Reviews tagging 'War'

Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis

5 reviews

lira_the_recluse's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

Axiom's End seems to be a reasonable answer to the question "what would happen if extraterrestrials were here?" Main character Cora has realistic reactions to meeting aliens, and fears about what a government would do to her and her family.

Aliens are consistent, and well crafted. Story has many twists, turns, and mysteries. Alien tech is powerful, almost seeming like magic, and there are several visceral scenes when humans get in the way, or when aliens are fighting one another.

Overall 4.5, good book, but not one I will likely reread.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Death

Moderate: War and Body horror

bookishchef's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia and Car accident

Moderate: Violence, War, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Genocide

Minor: Vomit, Torture, Murder, and Blood

huckleberryrk's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore

Moderate: Body horror, Violence, Death, and Murder

Minor: Suicide and War

brnineworms's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is YA. That’s not a positive or negative judgement, just an observation. It wasn’t marketed as YA fiction as far as I recall but that is absolutely how it reads – a college-age protagonist who needs to learn a lesson or two about responsibility, an intermittently-relevant family, awkward romance, drama, angst, queer rep, etc. I enjoyed it but I can see I’m not the target audience.

Also,

I feel like a lot more could have been done with the fact that Ampersand’s knowledge of Earth culture was hundreds of years out of date. He could have spoken Middle English, for example. The point was that he thought humans were violent and backwards, owing to the fervent religious fundamentalism and purges he witnessed in the wake of the Black Death. But then that seems kind of unnecessary, because we’d already seen him horrified by humans eating meat – there was no need to invoke medieval atrocities when there are already aspects of modern life which he finds abhorrent.

This may seem nitpicky but it’s superfluous details like this that end up making the book at least a hundred pages longer than it needed to be. Thankfully, the quick pace prevented the story from feeling like a slog.

I’d recommend Axiom’s End to fans of Stephenie Meyer’s The Host. It has a similar vibe.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Suicide, Confinement, Self harm, Stalking, and Violence

Moderate: Racism, Death, Antisemitism, Cursing, Drug use, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

Minor: Torture, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Ableism, Car accident, Colonisation, Grief, Gun violence, Islamophobia, Slavery, Vomit, Murder, War, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Excrement, and Fire/Fire injury

mind control, not having control over one's own body

arcaadepunk's review

adventurous challenging funny informative mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Genocide, Medical content, and Suicide

Minor: Car accident, Confinement, Stalking, and War

A lot of people (especially on TikTok) label this book as a romance and/or a mnstrfkr novel; the "romance" is actually minimal and the main focus of the story is not on the human/alien relationship in regards to romantic attraction but rather on the barriers that would stand between an alien and a human trying to understand each others' cultures.