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kaeliwolf's review against another edition
4.0
The writing style is one of the best I've ever read. It's the perfect balance of description and dialogue for me. I like that it's written from an outside perspective similar to The Book Thief. The connection of the characters is wonderful.
ohclaire's review against another edition
3.0
honestly hard to read (note the content warnings), but the worldbuilding was really good and it's been a while since I read a science fiction novel that feels like a science fiction novel, if that makes any sense.
tricapra's review against another edition
3.0
Ultimately, I enjoyed Destroyer of Light. I went in completely blind, which did me a favor as far as expectations went. I see a lot of other reviews mentioning they expected something more romantic based on Hades/Persephone mythology, but I had no such notion to color my reading. I really enjoyed the world building, the alien race was fascinating, and the pacing was fine as well, even if I feel like too much time in the beginning was spent on Okoni's child army. I think my only complaint would be hopping not just between character perspective but timeline as well, which I found a little needlessly disorienting and made it take longer for me to find my groove with the book. I'm fine with that kind of device, but it felt not immediately clear that that was what as happening (this may be due to my e-reader, which didn't seem to italicize some areas early in the book which were time indicators, but this was an ARC so that's to be expected)
thatpoeboy's review against another edition
3.0
Genetically engineered humans, aliens, AI, second earth. With such great foundational concepts the author really drops the ball because so many of these ideas lack proper depth and development. There’s reference to humans having to leave earth because of the Krestge, but why? What happened? The characters themselves are shallow and don’t really do anything of have any deeper motivations, with the exception of Cora, her story is the most developed. Structurally this book is a bit odd too starting 10 years ago and bouncing back and forth between the past and a more distant past while ultimately culminating in the present. It just seems a bit odd but it works well enough. I just wish we could have had a present day hook before all the lead up.
Regardless of the above, this is an entertaining enough read that’s a good way to pass a rainy day. It held my attention, but I do not think I would read it again.
Regardless of the above, this is an entertaining enough read that’s a good way to pass a rainy day. It held my attention, but I do not think I would read it again.
kleonard's review against another edition
3.0
In this clear hat-tip to Octavia Butler, humans and aliens co-exist in a world reminiscent of modern-day Nigeria under Boko Haram control, where women are stolen by gangs of men to become their slaves. Told from several perspectives, the novel follows Cora, a girl torn from her community; a pair of brothers who seek a child kidnapped into sex trafficking; and others trying to find their way in a violent and unpredictable place and time. Readers should be aware that there is a lot of rape and butchery within, and that. ultimately, the narrative may not really be worth grappling with those things--I found it to drag and to be a bit trite, a disappointment given the set-up and possibilities available to the author.
hmcreading's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
tani's review against another edition
3.0
A book that is simultaneously too slowly paced, and too fast. The emotional beats feel strange at points, especially when it comes to Stefonie and Okoni, with the text so matter-of-fact about the horrors she experiences that you start to wonder if you're the crazy one here for just wanting the dude dead. The child soldier issue and the aliens feel like they clash as focal points of the book, with neither coming to a satisfying conclusion. And yet, and I enjoyed the book enough to finish it, and I would look at other works by the author. The ideas are there, it's just the execution that is lacking for me.
zach8vb's review against another edition
4.0
Brissett has created an absolutely remarkable world with Eleusis. Her ability to craft minor details makes it all feel much more real.
Knowing nothing about the book going in, I was taken off-guard by the brutality that one of the characters suffers.
Knowing nothing about the book going in, I was taken off-guard by the brutality that one of the characters suffers.
mamaavocado's review against another edition
3.0
I really wanted to love this book, it has so many things I should love and yet… the jumping between times and characters was often confusing and jarring, I liked the characters but I wanted more from them, and the story was tricky to follow at times.
I think listening to this on an audio book was my mistake, I’ll likely give it another try in book form and see if that helps make more sense.
I think listening to this on an audio book was my mistake, I’ll likely give it another try in book form and see if that helps make more sense.
tachyondecay's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Sometimes you need some science fiction that’s just weird. That gets you to your bones. Jennifer Marie Brissett brings that energy to Destroyer of Light. With shades of the Oankali from Octavia E. Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy as well as Emma Newman’s Planetfall, this novel is about people on the brink. There’s ineffable aliens, unrepentant bad guys, and reluctant allies. Although the characterization is messier than I would like, I can’t deny that Destroyer of Light carries within it the seeds of a compelling story.
