Reviews - The Principle of Moments

572 reviews for:

The Principle of Moments

Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson

3.73 AVERAGE

narnianathogwarts's review against another edition

2.25

adventurous challenging mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

katherwills59's review against another edition

3.0

I will admit that my high expectations and general headspace may have affected my experience of reading this book, but there was just SO MUCH going on that it was hard to stick with. That’s why I literally put it down for months 😭. But I loved the friendships and the writing was good on the sentence level. Things also started clicking in the last third.

yviesaerial's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional funny inspiring reflective tense 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

This book was amazing, the worldbuilding was beautifully done, the characters developed so naturally and the plot was so seamlessly unravelled. The author clearly planned this story really well, setting up plot for a sequel and she executed this book flawlessly. I could see this book take place in my mind's eye. It covered a lot of serious topics too, so it had time to offer a period of reflection to the readers, particularly about issues regarding race and slavery.
Maybe my favourite book all year

courtneydavidson1999's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging emotional informative 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

Finally an Illumicrate book I enjoyed.

isabeltavares's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

e_read_books's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous emotional medium-paced

I finished this opening act to this trilogy with mixed feelings.

I liked the characters and the setting for the most part. Dual timelines in both the far future of 6066 and and the relatively recent past of 1812 with complementary framing of the British monarchy led by King George III and the Empire of the Hundred Worlds led by Thracin as a god-emperor - “Divine Might is Divine Right.” Cool premise achieved.

Obi and Asha as the central characters were likeable individually. Both have grown up alone or abandoned without people to rely on, and over the course of the story need to learn that it is alright to be vulnerable with the people you love and that they are not alone even when nobody else is around. This should mean that they are learning this together and from each other, right? Well, I understand that’s what’s supposed to be happening here, but I didn’t really feel it. It felt like the two spent much more time apart than together outside of action scenes. Even in those action scenes, they were split up more often than not. I didn’t get to see enough of those quieter moments with them talking together other than one particular hair braiding scene. It just kind of skipped over those days/weeks with “they hung out and played cards sometimes” vibes. So by the end, when they’ve supposedly built this sibling bond, I just felt underwhelmed.

I honestly felt more connected with the 1812 timeline following George, Obi’s boyfriend and fictional son of George IV. His dynamic with

Obi’s father, Alarick

was the most engaging, and the stakes of the potential destruction of London felt higher than what was happening in 6066

with the actual planet destroyer.

My other biggest gripe was the Prophecy element. For me, it hung too heavily over the characters and made their choices seem arbitrary or created too many conveniences. Plus, I felt like I was being beat over the head with the reincarnation stuff. So much so, that by the time Obi, Asha and Xavior had that full realisation I was just saying “Yeah, I KNOW!”
I get the feeling that this is maybe going to be something they choose to break away from to “be their own person” later down the line but in this book, it just felt too much like the hand of the author guiding everything.
With all the prophecy/reincarnation stuff came the “Fated Love” trope, which I personally don’t like in general. It took away from the Asha/Xavior relationship and fell into instalove territory. I think it also didn’t leave much room for Xavior’s individual development and I felt detached from his character, though I hope he gets his own POV in the sequel(s) as what I did see did seemed interesting. If that happens I could maybe get more behind that pairing.
The other romantic pairing, Obi and George, was better I think, but it had the added benefit of seeing it from both sides and being an established relationship. I’m not as interested in the figuring out romantic feelings with new people compared to changing dynamics from established friendships or previous romantic entanglements, but that’s personal preference.

Other nitpicky things are just some anachronistic references that can’t all be forgiven by time travel and should probably have been caught during editing (pyjamas with love hearts on them? In 6066? On an alien spaceship without humans? How? Why?) Also, calling Obi a boy when he’s 22 is just annoying and untrue, stop it.

I think this has potential as a series and had some great ideas. I will probably check out the sequel when it comes as I am invested in at least one of the storylines now.

Content Warnings