biblioromantic's reviews
175 reviews

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.75

This review is spoiler-free as the book has not been released yet! Thank you so much to NetGalley and Orbit for the ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

As an avid fan of the Expanse series, I had high hopes going into this book and while quite different, it truly delivered for me.

Characters: The characters and POVs are diverse and wow there are a lot of them, but the authors do a great job of keeping them clear and the character’s voices unique. Even when the POV would switch mid-chapter I never felt as though I was struggling to keep track of them which can be a real issue with so many, plus some being introduced far later in the story. I loved and hated the same characters in waves as the story continued, which I loved because there were no strictly good or bad characters, there were just people going through life-altering experiences and reacting.

Plot: If you’re looking for a high-action adventure space opera with an alien invasion, and shoot ‘em up adventure story, this is not the book for you. This entire story was truly an exploration of humanity and its ability to adapt and survive. How when a person is stripped down to nothing, and everything they know is taken from them, they react differently, but the instinct to survive perseveres. The pacing is slow, and there are large chunks where the characters are just existing, doing science, learning about things and each other, and it can feel like it drags a bit because of this, but I almost appreciate this because it makes the passage of time feel more grounded. As the reader we don’t get to skip the large chunks of waiting and anticipation that the characters experience as the fear and tension of the unknown grow, we are there with them. So when a character reaches a point where they react, it feels valid and earned. They have been under stress for a large chunk of time, of course, they would react irrationally, they’ve been ready to snap for ages.

Worldbuilding: As the first book in a series there was a lot of heavy lifting that had to happen for worldbuilding and it is expected that some of it won’t make complete sense right now because, for the most part, you’re learning with the characters about alien species/politics/societies/behavior. While I think the authors did a fantastic job of showing instead of just telling me, I found a couple of places to be dense and unnecessary. Maybe the information will be relevant in future books, but right now, when I am already having to absorb so much information, a lot of the not-immediately relevant stuff fell through the cracks and I can only hope that if the time comes that I need to know it for story reasons, there will be a bit of built-in reminders.

Overall this book was a very strong start to the series and I cannot wait to read the next book when it comes out!

Content Warnings

The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 46%.

I just couldn't feel connected to the story or characters. The whole thing bounces around a lot, and the writing style and story seem to lean towards being quirky, but that just wasn't what I was looking for right now. Might pick this up again later to try again.

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner

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adventurous medium-paced