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livelaughlesbian99's review against another edition
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
Graphic: War, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Slavery, and Violence
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Sexual violence
major_tom's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
At first, I was afraid the lore would be too confusing - I am not very familiar with space-related fiction and never had much interest in it. Here, the story started straight away - I liked how we discovered things along the way, without long and boring history lessons. Each chapter has a short passage before it, which could be a letter, a quote, or other short piece that gave more insight into the world. I love good exposition and, I’m my opinion, Linden A. Lewis here did a great job.
The main character are interesting, flawed and have their own priorities and desires. There are some flaws, but I’ll talk about them later.
I loved how unique this world is. It really stands out with how logical historical development of each nation is.
However, I got quite disappointed by the end. The ending felt rushed, used mostly explanation rather than exposure, and gave a bit of flat character development. I saw how some things before could be linked to the plot twists, but still it wasn’t satisfactory. I felt that the ending was made that way to create reason for the next book. I am afraid that the next books will turn to obvious conflicts and will greatly worsen in world-building. In my opinion, the book by itself is great as stand-alone (if the ending was changed). I hope I’m wrong, because I still enjoyed it most of the way.
Graphic: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Body horror, Bullying, Blood, Emotional abuse, Violence, Racism, War, and Slavery
planetesastraea's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Medical trauma, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, and Physical abuse
Minor: Slavery, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship
salemander's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Torture, Death, Colonisation, Slavery, War, and Body horror
molls's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Moderate: Slavery and Sexual assault
Minor: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent
Ciolenchowwoolatthemoon's review against another edition
0.25
In a sense this review *might* be spoilers, but I'm not giving away major plot points. I will merely reveal some details that I believe the author means for the reader to discover gradually. But you, Dear Reader, deserve a Strong Content Warning!
In some ways this was inventive and an interesting world, but I couldn't at all say I enjoyed it. The first sister is part of an order of priestesses who are also sex slaves. While not uncommon historically, it's certainly not pleasant to imagine. Told by a female author, it feels less like the women are objectified for the sake of the male gaze. But still, I think I'd rather not read about such a brutal and terrifying situation. They're raised from children to become sex slaves, and fairly horrible abused while growing up. They have no choice in who they have sex with unless they get a powerful man to choose to "own" them. Unless or until they are owned by one man, their job is to hear the confessions of soldiers and then fuck them. The fucking is neither optional nor rare; it's an integral part of the confession/absolution. And they take confessions at apparently all hours of the day or night, often many times a day. They also are physically unable to talk -- ostensibly so that they don't give away the military secrets of their rapists (not that they ever use this term) -- but they use sign language among themselves and communicate often and in a very detailed way, so I don't feel super confident about those military secrets being kept.
So it's absolutely brutal, but it's all slightly softened because a woman wrote it. Men so often will write a rape scene A) for the male gaze, and/or B ) as an event that furthers the story of a man, so I generally try to avoid books by men that contain any rape scenes. I would hope that a woman's perspective on a rape that takes place as part of a story would help us to better understand things from her point of view, which is the more common experience I've had with reading non male authors. And yes, I suppose this did that. But to make this entire order of priestesses as sex slaves? And to make that fact so integral to the plot? I dunno. It's too much. And too terrifying. And too brutal. And too hugely necessary for the plot -- so... why write that plot?
Why?
Also, now that I think about it, this might be an entire whole full sized book about an order of priestesses that STILL didn't pass the bechdel test. I mean maybe it did, but the fact that I'm still trying to remember any conversation between two women that wasn't about either a specific man or about men in general... nope, I don't think it did. Huh.
Also, why?
This was set in a futuristic world with space travel and an interesting military structure. Women are in the military, with ranks high and low, without anyone treating them as weaker or incapable in any way. The military also is trained from childhood, and there's a kind of parallel there with the sisterhood. There's an element of colonialism, with an oppressed culture that doesn't have the same level of tech that the oppressors use. This could have been interesting to explore further. The novel examines the complicated nature of family power and dysfunction and defining oneself in adulthood as separate from your origins, and could've done more with that. Seems like the author was able to envision a world where women were not objects. But then, there's the sisterhood of sex slave priestesses as the main plot.
Why.
Anyway, some of the world building is super interesting and I would love to read a different book with some of the same elements, but I won't be reading the rest of this series and I wish I could get my time back.
(Also I've noticed that I tend to spend more time on reviews of books I disliked than books I loved, and I don't know how to feel about that.)
Graphic: Child abuse, Colonisation, Slavery, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Rape, and Physical abuse
bookishjd's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Classism, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Violence, War, Xenophobia, Gun violence, Mental illness, and Slavery
Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, and Dysphoria
peach_pie's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Moderate: Body horror, Blood, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, War, and Xenophobia
foreverinastory's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Rep: Bisexual mute female MC (unknown ethnicity), Japanese achillean nonbinary MC, Spanish-Italian demisexual male MC, sapphic mute female side character, Asian female side character with chronic pain, arm prosthetic and leg prosthetic, queer-normative world.
CWs: Blood, body horror, bullying, death, gun violence, injury/injury detail, medical content, medical trauma/nonconsensual experimentation, murder, violence, war. Moderate: abandonment, past mentions of child abuse, colonisation, deadnaming/misgendering, religious bigotry, sexual content, slavery/forced sex work, vomit.
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Violence, and War
Moderate: Abandonment, Child abuse, Colonisation, Deadnaming, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Slavery, and Vomit
bookswithjk's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I would have liked to see more character development with our two main characters, First Sister and Lito. With the First Sister, I felt that she fell in love way too quickly (although, this could be easily explained by her naiveté, especially when considering her experience with the old ship captain) and switched sides way to fast. The plot twist at the end with her mental state felt too rushed and a bit out of place - I would have preferred some kind of foreshadowing. The same goes for Lito - he felt like a somewhat passive character, reacting to what happens around him without being very proactive, and switched sides rather quickly.
Minor: Murder, Racism, and Slavery
Implied rape/sexual assault and sexual slavery