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queenkath32's review
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.75
Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Death, Murder, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Chronic illness, and Grief
bluelaceagate's review
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Murder, Violence, Vomit, Xenophobia, and Torture
Moderate: Cursing, Medical content, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Chronic illness, Excrement, and Genocide
forthesanityof1's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
I was super excited to read this since it was from the dragon god himself, Christopher Paolini. I pre-ordered my copy so far in advanced I actually forgot about it and almost bought it twice by accident. The premise sounded so interesting I was beyond happy to finally have the motivation to tackle it.
However.
While the world building was amazing, that was largely the only positive point I had for the book. I found all the characters to be one-dimensional and had a difficult time sinking into the story. It feels like it lacked emotional depth the entire way through except maybe the last 100 pages. I only maintained interest because I got to the halfway point and the plot finally gave me something interesting to hold onto with the Jellies. The character interactions themselves were superficial and did not inspire feelings of closeness between them to me. This led to me not giving a shit about any of the characters. The only ones I cared about were the entropists and Gregorovich. Everything else felt disjointed. There was a single section where the author added in a half page of dialogue about some politics that had literally never been mentioned before that point (think it was about 500 or 600 pages in) and was never mentioned again. Even in the beginning before plot occurs, Kira and Alan don't feel close or connected. I dont know, it might just be me. My other huge problem revolved around Kira herself. I love selfish characters or ones that choose to do things for reasons other than "what is morally right" but I could not get a read on Kira's motives at all. I didn't understand why she did what she did. She didn't come off as much of a scientist, either. It's like she has no personality, and yes, I know that's an issue with female narrators, I'm very aware of it; but the fact remains that Kira didn't matter to me. I felt no connection, no empathy, for her experiences. In addition, there were moments with Kira that took me completely out of the narrative. One example is when
Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Torture, and Violence
fromjuliereads's review
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I was OBSESSED with the characters. All of the beginning kind of sets things up, but then when things get rolling, it is a great balance of bonding moments with terrifying space battles that have you on the edge of your seat! The addition of Inare was AMAZING and I saw the connection immediately - it put such a big smile on my face! There were other little references to the Inheritance Cycle that you see in bits and pieces. And of course Runcible and Mr. Fuzzypants were awesome! I wish they were in it a little bit more.
Gregorovitch has got to be one of my new favourite characters ever - his sass and retorts are next level, and his story just thoroughly pulls you in to sympathize with him. And his fierceness to protect his crew? Amazing. There wasn't a single character that I didn't like. Falconi is awesome, Nielsen, Sparrow, and Hwa-jung are all BADASS, and I loved Trig and Vishal. Kira of course is the most epic character of all, and I absolutely loved having the story from her perspective. I thought that Paolini did a fantastic job writing her pov - it definitely did not feel like how some male authors write female characters. While the focus had to be on her body at so many points because of the Soft Blade, it never felt like he was oversexualizing or using a stereotypical male author perspective to write her. I felt she was written so well.
I will say that there is obviously a lot of space travelling, and a lot of space battles. I felt that he did really well with the balance of pacing, slowing things down at point to develop characters and the plot but then ramping things up for completely epic escapes and battles. The space travel sub-chapters could get a bit slow, since most characters are sleeping or in cryo, but they were soooo important to the development of Kira's character, and he did a really good job of breaking them up at the ends of the parts of the book. The battles were intense and had me stressed out more than once - screaming in my head "DON'T KILL THE BABIES" - but written well where they were easy to follow and picture in my head.
Plus, I just love the artwork and the cool sciencey space maps!? Such cool additions.
I also HIGHLY recommend reading Paolini's afterward and acknowledgements. Knowing what he went through to write this book and how long of a process it was gives me an even deeper appreciation for this book.
Note: I was buddy reading this with two friends who love sci-fi, and I am someone who has not read sci-fi. Somehow, I was constantly past them in reading, and ended up finishing before them. Apparently, Paolini has gotten me to like sci-fi...
Graphic: Violence and Cursing
Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, and Vomit