Brissett tells the story concurrently across three different time periods that are set in Dawn, Dusk, and Night on a planet tidally locked to its star. The remnants of humanity have settled here after fleeing an Earth being destroyed by the Kresge—and now some of the Kresge live among them, while the rest exist menacingly out beyond the stars. Not quite living on sufferance yet certainly lacking true independence, humanity seems diminished, scrabbling to survive. Into this vacuum of purpose has leached all our sins: wars over resources, sexual violence, posturing, cultural nihilism and xenophobia. It’s cyberpunk mixed with Afrofuturism mixed with New Wave weirdness, and I’m here for that.
The idea that the Kresge are four-dimensional beings and experience spacetime differently from us is a neat one. Brissett plays with it admirably throughout the book, though I feel like the full implications are never truly explored as deeply as I could have hoped. Nevertheless, it provides a good framework for the evolution of Cora, who isn’t always our protagonist but is certainly the main character. My main complaint about Cora—indeed about the plot itself—is that she doesn’t seem to have much agency. Such is a problem with a book with beings who exist outside of time—foreshadowing blurs into prophecy blurs into determinism. It feels like her fate was predetermined, and she sleepwalks towards the finale.
That isn’t to say that the characters don’t have compelling features to them. Cora’s mother is so fierce in her loyalty to her daughter, the twins in their moral dedication to saving kids who are like them—with humanity at the brink, Brissett shows us some of the worst examples our species has to offer but also the best.
In many ways, this is a story that I think would actually work better as a TV series or movie. It deserves the richness that set design and special effects can provide (at least, my aphantasic imagination cannot). In literary form, the story always seems to be bursting at the seams, confined by conventions of Western storytelling that don’t always work with how and when it’s trying to function.
So there are things about this novel that worked for me, and there’s a lot that didn’t. I liked it well enough to get through it, but I won’t be jumping at the chance to return to this universe any time soon. Brissett is a powerful storyteller and a skilled writer—yet these two aspects seem as often in conflict as they are in harmony.
Originally posted at Kara.Reviews.
Brissett tells the story concurrently across three different time periods that are set in Dawn, Dusk, and Night on a planet tidally locked to its star. The remnants of humanity have settled here after fleeing an Earth being destroyed by the Kresge—and now some of the Kresge live among them, while the rest exist menacingly out beyond the stars. Not quite living on sufferance yet certainly lacking true independence, humanity seems diminished, scrabbling to survive. Into this vacuum of purpose has leached all our sins: wars over resources, sexual violence, posturing, cultural nihilism and xenophobia. It’s cyberpunk mixed with Afrofuturism mixed with New Wave weirdness, and I’m here for that.
The idea that the Kresge are four-dimensional beings and experience spacetime differently from us is a neat one. Brissett plays with it admirably throughout the book, though I feel like the full implications are never truly explored as deeply as I could have hoped. Nevertheless, it provides a good framework for the evolution of Cora, who isn’t always our protagonist but is certainly the main character. My main complaint about Cora—indeed about the plot itself—is that she doesn’t seem to have much agency. Such is a problem with a book with beings who exist outside of time—foreshadowing blurs into prophecy blurs into determinism. It feels like her fate was predetermined, and she sleepwalks towards the finale.
That isn’t to say that the characters don’t have compelling features to them. Cora’s mother is so fierce in her loyalty to her daughter, the twins in their moral dedication to saving kids who are like them—with humanity at the brink, Brissett shows us some of the worst examples our species has to offer but also the best.
In many ways, this is a story that I think would actually work better as a TV series or movie. It deserves the richness that set design and special effects can provide (at least, my aphantasic imagination cannot). In literary form, the story always seems to be bursting at the seams, confined by conventions of Western storytelling that don’t always work with how and when it’s trying to function.
So there are things about this novel that worked for me, and there’s a lot that didn’t. I liked it well enough to get through it, but I won’t be jumping at the chance to return to this universe any time soon. Brissett is a powerful storyteller and a skilled writer—yet these two aspects seem as often in conflict as they are in harmony.
Originally posted at Kara.Reviews.