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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
What the hell was this book!? People living in a beast in space ?!? Like parasites?!?! wow. I loved this book. Very creative and probably one of the the weirdest books I have read in my life. So I love complicated black women characters but Seske can go jump in the lake. Adalla Hive all the way! Loved the queer representation and also how environmental issues was discussed in this story. And Matrilineal lineages and leaders! Overall, really cool book!
Definitely the weirdest and probably the most imaginative book I've ever read, and I enjoyed it quite a lot.
I guess it can be read as a standalone, but I'm interested to know where the story goes next.
I guess it can be read as a standalone, but I'm interested to know where the story goes next.
This is such a weird concept, but it's executed so well and I couldn't help but to find it all truly fascinating as a concept. The world we follow is the inside of a giant space dwelling beast. This creature is the home to a whole civilisation of humans, in this case they're all people of colour, and largely dominated by females, however they're not the only beast-dwellers in space.
What I thought most interesting about this was the biological elements. The civilisation live in the cavities and organs of the giant beast, doing what they can to trick its body into working as a home for them. They have to cut out tumours, reshape sections, and keep it at a fever pitch to keep the climate acceptable. The whole of the working class works on the beast and its day to day needs. There are some pretty graphic scenes and definitely this isn't for the squeamish, but I found it all very cool and different.
The main characters of this book are vastly different in terms of their lives and their stations. One is the heiress to the beast throne whilst the other strives to work on the most important organ, the heart. They have been best friends for their whole lives, but as we meet them their relationship is starting to change and go beyond that. However, the pressure of their society will try to keep them apart, and the two girls must see if they can continue even a friendship with the pressure of the world. The f/f relationship I thought was a great focus and although I disliked Seske for the way she treats Abella, I enjoyed their tale of discovering themselves and one another.
The society is vastly different to anything I've seen before and the storytelling felt fluid and enjoyable throughout. I definitely believed in the world and it's trials and mishaps, and I'd certainly want to read more by this author now. I am very pleased there's a sequel coming next year!
Final rating 4*s and definitely a 'new-to-me' author I want to explore further.
What I thought most interesting about this was the biological elements. The civilisation live in the cavities and organs of the giant beast, doing what they can to trick its body into working as a home for them. They have to cut out tumours, reshape sections, and keep it at a fever pitch to keep the climate acceptable. The whole of the working class works on the beast and its day to day needs. There are some pretty graphic scenes and definitely this isn't for the squeamish, but I found it all very cool and different.
The main characters of this book are vastly different in terms of their lives and their stations. One is the heiress to the beast throne whilst the other strives to work on the most important organ, the heart. They have been best friends for their whole lives, but as we meet them their relationship is starting to change and go beyond that. However, the pressure of their society will try to keep them apart, and the two girls must see if they can continue even a friendship with the pressure of the world. The f/f relationship I thought was a great focus and although I disliked Seske for the way she treats Abella, I enjoyed their tale of discovering themselves and one another.
The society is vastly different to anything I've seen before and the storytelling felt fluid and enjoyable throughout. I definitely believed in the world and it's trials and mishaps, and I'd certainly want to read more by this author now. I am very pleased there's a sequel coming next year!
Final rating 4*s and definitely a 'new-to-me' author I want to explore further.
“It’s worth it, Seske. The price is high, and the price, it will change you. But the winner of life isn’t the one who gets through with the least number of scars.”
3.5 stars. This was weird as hell! I liked it. Afro-futurism, space opera, sentient organic space-ships, a matriarchal society, queer love... so many elements of things that I love, and put together, Drayden created a really absorbing, creative world. There might have been too many threads altogether, because this wasn't as coherent or refined as I might have wanted, but it was still a really interesting, enjoyable read.
