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wordsareworlds's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
I was so invested in this book for the first 50%, and then it felt like it went off the rails. Thompson packed so many different ideas into the book that most didn't end up having any room to breathe let alone shine. The resolution felt divorced from what had actually happened in the rest of the book, which left me feeling unsatisfied and a little bit cheated of the story the first half promised.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Gore, Colonisation, Body horror, and Blood
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, and Genocide
Minor: Cannibalism
tigger89's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This is a neat little locked room mystery set in space, with a compelling twist in the second half. I don't know what I thought was going on when I started this book, but I certainly wouldn't have guessed that! I loved the afrofuturism — the destination colony is in the Lagos system — and the attention to scientific detail, though I have to take the author's word for it that it's accurate. I also appreciated the themes surrounding AI consciousnesses.
My biggest gripe with this book is that it felt like a prequel to a different book or series. There were some aspects — the Lambers, Nightshade — that felt un-elaborated upon, and the ending of the story felt like it was setting up the kind of grand conflict that would be the main plot of a different story. There should be another story taking place five or ten years after this one, and the fact that we don't have that makes this feel incomplete somehow, despite the fact that the mystery was successfully concluded.
I usually try to note animal death content warnings in my reviews, but this is one where I'm gonna have to direct you to somewhere else. I have a note that there is such a content warning needed, but I've fallen behind on reviews and no longer recall the specific contexts well enough to warn.
My biggest gripe with this book is that it felt like a prequel to a different book or series. There were some aspects — the Lambers, Nightshade — that felt un-elaborated upon, and the ending of the story felt like it was setting up the kind of grand conflict that would be the main plot of a different story. There should be another story taking place five or ten years after this one, and the fact that we don't have that makes this feel incomplete somehow, despite the fact that the mystery was successfully concluded.
I usually try to note animal death content warnings in my reviews, but this is one where I'm gonna have to direct you to somewhere else. I have a note that there is such a content warning needed, but I've fallen behind on reviews and no longer recall the specific contexts well enough to warn.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gore, Body horror, Slavery, Terminal illness, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Murder, Animal death, Medical content, and Genocide
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