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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
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:
Complicated
In the beginning, I found the alternating timelines between Obi in 1812 and Asha in 6066 to be a little confusing, but I got past that pretty quickly. I loved this book! I love the concept of the three prophecies, and was surprised by the twist with one of the heroes of the second prophecy - I want to see this explored more in story. What happens when a hero goes into business for themself?
Asha and Aziza's reunion was beautiful, and heartbreaking and was a real turning point in Asha's journey. I absolutely loved this book, and was really enjoying the pacing. I need books 2 & 3 right now, I am too impatient to wait!
The romance and confused, gentle and difficult relationship between Obi and George was beautiful, and I desperately can't wait to see how it plays into Sensit's plans in the next book!
Asha and Aziza's reunion was beautiful, and heartbreaking and was a real turning point in Asha's journey. I absolutely loved this book, and was really enjoying the pacing. I need books 2 & 3 right now, I am too impatient to wait!
The romance and confused, gentle and difficult relationship between Obi and George was beautiful, and I desperately can't wait to see how it plays into Sensit's plans in the next book!
Unfortunately, after 11 months of “reading”, I am throwing in the towel with this one!
It fell out of my reading rotation in feb, and when I tried to pick it back up again, I didn’t gel with the writing and I had forgotten the plot!
I will be picking up the authors future books though! I think this was just too sci-fi for me
It fell out of my reading rotation in feb, and when I tried to pick it back up again, I didn’t gel with the writing and I had forgotten the plot!
I will be picking up the authors future books though! I think this was just too sci-fi for me
adventurous
dark
emotional
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:
Yes
Not quite sure how to rate it - it was a whole mood read. I probably would have DNF'd it if it hadnt been a monthly illumicratepick (and my resolution to read all my book box picks). There were many many great moments and single instances and scenes in this book, but the overall picture/plot was rather messy and convoluted. It felt like a string of rather unrelated happenings. I just went with the flow of things and didnt really ask questions...fearing that if i look at it too closely, the worldbuilding would fall apart. The book would have benefitted from more rigorous editing.
However, the vibes were absolutely immaculate, the atmosphere refreshingly different, although i often felt like i was transported into a star wars movie. I loved (maybe a bad word choice) the tangents on slavery and the crimes of the british monarchy, those were just excellent additions, which you usually dont see in modern literature.
However, the vibes were absolutely immaculate, the atmosphere refreshingly different, although i often felt like i was transported into a star wars movie. I loved (maybe a bad word choice) the tangents on slavery and the crimes of the british monarchy, those were just excellent additions, which you usually dont see in modern literature.
Normally, I’d provided a comprehensive review on why this book was 2 stars. However, because the author is young and starting out, I want to be nice.
There are too many plot holes in this book. There’s too much showing and not enough action. Talking about the prophecy a million times isn’t great. This book had so much potential and I wanted it to be a five star read, but honestly I wished I had DNF’ed it.
I will not be reading anymore books in this series.
There are too many plot holes in this book. There’s too much showing and not enough action. Talking about the prophecy a million times isn’t great. This book had so much potential and I wanted it to be a five star read, but honestly I wished I had DNF’ed it.
I will not be reading anymore books in this series.
The sheer rage I felt at how badly this book was copy-edited - why are Gollancz SO BAD with typos and continuity errors??? Every book I pick up from them is a mess.
The book itself fell really flat. I made it to 58% and just couldn't make myself keep going. It reads like YA, not Adult, with us being told about the relationships instead of seeing them develop and so MUCH repitition. There was very little visual description, and the worldbuilding was very dull. I was so BORED almost all of the time!
Loved the premise, but the execution was seriously lacking.
The book itself fell really flat. I made it to 58% and just couldn't make myself keep going. It reads like YA, not Adult, with us being told about the relationships instead of seeing them develop and so MUCH repitition. There was very little visual description, and the worldbuilding was very dull. I was so BORED almost all of the time!
Loved the premise, but the execution was seriously lacking.
Mixed feelings on this. Imaginative and ambitious, but also repetitive and both romances completely fell flat. I agree with other reviews that this was mis-marketed and would have landed better as YA. The themes were more suited to YA and the writing was frequently didactic. I can see why the Future Worlds Prize recognised this (and I know that the Star Wars I wrote when I was 16 never would have made it to publication) and maybe the second book in the series will showcase more mature writing. I'm not interested in continuing the series, but I hope it finds a wide audience.
A note on the cover, which was hard fought for - I was reading this book in a restaurant and a young Black woman came up to me and asked me about the book, because she'd never seen a cover like it before. We chatted about it for about five minutes and she went off to buy the book. Jikemi-Pearson describes the cover as groundbreaking in the acknowledgements, and she's not exaggerating at all. Ursula K LeGuin's work was republished in 2019 (by Orion, same as this) with typographic covers. The most popular editions of Octavia Butler's work feature silhouettes on the covers. Some of the SF Masterworks covers of these women's work depict the protagonist as white. It's beyond time to do better.
A note on the cover, which was hard fought for - I was reading this book in a restaurant and a young Black woman came up to me and asked me about the book, because she'd never seen a cover like it before. We chatted about it for about five minutes and she went off to buy the book. Jikemi-Pearson describes the cover as groundbreaking in the acknowledgements, and she's not exaggerating at all. Ursula K LeGuin's work was republished in 2019 (by Orion, same as this) with typographic covers. The most popular editions of Octavia Butler's work feature silhouettes on the covers. Some of the SF Masterworks covers of these women's work depict the protagonist as white. It's beyond time to do better.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
sooo good. it took about a hundred pages to get really into it, but that's pretty common for me with high fantasy and sci-fi. this was a true space opera which is SUCH a win for me as it's one of my favorite genres
one of the things that bothered me was the sudden ambiguity regarding xavior at the end? like he got shot and then he kinda wasn't talked about again until the last chapter, and i wanted that to come up a little sooner. also the decision to make george/augustine a focal character and love interest is something that i'm interested to see more of later on