Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Axiom's End

The beginning of this book is so slow and the pacing is a little all over the place. I think it shouldn't have least 100 pages shorter. Haven't read many first contact stories, but I found that I didn't really care about the characters or what was happening.

The books also had some weird info dumping parts where a character would repeat something that happened in the previous couple of chapters in very stilted dialogue. This didn't happen that often, but it was enough that I noticed it.

Otherwise it's very readable and picks up in the second half, but not enough for me to continue with the series.

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madmadmaddymad's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

5.0

I couldn’t put it down!

It’s remarkable how enthralling the plot and pace of this novel was. I’m satisfied with it as a stand alone, but am absolutely invested if Ellis decides to ever write a follow up,

Cora was such a fun protagonist. She really embodied the adventure of first contact, and her view point as a fish-out-of-water, or maybe fish-adjacent-to-water, coming from a background of government distrust and frustration over conspiracy theories with her famous, estranged, Alex Jones-esque father. What an an excellent background detail and incredible character and worldbuilding.

I also enjoyed the humor of this novel, and I thought the trope of humans being scary to the alien species was handled extremely well. Ampersand is hilarious and lovable and I was lo-key rooting for there to be an inter-galactic romance from the first moment

he snuck her into the Google campus and he was just so bad at communicating with humans that he gave Cora (and me!) second-hand embarrassment.

Powerful alien. Adorable doofus.

Loved this book!

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mandkips's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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huckleberryrk's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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brnineworms's review

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adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is YA. That’s not a positive or negative judgement, just an observation. It wasn’t marketed as YA fiction as far as I recall but that is absolutely how it reads – a college-age protagonist who needs to learn a lesson or two about responsibility, an intermittently-relevant family, awkward romance, drama, angst, queer rep, etc. I enjoyed it but I can see I’m not the target audience.

Also,

I feel like a lot more could have been done with the fact that Ampersand’s knowledge of Earth culture was hundreds of years out of date. He could have spoken Middle English, for example. The point was that he thought humans were violent and backwards, owing to the fervent religious fundamentalism and purges he witnessed in the wake of the Black Death. But then that seems kind of unnecessary, because we’d already seen him horrified by humans eating meat – there was no need to invoke medieval atrocities when there are already aspects of modern life which he finds abhorrent.

This may seem nitpicky but it’s superfluous details like this that end up making the book at least a hundred pages longer than it needed to be. Thankfully, the quick pace prevented the story from feeling like a slog.

I’d recommend Axiom’s End to fans of Stephenie Meyer’s The Host. It has a similar vibe.

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cfell's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging reflective tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

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gwendolynaudrey_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This book is clearly an entry point into a much more complex series. It moves quickly, synthesizes 2000s pop culture and political intrigue, and is inspired by classic adventure stories like "Men in Black" and honestly, even "Beauty and the Beast." The main character is a blank slate type young girl character. She is loveable, and her decisions are logical based on her age and background, but she isn't exactly the most complex of characters (yet). I love the diverse set of characters we are introduced to who promise to be important later (an absent Julian Assange father figure, a complicated CIA agent, an alternative, linguist but jealous "cool aunt," - not to mention ALIENS.) AND I love how Ellis never lets you breath.

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