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moux's review
4.0
I enjoyed this book - it was a little tough to follow at times which is something I find in a lot of sci-fi books, and is why I usually avoid them.
But I loved the characters and the politics of it all, as well as the fact that there was romance but it wasn't ALL about the romance.
Think my only real peeve with the writing was that everyone who's skin was not described you'd have to assume was white. (Correct me if I'm wrong though! Cause I read the book very fast)
But I loved the characters and the politics of it all, as well as the fact that there was romance but it wasn't ALL about the romance.
Think my only real peeve with the writing was that everyone who's skin was not described you'd have to assume was white. (Correct me if I'm wrong though! Cause I read the book very fast)
tiggers_hate_acorns's review
4.0
This story is a sci-fi/fantasy with a small M/M romance subplot. So those looking for lots of loving and angst need to look elsewhere. The world-building is well done, the two main races being the Terran Protectorate - a genetically enhanced human like race and the Bideshi - a space travelling gypsy like human race who spurn enhancement.
The plot revolves around Adam, a member of the Protectorate who after failing a promotion medical is cast aside. In desperation and dying, Adam steals from the Protectorate and while fleeing is rescued by Lochlan, a Bideshi and taken to Lochlan's home. The Protectorate realise that Adam knows too much to be allowed to live and try to kill him( collateral damage is inconsequential!). The plot has twists and side shoots but it is the descriptions of the worlds and giant spaceships built by the authors that hold the book together. One can picture the story as it unfolds.
The end or is it just the beginning? is open-ended but I couldn't see any hint of a sequel, mores the pity. An enjoyable 4 star read.
The plot revolves around Adam, a member of the Protectorate who after failing a promotion medical is cast aside. In desperation and dying, Adam steals from the Protectorate and while fleeing is rescued by Lochlan, a Bideshi and taken to Lochlan's home. The Protectorate realise that Adam knows too much to be allowed to live and try to kill him( collateral damage is inconsequential!). The plot has twists and side shoots but it is the descriptions of the worlds and giant spaceships built by the authors that hold the book together. One can picture the story as it unfolds.
The end or is it just the beginning? is open-ended but I couldn't see any hint of a sequel, mores the pity. An enjoyable 4 star read.
alisonalisonalison's review
3.0
Imaginative and interesting. I liked this, but I wasn't super excited by it. I loved that it was a little different and the world-building was fascinating. I enjoyed it, but it didn't really grab me.
frahhn's review
2.0
1) There really, really needed to be better division between POV parts in the kindle formatting. I kept getting pulled out of the story in the worst way, trying to reorient myself
2) Couldn't really connect to any of the characters, and I had no idea what pulled the MCs together.
3) Villain's shift into extreme, reckless villainy didn't make sense, based on her cool rationale for most of the book. However, I didn't feel a pull to read those parts of the work deeply, maybe I missed something.
4) witch lady was really really annoying, riddlespeak is exhausting
5) I love trek & all the references were fun
6) some of the lines in this book were awesome, i liked the musing on the classic trek line.
7) this felt very "white dude is saved by indigenous people because ----" and that made me kind of uncomfortable. Especially with the vision quest stuff, but then they're Jewish I think?? with the old testament refrences? I thought they were Romani for a hot second but either way it was odd.
2) Couldn't really connect to any of the characters, and I had no idea what pulled the MCs together.
3) Villain's shift into extreme, reckless villainy didn't make sense, based on her cool rationale for most of the book. However, I didn't feel a pull to read those parts of the work deeply, maybe I missed something.
4) witch lady was really really annoying, riddlespeak is exhausting
5) I love trek & all the references were fun
6) some of the lines in this book were awesome, i liked the musing on the classic trek line.
7) this felt very "white dude is saved by indigenous people because ----" and that made me kind of uncomfortable. Especially with the vision quest stuff, but then they're Jewish I think?? with the old testament refrences? I thought they were Romani for a hot second but either way it was odd.
jawshuwah's review
4.0
This was a reread. I liked it better the first time I read it, but it wasn't bad.
My biggest beef with this one was the eugenics. The idea that long ago humanity got rid of all disease with genetic altering. Part of humanity continued messing with their genes to make "perfect" humans, while the other part left the planet to escape the gene tampering and preserve their flaws. This seems ok until we learn that there is a drug induced for adulthood the good space fairing people make their kids go through and throw out those who fail with little to no chance of survival. Not much rep for disabled even on the space humans in their ships. That kept bothering me.
On the good side, it was gay, there was trans rep, and it was scifi. Not overly sexual or much detail in the sex scenes (which may sound prudish of me, but not usually a fan of what often reads as fetishization of MM romances/sex).
Haven't read the next 2 books, but might eventually get to them.
