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4.37 AVERAGE
4.37 AVERAGE
This book was only released a short while ago, and I have already read it four times. It's incredible. Each book features Amber facing new challenges, with the impeccable worldbuilding slowly becoming more and more apparent as moredetails emerge. I love how the books show so much of the characters emotions and secrets while still being surprising. I love the relationship between Amber and Lucas. I love the representation of a diverse cast of characters. With each book I am more intrigued and delighted by Janet Edwards' incredible storytelling. I would recommend this series to everyone.
3.5 stars.
I really enjoy these books, I find them deeply engaging, but there are a few issues that I seem to have with every installment.
* Amber does not have strong boundaries regarding what she shares with other people of her insights into minds, and it drives me nuts. There are times when I find it incredibly invasive, unethical, and unprofessional.
* Her team, particularly the leaders, often act unprofessionally to a ridiculous degree. Some of their regular behavior would be completely unacceptable in a normal workplace in today's society.
* The dialogue is occasionally stilted and overly formal and does not sound like something someone would actually say. Sometimes the dialogue also includes repetitive or redundant information.
* Some of the issues dealt with in this installment have already been covered in earlier installments and seem redundant / almost a regression of past growth. For example, Lucas is just as insecure about his relationship as he was before, despite having hashed out the issue several times over the course of the series. I would've expected to see some improvement by this point.
* Not sure I’ll be able to express this properly: none of the characters ever break out of the mold of the author’s personal experiences and expectations. For example, the described family issues and relationships don’t really allow for the incredible breadth and complexity of family relationships that exist in the real world. This concept of breaking off from your family because of level differences doesn’t seem to account for the human connection of family and how important and foundational it can be. Families that can function and treat each other like regular people despite the disparity in status don't seem to exist in this world.
Some of the related scenarios are kind of ridiculous. The parents' sudden deference when their child rates a higher level than them would be as if a child actor’s parents suddenly became too nervous and deferential to continue having a relationship with their child when they achieved fame, which is something I have a hard time believing occurs often, if at all.
* Amber’s habit to speechify always makes me cringe. Always feels unnecessarily self-important and generally superfluous.
Not an issue, but an observation:
* Lucas and Amber have fascinating relationship dynamics, because Lucas must placate Amber no matter what his personal feelings are on any matter. What she wants, and her emotional well-being, is paramount to the hive, so he doesn’t have the agency to upset her that most people do in relationships. Thinking about it, perhaps their power dynamic reflects how the power dynamic between men and women throughout time has played out except in reverse. Women historically have been subject to men and dependent on a man's willingness to support them for survival, but in the case of Amber and Lucas that power is reversed and Lucas is the one who cannot risk upsetting Amber for fear of the consequences.
Anyway, I'll probably continue with these books since I do really enjoy the series despite the flaws.
I really enjoy these books, I find them deeply engaging, but there are a few issues that I seem to have with every installment.
* Amber does not have strong boundaries regarding what she shares with other people of her insights into minds, and it drives me nuts. There are times when I find it incredibly invasive, unethical, and unprofessional.
* Her team, particularly the leaders, often act unprofessionally to a ridiculous degree. Some of their regular behavior would be completely unacceptable in a normal workplace in today's society.
* The dialogue is occasionally stilted and overly formal and does not sound like something someone would actually say. Sometimes the dialogue also includes repetitive or redundant information.
* Some of the issues dealt with in this installment have already been covered in earlier installments and seem redundant / almost a regression of past growth. For example, Lucas is just as insecure about his relationship as he was before, despite having hashed out the issue several times over the course of the series. I would've expected to see some improvement by this point.
* Not sure I’ll be able to express this properly: none of the characters ever break out of the mold of the author’s personal experiences and expectations. For example, the described family issues and relationships don’t really allow for the incredible breadth and complexity of family relationships that exist in the real world. This concept of breaking off from your family because of level differences doesn’t seem to account for the human connection of family and how important and foundational it can be. Families that can function and treat each other like regular people despite the disparity in status don't seem to exist in this world.
Some of the related scenarios are kind of ridiculous. The parents' sudden deference when their child rates a higher level than them would be as if a child actor’s parents suddenly became too nervous and deferential to continue having a relationship with their child when they achieved fame, which is something I have a hard time believing occurs often, if at all.
* Amber’s habit to speechify always makes me cringe. Always feels unnecessarily self-important and generally superfluous.
Not an issue, but an observation:
* Lucas and Amber have fascinating relationship dynamics, because Lucas must placate Amber no matter what his personal feelings are on any matter. What she wants, and her emotional well-being, is paramount to the hive, so he doesn’t have the agency to upset her that most people do in relationships. Thinking about it, perhaps their power dynamic reflects how the power dynamic between men and women throughout time has played out except in reverse. Women historically have been subject to men and dependent on a man's willingness to support them for survival, but in the case of Amber and Lucas that power is reversed and Lucas is the one who cannot risk upsetting Amber for fear of the consequences.
