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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
The Swan Riders is the sequel to the YA dystopia novel, The Scorpion Rules. I highly suggest reading the series in order. While I’ve been finding most of the YA dystopia genre pretty derivative, this series manages to be among the better half of what I’ve read, and it takes some turns in the road from the standard formula for the genre. Forewarning, this review will contain some inevitable spoilers for the previous book.
Greta has been transformed into an AI, and she will join Talis, the AI who rules the world. A version of Talis and two Swan Riders, the humans who serve the AIs, are accompanying Greta across the plains of a future Saskatchewan. But Greta’s country is on the brink of rebellion, and danger may be hiding withing the expanse of the desolate Saskatchewan plains… and it may come from the Swan Riders themselves.
Probably my favorite thing about this duology is the characters. In the last book, I loved Greta for her restraint and sense of duty. In this one, she’s dealing with the transition to being an AI. Anything that she had a prior strong emotional connection too can prompt a cascade failure, where her thoughts become trapped in a repeating loop. She has far more character growth than you usually see in the genre.
Talis is probably the best antagonist overlord character I’ve yet to come across. He manages to be somewhat sympathetic… while still blowing up cities and controlling the world with an iron fist. He’s snarky and arrogant and gets a ton of great lines.
In general, this duology has been slower paced than is the norm for the YA dystopian genre. At times it works, but at other times the book seems to drag or to move to quickly. The plot construction ended up feeling sort of messy.
However, if I ever make a recommended reading list for the YA dystopian genre, The Swan Riders and it’s prior book will certainly be on it. I’m glad I ended up giving this series a try.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
Greta has been transformed into an AI, and she will join Talis, the AI who rules the world. A version of Talis and two Swan Riders, the humans who serve the AIs, are accompanying Greta across the plains of a future Saskatchewan. But Greta’s country is on the brink of rebellion, and danger may be hiding withing the expanse of the desolate Saskatchewan plains… and it may come from the Swan Riders themselves.
Probably my favorite thing about this duology is the characters. In the last book, I loved Greta for her restraint and sense of duty. In this one, she’s dealing with the transition to being an AI. Anything that she had a prior strong emotional connection too can prompt a cascade failure, where her thoughts become trapped in a repeating loop. She has far more character growth than you usually see in the genre.
Talis is probably the best antagonist overlord character I’ve yet to come across. He manages to be somewhat sympathetic… while still blowing up cities and controlling the world with an iron fist. He’s snarky and arrogant and gets a ton of great lines.
In general, this duology has been slower paced than is the norm for the YA dystopian genre. At times it works, but at other times the book seems to drag or to move to quickly. The plot construction ended up feeling sort of messy.
However, if I ever make a recommended reading list for the YA dystopian genre, The Swan Riders and it’s prior book will certainly be on it. I’m glad I ended up giving this series a try.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
adventurous
dark
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was not sure how to feel about the first book. The second book confirmed that i did not like where the story was going.
Let's start with the love triangle. She made a decision at the end of the last book. She loved one person in particular... Well, this person never appears again, only as a small cameo in a letter. It did not make me happy.
Again, the world they live in should not exist, they should fight against the dictator and change it. Instead, she kind of become friends with that dictator. That dictator becomes a better person. Ok, nice change from the common rebellion. But... Did it change anything? What's the moral of the story, ally yourself with powerful dictators?
Also, the AI have access to all the data in the world, with so many skills... And yet, underwhelmingly weak and out of resources. It did not make sense to me.
Last thing, i do not like the fusion of 2 personnalities. Personal taste, i never feel like it's working, and i feel like i lost 2 characters to make a new one...
To summarize, t's a dystopia where the main character is not a rebel of any sort and become part of the AI dictators. There's a love triangle where Greta chose the one person she did not spend a lot of time with, and won't ever.
Let's start with the love triangle. She made a decision at the end of the last book. She loved one person in particular... Well, this person never appears again, only as a small cameo in a letter. It did not make me happy.
Again, the world they live in should not exist, they should fight against the dictator and change it. Instead, she kind of become friends with that dictator. That dictator becomes a better person. Ok, nice change from the common rebellion. But... Did it change anything? What's the moral of the story, ally yourself with powerful dictators?
