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erynpaige's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, and War
fromjuliereads's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
WOW WOW WOW. I still love Christopher Paolini's writing. Of course he would be the one to get me to jump into sci fi! It wasn't too heavy with a lot of science all the time, which I was dreading and terrified of. There were definitely concepts in relation to the spaceships and space travel that I didn't fully understand, but I had enough information that I followed along for how it moved the story.
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...
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...
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Cursing
Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, and Vomit
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