My biggest beef with this one was the eugenics. The idea that long ago humanity got rid of all disease with genetic altering. Part of humanity continued messing with their genes to make "perfect" humans, while the other part left the planet to escape the gene tampering and preserve their flaws. This seems ok until we learn that there is a drug induced for adulthood the good space fairing people make their kids go through and throw out those who fail with little to no chance of survival. Not much rep for disabled even on the space humans in their ships. That kept bothering me.
On the good side, it was gay, there was trans rep, and it was scifi. Not overly sexual or much detail in the sex scenes (which may sound prudish of me, but not usually a fan of what often reads as fetishization of MM romances/sex).
Haven't read the next 2 books, but might eventually get to them.
tregina's review
4.0
This has been sitting in my book queue way too long, because when I finally picked it up to read it I just couldn't put it down. I felt I was probably predisposed to like the main characters, at least on some level, but what surprised me most was my engagement with the world and the layers of worldbuilding that went into it without every feeling that information was being thrown at me for its own sake and not in service of the story. I'm very glad I know there's a sequel in the pipe, because I'm really looking forward to playing in that world again.
faethered's review
2.0
Abandoned despite some interesting sci fi/fantasy mashup elements because the pacing was just so bad that my attention kept wandering off. The book kept slowing down when I wanted it to be fast and speeding up when I wanted it to be slow.
thefourthvine's review
2.0
Okay, so, full disclosure: this book hits so many of my most-loathed plot elements and character aspects that it was a disaster for me. It would probably work better for -- well, almost anyone else. But I can only review based on my own experience, and wow did I have a lot of problems with it.
I should have known this book was Not For Me at the outset; it starts out with some verbiage that appears to exist solely to demonstrate the authors' mastery of adjectives (note: they have this DOWN) and then cuts to a self-centered, whiny jerk losing everything. Interesting fact about me: I don't like whiny, self-centered jerks, AND YET I also do not like watching them lose everything.
But before he can lose everything (and that is totally not a spoiler, by the way; it's in the book description), first we have to learn about his world, where everyone is Perfect, so of course they're homophobic as hell. Like, I get why the authors thought "Oh hey! Let's make the bad society homophobic, to demonstrate how bad they are, and also to give us Bonus Angst!" I just -- don't like it. It makes no sense for the actual society, given their obsession with only the RIGHT people breeding, and even then doing it in a very manipulated, assisted reproduction type way, and -- I seriously wish authors would consider what message they're sending when they write a whole different world, a far-future world, and make it homophobic. Like, this is not a thing you should do because you want Bonus Angst.
Anyway. Shortly thereafter, we meet the other half of the main pairing, who is an arrogant, easily-angered jerk. Here's the thing: Jerks in Love is not a trope that works for me at all, and Jerks Just Fucking is even less interesting to me. This book gave me both of them, and lots of them. But I wanted to read about basically anyone else, which was my bad luck, because we get to know about 15 people, total, in the entire book, and that's on both sides.
And then we learn about the other society. The good society that is the foil of the Perfect (bad) society. Annnnnnd -- I liked it right up until I realized that, sure, the Perfect society has no place at all for the disabled, but neither does the good one, really. (There's a ritual you have to complete, called the Naming; if you can't pass it, you're exiled. It's not ever made entirely clear what the ceremony is about, but it is made clear that lots of disabled people would be unable to complete it.) So, again, I wish the authors had thought slightly more about the unfortunate things their worldbuilding revealed about them, rather than just plunging into it.
And then -- oh, so many other things, major and minor. The genetics stuff, which sort of holds up until it turns into Babble Consisting of Sciency Words. The fact that I could not care about the main characters as much as the book expected me to. The gratuitous animal sacrifices. The child soldiers. The way a lot of the key scenes weren't earned. I wanted to like this book, I truly did, but it just kept on being stuff I hate.
There were good things. A trans character who I thought (though I am not an expert) was well-handled! Markers of diversity! Gay main characters! Lesbians who are at least named! A plot in addition to the romance! Just -- oh man, these good things did not come close to making up for the bad stuff. For me. For you, they very well might.
(Also, formatting note: I read this on both my kindle and iPad. Do not read this on an iPad. The formatting is messed up, so none of the line breaks that indicate a shift in scene come through. This is super disconcerting, and the authors switch scenes a lot.)
Basically: reading this book was a slog, a slow trudge through an inhospitable land. If you choose to read it, I hope it's more hospitable to you. For my part, I am bummed that I paid five bucks for this, when I've read so many better science fictiony gay romances that were free.
I should have known this book was Not For Me at the outset; it starts out with some verbiage that appears to exist solely to demonstrate the authors' mastery of adjectives (note: they have this DOWN) and then cuts to a self-centered, whiny jerk losing everything. Interesting fact about me: I don't like whiny, self-centered jerks, AND YET I also do not like watching them lose everything.
But before he can lose everything (and that is totally not a spoiler, by the way; it's in the book description), first we have to learn about his world, where everyone is Perfect, so of course they're homophobic as hell. Like, I get why the authors thought "Oh hey! Let's make the bad society homophobic, to demonstrate how bad they are, and also to give us Bonus Angst!" I just -- don't like it. It makes no sense for the actual society, given their obsession with only the RIGHT people breeding, and even then doing it in a very manipulated, assisted reproduction type way, and -- I seriously wish authors would consider what message they're sending when they write a whole different world, a far-future world, and make it homophobic. Like, this is not a thing you should do because you want Bonus Angst.
Anyway. Shortly thereafter, we meet the other half of the main pairing, who is an arrogant, easily-angered jerk. Here's the thing: Jerks in Love is not a trope that works for me at all, and Jerks Just Fucking is even less interesting to me. This book gave me both of them, and lots of them. But I wanted to read about basically anyone else, which was my bad luck, because we get to know about 15 people, total, in the entire book, and that's on both sides.
And then we learn about the other society. The good society that is the foil of the Perfect (bad) society. Annnnnnd -- I liked it right up until I realized that, sure, the Perfect society has no place at all for the disabled, but neither does the good one, really. (There's a ritual you have to complete, called the Naming; if you can't pass it, you're exiled. It's not ever made entirely clear what the ceremony is about, but it is made clear that lots of disabled people would be unable to complete it.) So, again, I wish the authors had thought slightly more about the unfortunate things their worldbuilding revealed about them, rather than just plunging into it.
And then -- oh, so many other things, major and minor. The genetics stuff, which sort of holds up until it turns into Babble Consisting of Sciency Words. The fact that I could not care about the main characters as much as the book expected me to. The gratuitous animal sacrifices. The child soldiers. The way a lot of the key scenes weren't earned. I wanted to like this book, I truly did, but it just kept on being stuff I hate.
There were good things. A trans character who I thought (though I am not an expert) was well-handled! Markers of diversity! Gay main characters! Lesbians who are at least named! A plot in addition to the romance! Just -- oh man, these good things did not come close to making up for the bad stuff. For me. For you, they very well might.
(Also, formatting note: I read this on both my kindle and iPad. Do not read this on an iPad. The formatting is messed up, so none of the line breaks that indicate a shift in scene come through. This is super disconcerting, and the authors switch scenes a lot.)
Basically: reading this book was a slog, a slow trudge through an inhospitable land. If you choose to read it, I hope it's more hospitable to you. For my part, I am bummed that I paid five bucks for this, when I've read so many better science fictiony gay romances that were free.
poultrymunitions's review
4.0
Gorgeous.
Sci-fi so diverting as to give one a sense of what it may be like to be raptured: snatched-up, out of your life (and out of your clothes, too—according to the baptists under whose rhapsodies I grew up), up into the heavens, into a new life very, very far removed from the one you left behind.
It was like that.
Reading this book.
For a day and a half I was not in my own life, except when I put the tablet down to sleep—and even then, not all my dreams were my own.
I saw the shape of this book somewhere in the first third—the inevitable pressure towards where the story must end—and when I arrived there I found it no less enthralling for being foreshadowed.
A lovely metaphor, that title. Both holy and profane, as is true of many ideas in our world today—though mostly I only know the Christian ones.
Jesus Christ, what a story!
Line and Orbit!
A curse.
Line and Orbit.
A benediction.
And on such a scale, this book—but still, as all stories are, really—about people. It follows many of them for a little bit, and two for a lot; and as all good sci-fi—as all good stories—it is both a mirror and a window, so that you are left musing as much about your own fate as the fate of the heroes you've come to love, and the villains you've come to pity.
I didn't quite follow the logic of the central conceit—the faintly granola ethos behind pretty much the entire plot—and have yet to come across a convincing argument against the idea this book appears to be opposed to—but all the same:
Four stars, and recommended.
Sci-fi so diverting as to give one a sense of what it may be like to be raptured: snatched-up, out of your life (and out of your clothes, too—according to the baptists under whose rhapsodies I grew up), up into the heavens, into a new life very, very far removed from the one you left behind.
It was like that.
Reading this book.
For a day and a half I was not in my own life, except when I put the tablet down to sleep—and even then, not all my dreams were my own.
I saw the shape of this book somewhere in the first third—the inevitable pressure towards where the story must end—and when I arrived there I found it no less enthralling for being foreshadowed.
A lovely metaphor, that title. Both holy and profane, as is true of many ideas in our world today—though mostly I only know the Christian ones.
Jesus Christ, what a story!
Line and Orbit!
A curse.
Line and Orbit.
A benediction.
And on such a scale, this book—but still, as all stories are, really—about people. It follows many of them for a little bit, and two for a lot; and as all good sci-fi—as all good stories—it is both a mirror and a window, so that you are left musing as much about your own fate as the fate of the heroes you've come to love, and the villains you've come to pity.
I didn't quite follow the logic of the central conceit—the faintly granola ethos behind pretty much the entire plot—and have yet to come across a convincing argument against the idea this book appears to be opposed to—but all the same:
Four stars, and recommended.