Reviews

I find M.R. Carey's books endlessly fascinating. None of his books are like his previous books, and his range frankly blows me away.

I saw comments that this one was genre-defying, but I don't really think it is. It's multiverse science fiction, but what's interesting about it is that Carey imagines a multiverse that's different from multiverses I've seen in other sci-fi works. That's a hallmark of all his books--this is a writer of almost limitless imagination, and it's a huge part of what makes his works so engrossing. His worlds are unlike anything I've read before, so I always find myself completely wrapped up in them.

I will say that this one took me a little more time to get into because it's very science-heavy in the beginning. That's not a bad thing, but I felt lost more than once, and that made it a little hard for me to get into the book. However, once I got past this point, all bets were off and I was completely drawn in by the worlds and characters he created.

His character work is another hallmark of his writing. The characters in this book are extremely varied, and they're all painted in lots of different shades of gray, which I appreciated. Another thing that impressed me about this is that though the book is told from multiple perspectives, I was never annoyed when it switched between perspectives, unlike I sometimes am with other books. I think multiple perspectives can be used very effectively--see this book for reference--as long as some characters aren't more compelling or interesting than others. Not everyone in this book was someone I admired or would want to meet in real life, but I was interested in all of them and the parts they had to play in the story's unfolding.

There is a huge cliff hanger at the end of this book, which isn't always my thing, but I was okay with it here. I'm eager to read the next book as I'm very much invested in finding out what happens to this cast of characters.

naturallylazy's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

The audience for this book confused me. Nothing about the plot or characters is straightforward. I felt at times the story was plot driven, and then a chapter or two later discover a character having a building moment. There was a small twist at the end, but I'm still on the fence about even wanting to read the second book