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emimia's review against another edition
3.0
2.99/5 stars
Thank you, Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review
It doesn’t feel right to give this book three stars, but I can’t bring myself to give it two stars. I don’t know what it deserves and I’m just so conflicted right now? Maybe if Goodreads created half star ratings I wouldn’t have this kind of inner turmoil…
There has been so much praise thrown at this book that I’m wondering if I even read the same book as everyone else. I’m usually not a SciFi fan because, like any reasonable person, I realize that space is f*cking terrifying and aliens will one day destroy us all. Yet, I was prepared to throw an entire galaxy of stars at this book before I even began reading it. You can imagine the agony I faced when I realized, about 40% into this book that I was going to end up extremely disappointed.
This book did start out good. Ten random inexperienced kids being paid to go into outer space to mine a mysterious mineral on some far off planet? And they have to compete against each other to see who is top dog because only some of them are actually going to end up on that planet? Then sprinkle in aliens that are obsessed with children. I was so intrigued. I wanted to know why.
So I kept reading, wanting to know why.
And I kept reading.
And I kept reading.
And then I finished the book.
I still don’t know why????
I think that is the first problem I have with this book. It’s going to rely quite a bit on its sequels to help tell its story, but as I read an ARC of this, it’s going to be over a year before I even get my hand on the next book. By then, all I will remember about this book is how big of a let down it was for me.
Now, you might probably not be asking yourself, "Teenagers? Competing against one another in space? Where does that sound familiar?" And which I say to you, [b:Ender's Game|375802|Ender's Game (Ender's Saga, #1)|Orson Scott Card|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1408303130s/375802.jpg|2422333]. And while I do love the Ender's Game movie, I am very vocal about my absolute hatred for the book. And the similarities between Nyxia and Ender's Game were so uncanny to me, I had a difficult time separating my EG hatred from my possible love for Nyxia. I did, however, eventually get over it, but there was still a lasting impression. Which is problem number two for this book: I didn't find the plot all that original.
It also reminded me a lot of that one season of Power Rangers where they go off into space to colonize some planet. But, unlike Power Rangers, Nyxia wasn't full of colorful spandex, wasn't full cheesy dialogue, and wasn't made in the '90s. Talk about even more disappointment.
And that was all the plot was. Them competing. It was 400 pages of Emmett looking at a scoreboard and wondering why his name wasn't in the #1 position. And then going around training. Then competing. Then looking at the scoreboard. And you get the picture.
Anyways let's move onto more reasonable reasons why this book is a bigger disappointment than I am to my parents.
So, if I'm not mistaken here, this is a science fiction book. It takes in the future. The characters are all floating around in space. There are aliens that might one day kill us all. Except there is no science? At all. I was all prepared for giant words I don't understand the meanings of to be thrown around like a typical science fiction book. And with all those words would could scientific explanations and other scientific things. But, like the MIA answers to my many questions, those scientific things never came. Instead, everything was answered by the fictional mineral of nyxia.
How do they travel across space really quickly? Nyxia.
How do they say "fuck you" to the antigravity laws of space and keep their feet on the ground? Nyxia.
How did they create a society where instalove doesn't exist? Nyxia.
Okay so maybe that last one only happened in my dreams, as even this book wasn't immune from the disease that was instalove, and trust me this book is dying from it, but I'm sure nyxia would be able to cure it if it tried.
But let's talk about nyxia for a second because it doesn't make any effing sense to me. It is a mineral. These children are being sent to some far off planet to mine it, to take that natural resource from those big bad aliens. Yet, nyxia can shapeshift. It's pretty much the Pokemon Ditto in rock form. The people in this book can look at it, tell it to turn into a spoon, and it will do whatever they command. Then, for some reason, it also can help make a 27-year-long space journey take only a year? How? Then, to add onto that, it's also self-aware. It won't cure an injury caused by its substance.
