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adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Trafficking
Moderate: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Blood, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Genocide, Sexual violence, Slavery
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is one of those books that's difficult to rate for me. It's a good story, it's solid, the writing is alright (although has a specific writing style that may be hard for some), the world is interesting, I was invested in the characters, and so on.
But boy was I sometimes super frustrated with our FMC, Eve. The number of times I wanted to reach through the screen/page and strangle her was too many to count. She's a flawed character to be sure and self-aware of some of her shortcomings. I like that she's not perfect. I like that she doesn't handle everything perfectly or have all the answers. But I also wanted to scream at her sometimes, too, and that's okay. I think.
The first sign of trouble was when she ignored Zero and didn't seem to understand Zero's very plain explanation that she's a consciousness stored in a computer. Like she straight up keeps referring to very real, very sentient Zero as a chatbot. Our Eve isn't quite too stupid to live but she's not the sharpest tool in the shed, either, okay? It seems like she sometimes needed things to be explained to her like you explain it to a toddler and I'm not 100% sure why. Like she'd be told the same thing multiple times and it would. not. stick. Some if it is pure denial out of a sense of survival given her situation, but other times I wasn't so sure. Hence my screaming and strangling desires.
Were I in that situation, I know I'm the kind of person that would not have left Zero alone. I would have been allllll over that, asking so many questions that Zero got sick of me and would wish she was alone again. How could I pass up the opportunity to talk to someone I can communicate with who can tell me more about the strange world I ended up on? Get information needed for survival? Get answers in general? Not Eve. Eve takes one look at Zero and is like "eh, boring" and moves on. I was SO confused. It gets worse from there as Eve's self-centeredness and lack of empathy creates needless animosity between herself and Zero that grows over time.
The first thing Zero does is explain to Eve that she's crash landed, has been stuck there for a very long time, and has not been able to communicate with anyone. Eve has zero empathy for Zero. Of course Eve also thinks Zero is a computer without thoughts, feelings, or a life so I guess that feeds into it but fucking yikes, Eve. We see more of Eve's lack of brain cells again throughout the story as she's faced with more and more evidence of Zero's life prior to be stuck in a digital state and just.. doesn't put two and two together.Who did you think wore the clothes, Eve? Who rode the hoverbike, Eve? Whose translator were you using, Eve? Don't even get me started on how it's hinted at that Zero's race may be wiped out as people are continually surprised to see Cartian stuff and Rurik later mentions them being attacked by his parents - and Eve doesn't think once about how that related to Zero being a sentient being or how fucking awful that would be to wake up from her little slice of virtual hell to find out her entire species was decimated??? Like C'MON EVE FOR FUCK'S SAKE!
The whole antagonizing relationship with Zero was SO unnecessary and after seeing Zero interact with others at the end of the story, it became clear that it really all came down to Eve being a shit person. Well done, Eve. There's many more examples of Eve being dumb or intentionally obtuse but the ongoing relationship with Zero was the one that frustrated me the most.
ANYway let's talk about our MMCs. I was a little confused at first that we don't even meet two of the MMCs until like 40% of the way through the story until I realized the books kinda focus on one MMC each. This book is sort of the shadow dragon's book and he's the one we see the most of here. It's unfortunate that we see so much of him through Eve's eyes because of her limited ability for thinking, so a lot of his character is very primal and animalistic for most of the book. It's not until the very very end that the reader gets insight into his own POV and we get to see that he's fairly intelligent himself. His flaw seems to be that he doesn't think communication is necessary with Eve because they're mates and that 1) doesn't bode well for ensuring you have a healthy relationship, 2) seems like it IS needed, especially given you're two different species with very different sociocultural expectations and 3) Eve definitely needs things explained to her numerous times in plain language. I liked him overall, love his design, liked his courting efforts (lol), but wish we had a bit more of him and bit less of Eve, maybe? Not sure.
The other two MMCs are moth guy and er, kitsune/octopus cowboy called a Sucker Tail because they have a singular sucker on the end of their tentacley tails. The people of this world are not terribly creative. I was intrigued by both and all set to really like moth guy because I'm predisposed to loving mothmen but he is also a flawed character with a really fucked up social and legal structure so as of the end of book 1, he's more of a dick than not. We get a hint of the moth guy's character having multiple facets where he's up against some serious consequences and had different plans in life but is kinda stuck with the trainwreck happening the moment he meets Eve. I'm expecting that we'll see more of his depth and get convinced to like him better in book 2.
The Sucker Tail space cowboy cop is obsessed with humans because his sister is an adopted human. We don't get much more about him. His species changes color when they lie so they're thought of as very trustworthy. Much like tricksy fae, we see that can be worked around (which is weird that Eve of all people notices this??) so not sure why they're trusted so blindly by everyone else in the galaxy. The concept that every one of his species ultimately becomes some kind of space cop is also hella depressing. I'm hoping that's an exaggeration. You can definitely see that species trait being useful in other fields! Or irrelevant altogether! Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing an actual personality about this guy. Also want to know more about the space pirate, Captain Kidd. Why does everybody know about this pirate?
