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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Solid 3.5. I think I enjoyed this little slice of life story, it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting and the narrative itself was not particularly spectacular. It simply felt like just that- a slice of life in this weird fucked up galaxy somewhere far away. So for what it is, I don’t think I hated it. It’s not action packed, not really hard on the sci-fi either. The middle of the book seems like the perfect place to pick up the excitement, but it falls flat and as a result I found myself becoming bored with the characters. I was hoping for more development of the protagonist’s character, but everything we got was decently predictable. This made the big finale a little less climactic and doused some of the risk.
Also if you’re here for queer representation, the trans character was so veiled that it took me most of the book to even consider that he was potentially trans.
The magic system makes sense and is interesting and easy to follow as a reader new to this world. There were elements of body horror that were depicted well and created the right amount of dread as you rooted for the protagonist.
Overall, quick read and I would potentially be interested in reading more that takes place in this world.
Also if you’re here for queer representation, the trans character was so veiled that it took me most of the book to even consider that he was potentially trans.
The magic system makes sense and is interesting and easy to follow as a reader new to this world. There were elements of body horror that were depicted well and created the right amount of dread as you rooted for the protagonist.
Overall, quick read and I would potentially be interested in reading more that takes place in this world.
Either sci-fi books aren’t my thing or this one just wasn’t catching my attention. The writing was dull, the characters were uninteresting, and the story/concept itself just wasn’t engaging at nor did it keep me on edge wanting to know what happened next. It’s extremely slow-paced and honestly, I didn’t care to know what the payoff would be.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
DNF 60-70%
This book started off great with its character building of Pendt and her family. But I knew it was going to go down hill when I was halfway through the book and Pendt had just made it off the ship. Within like 10-20 pages of that she was suddenly willing to do exactly what she left her ship to avoid, with people she just met and had what felt like 2 pages of character building. The first half was great and felt like an actual book and what little I read beyond that just felt like an outline with some rough draft thrown in.
This book started off great with its character building of Pendt and her family. But I knew it was going to go down hill when I was halfway through the book and Pendt had just made it off the ship. Within like 10-20 pages of that she was suddenly willing to do exactly what she left her ship to avoid, with people she just met and had what felt like 2 pages of character building. The first half was great and felt like an actual book and what little I read beyond that just felt like an outline with some rough draft thrown in.
This is a mixed review, I'm afraid. I loved the idea of this story, I've enjoyed other stories by EK, and some of the writing was brilliant...mostly Pendt, and how she reacts to things throughout the story. EK has clearly thought very hard about the realities of space flight and how things might work on a generational ship. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like the worldbuilding was there to support this story. I was never sure of the history and how it fed into what was happening during the story.
For one example; does everyone have some ability with Aether, or just every character we run into? For another, given that the Harland clearly understand the value of a genemage, why is Pendt so despised? For one more; I didn't realise until I read some reviews after finishing that one of the main characters is trans. They're twins and only one has the necessary gene sequence to run the station, but twins aren't genetically identical, so that didn't raise any flags for me. And if it's described anywhere else, I just missed it.
SPOILERS BELOW
There's an epilogue that seems to imply that Pendt has a twin out there somewhere. She herself seems to think that she is the twin of her older brother, she was just held back in the womb. (Creepy, by the way, but I suppose potentially useful.) Given that she's aware enough to know about her younger brother's twin years after they've left her behind, how is this possible? Or was she misleading the twins?
END SPOILERS
Overall, although I did enjoy this story and will definitely check out EK's next novel, I feel this wasn't as good as her other novels and could have benefited from a little more explanation.
For one example; does everyone have some ability with Aether, or just every character we run into? For another, given that the Harland clearly understand the value of a genemage, why is Pendt so despised? For one more; I didn't realise until I read some reviews after finishing that one of the main characters is trans. They're twins and only one has the necessary gene sequence to run the station, but twins aren't genetically identical, so that didn't raise any flags for me. And if it's described anywhere else, I just missed it.
SPOILERS BELOW
There's an epilogue that seems to imply that Pendt has a twin out there somewhere. She herself seems to think that she is the twin of her older brother, she was just held back in the womb. (Creepy, by the way, but I suppose potentially useful.) Given that she's aware enough to know about her younger brother's twin years after they've left her behind, how is this possible? Or was she misleading the twins?
END SPOILERS
Overall, although I did enjoy this story and will definitely check out EK's next novel, I feel this wasn't as good as her other novels and could have benefited from a little more explanation.
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Pregnancy
adventurous
medium-paced
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated