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rosieplecko's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore
Moderate: Ableism
emmelnie's review
5.0
Deceptively rich
At first, this book seems like so many other alien romances, where human women have crash landed on a planet. But Hope is way too good an author for that. Planet Zero is a rich, full story. Yes, there’s a strong central romance. But this is also the story of a woman adjusting to the hand fate has dealt her.
Addie is a marvelous heroine. She’s full of self-doubt, unskilled at survival, and woefully unprepared for life in an alien world. But her strength of character, her belief in better days to come, and her innate empathy are equally on display in this book, making her one of the most well-rounded characters I’ve read in romance in some time.
Her hero Zoark is harder to understand because the book is told entirely from Addie’s point of view. He does have a few moments with Addie that, will not dub con, come across as, shall we say, dutiful con. Zoark is also built to be a good match to Addie more than anything.
But the story of Addie, and the incredible depth of characterization that Hope gives to the tribe Addie ends up living with, are just fantastic. The beginning of this book starts in a tough place, and I found it hard to get into at first. But keep reading. Planet Zero takes off, and doesn’t let you down.
At first, this book seems like so many other alien romances, where human women have crash landed on a planet. But Hope is way too good an author for that. Planet Zero is a rich, full story. Yes, there’s a strong central romance. But this is also the story of a woman adjusting to the hand fate has dealt her.
Addie is a marvelous heroine. She’s full of self-doubt, unskilled at survival, and woefully unprepared for life in an alien world. But her strength of character, her belief in better days to come, and her innate empathy are equally on display in this book, making her one of the most well-rounded characters I’ve read in romance in some time.
Her hero Zoark is harder to understand because the book is told entirely from Addie’s point of view. He does have a few moments with Addie that, will not dub con, come across as, shall we say, dutiful con. Zoark is also built to be a good match to Addie more than anything.
But the story of Addie, and the incredible depth of characterization that Hope gives to the tribe Addie ends up living with, are just fantastic. The beginning of this book starts in a tough place, and I found it hard to get into at first. But keep reading. Planet Zero takes off, and doesn’t let you down.
reading_rainy's review
4.0
Planet Zero is about a spaceship crash survivor on an incredibly inhospitable planet (there’s no water!) referred to as TY75734b. I think 'Planet Zero' rolls off the tongue much easier. I adore this kind of storytelling, the reader is plopped down on this planet after Addie has been there for two years. Information is dolled out in increments as the journey goes along.
I absolutely loved Lydia Hope previous story, [b:Homebound|50337348|Homebound|Lydia Hope|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1578359200l/50337348._SY75_.jpg|75278340]. Hope writes characters that slowly learn about each other, no insta-lusting here. I wouldn’t classify this as a sci-fi romance, it’s more science fiction with a dash of romance. Addie is a wonderful heroine. She’s your average Earth woman, struggling to understand a new planet, it’s different inhabitants, and how to stay alive.
Zoark is a somewhat swoony asshole hero. He is a “For" male, that is the type of species he is, a For. This confused the heck out of me until I understood it wasn’t an editing issue, but a type of alien. Zoark is worthless to his tribe. He had previously broken his leg and it never healed properly, so he walks with a limp and isn’t allowed to hunt with the tribe. Not being allowed to contribute seriously wounds his pride. He is further ostracized for other reasons, later explained in the story.
This is an alien story with an actual alien.
This story reminded me slightly of [b:The Last Hour of Gann|18589656|The Last Hour of Gann|R. Lee Smith|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1380286253l/18589656._SY75_.jpg|26331984] Where enemies slowly become friends and then lovers. Just like the Gann story, the male character is a complete and utter ass to the female character for a good chunk of the book.
I want to give this story five stars simply for being the kind of story I LOVE to read, but it felt so disorganized at times and some things just didn’t make any sense. Was the author being vague on purpose, so we felt as confused as Addie? The language barrier and how that was explained seemed unrealistic. The story really drags in the middle, with nothing much happening and I felt it was a lost opportunity for character growth.
Just as Addie and Zoark’s relationship starts to take off, the book ends. ARUGH, I hate that! It really needed a long epilogue or a second book to complete their story. The way it ends does leave it wide open for a second book, so fingers crossed.
My favorites parts of the story is early on when Addie is living alone, learning to weave baskets, hunt and bath in that odd sand. It was kinda like [b:The Valley of Horses|40493|The Valley of Horses (Earth's Children, #2)|Jean M. Auel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1324059760l/40493._SY75_.jpg|630903], where the reader is learning alongside the main character. Highly recommended for fans of exploratory science fiction with a side of alien romance.
I absolutely loved Lydia Hope previous story, [b:Homebound|50337348|Homebound|Lydia Hope|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1578359200l/50337348._SY75_.jpg|75278340]. Hope writes characters that slowly learn about each other, no insta-lusting here. I wouldn’t classify this as a sci-fi romance, it’s more science fiction with a dash of romance. Addie is a wonderful heroine. She’s your average Earth woman, struggling to understand a new planet, it’s different inhabitants, and how to stay alive.
Zoark is a somewhat swoony asshole hero. He is a “For" male, that is the type of species he is, a For. This confused the heck out of me until I understood it wasn’t an editing issue, but a type of alien. Zoark is worthless to his tribe. He had previously broken his leg and it never healed properly, so he walks with a limp and isn’t allowed to hunt with the tribe. Not being allowed to contribute seriously wounds his pride. He is further ostracized for other reasons, later explained in the story.
This is an alien story with an actual alien.
He wasn’t handsome. If anything, the animal aspect was more pronounced in his high, flat cheekbones, in the large tiger nose with sharp nostrils that quivered, in the twin slashes of his heavy browns. His wide mouth was downturned at the corners and curiously petulant, even cute. Until he bared his teeth.I wish there had been more details on the population, it all felt very unclear. I couldn’t quite picture them, I think they had furry bellies and cat-like ears?
This story reminded me slightly of [b:The Last Hour of Gann|18589656|The Last Hour of Gann|R. Lee Smith|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1380286253l/18589656._SY75_.jpg|26331984] Where enemies slowly become friends and then lovers. Just like the Gann story, the male character is a complete and utter ass to the female character for a good chunk of the book.
I want to give this story five stars simply for being the kind of story I LOVE to read, but it felt so disorganized at times and some things just didn’t make any sense. Was the author being vague on purpose, so we felt as confused as Addie? The language barrier and how that was explained seemed unrealistic. The story really drags in the middle, with nothing much happening and I felt it was a lost opportunity for character growth.
Just as Addie and Zoark’s relationship starts to take off, the book ends. ARUGH, I hate that! It really needed a long epilogue or a second book to complete their story. The way it ends does leave it wide open for a second book, so fingers crossed.
My favorites parts of the story is early on when Addie is living alone, learning to weave baskets, hunt and bath in that odd sand. It was kinda like [b:The Valley of Horses|40493|The Valley of Horses (Earth's Children, #2)|Jean M. Auel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1324059760l/40493._SY75_.jpg|630903], where the reader is learning alongside the main character. Highly recommended for fans of exploratory science fiction with a side of alien romance.
mx_manda's review
2.0
Here we are once again for another Mixed Bag Review, where I treat GR as my LiveJournal...and I will figure out the rating as I go. Hell if I know what it's going to be, other than not an extreme on either end. Not a 4 either.
There will be some mild spoilers ahead, you have been warned.
Like so many SciFi/SFR lovers, I fell hard in love with a little book that debuted last January and became an unexpected favorite of many: I've read it several times myself. Mx. Hope can really tell a story when she wants to.
However.
That success has not translated into her later works. Her second book had many issues and those same issues plague this story as well.
Let's start the +/- list.
Mx. Hope's work in a lot of ways reminds me of some of my other scifi/paranormal romance-adjacent authors who get misclassed as Romance like R Lee Smith and Pixie Unger: she seems to enjoy writing stories that have a budding romantic relationship in them and to leave them open-ended instead of giving 2 epilogues with extra sex scenes and 8 babies. She still has a way to go before her story telling is consistently equal with either. I'm fine with that, but if you're someone expecting this to be a Romance, then you're going to be disappointed. This is a science fiction story with romantic and sexual components to it.
+ This story starts strong, and like Hope's second work, it has an interesting premise to it—not the most original and the influences on it are a bit too obvious. The first 25% of this story is genuinely enjoyable to read.
But.
- The execution and follow-through just isn't there. And it's really clear to see where in the story Hope struggled to get this written and decided to just release it. Sometimes it's better to trunk a story and let it marinate than just push it out to be done with it. I suspect this story isn't as polished as the author would have liked, and I have my suspicions as to what could help. (Seriously: strong beta readers who are not worried they'll hurt your feelings and will find your typos, push back and question your ideas and characters to help you develop them, and then... more revisions.)
- Multiple characters including our main, Addie, have non-sensical personality shifts throughout the story. Addie in the first 25% of the book is not the Addie we get the rest of the story, and that's a bummer, because who likes seeing a character devolve and get more prejudiced as the plot progresses? The attitudes should have been flip-flopped to illustrate growth, but alas, none was to be had. Unless you count her changed attitude about f*cking one alien. Then, I...guess she had some development?
Yeah. Not really.
And why wasn't a nurse the least bit intellectually curious about the people whose planet she's now living on? She was there for 2 years. More than long enough to get over her THEY ARE BEASTS! attitude, realize that yeah, they are people, and notice some of their biological peculiarities and inquire about them to learn more.
+ But!! We get a rare female protagonist who was married and without all of the justifications that he was terrible so readers can feel more comfortable that she will love again. What happened to Addie is awful, made worse by the fact she still loved and missed her husband who she'd never see again. So this excited me, because how many white women do we need to read about who Never Had Any Friends, Has No Non-Abusive Family, Is An Orphan, Everyone Hates Her...and how they all magically ended up in space to find their HEA? Of course there are going to be people who had families, spouses, friends they'll never see again.
No one's magically hand-picking "orphaned" 23 year olds to keep as breeders.
But with the current trends of later marriage ages that it's safe to assume will continue, what are the odds that a college educated woman of 27 was married all that long to her spouse? I would have loved to see Addie a bit older and more seasoned. 30 is still young. So is 35. 40 isn't terribly old either.
- For all the length, there's a serious lack of background for our narrator, Addie, nor her 2 years so far on Planet Zero. Details were brought up later without the seeds sown in the first part of the book. Particularly the tent city that was allegedly a Den of Iniquity!!!! It took me way too long to figure out that the leader of the tent city was actually a human woman. Like. The last 15% of the story.
- Description is sorely lacking. I still could not tell you exactly what the For look like except tall and maybe wolf or saber tooth tiger or bat faced?? Hairy but not their chests, I guess? So many words in this book but they were spent in odd places. If you're going to write a 400+ page story, you can spare half a page here and there to sprinkle in some details. No need to be stingy. I'm always quick to snark that apparently the author has no idea what their aliens look like either when this happens.
- For female antagonists, Hope falls back on Sneaky Bitches™ and Jealous Bitches™, which I'm never down for. It's gross. Hints at a lack of ideas. And similar plot points could have come around with more nuance and frankly, interest. Is there anything more tired than a woman who is jealous and plotting against every other woman...including her daughter? All while fluttering her lashes at The Men and playing victim?
But it takes skill and a lot of revision to get there. It's easier to paste in a flat caricature and call it a day. (The male antagonists were equally as bad. Arrogant Religious Leader On A Power Trip and Spineless Leader are tired and busted too.)
Another review described this as a story of hard to like characters, and I'm going to have to agree with that. But they're not enjoyable to read either. Pity.
And on and on. I'm going to have a novella myself if I keep dissecting. These are the biggest points that jumped out at me to talk about.
TW/CW: constant traumatic events—including attacks by creatures and other people that are described in detail, gore, a shit ton of ableist thought and language choices, kidnapping, implied sexual slavery, attempted perceived child marriage, child abuse
Taking all of this into consideration....