Also, the AI have access to all the data in the world, with so many skills... And yet, underwhelmingly weak and out of resources. It did not make sense to me.
To summarize, t's a dystopia where the main character is not a rebel of any sort and become part of the AI dictators. There's a love triangle where Greta chose the one person she did not spend a lot of time with, and won't ever.
There is something about this series that feels like a sucker punch. We basically pick up right where we left off in Scorpion Rules. Greta and Talis go on a little road trip with a few swan riders and try not to die. I didn't like this as much as I liked Scorpion Rules, but it was still great. The writing just pulls you in and keeps you there. It is both devastating and filled with humor. We get to spend some time with Elian, though I am very sad we don't get more of Xie. I am also very sad that there isn't another book (don't know if there will be one). I want so much more of this world and these characters. I like that we saw more of the world and got to learn about different aspects. I will say that some of the AI stuff went over my head and got a little confusing, but overall this was great and there were so many twists and turns and betrayals. My favorite type of book.
The swan riders is an interesting book with a great idea, reading it was slow because the pacing felt off and the story line was a little shaky. Still an interesting read while learn more about the characters.
Beautifully written. Like, amazingly beautifully written. Great story, too, of course. Looking forward to reading more from the author.
Wow, that knocked me for a six. This was such an amazing sequel, I can't even fathom. Sure, the end seemed a bit repetitive, and some things bothered me. Ultimately, though, this book was fucking phenomenal. Heartwrenching and beautiful at the same time.
Also, there isn't enough praise in the world for Madeline Maby's performance. She knocked it out of the park. I cannot say enough good things about how she used her voice to convey all of these different characters, imbue them with distinctive voices, and make me love them all.
Also, there isn't enough praise in the world for Madeline Maby's performance. She knocked it out of the park. I cannot say enough good things about how she used her voice to convey all of these different characters, imbue them with distinctive voices, and make me love them all.
Really enjoyed this. Very good even for those of us who didn't read book #1, though a takes a little work to understand what's going on. Loved the Portal references (haha)
-POTENTIAL SPOILERS-
This was an interesting little book. It pretty much only gets its tag and rating because it's a sequel to a very likely contender to my 'Best Books of 2017' list, and while this is a very good book, it's vastly different from The Scorpion Rules, and a lot of it was actually kinda confusing.
Let's start with the good stuff, because there actually is a lot. I liked seeing Greta's transition in an A.I. I liked how she talked, how she thought, how she figured things out. Although I do kinda wish she was a bit more...robotic. She's described as looking exactly the same, which I was kinda disappointed about. She should've had silver eyes or something like that.
I also liked seeing her relationship with Elian develop in this book, even though...apparently they're dating now? That confused me in the other reviews. I just thought they were extremely close friends.
The cast is still really diverse, which is fairly unique in YA sci-fi. I think this is the only sci-fi series I've read hat describes the fate of the entire world, not just one part.
The backstory of how Talis came to be was really interesting. He wasn't as humorous as he was in the last book, but he had a few enjoyable quips here and there.
I also liked the pacing. Yes, it was both written and paced weirdly, but it made sense since Greta's robot-brain is in control now. Plus I flew through it really quickly, obviously.
However, I felt like a lot of the scenes were very confusing. I still don't really understand Talis' death, or why there was two of him, or what really happened in the ending....it felt very confusing to me. Mainly because it wasn't really explained.
I also didn't really understand the concept of the Swan Riders. I mean, I kinda did, and then I kinda didn't. Again, that could've been much better explained.
I was upset Greta's girlfriend wasn't in this.
Also, apparently they're in Canada? Explains why I didn't get all the references. I always assumed Greta was Greenlandic though. Even here, it sounds more like Greenland than Canada from the climate and language and culture and everything.
Overall, not as solid of a sequel and finale as I would've wanted, but still really good.
This was an interesting little book. It pretty much only gets its tag and rating because it's a sequel to a very likely contender to my 'Best Books of 2017' list, and while this is a very good book, it's vastly different from The Scorpion Rules, and a lot of it was actually kinda confusing.
