The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! đ
jasminx's review
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
beccacoffindaffer's review
5.0
A compelling YA scifi that also hit me hard in all my "wolf girl" feels (kinda like being a horse girl, except obsessed with having a wolf as a pet). The worldbuilding and atmosphere are exceptional, the stakes are intense, and I'm super ready to see where Sena and Iska's story goes next.
thepagemasterr's review
3.0
White Fang x Balto
This is a story that explores what it means to be human in a circumstances that push you towards your most feral instincts.
This story has pretty solid world building; a barely livable ice planet that hosts a yearly sled race for valuable materials that the main character Sena gets roped into. The race has a high mortality rate but for a planet riddled with poverty, it's sometimes the only financial option available to those with any hope of escape. I thought the author did a great job of balancing the elements of science-fiction that still left readers feeling grounded in the reality of this icy world.
Sena's relationship with Iska, the wolf she ends up paired with, is heartwarming despite taking place in an arctic tundra. You see a lot of growth within Sena because of Iska, and at times it felt like Iska was the main plot driving character of the book instead of Sena.
I also like that its a book that isn't heavy on romance.
Where the story fell flat for me was the writing itself. There are a lot of sentence echoes, where either one word is repeated multiple times within the same paragraph or the exact same thing is said but in a slightly different way multiple times to drive a point home. This caused a lot of unnecessary redundancies that just didn't land with me. I can tell that the story has good bones but in my opinion this book needs a heavy-handed editor who can polish this so it doesn't feel as monotonous with the language.
It also took me a while to actually get to a point in the story where I felt truly invested in the plot or where this might take the main character. The MC Sena proves on multiple occasions that she has the smarts to be resourceful but literally 90% of the chaos caused in this book is done by her own idiotic decisions (she even calls herself out that what she's about to do is stupid but then she goes ahead and does it anyway...more than once!). The stakes don't feel raised at all until at least 50% of the way through the novel, which is when the race actually starts.
I also felt that the author's attempt to address racism, while it is to be commended, it started to feel very heavy-handed. Her culture was constantly pushed to the forefront in her character's interactions with others. It got to a point where I was like "I get it, she's half-scavver and people have opinions about it", but there wasn't a need to mention it nearly as often as it was.
I do think that this is a solid debut; there are a lot of great things to work with and build upon. I still found myself curious as to what was going to happen next. While a lot of this book didn't land for me, I do believe that the premise is promising but some of the polishing just needs tightening up.
* I received this ARC through NetGalley, which has not impacted my review in any way *
This is a story that explores what it means to be human in a circumstances that push you towards your most feral instincts.
This story has pretty solid world building; a barely livable ice planet that hosts a yearly sled race for valuable materials that the main character Sena gets roped into. The race has a high mortality rate but for a planet riddled with poverty, it's sometimes the only financial option available to those with any hope of escape. I thought the author did a great job of balancing the elements of science-fiction that still left readers feeling grounded in the reality of this icy world.
Sena's relationship with Iska, the wolf she ends up paired with, is heartwarming despite taking place in an arctic tundra. You see a lot of growth within Sena because of Iska, and at times it felt like Iska was the main plot driving character of the book instead of Sena.
I also like that its a book that isn't heavy on romance.
Where the story fell flat for me was the writing itself. There are a lot of sentence echoes, where either one word is repeated multiple times within the same paragraph or the exact same thing is said but in a slightly different way multiple times to drive a point home. This caused a lot of unnecessary redundancies that just didn't land with me. I can tell that the story has good bones but in my opinion this book needs a heavy-handed editor who can polish this so it doesn't feel as monotonous with the language.
It also took me a while to actually get to a point in the story where I felt truly invested in the plot or where this might take the main character. The MC Sena proves on multiple occasions that she has the smarts to be resourceful but literally 90% of the chaos caused in this book is done by her own idiotic decisions (she even calls herself out that what she's about to do is stupid but then she goes ahead and does it anyway...more than once!). The stakes don't feel raised at all until at least 50% of the way through the novel, which is when the race actually starts.
I also felt that the author's attempt to address racism, while it is to be commended, it started to feel very heavy-handed. Her culture was constantly pushed to the forefront in her character's interactions with others. It got to a point where I was like "I get it, she's half-scavver and people have opinions about it", but there wasn't a need to mention it nearly as often as it was.
