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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
What a universe this book builds! I’m excited to read on and learn more about Hadrian. The book draws heavy influence from Dune and Warhammer 40,000 and wears it proudly. It starts out interesting and then builds the universe, which is a nice change of pace for the genre. It was a bit tedious all the hoops we had to jump through just to break our protagonist down to nothing, but knowing where this goes with the narrator writing all this out as a sort of confession is pretty cool.
We have lots to say about social constructs such as social class, language, and even our perception of time. The distinction that the past and future do not exist is something that I’ve seen before, though the past not existing was always a negative a la 1984. This time, the past is just memory, subject to all the holes and corruption therein. The future never comes, sure, I’ll love ya tomorrow, you’re always a day away, but to say that it’s not a destination, but a hope was nice. The present not existing either, but just being choice, that was new. So we have no real way to set ourselves in time. We just kind of remember where we’ve been, but it’s not important and we bring ourselves to choices that we hope lead to our desired outcome. That rarely happens in this book. Our protagonist is short-sighted and while gifted at words, is always outplayed. I like a guy who sucks at everything. Makes him relatable.
What I really took away from this was the value of silence. This book is rife with pregnant silences and the best outcomes are often to let them play out. Ruining silences always seems to end poorly for Hadrian. He doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut and perhaps that’s why he finds silence so peaceful. Felt, Hadrian, felt. There is the pesky foreshadowing that he’s probably the worst war criminal the universe has ever and will ever know, but everybody gets one flaw. This didn’t go poorly for Paul Atreides, right?
We have lots to say about social constructs such as social class, language, and even our perception of time. The distinction that the past and future do not exist is something that I’ve seen before, though the past not existing was always a negative a la 1984. This time, the past is just memory, subject to all the holes and corruption therein. The future never comes, sure, I’ll love ya tomorrow, you’re always a day away, but to say that it’s not a destination, but a hope was nice. The present not existing either, but just being choice, that was new. So we have no real way to set ourselves in time. We just kind of remember where we’ve been, but it’s not important and we bring ourselves to choices that we hope lead to our desired outcome. That rarely happens in this book. Our protagonist is short-sighted and while gifted at words, is always outplayed. I like a guy who sucks at everything. Makes him relatable.
What I really took away from this was the value of silence. This book is rife with pregnant silences and the best outcomes are often to let them play out. Ruining silences always seems to end poorly for Hadrian. He doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut and perhaps that’s why he finds silence so peaceful. Felt, Hadrian, felt. There is the pesky foreshadowing that he’s probably the worst war criminal the universe has ever and will ever know, but everybody gets one flaw. This didn’t go poorly for Paul Atreides, right?
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
slow-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have not read very much science fiction but I thought the world presented in this book was very interesting. It is definitely a little bit slow, especially towards the end, but having Hadrian tell his story from the future and giving small pieces of what’s to come kept me very interested. I look forward to reading more from the series as a lot of this book felt like set up.
adventurous
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I went into this with not much expectation. I had heard reviews say to get through this and the series gets so much better after but honestly I had a great time!
I was so intrigued right from page one and was gripped the whole time. The character work was well fleshed out, they all felt very real and flawed and I became so invested in alot of them. I felt way more emotions reading this than I anticipated, considering its only book 1 but the rage and hurt and anger was real! Especially towards the end.
It was also quite philosophical and made me stop and contemplate certain things alot through out the book which I really enjoyed.
I felt it was maybe a tad longer than it needed to be. The story and went in different directions so many times I think I got whiplash. It starts with the MC telling us how it all ends but this felt like more of a prequel. I was struggling to see where the story was going for a while but nearer the end I think im starting to understand the direction its potentially taking and it makes me so excited to get to the next book now!
I was so intrigued right from page one and was gripped the whole time. The character work was well fleshed out, they all felt very real and flawed and I became so invested in alot of them. I felt way more emotions reading this than I anticipated, considering its only book 1 but the rage and hurt and anger was real! Especially towards the end.
It was also quite philosophical and made me stop and contemplate certain things alot through out the book which I really enjoyed.
I felt it was maybe a tad longer than it needed to be. The story and went in different directions so many times I think I got whiplash. It starts with the MC telling us how it all ends but this felt like more of a prequel. I was struggling to see where the story was going for a while but nearer the end I think im starting to understand the direction its potentially taking and it makes me so excited to get to the next book now!