is almost the antagonist for the majority of the book.
This is Sci-Fi filled with rep, and incredibly well-handled rep at that. We have LGBTQ+ rep, Autism rep and trans rep all within this story. As I don't identify with any of these reps I can't say they're perfectly handled examples, but I feel like everything is done well, and nothing is there purely for the sake of it. I loved reading Pascal's journey, as with all of the characters we encounter in this big, messy family. They fight, the love and they fall for all the wrong people, but ultimately this book is the story of them pulling together to get out of the situation they are in.
This is Sci-Fi at its best and I'm off to explore more of Künsken's work. House of Styx is actually a prequel series so I have more of this universe to explore while I wait on the rest of the series to come out!
The mystery of Venus stays unexplored for now, but seeing as this is a series I believe we will be seeing a lot more of it!