I do think that this is a solid debut; there are a lot of great things to work with and build upon. I still found myself curious as to what was going to happen next. While a lot of this book didn't land for me, I do believe that the premise is promising but some of the polishing just needs tightening up.
* I received this ARC through NetGalley, which has not impacted my review in any way *
librarianryan's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Â
This was not a book that was originally on my fantasy sci-fi list. The cover is interesting, but it didnât grab my attention and say âyou have to read me nowâ. This was picked by my book club and I was greatly surprised. I did enjoy this book and Iâm happy to have read it. In this book Sena lives on a planet that is entirely tundra. Meaning, the whole thing is frozen. However, this planet has a plethora of EXO carbon, which is an element that everybody needs for almost everything. However, the permanent frozen condition of the planet makes the mining of this EXO carbon extremely hard. Life on this planet is hard. If the weather doesnât get to you then the ion storms that take out anything electronic will. The one thing this planet is known for is its great race from the main living commune out to the mining field. Apparently, anyone who can complete the race can get permission to mind the exo carbon. In this book, we follow a young girl named Sena. She was born on this planet to a mother who is an immigrant and another mother, who is version of native. The two types of people donât normally get along, so both have been shunned. Both have also died in the middle of a race leaving Sena defend her self for the last five years. What Sena really wants is to get off this planet, but the only way she can do that is find a way around her heritage, to make enough money to escape. But when your life is mainly pickpocketing, the mob bosses, casino and fight club, saving enough to live and escape, are not an option. Sena ends up in trouble with the big mob boss, and has to take a job saving his genetically pure wolf. Volvenwolves are the predominant creatures on this planet that is a combination of cloning and what we would think of as earth wolves that make them superior to living in a tundra. To have a pure wolf just for fighting is an anomaly and this Wolf has been hurt and itâs up to Sena to fix it. All in all the stories a pretty decent one. Itâs almost a reimagining of White Fang, or at least feels very much like White Fang would have felt 100 years ago. And itâs an interesting and fast paced book. There is a sequel but the sequel takes the main character and the wolf off the planet, and focuses on a minor character from book one. Iâm not sure if that makes the sequel more interesting or more likely not to pick up. My mind hasnât been made up. Overall, I liked this book as a standalone. I thought it worked well. It was an interesting take, but for someone whoâs lived on the frozen tundra I was ready for this to be over. I can remember being cold in the 50 trees in the forest because nothing can grow under that cold. So overall I like this book but I didnât love it but I would still recommend it to people.Â
hopereads123's review
3.0
I really wanted to love this book. I really enjoyed the relationship between Sena and her wolf, and the parts of the book with actual sled racing were amazing. But, the pacing was terrible. The sled race didn't start till the latter half of the book, and almost everything before it was boring. Also, there were so many characters introduced that I forgot their names, this problem was amplified by the fact that they had similar names. So, I really think this book needed some editing. The idea was great, the execution, not so much.
v_fill's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
willowmae's review
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
melreads0's review
This book was so slowwww. Iâm two hours into the audiobook, and sheâs spent half of it reminding us that her mothers died in one of the races, and thatâs why she doesnât want anything to do with them. Also, sheâs constantly droning on about how she needs money to leave her planet or whatever, and she still refuses every job offer she gets??? Like, girl, I know you donât want anything to do with the races because of trauma or whatever, but all you have to do is work with a couple of dogs. ALSO SHE LITERALLY IS WORKING WITH ONE ALREADY BECAUSE SHE GOT CAUGHT STEALING FROM PEOPLE BECAUSE AGAIN SHE REFUSES TO GET A JOB!!! OH AND DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON HOW SHE DOESNT CARE ABOUT THE WOLF AND WASTES ALL HER TIME PICKPOCKETING PEOPLE OR SITTING BY HER CAGE AND MAKING IT LOOK LIKE SHES HELPING HER. And a little bit of context: if the wolf isnât good to fight in a month, she has to become a racer, which is the one thing she doesnât want to be. Like, girl, are you dumb? LIKE SHE KEEPS SAYING OH THATS DEF NOT GONNA BE GOOD IN A MONTH I NEED MORE TIME AND YET INSTEAD OF TRYING DESPITE THE LIMITED TIME SHE JUST COMPLAINS AND WASTES TIME WITH EITHER SITTING THERE DOING NOTHING OR PICKPOCKETING. So yeah, overall, this book is already so annoying that Iâm DNFing it. Do yourself a favor and donât waste your time.