Let's start with the good stuff, because there actually is a lot. I liked seeing Greta's transition in an A.I. I liked how she talked, how she thought, how she figured things out. Although I do kinda wish she was a bit more...robotic. She's described as looking exactly the same, which I was kinda disappointed about. She should've had silver eyes or something like that.
I also liked seeing her relationship with Elian develop in this book, even though...apparently they're dating now? That confused me in the other reviews. I just thought they were extremely close friends.
The cast is still really diverse, which is fairly unique in YA sci-fi. I think this is the only sci-fi series I've read hat describes the fate of the entire world, not just one part.
The backstory of how Talis came to be was really interesting. He wasn't as humorous as he was in the last book, but he had a few enjoyable quips here and there.
I also liked the pacing. Yes, it was both written and paced weirdly, but it made sense since Greta's robot-brain is in control now. Plus I flew through it really quickly, obviously.
However, I felt like a lot of the scenes were very confusing. I still don't really understand Talis' death, or why there was two of him, or what really happened in the ending....it felt very confusing to me. Mainly because it wasn't really explained.
I also didn't really understand the concept of the Swan Riders. I mean, I kinda did, and then I kinda didn't. Again, that could've been much better explained.
I was upset Greta's girlfriend wasn't in this.
Also, apparently they're in Canada? Explains why I didn't get all the references. I always assumed Greta was Greenlandic though. Even here, it sounds more like Greenland than Canada from the climate and language and culture and everything.
Overall, not as solid of a sequel and finale as I would've wanted, but still really good.
dark
emotional
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Grief, Murder
Moderate: Genocide, Torture
This series is just wildly polarizing, I guess? Some people really seem to love it. Between the rating and the fact that it took me 2 weeks to finish it (I literally forgot I was reading it for a while), I guess it’s pretty clear that I wasn’t a fan. It’s not even any one thing, really. At the end of the day, honestly, I was just bored, and I hate saying that because a real human person wrote this book and dismissing it as boring almost feels worse than commenting on specific flaws.
But still. I don’t know. I didn’t connect to any of the characters on any meaningful level, and I already struggled with that in the first one, so to have this one be worse in that aspect? That sets the book up to be a slog. The overall themes make sense but parts of the plot didn’t seem to, and as a lot of other people have commented, the pacing is odd. Some of the worldbuilding never made sense to the degree I wanted it to.
It’s also just so wildly different from the first book. It doesn’t mesh tonally, and the whole book is about something that was really only present in the last third of the first book. Maybe I would’ve liked this series more if I was prepared for what it actually turned out to be, rather than what I thought it was set up to be. Also, the fact that Xie barely existed in this book despite being such a huge part of The Scorpion Rules was just really odd. I liked her (frankly, she was one of the only characters I liked), and I really wanted to see more of her.
I don’t know. It wasn’t a horrible book and it explored some interesting ideas, but it didn’t really make me care. And isn’t that the point? If other books and movies can explore similar themes and make me genuinely care, I suppose I’ll just stick to that corner of the universe.
But still. I don’t know. I didn’t connect to any of the characters on any meaningful level, and I already struggled with that in the first one, so to have this one be worse in that aspect? That sets the book up to be a slog. The overall themes make sense but parts of the plot didn’t seem to, and as a lot of other people have commented, the pacing is odd. Some of the worldbuilding never made sense to the degree I wanted it to.
It’s also just so wildly different from the first book. It doesn’t mesh tonally, and the whole book is about something that was really only present in the last third of the first book. Maybe I would’ve liked this series more if I was prepared for what it actually turned out to be, rather than what I thought it was set up to be. Also, the fact that Xie barely existed in this book despite being such a huge part of The Scorpion Rules was just really odd. I liked her (frankly, she was one of the only characters I liked), and I really wanted to see more of her.
I don’t know. It wasn’t a horrible book and it explored some interesting ideas, but it didn’t really make me care. And isn’t that the point? If other books and movies can explore similar themes and make me genuinely care, I suppose I’ll just stick to that corner of the universe.