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A review by narteest
Empress of a Thousand Skies by Rhoda Belleza
3.0
First off, this is a solid 3 stars. No point this or point that. Also, I read this for the last and final Quarter of 2017: Science Fiction Quarter, over on the Quarterly Book Club.
Second: The Positives
- Action. First and foremost, this was pretty much action. This was good, because you can see that from the beginning this is a story about grander plots and schemes, and not so much a personal endeavour to self-discovery. So there's more doing and a lot less personal reflection on Rhiannon's part.
- Loved Kara! She definitely seemed to have her head on and screwed tightly compared to others!
- Space Opera, like totally. The reason I went ahead with reading this despite various reviews was because the first feeling I got when I read the first few lines was 'this feels like Star Wars'. In saying that, it falls into the category where your scifi story is in space, in a universe with many planets, that isn't dystopian or anything, but pure hardcore Science Fiction, Space Opera style. And for the most part, this was great! (For the negative, read below)
- Princesses in strife? Not so tough, male protagonist. Adventurous story. Yeah, sure, that was present.
These above three points though are the only positives I can think of. Don't assume that because I read this so fast that it actually is top quality shit. It's good, entertaining and reads fast, but this has a lot of negatives it takes a bored (very bored) person to completely overlook on a good day.
So: The Negatives
- Princess Rhiannon was annoying. Like I agree she's interesting so point, and there was even just one tiny second when I thought she was really a sympathetic character (she was looking for where to go next and then sought after her memories). But every other second of the book, she pretty much acts but doesn't think about the consequences. She makes kills - I presume the point of doing so by the author is to make her look kickass? But it just comes across as pointless to me. Even when she wanted to make biggest kill of all but that was stolen from her Dahlen who wanted his own revenge, that felt pointless too. The only good thing about these moments of conflict is that they move the plot forward. Unfortunately for me, Rhiannon never gets a single useful bit of information because she's mostly gone and killed the others first (or at least that's the gist of the scenes I got). The other thing is, within the first 50 pages she makes her first kill, granted she was about to die, but I feel like the emotions just weren't there to capture that moment. Furthermore, because she was doing all these things, it's no wonder no one would take her very seriously as a future Empress.
- Alyosha was whiny. His friend was so much better, shame he died so early on. But I guess Alyosha grew on me a little towards the end. Still, can't say I like him much! Even Dahlen was more interesting, though he was mostly kind of your usual quiet and uninterested guy?
- Worldbuilding. I actually only have half-gripes about the worldbuilding. Firstly, I liked that all these universe's vocabulary is shoved in my face (reminds me of Truthwitch). It made it easier for me to fall into the world and deal with the aftermath. It felt nice and foreign and had the potential to steal me away. But the problem with that, of course, is that I skimmed some terms and blanked out others. And it didn't help that the worlds that are associated with these words aren't fully realised. The author doesn't give us much description to build images of the place. Which is a shame because I was definitely getting a Star Wars feeling and anything with that right now, I'm all for.
- Several deaths occurred throughout this book, many of whom had strong ties to the main characters, but none of whom I cared a single button for. I even hadn't realised Alyosha's friend had died! Until he kept going on about it. I did feel his end regret, but the beginning, it was just so sudden and random (well almost), that I didn't even feel a thing. Which is sad since they were friends. Just like the first guy Rhiannon killed, he had been a family friend for all sakes! In a manner of speaking anyway. But really....anyway.
Overall
Anyway so overall, this was a fun read for the action. I also can see why Rhiannon's future looks so much brighter at the end of the book compared to 4/5ths of it. I said she isn't suited to be Empress, lord, I hope that's the case in the end. So for action I would read this. For a Space world that catches my attention, I would read this. But for character development, worldbuilding, writing, to some degree plot, no, I don't feel like reading this again. As for the next book? Yeah, I think I will go pick it up and see what happens next!
Second: The Positives
- Action. First and foremost, this was pretty much action. This was good, because you can see that from the beginning this is a story about grander plots and schemes, and not so much a personal endeavour to self-discovery. So there's more doing and a lot less personal reflection on Rhiannon's part.
- Loved Kara! She definitely seemed to have her head on and screwed tightly compared to others!
- Space Opera, like totally. The reason I went ahead with reading this despite various reviews was because the first feeling I got when I read the first few lines was 'this feels like Star Wars'. In saying that, it falls into the category where your scifi story is in space, in a universe with many planets, that isn't dystopian or anything, but pure hardcore Science Fiction, Space Opera style. And for the most part, this was great! (For the negative, read below)
- Princesses in strife? Not so tough, male protagonist. Adventurous story. Yeah, sure, that was present.
These above three points though are the only positives I can think of. Don't assume that because I read this so fast that it actually is top quality shit. It's good, entertaining and reads fast, but this has a lot of negatives it takes a bored (very bored) person to completely overlook on a good day.
So: The Negatives
- Princess Rhiannon was annoying. Like I agree she's interesting so point, and there was even just one tiny second when I thought she was really a sympathetic character (she was looking for where to go next and then sought after her memories). But every other second of the book, she pretty much acts but doesn't think about the consequences. She makes kills - I presume the point of doing so by the author is to make her look kickass? But it just comes across as pointless to me. Even when she wanted to make biggest kill of all but that was stolen from her Dahlen who wanted his own revenge, that felt pointless too. The only good thing about these moments of conflict is that they move the plot forward. Unfortunately for me, Rhiannon never gets a single useful bit of information because she's mostly gone and killed the others first (or at least that's the gist of the scenes I got). The other thing is, within the first 50 pages she makes her first kill, granted she was about to die, but I feel like the emotions just weren't there to capture that moment. Furthermore, because she was doing all these things, it's no wonder no one would take her very seriously as a future Empress.
- Alyosha was whiny. His friend was so much better, shame he died so early on. But I guess Alyosha grew on me a little towards the end. Still, can't say I like him much! Even Dahlen was more interesting, though he was mostly kind of your usual quiet and uninterested guy?
- Worldbuilding. I actually only have half-gripes about the worldbuilding. Firstly, I liked that all these universe's vocabulary is shoved in my face (reminds me of Truthwitch). It made it easier for me to fall into the world and deal with the aftermath. It felt nice and foreign and had the potential to steal me away. But the problem with that, of course, is that I skimmed some terms and blanked out others. And it didn't help that the worlds that are associated with these words aren't fully realised. The author doesn't give us much description to build images of the place. Which is a shame because I was definitely getting a Star Wars feeling and anything with that right now, I'm all for.
- Several deaths occurred throughout this book, many of whom had strong ties to the main characters, but none of whom I cared a single button for. I even hadn't realised Alyosha's friend had died! Until he kept going on about it. I did feel his end regret, but the beginning, it was just so sudden and random (well almost), that I didn't even feel a thing. Which is sad since they were friends. Just like the first guy Rhiannon killed, he had been a family friend for all sakes! In a manner of speaking anyway. But really....anyway.
Overall
Anyway so overall, this was a fun read for the action. I also can see why Rhiannon's future looks so much brighter at the end of the book compared to 4/5ths of it. I said she isn't suited to be Empress, lord, I hope that's the case in the end. So for action I would read this. For a Space world that catches my attention, I would read this. But for character development, worldbuilding, writing, to some degree plot, no, I don't feel like reading this again. As for the next book? Yeah, I think I will go pick it up and see what happens next!