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erebus53's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I wanted to like this. This was a book I picked up for Thick Book club and *deep sigh*. It seems to have been written with enthusiasm, but little grasp on science. It comes across as not quite sci-fi, not quite space opera. The dialogue should carry it but it's clunky.
I did like the queernorm setting and the fact that there is ethnic and gender diversity. One or two of the main characters are NB, and that's cool.. but the author manages to mashup sex and gender in some situations where they aren't interchangeable, and it just comes across as trying hard, but not quite pulling it off.
The Audiobook narrator has a few things to work with that often challenge readers. Apart from trying to pull off an international boarding school accent, there are names and words from Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Russian, and Maria Liatis shows very clearly that she is only familiar with English and Spanish.
I guess I just don't know how a book like this gets published with so many errors still in it, and then gets the funding for an Audio version? I found it so ungripping that I literally fell asleep listening to it several times. Grammatical errors abound, idioms are mangled in ways that do not seem deliberate, simile was wielded with the deft precision of an enthusiastic toddler... but I feel like I'm being too mean. I shouldn't take out my own reluctance to abandon a book I'm not enjoying, on the author.
I did like the queernorm setting and the fact that there is ethnic and gender diversity. One or two of the main characters are NB, and that's cool.. but the author manages to mashup sex and gender in some situations where they aren't interchangeable, and it just comes across as trying hard, but not quite pulling it off.
The Audiobook narrator has a few things to work with that often challenge readers. Apart from trying to pull off an international boarding school accent, there are names and words from Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Russian, and Maria Liatis shows very clearly that she is only familiar with English and Spanish.
I guess I just don't know how a book like this gets published with so many errors still in it, and then gets the funding for an Audio version? I found it so ungripping that I literally fell asleep listening to it several times. Grammatical errors abound, idioms are mangled in ways that do not seem deliberate, simile was wielded with the deft precision of an enthusiastic toddler... but I feel like I'm being too mean. I shouldn't take out my own reluctance to abandon a book I'm not enjoying, on the author.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence
Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Sexual content
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