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crimsoncor's review
3.0
Lots of POVs spammed at you from the beginning make this a more difficult read than it had to be. But it is a fun post-apocalyptic world to spend a couple hundred pages in.
colorfulleo92's review
2.0
I don't have much to say about this other then it simply didn't interested me, there where nothing really to sink my teeth into and I didn't care for anything in the book.
arachnichemist's review
3.0
The world building in this book was the star. It is one of the most fascinating post apocalyptic worlds I have ever encountered and I am still wanting more. However, the characters in this book were rather weak and I didn't connect with any of them except Star. That in itself would still have earned a 4 star as the world building was top notch. The big problem was about 80% in the writing shifted in a very noticeable way. I felt like I went from reading an adult novel to a young adult/childrens novel in regards to the characters themselves. This was rather jarring and disappointing.
sunscour's review
4.0
Fantastic, interesting use of nano-technology.
A post-apocalyptic tale that is a bit different.
A post-apocalyptic tale that is a bit different.
raven_morgan's review
5.0
I am a judge for the 2017 Aurealis Awards. This review is my personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging coordinator, or the Aurealis Awards management team.
Cat Sparks is a well-known figure in the Australian speculative fiction scene, both for her work as a prolific short story writer and editor. Lotus Blue is her much-anticipated debut novel.
Lotus Blue is set in a post-apocalyptic Australia, a land that has been ruined by both war and climate change. In this almost barren land, dominated by desert - the Dead Red Heart - people eke out a meagre existence in amidst the remnants of the technologies that were used to fight the wars that devastated the country.
There are many points of view in this novel - so many, sometimes, that I did find myself skimming over one or the other to get to the characters who interested me the most. Star, a seventeen-year-old who we meet travelling on a caravan with her healer sister, Nene, was the most compelling for me, along with Quarrel, a Templar - a warrior left over from the war, his body part organic and part machine. Star's journey is what ultimately shapes the main plot of the book, and it is what she discovers about herself along the way that kept me most enthralled as a reader.
This is a rich and complex world, and coming to the end of the book, it feels very much as though only the surface of the worldbuilding has been revealed. There is an almost cinematic realness to the pieces of this devastated Australia that we see - the ships that "sail" the Dead Red Heart, the warlord-controlled cities where people eke out their lives, and the technologies left over from the war - the bunker cities, the Tankers which roam the deserts and are hunted by the brave, the titular Lotus Blue.
There are going to be inevitable parallels drawn between Lotus Blue and other franchises - Sparks acknowledges that Dune was an influence, and anything set in a post-apocalyptic Australia is inevitably going to be compared to the Mad Max franchise. Neither of these comparisons really reveals the depth of Sparks' worldbuilding, or the strength of the characters which populate the book. All of them are human and flawed and heroic and as fascinating as the world.
I had high expectations for a debut novel from Cat Sparks, and Lotus Blue met them. There are some rough edges here and there, but nothing that detracts overmuch from the sheer wonder of the world that Sparks drops the reader into. If you're a fan of Sparks' short fiction, Lotus Blue is highly recommended. If you've not read anything by her before, this is a great place to start.
Cat Sparks is a well-known figure in the Australian speculative fiction scene, both for her work as a prolific short story writer and editor. Lotus Blue is her much-anticipated debut novel.
Lotus Blue is set in a post-apocalyptic Australia, a land that has been ruined by both war and climate change. In this almost barren land, dominated by desert - the Dead Red Heart - people eke out a meagre existence in amidst the remnants of the technologies that were used to fight the wars that devastated the country.
There are many points of view in this novel - so many, sometimes, that I did find myself skimming over one or the other to get to the characters who interested me the most. Star, a seventeen-year-old who we meet travelling on a caravan with her healer sister, Nene, was the most compelling for me, along with Quarrel, a Templar - a warrior left over from the war, his body part organic and part machine. Star's journey is what ultimately shapes the main plot of the book, and it is what she discovers about herself along the way that kept me most enthralled as a reader.
This is a rich and complex world, and coming to the end of the book, it feels very much as though only the surface of the worldbuilding has been revealed. There is an almost cinematic realness to the pieces of this devastated Australia that we see - the ships that "sail" the Dead Red Heart, the warlord-controlled cities where people eke out their lives, and the technologies left over from the war - the bunker cities, the Tankers which roam the deserts and are hunted by the brave, the titular Lotus Blue.