No matter how much I try, I can't wrap my mind around it. It doesn't make any sense. How can a rock, a natural resource, be self-aware? How does it have the ability to turn its self into almost any substance? Maybe, if we had a scientific explanation like a reasonable science fiction book should have, I would be able to accept a self-aware rock and move on with my life. But there wasn't one, so I'm just left here eternally confused.
Now, there must be something I liked, considering I did end up giving this book three stars. And that is easy. The characters. They was a giant cast of them, too many for me to go off and list them, but they were all so funny, realistic, and diverse. The main character, Emmett, is a POC from Detroit. There's a girl named Kaya from Japan. Jazzy, from somewhere in the south, is an ex-child beauty pageant contestant Which is my favorite part of this entire story. Probably the only reason I bumped my rating to three stars. If you know anything about me, you'd know about my undying love and devotion to Toddlers & Tiaras. I loved the cast, and if I do end up one day picking up the second book, it will be because of them.
But that also brings me to unanswered question #2319 I have with this book. Why were ten random, inexperienced teenagers that are apparently "broken" sent into outer space? Isn't that, like, incredibly dangerous? These children have no astronaut experience whatsoever . I understand why they sent children, for the aliens really like kids for some unexplained reason, but why not send teenagers who are more equipt to go into space than ten random kids?
Also can we talk about something incredibly irrelevant to the plot but bugged the crap out of me? Emmett had never heard of the story Alice in Wonderland before? Like how have you not? I don't understand? It's never explained how he hasn't ever heard of a 150 year old classic? Also the Disney movie exists? I started to assume maybe books and movies are banned or nonexistent or something in this world, but Kaya owned a copy of the book? And then also later in the book he mentions watching old Disney movies with the other crew mates??? Scott Reintgen please explain.
Then the aliens. Let's talk about the aliens for a second. I forgot what they are called in the book, but that doesn't matter, as the book never goes into much depth about them. We are told about them. But there is no depth. Are those aliens good? Bad? How do they function? Do these aliens have politics? Is there an alien that's like the equivalent of Kim Kardashian? Is there a Kanye West alien as well? How do they live? What drives them? All we got was some corporate human telling us they are bad and the main character wondering if he's lying. We had almost 400 pages full of words that could have been used to give some more details about these aliens and yet they were all wasted on the Emmett trying to master the art of manipulating nyxia. Even the aliens in that one Power Ranger season had more to them and that's a children show about superheroes in spandex.
Then there were plot twists just for the sake of plot twists. And quite a few of them that by the time a major one happened about 60% into the book, I wasn't even surprised. I was even expecting it, to be honest.
I think, maybe, if this book took out a lot of its competition scenes and combined this book with its sequel into one much bigger book I would absolutely love it. But there were just too many unanswered questions for me to really feel absolutely satisfied with it. I think also then, if that happened, this book could separate itself a lot better from other published works.
Well I can see why so many people are throwing praise at this book, it just wasn't for me at all.
Maybe the next space book I plan on picking up will be much better. Probably not. But optimism amiright???
But probably the next book buddy read w/Scrill (if she ever wants to buddy read something with me again) won't be a sci-fi though.
Sorry there's no GIFS in this review. I'm just being really lazy right now.
"Why’d they choose us?"
"We’re all broken. They picked us because we’re broken."
Thank you, Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review
It doesn’t feel right to give this book three stars, but I can’t bring myself to give it two stars. I don’t know what it deserves and I’m just so conflicted right now?
There has been so much praise thrown at this book that I’m wondering if I even read the same book as everyone else. I’m usually not a SciFi fan because, like any reasonable person, I realize that space is f*cking terrifying and aliens will one day destroy us all. Yet, I was prepared to throw an entire galaxy of stars at this book before I even began reading it. You can imagine the agony I faced when I realized, about 40% into this book that I was going to end up extremely disappointed.
This book did start out good. Ten random inexperienced kids being paid to go into outer space to mine a mysterious mineral on some far off planet? And they have to compete against each other to see who is top dog because only some of them are actually going to end up on that planet? Then sprinkle in aliens that are obsessed with children. I was so intrigued. I wanted to know why.
So I kept reading, wanting to know why.
And I kept reading.
And I kept reading.
And then I finished the book.
I still don’t know why????
I think that is the first problem I have with this book. It’s going to rely quite a bit on its sequels to help tell its story, but as I read an ARC of this, it’s going to be over a year before I even get my hand on the next book. By then, all I will remember about this book is how big of a let down it was for me.
Now, you might
And that was all the plot was. Them competing. It was 400 pages of Emmett looking at a scoreboard and wondering why his name wasn't in the #1 position. And then going around training. Then competing. Then looking at the scoreboard. And you get the picture.
Anyways let's move onto more reasonable reasons why this book is a bigger disappointment than I am to my parents.
So, if I'm not mistaken here, this is a science fiction book. It takes in the future. The characters are all floating around in space. There are aliens that might one day kill us all. Except there is no science? At all. I was all prepared for giant words I don't understand the meanings of to be thrown around like a typical science fiction book. And with all those words would could scientific explanations and other scientific things. But, like the MIA answers to my many questions, those scientific things never came. Instead, everything was answered by the fictional mineral of nyxia.
How do they travel across space really quickly? Nyxia.
How do they say "fuck you" to the antigravity laws of space and keep their feet on the ground? Nyxia.
How did they create a society where instalove doesn't exist? Nyxia.
Okay so maybe that last one only happened in my dreams, as even this book wasn't immune from the disease that was instalove, and trust me this book is dying from it, but I'm sure nyxia would be able to cure it if it tried.
But let's talk about nyxia for a second because it doesn't make any effing sense to me. It is a mineral. These children are being sent to some far off planet to mine it, to take that natural resource from those big bad aliens. Yet, nyxia can shapeshift. It's pretty much the Pokemon Ditto in rock form. The people in this book can look at it, tell it to turn into a spoon, and it will do whatever they command. Then, for some reason, it also can help make a 27-year-long space journey take only a year? How? Then, to add onto that, it's also self-aware. It won't cure an injury caused by its substance.
No matter how much I try, I can't wrap my mind around it. It doesn't make any sense. How can a rock, a natural resource, be self-aware? How does it have the ability to turn its self into almost any substance? Maybe, if we had a scientific explanation like a reasonable science fiction book should have, I would be able to accept a self-aware rock and move on with my life. But there wasn't one, so I'm just left here eternally confused.
Now, there must be something I liked, considering I did end up giving this book three stars. And that is easy. The characters. They was a giant cast of them, too many for me to go off and list them, but they were all so funny, realistic, and diverse. The main character, Emmett, is a POC from Detroit. There's a girl named Kaya from Japan. Jazzy, from somewhere in the south, is an ex-child beauty pageant contestant
But that also brings me to unanswered question #2319 I have with this book. Why were ten random, inexperienced teenagers that are apparently "broken" sent into outer space? Isn't that, like, incredibly dangerous? These children have no astronaut experience whatsoever . I understand why they sent children, for the aliens really like kids for some unexplained reason, but why not send teenagers who are more equipt to go into space than ten random kids?
Also can we talk about something incredibly irrelevant to the plot but bugged the crap out of me? Emmett had never heard of the story Alice in Wonderland before? Like how have you not? I don't understand? It's never explained how he hasn't ever heard of a 150 year old classic? Also the Disney movie exists? I started to assume maybe books and movies are banned or nonexistent or something in this world, but Kaya owned a copy of the book? And then also later in the book he mentions watching old Disney movies with the other crew mates??? Scott Reintgen please explain.
Then the aliens. Let's talk about the aliens for a second. I forgot what they are called in the book, but that doesn't matter, as the book never goes into much depth about them. We are told about them.