We're following two girls: Seske, heir to the matriarchal society in this massive, living space-beast, who's just coming into her own, but has a rebellious streak, and Adalla, her best friend from the lower classes, a beast worker who works to maintain the living vessel and ends up a revolutionary for social change. Together they're discovering new truths about the nature of these beasts they call home, going through political instability, calls for social justice, and new love. Their stories take them along different paths, but they're always orbiting each other.
The worldbuilding could have definitely used work for more clarity, but it was super interesting. Living in a matriarchal society where women are the majority has led to different norms for family structures, and that was fascinating, if underdeveloped (I never 100% understood the structure, or the difference between the types of wives). Matriarchy doesn't lead to utopia; different prejudices have become the norm. There's a super weird menstrual ritual at the beginning of the book that I thought was dumb and unnecessary, but the more I think of it, the more it reads as a commentary on cis feminism. In a lot of SFF where gender roles are swapped like this, there's hardly ever any acknowledgement of trans experiences, so I was super happy that there were trans characters in this.
No one else could ever hurt me like Seske had. But what if human hearts could be mended, just like beast hearts?
I liked our main characters, mostly, but Seske had a lot of growing on me to do. For a large majority of the story, I was kinda rooting for our antagonist, because she had a genuinely compelling story, history and motivation, and next to her, Seske just seemed like an over-privileged brat. And she does undergo growth, but never really seems to buy a clue in the most important ways. Even when the villain really went overboard, I kinda sympathised with her. Seske just wasn't super compelling emotionally... except in the way she was head over heels for Adalla. And who can blame her? I loved Adalla so much; the trajectory of her story is so damn cool. I love badass revolutionaries. I loved that she got her own story apart from Seske, and there's a great family aspect in her arc.
This got weird in so many great ways. Just the idea of a sentient ship is something that I adore. It kinda reminded me of Sisters of the Vast Black except this got way more sinister. The passages where we learn about how they have to live with the rhythm of the beast's body, how they traverse the living landscape, and then the questions of the creature's sentience and humanity... There's a lot of very gross and cool stuff. Also some fascinating body horror-esque elements that I enjoyed. For a given definition of enjoyed. It's very weird.
Really, the only place this erred is in the coherency of the world-building? There's a lot of information that we got too late, or didn't get at all. Something about the entire book just felt kinda slapdash and haphazard, and I never got fully pulled into the story. So many little threads got dropped, and so many pivotal events happened off screen, or we rushed through them too quickly. I loved the scope of this and where it ended up going, but I don't think one book was enough. I would have really liked to spend more time on the other civilisations/space beasts! I don't mind when a book leaves me with questions, but there's so much history that I think could have been explored here.
Listened to the audiobook as read by Adenrele Ojo and Cherise Boothe (while reading along with the e-book). Ojo has one of my favourite voices in black sci-fi, and I adore everything she does. Boothe was also super enjoyable! This does have a lot of dark humour, and I don't know if it all translated very well into audio? But it was still enjoyable. I really appreciate this for what it is. The ideas are just so incredibly unique, and I loved seeing them through a lens of African-inspired sci-fi, with commentary on gender and queerness. And I really liked the romance! The bumps in the writing just kinda took away from the experience for me. I might still try out the sequel!
Content warnings:
Spoiler
death, genocide, forced impregnation
Ahoy there me mateys! I received this sci-fi eARC from Goodreads Giveaways. Arrrrr! In return I will write an honest review. So here are me honest musings . . .
I have been meaning to read this author's work for a while now. I heard about this book from Matey Sarah. The gorgeous cover and the mention of the spaceship being "insides of a spacefaring beast" is what made me click this cover and enter the giveaway. And then I won! This book was quite an experience. I really enjoyed this introduction to the author's writing with some quibbles.
I loved:
- The ship of course! I enjoyed the concept of the ship being inside a live creature and how organic it felt. People worked or lived in all areas of the ship from the heart to the stomach to the rectum. Ichor, fluids, wastes, etc. are described in (sometimes icky) detail. The ship felt alive and real.