There are going to be inevitable parallels drawn between Lotus Blue and other franchises - Sparks acknowledges that Dune was an influence, and anything set in a post-apocalyptic Australia is inevitably going to be compared to the Mad Max franchise. Neither of these comparisons really reveals the depth of Sparks' worldbuilding, or the strength of the characters which populate the book. All of them are human and flawed and heroic and as fascinating as the world.
I had high expectations for a debut novel from Cat Sparks, and Lotus Blue met them. There are some rough edges here and there, but nothing that detracts overmuch from the sheer wonder of the world that Sparks drops the reader into. If you're a fan of Sparks' short fiction, Lotus Blue is highly recommended. If you've not read anything by her before, this is a great place to start.
cdeane61's review
5.0
Liked this one a lot.
Just the right mix of primitive post apocalyptic dystopia, meshed with surviving ruling class, and sprinkled with tech and weaponry.
The characters are good, the plot is interesting and engaging, and even though the end is not really detailed, it is a satisfying ending.
It also feels open ended, so maybe a future Lotus Red....., Lotus Yellow....
Just the right mix of primitive post apocalyptic dystopia, meshed with surviving ruling class, and sprinkled with tech and weaponry.
The characters are good, the plot is interesting and engaging, and even though the end is not really detailed, it is a satisfying ending.
It also feels open ended, so maybe a future Lotus Red....., Lotus Yellow....
crtsjffrsn's review
2.0
I didn't enter this book with specific expectations, but it just didn't get there for me. There are a TON of characters, a number of whom aren't clearly introduced or described, which made for some very confusing moments where I had to stop and backtrack. The story itself wasn't particularly compelling for me either. I think there is an audience for this book; I just wasn't part of it.
[This review is based on an advanced review copy received from the publisher via Edelweiss.]
[This review is based on an advanced review copy received from the publisher via Edelweiss.]
oanh_1's review
3.0
Thoroughly enjoyed this (post apocalyptic, travelling band of survivalists, yup. Sold.) Has some flaws but enough gripping story, intriguing (and not fully explained, which is a good thing) world and interesting (if sometimes eyebrow raising) science ideas.
kentcryptid's review
3.0
I love the setting of this book: a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland populated by ancient cyborgs, intelligent machines, enclosed residents of buried sanctuary cities and desperate survivors scraping a living by scavenging machine parts among the sands.
There are, if I counted correctly, eight POV characters including a rebellious young woman who's grown up crossing and re-crossing the desert with her doctor sister, a warlike artificial intelligence, the cyborg leader of a refugee colony and a trader's daughter who's more savvy than she first appears. This multiplicity of POVs, coupled with the extremely short chapters, is a problem because you repeatedly spend three pages in someone's head, then hurtle off into someone else's. This means that you never really get to know any of the characters well and so emotional moments towards the end of the book feel unearned.
There's also a frustrating amount of characters not telling each other much-needed pieces of information, dialogue that mostly feels like nothing a real person would ever say, and exposition delivered by POV characters thinking in detail about events that have happened 'off-screen.'
I still loved the setting by the end, I just wish the author could have done more with it.
There are, if I counted correctly, eight POV characters including a rebellious young woman who's grown up crossing and re-crossing the desert with her doctor sister, a warlike artificial intelligence, the cyborg leader of a refugee colony and a trader's daughter who's more savvy than she first appears. This multiplicity of POVs, coupled with the extremely short chapters, is a problem because you repeatedly spend three pages in someone's head, then hurtle off into someone else's. This means that you never really get to know any of the characters well and so emotional moments towards the end of the book feel unearned.
There's also a frustrating amount of characters not telling each other much-needed pieces of information, dialogue that mostly feels like nothing a real person would ever say, and exposition delivered by POV characters thinking in detail about events that have happened 'off-screen.'
I still loved the setting by the end, I just wish the author could have done more with it.
pyrohemian's review
2.0
Fairly interesting setting but the book is clumsily written, lacks interesting characters and gives away it's surprises before you invest in the mysteries.