Spoiler
We fucking see one halfway through the book and it kills one of our main charactersThen there were plot twists just for the sake of plot twists. And quite a few of them that by the time a major one happened about 60% into the book, I wasn't even surprised. I was even expecting it, to be honest.
I think, maybe, if this book took out a lot of its competition scenes and combined this book with its sequel into one much bigger book I would absolutely love it. But there were just too many unanswered questions for me to really feel absolutely satisfied with it. I think also then, if that happened, this book could separate itself a lot better from other published works.
Well I can see why so many people are throwing praise at this book, it just wasn't for me at all.
Maybe the next space book I plan on picking up will be much better. Probably not. But optimism amiright???
But probably the next book buddy read w/Scrill (if she ever wants to buddy read something with me again) won't be a sci-fi though.
epgr's review against another edition
3.0
3 1/2 stars. A large cast, and the potential to go in several different directions in the sequel.
ebralz's review against another edition
1.0
Maybe listening to this book has skewed my opinion but I felt this book was boring, redundant, and overdone. I also take huge issue with the language the white author thought the person of color main character should use. It didn’t sound accurate at all and was actually quite annoying and took away from the story. I found myself zoning out for most of the book.
cjmedinger's review against another edition
3.0
Not sure if this is a genius redo of "enders game" or an over-wrought teen drama.
doctormon's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-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
4.5
laralibrarian's review against another edition
adventurous
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? No
4.0
travelinglibrarian07's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
raerae133264's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This book was fun! As an adult reading a YA sci-fi I didn't have the highest of hopes, but I was surprised.
The beginning does a great job of pulling you right into the action: ten teenagers chosen to go to space for a mining mission on another planet but surprise they have to compete to get there. I loved the diversity of the characters and each of their distinct personalities. The actions scenes written well in my opinion, especially when a lot of novels drag them on longer than necessary.
There was a point where I was starting to lose interest and felt like the training/competition was never going to end. Even when Kaya dies after finding one of the mentioned aliens trapped within the ship it was kind of meh. I didn't feel like it made that big of an impact on the plot, but kept reading and I'm super glad I did. The ending was fast paced and I flew through the last 150 pages.
The beginning does a great job of pulling you right into the action: ten teenagers chosen to go to space for a mining mission on another planet but surprise they have to compete to get there. I loved the diversity of the characters and each of their distinct personalities. The actions scenes written well in my opinion, especially when a lot of novels drag them on longer than necessary.
There was a point where I was starting to lose interest and felt like the training/competition was never going to end. Even when
lostintomes's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 Stars
This checked so many boxes for me...
Secret Space Mission ✔️
Male, POC as Main Character✔️
Diverse Side Cast ✔️✔️
Cool Technology ✔️
Intriguing & Mysterious Plot ✔️
I don't know why I didn't pick this up a couple months ago, because I loved it! It seems like I don’t get the chance to read from the male perspective very often in YA. Don't get me wrong, I love all the novels featuring strong female leads right now they're wonderful and we need them. But I can't help getting excited when we get a male POV. Don't young men deserve to be able to read new books about themselves as more than just love-interests? I think so and I'd love to read more of them.
I was hooked from the get-go, Scott Reintgen is a wonderful writer. Emmett's narration has a great voice and authenticity to it. Just excellent. He's a great character, that I thought was easy to connect with (regardless of how vastly different we are). I loved him right away. I feel like almost all the characters were interesting and well-developed. We have a large amount of side characters, that are all diverse in a very organic kind of way. That can seem forced in some books, this one doesn't. The friendships that grow throughout the book are the best. It can feel a little overwhelming at first since there's so many to keep track of. They all come with their own history and talents, it doesn't take long to get to know them all and they aren't too hard to keep straight.