The world building - Besides the awesome ship, I liked getting some backstory into how the society, politics, and culture of the ships had changed over the generations.
- The familial structures - I really liked the idea of the matriarchal political structures and how each child was raised by multiple adults of both genders. I thought the significance constellations and family lines in terms of hair-braiding was cool.
- The characters - I particularly enjoyed the character of Adala and kinda wish she had been the main focus. She had the most interesting character development and I loved watching her grow into her own person.
- The diversity - I loved that this story focused on the black experience and had f/f, and polyamorous in addition to hetero-normative relationships.
- I loved the other ships in the fleet and differences that entailed. I wouldn't have minded more exploration of these issues.
I didn't love:
- The main character - While I was cheering for Seske in the beginning, she wore on me by the end. She felt resourceful and yet did not live up to her earlier potential.
- The characters in general - Besides the main couples, ye really did not get enough of a feel for any of the other people onboard. They felt a little two-dimensional.
- The writing structure - The majority of the book was engrossing and fun. But towards the end, a lot of the story fell apart and shattered me verisimilitude. Characters acted in manners contrary to earlier behavior, several major plot lines were dropped (rebellion, embryos, sisterkin), and the resolution just felt rushed. This book should have either been restructured a bit to remove the dangling plot points or made into a duology to better explore some of the issues involved.
- The romance - I did not enjoy how the f/f romance turned out at all. It was too convenient and unbelievable.
- Alien tentacle sex. Aye, I was warned about it so it didn't shock me but there were several different plot choices that could have been made that would have a) made more sense; and b) furthered the narrative in a more appropriate fashion. Alternatively the author could have made the ship more alien and its motives more mysterious to the protagonists but that choice would have changed the tone to more of erotic body horror maybe.
A lot of me thoughts about the ending are summed up in Matey Nella's review:
"the problem . . . is the lack of catharsis. We have this huge amount of build-up - complex, flawed characters with complicated dynamics, and a beautifully created world - and then shit hits the fan and everything get Bad, and none of it gets the time needed for a satisfactory finish. The last third of the book feels almost like checking off a list, with way too much stuff that doesn't get properly dealt with."
That said, I am glad I got this book and was able to read it because the ship itself was so cool.
So lastly . . .
Thank you Goodreads Giveaways and Harper Voyager!
I have been meaning to read this author's work for a while now. I heard about this book from Matey Sarah. The gorgeous cover and the mention of the spaceship being "insides of a spacefaring beast" is what made me click this cover and enter the giveaway. And then I won! This book was quite an experience. I really enjoyed this introduction to the author's writing with some quibbles.
I loved:
- The ship of course! I enjoyed the concept of the ship being inside a live creature and how organic it felt. People worked or lived in all areas of the ship from the heart to the stomach to the rectum. Ichor, fluids, wastes, etc. are described in (sometimes icky) detail. The ship felt alive and real.
The world building - Besides the awesome ship, I liked getting some backstory into how the society, politics, and culture of the ships had changed over the generations.
- The familial structures - I really liked the idea of the matriarchal political structures and how each child was raised by multiple adults of both genders. I thought the significance constellations and family lines in terms of hair-braiding was cool.
- The characters - I particularly enjoyed the character of Adala and kinda wish she had been the main focus. She had the most interesting character development and I loved watching her grow into her own person.
- The diversity - I loved that this story focused on the black experience and had f/f, and polyamorous in addition to hetero-normative relationships.
- I loved the other ships in the fleet and differences that entailed. I wouldn't have minded more exploration of these issues.
I didn't love:
- The main character - While I was cheering for Seske in the beginning, she wore on me by the end. She felt resourceful and yet did not live up to her earlier potential.
- The characters in general - Besides the main couples, ye really did not get enough of a feel for any of the other people onboard. They felt a little two-dimensional.