Anyway, I'll probably continue with these books since I do really enjoy the series despite the flaws.
3.5 stars.
I really enjoy these books, I find them deeply engaging, but there are a few issues that I seem to have with every installment.
* Amber does not have strong boundaries regarding what she shares with other people of her insights into minds, and it drives me nuts. There are times when I find it incredibly invasive, unethical, and unprofessional.
* Her team, particularly the leaders, often act unprofessionally to a ridiculous degree. Some of their regular behavior would be completely unacceptable in a normal workplace in today's society.
* The dialogue is occasionally stilted and overly formal and does not sound like something someone would actually say. Sometimes the dialogue also includes repetitive or redundant information.
* Some of the issues dealt with in this installment have already been covered in earlier installments and seem redundant / almost a regression of past growth. For example, Lucas is just as insecure about his relationship as he was before, despite having hashed out the issue several times over the course of the series. I would've expected to see some improvement by this point.
* Not sure I’ll be able to express this properly: none of the characters ever break out of the mold of the author’s personal experiences and expectations. For example, the described family issues and relationships don’t really allow for the incredible breadth and complexity of family relationships that exist in the real world. This concept of breaking off from your family because of level differences doesn’t seem to account for the human connection of family and how important and foundational it can be. Families that can function and treat each other like regular people despite the disparity in status don't seem to exist in this world.
Some of the related scenarios are kind of ridiculous. The parents' sudden deference when their child rates a higher level than them would be as if a child actor’s parents suddenly became too nervous and deferential to continue having a relationship with their child when they achieved fame, which is something I have a hard time believing occurs often, if at all.
* Amber’s habit to speechify always makes me cringe. Always feels unnecessarily self-important and generally superfluous.
Not an issue, but an observation:
* Lucas and Amber have fascinating relationship dynamics, because Lucas must placate Amber no matter what his personal feelings are on any matter. What she wants, and her emotional well-being, is paramount to the hive, so he doesn’t have the agency to upset her that most people do in relationships. Thinking about it, perhaps their power dynamic reflects how the power dynamic between men and women throughout time has played out except in reverse. Women historically have been subject to men and dependent on a man's willingness to support them for survival, but in the case of Amber and Lucas that power is reversed and Lucas is the one who cannot risk upsetting Amber for fear of the consequences.
Anyway, I'll probably continue with these books since I do really enjoy the series despite the flaws.
I really enjoy these books, I find them deeply engaging, but there are a few issues that I seem to have with every installment.
* Amber does not have strong boundaries regarding what she shares with other people of her insights into minds, and it drives me nuts. There are times when I find it incredibly invasive, unethical, and unprofessional.
* Her team, particularly the leaders, often act unprofessionally to a ridiculous degree. Some of their regular behavior would be completely unacceptable in a normal workplace in today's society.
* The dialogue is occasionally stilted and overly formal and does not sound like something someone would actually say. Sometimes the dialogue also includes repetitive or redundant information.
* Some of the issues dealt with in this installment have already been covered in earlier installments and seem redundant / almost a regression of past growth. For example, Lucas is just as insecure about his relationship as he was before, despite having hashed out the issue several times over the course of the series. I would've expected to see some improvement by this point.
* Not sure I’ll be able to express this properly: none of the characters ever break out of the mold of the author’s personal experiences and expectations. For example, the described family issues and relationships don’t really allow for the incredible breadth and complexity of family relationships that exist in the real world. This concept of breaking off from your family because of level differences doesn’t seem to account for the human connection of family and how important and foundational it can be. Families that can function and treat each other like regular people despite the disparity in status don't seem to exist in this world.
Some of the related scenarios are kind of ridiculous. The parents' sudden deference when their child rates a higher level than them would be as if a child actor’s parents suddenly became too nervous and deferential to continue having a relationship with their child when they achieved fame, which is something I have a hard time believing occurs often, if at all.
* Amber’s habit to speechify always makes me cringe. Always feels unnecessarily self-important and generally superfluous.
Not an issue, but an observation:
* Lucas and Amber have fascinating relationship dynamics, because Lucas must placate Amber no matter what his personal feelings are on any matter. What she wants, and her emotional well-being, is paramount to the hive, so he doesn’t have the agency to upset her that most people do in relationships. Thinking about it, perhaps their power dynamic reflects how the power dynamic between men and women throughout time has played out except in reverse. Women historically have been subject to men and dependent on a man's willingness to support them for survival, but in the case of Amber and Lucas that power is reversed and Lucas is the one who cannot risk upsetting Amber for fear of the consequences.
Anyway, I'll probably continue with these books since I do really enjoy the series despite the flaws.
This keeps being my favourite series by Janet Edwards by far because with each book the world building deepens and we find out more about the stunningly complex ingeniously interdependent weird society that is Hive England and the multilateral hive world surrounding it. I am particularly amazed by how well the leaders of Hive England have thought out this society. Lottery is not perfect, but very close to it and if they had more telepaths the already very low crime rate could be literally zero.