Real Rating: 2.5 stars
---------------------
And now for the problematic ding. Someday I hope to never have to do another one of these, seriously.
Appropriation of indigenous terms when other choices were available.
"Teepee" is a bastardized term to refer to a specific group of indigenous peoples' portable tents. Tents in all forms exist in many cultures and the ones in this story could have been called...a tent. Or given a For name for Addie to use. If the image of a conical tent with the supports sticking out of the top was needed, she could have used that in the exposition without using the term. This paired with other uncomfortably close stereotypes of indigenous plains' people made me feel the ding was necessary.
(Un-Fun fact: the alleged origin of alien romance was to prolong use of indigenous American stereotypes without being called out for writing racist romances. Just take those Othering stereotypes and make them aliens. Problem fixed! [Any child of the 70s and 80s with a parent who read romance surely saw more than a few of that particular flavor romance.])
And.
Persistent use of offensive and objectifying language toward disabled people. It's one thing for a fictional society that does not value disabled and impaired members of their community to use offensive and demeaning terms towards them, but there was no need for an allegedly empathetic and "enlightened" protagonist to also. The word "cripple" to describe Zoark is used by Addie in here a lot.
When you know better, you do better.
There will be some mild spoilers ahead, you have been warned.
Like so many SciFi/SFR lovers, I fell hard in love with a little book that debuted last January and became an unexpected favorite of many: I've read it several times myself. Mx. Hope can really tell a story when she wants to.
However.
That success has not translated into her later works. Her second book had many issues and those same issues plague this story as well.
Let's start the +/- list.
Mx. Hope's work in a lot of ways reminds me of some of my other scifi/paranormal romance-adjacent authors who get misclassed as Romance like R Lee Smith and Pixie Unger: she seems to enjoy writing stories that have a budding romantic relationship in them and to leave them open-ended instead of giving 2 epilogues with extra sex scenes and 8 babies. She still has a way to go before her story telling is consistently equal with either. I'm fine with that, but if you're someone expecting this to be a Romance, then you're going to be disappointed. This is a science fiction story with romantic and sexual components to it.
+ This story starts strong, and like Hope's second work, it has an interesting premise to it—not the most original and the influences on it are a bit too obvious. The first 25% of this story is genuinely enjoyable to read.
But.
- The execution and follow-through just isn't there. And it's really clear to see where in the story Hope struggled to get this written and decided to just release it. Sometimes it's better to trunk a story and let it marinate than just push it out to be done with it. I suspect this story isn't as polished as the author would have liked, and I have my suspicions as to what could help. (Seriously: strong beta readers who are not worried they'll hurt your feelings and will find your typos, push back and question your ideas and characters to help you develop them, and then... more revisions.)
- Multiple characters including our main, Addie, have non-sensical personality shifts throughout the story. Addie in the first 25% of the book is not the Addie we get the rest of the story, and that's a bummer, because who likes seeing a character devolve and get more prejudiced as the plot progresses? The attitudes should have been flip-flopped to illustrate growth, but alas, none was to be had. Unless you count her changed attitude about f*cking one alien. Then, I...guess she had some development?
Yeah. Not really.
And why wasn't a nurse the least bit intellectually curious about the people whose planet she's now living on? She was there for 2 years. More than long enough to get over her THEY ARE BEASTS! attitude, realize that yeah, they are people, and notice some of their biological peculiarities and inquire about them to learn more.
+ But!! We get a rare female protagonist who was married and without all of the justifications that he was terrible so readers can feel more comfortable that she will love again. What happened to Addie is awful, made worse by the fact she still loved and missed her husband who she'd never see again. So this excited me, because how many white women do we need to read about who Never Had Any Friends, Has No Non-Abusive Family, Is An Orphan, Everyone Hates Her...and how they all magically ended up in space to find their HEA? Of course there are going to be people who had families, spouses, friends they'll never see again.
No one's magically hand-picking "orphaned" 23 year olds to keep as breeders.
But with the current trends of later marriage ages that it's safe to assume will continue, what are the odds that a college educated woman of 27 was married all that long to her spouse? I would have loved to see Addie a bit older and more seasoned. 30 is still young. So is 35. 40 isn't terribly old either.