- The writing structure - The majority of the book was engrossing and fun. But towards the end, a lot of the story fell apart and shattered me verisimilitude. Characters acted in manners contrary to earlier behavior, several major plot lines were dropped (rebellion, embryos, sisterkin), and the resolution just felt rushed. This book should have either been restructured a bit to remove the dangling plot points or made into a duology to better explore some of the issues involved.
- The romance - I did not enjoy how the f/f romance turned out at all. It was too convenient and unbelievable.
- Alien tentacle sex. Aye, I was warned about it so it didn't shock me but there were several different plot choices that could have been made that would have a) made more sense; and b) furthered the narrative in a more appropriate fashion. Alternatively the author could have made the ship more alien and its motives more mysterious to the protagonists but that choice would have changed the tone to more of erotic body horror maybe.
A lot of me thoughts about the ending are summed up in Matey Nella's review:
"the problem . . . is the lack of catharsis. We have this huge amount of build-up - complex, flawed characters with complicated dynamics, and a beautifully created world - and then shit hits the fan and everything get Bad, and none of it gets the time needed for a satisfactory finish. The last third of the book feels almost like checking off a list, with way too much stuff that doesn't get properly dealt with."
That said, I am glad I got this book and was able to read it because the ship itself was so cool.
So lastly . . .
Thank you Goodreads Giveaways and Harper Voyager!
I was really conflicted on how to rate this one. The world-building was amazing. Like, it was conceptually nuts, but it was presented in such a way that you were also like, naturally they live inside giant space animals, make complete sense.
I really liked the original friendship, although I was got really mad at Seske for some of her shenanigans. There was a lot of caste in here, but also revolution. Except that part wasn't necessarily in the most believable - the rise sure was but like a lot of people I found the ending unsatisfactory. I also thought there was too much shoved in here - the whole Sisterkin plotline didn't seem very well fleshed out. Tons of great female characters, too.
That said, I kept putting the book down in frustration, and then coming back to it because I wanted to know what happened next. So in that way it absolutely kept me hooked.
Overall I landed on a three star rating, and I will look for other Nicky Drayden books.
I really liked the original friendship, although I was got really mad at Seske for some of her shenanigans. There was a lot of caste in here, but also revolution. Except that part wasn't necessarily in the most believable - the rise sure was but like a lot of people I found the ending unsatisfactory. I also thought there was too much shoved in here - the whole Sisterkin plotline didn't seem very well fleshed out. Tons of great female characters, too.
That said, I kept putting the book down in frustration, and then coming back to it because I wanted to know what happened next. So in that way it absolutely kept me hooked.
Overall I landed on a three star rating, and I will look for other Nicky Drayden books.
One of the weirdest on my "what a weird book" shelf, and yet by the end it didn't seem so weird at all. As creative and unusual the idea of taking up residency inside giant space beasts was, it also seemed eerily possible the more I thought about it. This was a rich, complex story of culture and society that had evolved to be so different and yet held on to quite a few uncomfortable things. I heartily enjoyed this book, even as I cringed and grinned at the amazing oddities of it.
This was a hell of a ride. I don't even truly know where to begin with my review because honestly this was my first dive into this intense of a sci-fi book. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I definitely thought that this was a great read. Trigger Warnings: body horror, violence, death, slavery.
Escaping Exodus focuses on this matriarchal alien (this is the best way I know how to describe them without really giving away too much) society that inhabits a beast/huge creature that travels through space. It's written in dual perspective and the reader gets the perspective of Seska (the heir to the throne) as well as Adalla (beast worker). Each travels on this journey of self-discovery/identity all in hopes of providing the best for their community. Two of my favorite aspects of this book were the plot development and the writing. Seska and Adalla were fascinating characters that were so distinctively different (this book has a sapphic romance as well as representation of polyamourous relationships). I have trouble with books with multiple perspectives some times because the voices end up blending together and sounding similar; however, in the case of this book I must admit that Drayden did a fabulous job fleshing out these two characters and their journeys and experiences. It was so amazing to watch two women who were so close and had essentially built this bond and relationship go in two different directions based on their experiences in the community. Seska was blind to the true intentions of the society while Adalla learned the gruesome facts and treatment that some individuals continued to experience at the expense of making the upper class feel comfortable. In fact, Drayden utilizes these two characters to discuss a few social issues that impact our world. And while (as stated by other reviewers) some of the social issues were too transparent to be set in a SF world, I do think that Drayden still created a unique story while still addressing modern social issues.