While this takes place in space, on a spaceship heading to an alien planet. We really don't experience a lot of "space" or "alien" aspects in this book. Nor a lot of world building because well ... we're on a space ship. (I am sure we'll get more of that in book two, as that one will actually take place on an alien planet.) It focuses mainly on the challenges, technology, character development and moral conflict. There's also a very mysterious air over the entire book, that adds a lot of intrigue to the story. I am looking forward to what comes next and learning more clues about their mission, Babel Corporation and all the new obstacles Emmett will have to face in the book to come.
Recommend for fans of:
- Science Fiction / Dystopian
- The 100
- The Hunger Games
- Ender's Game
- Great Audiobooks (the reader is wonderful)
This checked so many boxes for me...
Secret Space Mission ✔️
Male, POC as Main Character✔️
Diverse Side Cast ✔️✔️
Cool Technology ✔️
Intriguing & Mysterious Plot ✔️
I don't know why I didn't pick this up a couple months ago, because I loved it! It seems like I don’t get the chance to read from the male perspective very often in YA. Don't get me wrong, I love all the novels featuring strong female leads right now they're wonderful and we need them. But I can't help getting excited when we get a male POV. Don't young men deserve to be able to read new books about themselves as more than just love-interests? I think so and I'd love to read more of them.
I was hooked from the get-go, Scott Reintgen is a wonderful writer. Emmett's narration has a great voice and authenticity to it. Just excellent. He's a great character, that I thought was easy to connect with (regardless of how vastly different we are). I loved him right away. I feel like almost all the characters were interesting and well-developed. We have a large amount of side characters, that are all diverse in a very organic kind of way. That can seem forced in some books, this one doesn't. The friendships that grow throughout the book are the best. It can feel a little overwhelming at first since there's so many to keep track of. They all come with their own history and talents, it doesn't take long to get to know them all and they aren't too hard to keep straight.
While this takes place in space, on a spaceship heading to an alien planet. We really don't experience a lot of "space" or "alien" aspects in this book. Nor a lot of world building because well ... we're on a space ship. (I am sure we'll get more of that in book two, as that one will actually take place on an alien planet.) It focuses mainly on the challenges, technology, character development and moral conflict. There's also a very mysterious air over the entire book, that adds a lot of intrigue to the story. I am looking forward to what comes next and learning more clues about their mission, Babel Corporation and all the new obstacles Emmett will have to face in the book to come.
Recommend for fans of:
- Science Fiction / Dystopian
- The 100
- The Hunger Games
- Ender's Game
- Great Audiobooks (the reader is wonderful)
justinbaumann71's review against another edition
5.0
My first 5-star read of 2023! How fun! This book was such a compact, but well structured and thoughtout space exploration YA adventure. It balanced the appropriate levels of being appropriate for teen readers, but also feeling very engaging and having characters that had believable rationales and motivations as an adult reader.
Pros: Amazing pacing that consistnely introduces new mystery elements, while providing answers along the way. The battle royale esq inspiration taking place over a year really allows for the morality of the situation to seep into the novel and make it difficult for the characters to navigate their reality as they need to be the best to make it to Eden, but also become attached to their fellow competitors. Also the diverse cast feels both genuine and integral to the story instead of just feeling hollow and thrown in for diversity sake.
Cons: The cliffhanger was brutal and I would be so upset if I was reading this when they originally came out.
Overall - I highly recommend this series. I have already moved onto book 2 and am having a great time with it.
Pros: Amazing pacing that consistnely introduces new mystery elements, while providing answers along the way. The battle royale esq inspiration taking place over a year really allows for the morality of the situation to seep into the novel and make it difficult for the characters to navigate their reality as they need to be the best to make it to Eden, but also become attached to their fellow competitors. Also the diverse cast feels both genuine and integral to the story instead of just feeling hollow and thrown in for diversity sake.
Cons: The cliffhanger was brutal and I would be so upset if I was reading this when they originally came out.
Overall - I highly recommend this series. I have already moved onto book 2 and am having a great time with it.