I'm invested and I want to read the rest of the series but I might take a quick break so I can brace myself for more of Eve before I dive into the next book.
But boy was I sometimes super frustrated with our FMC, Eve. The number of times I wanted to reach through the screen/page and strangle her was too many to count. She's a flawed character to be sure and self-aware of some of her shortcomings. I like that she's not perfect. I like that she doesn't handle everything perfectly or have all the answers. But I also wanted to scream at her sometimes, too, and that's okay. I think.
The first sign of trouble was when she ignored Zero and didn't seem to understand Zero's very plain explanation that she's a consciousness stored in a computer. Like she straight up keeps referring to very real, very sentient Zero as a chatbot. Our Eve isn't quite too stupid to live but she's not the sharpest tool in the shed, either, okay? It seems like she sometimes needed things to be explained to her like you explain it to a toddler and I'm not 100% sure why. Like she'd be told the same thing multiple times and it would. not. stick. Some if it is pure denial out of a sense of survival given her situation, but other times I wasn't so sure. Hence my screaming and strangling desires.
Were I in that situation, I know I'm the kind of person that would not have left Zero alone. I would have been allllll over that, asking so many questions that Zero got sick of me and would wish she was alone again. How could I pass up the opportunity to talk to someone I can communicate with who can tell me more about the strange world I ended up on? Get information needed for survival? Get answers in general? Not Eve. Eve takes one look at Zero and is like "eh, boring" and moves on. I was SO confused. It gets worse from there as Eve's self-centeredness and lack of empathy creates needless animosity between herself and Zero that grows over time.
The first thing Zero does is explain to Eve that she's crash landed, has been stuck there for a very long time, and has not been able to communicate with anyone. Eve has zero empathy for Zero. Of course Eve also thinks Zero is a computer without thoughts, feelings, or a life so I guess that feeds into it but fucking yikes, Eve. We see more of Eve's lack of brain cells again throughout the story as she's faced with more and more evidence of Zero's life prior to be stuck in a digital state and just.. doesn't put two and two together.
The whole antagonizing relationship with Zero was SO unnecessary and after seeing Zero interact with others at the end of the story, it became clear that it really all came down to Eve being a shit person. Well done, Eve. There's many more examples of Eve being dumb or intentionally obtuse but the ongoing relationship with Zero was the one that frustrated me the most.
ANYway let's talk about our MMCs. I was a little confused at first that we don't even meet two of the MMCs until like 40% of the way through the story until I realized the books kinda focus on one MMC each. This book is sort of the shadow dragon's book and he's the one we see the most of here. It's unfortunate that we see so much of him through Eve's eyes because of her limited ability for thinking, so a lot of his character is very primal and animalistic for most of the book. It's not until the very very end that the reader gets insight into his own POV and we get to see that he's fairly intelligent himself. His flaw seems to be that he doesn't think communication is necessary with Eve because they're mates and that 1) doesn't bode well for ensuring you have a healthy relationship, 2) seems like it IS needed, especially given you're two different species with very different sociocultural expectations and 3) Eve definitely needs things explained to her numerous times in plain language. I liked him overall, love his design, liked his courting efforts (lol), but wish we had a bit more of him and bit less of Eve, maybe? Not sure.
The other two MMCs are moth guy and er, kitsune/octopus cowboy called a Sucker Tail because they have a singular sucker on the end of their tentacley tails. The people of this world are not terribly creative. I was intrigued by both and all set to really like moth guy because I'm predisposed to loving mothmen but he is also a flawed character with a really fucked up social and legal structure so as of the end of book 1, he's more of a dick than not. We get a hint of the moth guy's character having multiple facets where he's up against some serious consequences and had different plans in life but is kinda stuck with the trainwreck happening the moment he meets Eve. I'm expecting that we'll see more of his depth and get convinced to like him better in book 2.
The Sucker Tail space cowboy cop is obsessed with humans because his sister is an adopted human. We don't get much more about him. His species changes color when they lie so they're thought of as very trustworthy. Much like tricksy fae, we see that can be worked around (which is weird that Eve of all people notices this??) so not sure why they're trusted so blindly by everyone else in the galaxy. The concept that every one of his species ultimately becomes some kind of space cop is also hella depressing. I'm hoping that's an exaggeration. You can definitely see that species trait being useful in other fields! Or irrelevant altogether! Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing an actual personality about this guy. Also want to know more about the space pirate, Captain Kidd. Why does everybody know about this pirate?
I'm invested and I want to read the rest of the series but I might take a quick break so I can brace myself for more of Eve before I dive into the next book.
Graphic: Sexual content, Blood, Trafficking
Moderate: Sexual assault, Violence
Minor: Genocide, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, War