In addition, Drayden's writing was phenomenal. I've read a few SF things before but most of them have been small. Quite honestly, I find myself intimidated by the genre because I never feel like I would get the technicalities of the worlds in which these stories exist. However, to me, Escaping Exodus felt accessible. I wasn't intimated by the language or the world building or the intricacies of how this society functioned. It all made sense. Drayden wrote with such descriptive language that I literally felt immersed in every scene that I read. There was also this sense of humor that Drayden was able to incorporate in the text that literally made me laugh out loud during certain scenes. It was so good that I anticipated even checking out some of her other works.
One thing that did prevent me from giving this book a full five stars was the ending. The time jumps just seemed a little rushed. The beginning of the book felt evenly paced, but when we got the end of the book it felt like Drayden felt the need to wrap things up too quickly. It left one specific character one-dimensional which was so unfortunate because I wanted to know more about them. Other than that, I enjoyed this book and I'm really looking forward to seeing what exactly is going to happen with the second book in the series.
Escaping Exodus focuses on this matriarchal alien (this is the best way I know how to describe them without really giving away too much) society that inhabits a beast/huge creature that travels through space. It's written in dual perspective and the reader gets the perspective of Seska (the heir to the throne) as well as Adalla (beast worker). Each travels on this journey of self-discovery/identity all in hopes of providing the best for their community. Two of my favorite aspects of this book were the plot development and the writing. Seska and Adalla were fascinating characters that were so distinctively different (this book has a sapphic romance as well as representation of polyamourous relationships). I have trouble with books with multiple perspectives some times because the voices end up blending together and sounding similar; however, in the case of this book I must admit that Drayden did a fabulous job fleshing out these two characters and their journeys and experiences. It was so amazing to watch two women who were so close and had essentially built this bond and relationship go in two different directions based on their experiences in the community. Seska was blind to the true intentions of the society while Adalla learned the gruesome facts and treatment that some individuals continued to experience at the expense of making the upper class feel comfortable. In fact, Drayden utilizes these two characters to discuss a few social issues that impact our world. And while (as stated by other reviewers) some of the social issues were too transparent to be set in a SF world, I do think that Drayden still created a unique story while still addressing modern social issues.
In addition, Drayden's writing was phenomenal. I've read a few SF things before but most of them have been small. Quite honestly, I find myself intimidated by the genre because I never feel like I would get the technicalities of the worlds in which these stories exist. However, to me, Escaping Exodus felt accessible. I wasn't intimated by the language or the world building or the intricacies of how this society functioned. It all made sense. Drayden wrote with such descriptive language that I literally felt immersed in every scene that I read. There was also this sense of humor that Drayden was able to incorporate in the text that literally made me laugh out loud during certain scenes. It was so good that I anticipated even checking out some of her other works.
One thing that did prevent me from giving this book a full five stars was the ending. The time jumps just seemed a little rushed. The beginning of the book felt evenly paced, but when we got the end of the book it felt like Drayden felt the need to wrap things up too quickly. It left one specific character one-dimensional which was so unfortunate because I wanted to know more about them. Other than that, I enjoyed this book and I'm really looking forward to seeing what exactly is going to happen with the second book in the series.
fast-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:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Genocide, Sexism, Pregnancy
Moderate: Torture, Murder
Minor: Racial slurs, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Death of parent
adventurous
funny
fast-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:
Yes