We get more character development and more shades of grey with the unique narrative device of a first person pov protagonist that is as close to a omniscient narrator as you can be in this world being used in more creative ways with each book. This allows for a lot of rather elegant stealth exposition and also lets us get into the mindset of every character with very short bits that capture their essence.
What I have really loved with each book is also the expanding stakes and scope. The first book already starts big with an agent from another hive intent on kidnapping Amber. The second book gets smaller ins cope but has a victim Amber knows, the third puts the entire unit at a disadvantage by having to solve a case outside of the cave, surrounded by sea farm people without imprints and finding out that place is intended as a safeguard seed population in case Hive England gets destroyed. Plus the wild bee is the most evil character in the entire series and I still hate them more than anyone else.
This book now goes completely bonkers with the unit having to navigate the messy fields of inter-telepath conflict, Amber having to read people she'd really rather not and finding out some horrifying things, internal hive politics and even international law/diplomacy. This case is not that hard to figure out on its own, but with everything else complicating things Amber and Lucas have to keep a lot of plated spinning lest they all fall down and break.
Amber has to really step up here and fight for the hive, her unit and everything else that is at stake, No one else is gonna do it, so she has to. And she finds even more skeletons in the closet of this hive, adding to her increasing fundamental questioning of whether "the hive knows best".
I keep wondering whether the hive needs to get away from its whole concept of security by obscurity. Because if anyone who finds out about nosies being fake ever broadcasts this to the whole hive, the whole system could collapse. Hopefully the hive leadership actually has a contingency plan for this scenario. In the worst case they might have to get bck to being a surveillance statewith cctvs everywhere again ...
We get more character development and more shades of grey with the unique narrative device of a first person pov protagonist that is as close to a omniscient narrator as you can be in this world being used in more creative ways with each book. This allows for a lot of rather elegant stealth exposition and also lets us get into the mindset of every character with very short bits that capture their essence.
What I have really loved with each book is also the expanding stakes and scope. The first book already starts big with an agent from another hive intent on kidnapping Amber. The second book gets smaller ins cope but has a victim Amber knows, the third puts the entire unit at a disadvantage by having to solve a case outside of the cave, surrounded by sea farm people without imprints and finding out that place is intended as a safeguard seed population in case Hive England gets destroyed. Plus the wild bee is the most evil character in the entire series and I still hate them more than anyone else.
This book now goes completely bonkers with the unit having to navigate the messy fields of inter-telepath conflict, Amber having to read people she'd really rather not and finding out some horrifying things, internal hive politics and even international law/diplomacy. This case is not that hard to figure out on its own, but with everything else complicating things Amber and Lucas have to keep a lot of plated spinning lest they all fall down and break.
Amber has to really step up here and fight for the hive, her unit and everything else that is at stake, No one else is gonna do it, so she has to. And she finds even more skeletons in the closet of this hive, adding to her increasing fundamental questioning of whether "the hive knows best".
I keep wondering whether the hive needs to get away from its whole concept of security by obscurity. Because if anyone who finds out about nosies being fake ever broadcasts this to the whole hive, the whole system could collapse. Hopefully the hive leadership actually has a contingency plan for this scenario. In the worst case they might have to get bck to being a surveillance statewith cctvs everywhere again ...
Reread August 2020. I did find a plot hole this time, but it was still a very enjoyable book.
5 out of 5 stars!
This was amazing! So many things happened, and I'm still kinda shooketh because of some things. I literally cannot wait for the next book.... but it'll take some time, I'm sure of that^^
The whole Game plot was nice and all, but can we talk about all the shit that was going down?? I mean: Tobias and Keith. What the fuck!? xD
I'm so excited for the next book, but I'm kinda scared... I mean, I have such a bad feeling about the truce between Keith and Amber. He said he did what he did because of Olivia, but do I believe this? No, not that much. Yes, there may be some truth in his words, but do I believe him completely? Nope! And he swore that he wouldn't harm anyone precious to her, but do I think he cares about this? Nope, he doesn't...
But: I need mire Mira, she was so sweet! <3
This was amazing! So many things happened, and I'm still kinda shooketh because of some things. I literally cannot wait for the next book.... but it'll take some time, I'm sure of that^^
Spoiler
The whole Game plot was nice and all, but can we talk about all the shit that was going down?? I mean: Tobias and Keith. What the fuck!? xD
I'm so excited for the next book, but I'm kinda scared... I mean, I have such a bad feeling about the truce between Keith and Amber. He said he did what he did because of Olivia, but do I believe this? No, not that much. Yes, there may be some truth in his words, but do I believe him completely? Nope! And he swore that he wouldn't harm anyone precious to her, but do I think he cares about this? Nope, he doesn't...
But: I need mire Mira, she was so sweet! <3
adventurous
challenging
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:
No
This is the best book in this series so far. The characters have developed a lot. The story is mature and kept me on the edge of my seat.
adventurous
emotional
funny
fast-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated