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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
I bought this book when I heard it’s good for Doctor Who fans, and it certainly has all the wibbly wobbly spacey wacey goodness a Whovian like me could wish for! I think fans of stories like Star Wars or Dune would also enjoy it.
The Principle of Moments is an epic science fantasy novel featuring time travel, magic, advanced technology, taking down an evil space empire, and an age-old prophecy slowly coming true. The sense of scale seemed a bit intimidating at first, but this was actually a very accessible read once I got into it.
Despite the wide scope of the book, I loved getting to know the personal stories of each character. There’s Asha, a girl enslaved to a futuristic empire who yearns to escape oppression; Obi, the time traveler trying to cure his illness; and George, the 19th-century English prince who loves Obi but is doomed to marry another. There’s also a mysterious archivist whose excerpts make more sense as the story goes on.
The ending wasn’t a cliffhanger per se, but it left lots of adventuring to come and problems to be solved. I for one am eagerly awaiting the sequel, The Rule of Chaos! In the meantime, I would recommend this book to any sci-fi and fantasy fans who want something spacey and epic, yet profoundly personal.
Content warnings for The Principle of Moments, courtesy mostly of the author’s website: Description of childbirth, child abuse, graphic description of injury, imprisonment, kidnapping, scenes of physical violence and murder, referenced historical sexual assault of a side character on page 75, discrimination/prejudice against a minority group, mentions of the British Empire and brief depictions of slavery, childhood abandonment, mass-death/mass-murder, drug use, indentured servitude/human trafficking, suicide.
The Principle of Moments is an epic science fantasy novel featuring time travel, magic, advanced technology, taking down an evil space empire, and an age-old prophecy slowly coming true. The sense of scale seemed a bit intimidating at first, but this was actually a very accessible read once I got into it.
Despite the wide scope of the book, I loved getting to know the personal stories of each character. There’s Asha, a girl enslaved to a futuristic empire who yearns to escape oppression; Obi, the time traveler trying to cure his illness; and George, the 19th-century English prince who loves Obi but is doomed to marry another. There’s also a mysterious archivist whose excerpts make more sense as the story goes on.
The ending wasn’t a cliffhanger per se, but it left lots of adventuring to come and problems to be solved. I for one am eagerly awaiting the sequel, The Rule of Chaos! In the meantime, I would recommend this book to any sci-fi and fantasy fans who want something spacey and epic, yet profoundly personal.
Content warnings for The Principle of Moments, courtesy mostly of the author’s website: Description of childbirth, child abuse, graphic description of injury, imprisonment, kidnapping, scenes of physical violence and murder, referenced historical sexual assault of a side character on page 75, discrimination/prejudice against a minority group, mentions of the British Empire and brief depictions of slavery, childhood abandonment, mass-death/mass-murder, drug use, indentured servitude/human trafficking, suicide.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug use, Suicide, Trafficking
Minor: Sexual assault, Slavery
adventurous
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
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
adventurous
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
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-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
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-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:
No
Gosh it took me awhile to get through this book. I feel like there’s a lot of things the author could have done differently. Literally all the white people except for one are bad, kind of over that. There’s also SO MANY typos and grammatical errors that kind of take me out of the story sometimes. Maybe she just needs a better editor.
I do want to add that I’m invested in the story and still plan on reading the sequel whenever it comes out.
I do want to add that I’m invested in the story and still plan on reading the sequel whenever it comes out.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This started off pretty good - interesting characters and worldbuilding, easy to read, but it felt like a bit too much was going on and I kinda checked out from the last third and didn’t care anymore. It felt very much like the plot was just happening to the characters and they didn’t have much effect on what was going on.
It’s very classic space opera chosen one story, it’s fun and ambitious, a lot of doctor who vibes - but also like if you tried to fit the entirety of timelord lore into one or two episodes haha. Too much going on. (It also had some of the classic space opera pitfalls, like how this evil alien race was described as looking evil (in various ways)….felt yknow. a bit dated.)
I actually really loved the writing style of the excerpt snippets in the beginning and would have been keen for most of it to be like that. but also probably with the book being shorter.
There’s humor thrown in there that was sometimes funny but also sometimes awkward.
There’s humor thrown in there that was sometimes funny but also sometimes awkward.
The time travelers speak very modern (despite none of it being set in the present) which like - obviously anachronism is gonna be inherent to time travelers, but sometimes it felt awkward. or like, the other characters didn’t comment on it? There were a couple moments that felt like a tv script gag that just came across badly on the page (characters about to kiss - other character throws open the door and yells STOP! (end pov) (next pov immediately) "-or don't stop, I don't know why I said that. anyway-" ..... why was that a necessary transition. lmao)
gay prince romance was cute but kinda was thrown in the deep end then it’s barely relevant for most of the story. The whole london subplot felt unneccesary. The random romance subplot the girl gets felt out of nowhere. Love to see Black and queer focused space opera! and I think I'll check out this author again. It just didn't quite live up to what I wanted it to be.
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
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:
N/A
I am not a big sci-fi reader, but this book was so good. The characters are well fleshed out. They aren’t one sided, we can see them evolve as the story goes. But it’s not at the detriment of the story. It’s full of adventures and mysteries. I loved the little snippets of mythologies and thoughts at the end of each chapter. It really helped understand the story and understand some revelations. On the other hand, it felt like some points might not be pushed enough. Like a bit more details here and there would have been perfect. But I think it might be what make the book so easy to read if you want to start reading sci-fi. I can’t wait to read the next adventure of Obi and Asha.