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lian's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I loved the Inheritance cycle so I had high expectations but this failed to deliver. The world-building is impressive, the first 100 pages were thrilling and exciting, but.. that's really all the positive things I can say about it.
The plot was uninteresting, it reads like a mediocre superhero movie, filled with clichés and plot points that either don't develop (what was up with that seeker?) or plot points that just don't make sense (Aliens ask you to kill their Evil Overlord, and it's just, oh ok, no questions asked? What??) or plot points that are forced and cringey (the staff of blue.. and the jellies not being able to harm their Evil Overlord because of a genetic thing???) .
Furthermore, he obviously did his best to have a diverse cast of characters, and to write a female MC that is believable, so that's commendable, but it felt awkward anyway.
Oh and Trig not being able to pronounce Hwa-Jung's name wasn't cute and funny. It was racist.
Sooo.. meh.
The plot was uninteresting, it reads like a mediocre superhero movie, filled with clichés and plot points that either don't develop
Furthermore, he obviously did his best to have a diverse cast of characters, and to write a female MC that is believable, so that's commendable, but it felt awkward anyway.
Oh and Trig not being able to pronounce Hwa-Jung's name wasn't cute and funny. It was racist.
Sooo.. meh.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Vomit, Blood, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Gun violence
fromjuliereads's review against another edition
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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