- For all the length, there's a serious lack of background for our narrator, Addie, nor her 2 years so far on Planet Zero. Details were brought up later without the seeds sown in the first part of the book. Particularly the tent city that was allegedly a Den of Iniquity!!!! It took me way too long to figure out that the leader of the tent city was actually a human woman. Like. The last 15% of the story.
- Description is sorely lacking. I still could not tell you exactly what the For look like except tall and maybe wolf or saber tooth tiger or bat faced?? Hairy but not their chests, I guess? So many words in this book but they were spent in odd places. If you're going to write a 400+ page story, you can spare half a page here and there to sprinkle in some details. No need to be stingy. I'm always quick to snark that apparently the author has no idea what their aliens look like either when this happens.
- For female antagonists, Hope falls back on Sneaky Bitches™ and Jealous Bitches™, which I'm never down for. It's gross. Hints at a lack of ideas. And similar plot points could have come around with more nuance and frankly, interest. Is there anything more tired than a woman who is jealous and plotting against every other woman...including her daughter? All while fluttering her lashes at The Men and playing victim?
But it takes skill and a lot of revision to get there. It's easier to paste in a flat caricature and call it a day. (The male antagonists were equally as bad. Arrogant Religious Leader On A Power Trip and Spineless Leader are tired and busted too.)
Another review described this as a story of hard to like characters, and I'm going to have to agree with that. But they're not enjoyable to read either. Pity.
And on and on. I'm going to have a novella myself if I keep dissecting. These are the biggest points that jumped out at me to talk about.
TW/CW: constant traumatic events—including attacks by creatures and other people that are described in detail, gore, a shit ton of ableist thought and language choices, kidnapping, implied sexual slavery, attempted perceived child marriage, child abuse
Taking all of this into consideration....
Real Rating: 2.5 stars
---------------------
And now for the problematic ding. Someday I hope to never have to do another one of these, seriously.
Appropriation of indigenous terms when other choices were available.
"Teepee" is a bastardized term to refer to a specific group of indigenous peoples' portable tents. Tents in all forms exist in many cultures and the ones in this story could have been called...a tent. Or given a For name for Addie to use. If the image of a conical tent with the supports sticking out of the top was needed, she could have used that in the exposition without using the term. This paired with other uncomfortably close stereotypes of indigenous plains' people made me feel the ding was necessary.
(Un-Fun fact: the alleged origin of alien romance was to prolong use of indigenous American stereotypes without being called out for writing racist romances. Just take those Othering stereotypes and make them aliens. Problem fixed! [Any child of the 70s and 80s with a parent who read romance surely saw more than a few of that particular flavor romance.])
And.
Persistent use of offensive and objectifying language toward disabled people. It's one thing for a fictional society that does not value disabled and impaired members of their community to use offensive and demeaning terms towards them, but there was no need for an allegedly empathetic and "enlightened" protagonist to also. The word "cripple" to describe Zoark is used by Addie in here a lot.
When you know better, you do better.
bookishwizards's review
3.0
At first the story was very good, but then it started to drag in the middle. There was drama on top of drama and I didn't believe in the romance at all. Also, the writing felt weird at times, and the grammar wasn't perfect. But still the world building was amazing and I loved the relationship between the main character and the secondary characters (especially Melmie, Oh'na and Qatar).
simply_sam's review
4.0
This is the type of alien romance I fell in love with in the first place. Not the shiny, spicy fluff that I find more often than not, but this grittier, dirtier version. While definitely not without its problems, such as Addie's narrow minded prejudice of For nomads and the author's need to make so many of the females into conniving, jealous characters, it still managed to hit on themes that kept me invested. This really is a book about second chances, about moving past preconceived notions and learning how to overcome even with the odds stacked against you. It's finding hope in the bleakness that calls to me and why I ended up loving this one. I'm ready to read everything Ms. Hope writes.
makenzie95's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
slaybae123's review
5.0
This book was amazing. I genuinely didn’t expect to love it as much as I did.
It was soooo romantic and the plot + world-building was fantastic.
I honestly could’ve read another 500 pages of the same story. I loved Addie and her man.
It was soooo romantic and the plot + world-building was fantastic.
I honestly could’ve read another 500 pages of the same story. I loved Addie and her man.
beckiebookworm1974's review
5.0
This was a fantastic read I had exceedingly high hopes after previously reading Homebound and devouring it so this one had a hell of a lot to live up to. The world-building here was immense and so well done some of the best I’ve encountered to date. This really showcased the strength and will to survive that was possessed by one human woman. But not just surviving also managing to forge a whole new place for herself on this strange brutal planet and then actually be happy. The resilience and dogged determination Addie possessed, her compassion and backbone she was one hell of a woman. Every time she was knocked down she just came back at life a whole lot stronger and all the time staying true to her own character and big heart.
This isn’t your typical sci-fi romance it’s so much deeper. It’s not incredibly graphic and it's all very slow-burn. The Romance here also isn’t the focus either to me it seemed more of a building background concern in fact I’m not sure if I’d even label this as a romance. It’s there of course but the focus here appeared to be more about survival and acceptance with some romantic overtones thrown in for good measure.
This starts two years after Addie’s ship crash-landed here and I loved that she had an established start so different from the usual sci-fi stories in this genre She’s a nurse by profession a natural healer and she finds herself now living in a permanent settlement with some others of her kind along with rejects of the For people. The woman of her kind provide a sort of needed service to the male natives and it all felt a bit sordid. Thankfully this is something Addie has managed to avoid up till now with her abilities as a healer.
The impression I got from these aliens was they lived in nomad tribes and were very like prehistoric humans in custom their appearance I’m still a little slightly confused over as it wasn’t described in any great detail but I sought of imagined them as Neanderthal looking but with sharp teeth and strange red eyes. They have some strange ways and customs and they despise weakness including permanent injuries usually ostracising those afflicted from the tribe.
When Addie's settlement is destroyed by Wrennlins (think of the film tremors) she finds herself alone with all of her people now dead she sets out across the plains. Meeting native For’s from a nearby tribe Addie slowly integrates into their life. Learning so much from them. But not everyone is as accepting and Addie earns herself enemies from the onset. One For Zoark seems to particularly dislike her looking down on her with derision and scorn from day one.
Zoarke can speak Addie's language he initially spent time in Addie's old settlement giving him a very low opinion of human women which he isn’t afraid to voice. But Zoarke is termed a cripple (not my words) this society is very biased towards disabilities and Zoarke has a bum leg and scars left over from a Wrennlin attack labelling him as such by the other For’s in his tribe he is now awarded the lowest place on the totem pole without influence and considered practically worthless by the others.
As I said earlier this one is massively slow on the romance front it really is a soft slow burn and these two definitely aren’t initially lusting after each other. So If you are after a steaming hot romance with plenty of sauce this probably isn’t the story for you this one is less steam more substance for sure. but if you like richly crafted fantasy worlds and epic sagas this is for you and though this one is labelled a sci-fi it could very well be any barbarian type historical it very much had that particular Vibe about it just one set on an alien planet. This is all told from Addies POV it’s extremely well written and the words definitely paint a vivid picture of life on this alien planet. I definitely recommend this and the elaborate world-building certainly deserves all the stars.
Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
https://www.facebook.com/beckiebookworm/
www.beckiebookworm.com
natamenez's review
3.0
I obviously quite enjoyed this book considering that I am in the mood for this kind of books at the moment. I liked her quite a bit and all the characters were quite developed even secondary ones. The whole plot in where se has to survive and integrate with the tribe and learn about the world is very well dine. I enjoyed the romance in terms of development. You could tell that both were developing feelings for each other but I was a bit disappointed with that climax. It was building for so long and then it felt like the climax was so slight that it never really happened. Also, I wish we had an epilogue or a chapter with their life together with their own tribe, I wanted to see how their lids would look like. So it felt a bit abrupt because of that. It took so long to develop and then we had no description of the end result really.