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lucycz's review against another edition
1.0
This book was exhausting. The world building and concepts were very fascinating and complex, but the characters were clumsily crafted, with attitudes, motives, and levels of intelligence that shifted from chapter to chapter in service of the plot. The sudden, interspecies romance was contrived and absolutely unnecessary (honestly, it made me feel like I was reading a teen fan fiction starting 1/3 of the way in). Overall, a strong start that was ultimately utterly disappointing and jumped the shark about 1/3 of the way in.
kwoolsey's review against another edition
2.0
DNF. I couldn’t get into it. There were a lot of layers to the world building that didn't go together, and it was too much work.
angelgrrl's review against another edition
3.0
First off, I want to say I loved the first half of the book. The characters, the gradual revealing of how the future depicted in this book works, the description of FTL as experienced by Vaha. (Side note: the image that got stuck in my head of how Vaha’s true body looked was of the pokémon Togekiss, for no particularly good reason, and try as I might it just would not go away.
astridhawk's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
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
4.5
Really enjoyed this one. A bit too “happily ever after”, perhaps, but I loved the societal questions it examined and of course the nonbinary main characters. The day we can live in a world where no one questions gender identity regardless of physical appearance, or sexual orientation based on gender identity, is a lovely dream that it was nice to live in for awhile in this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Xenophobia, and Pregnancy
aarman1081's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
medium-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
4.5
What a great book to start the year off with! S.B. Divya has gifted the world a hard-sci-fi with the soft themes of coming of age, maternity, self-acceptance, and adventure. I’d rate this book 4.5 stars only because I felt that the plot dragged along in the middle, but the character development, resolutions of multiple side-plots, and ending compensated greatly for the slightly slower pace. Jayanthi wasn’t an instantly lovable character for me, but I grew to like her as the story progressed. I loved Vaha from the get go! Kaliyu’s character development was beautiful to follow along with. I love the imagery and world building throughout. I love how the book draws on ancient Indian/Hindu culture as well, we don’t see that kind of representation in sci-fi often.
The exposition portrays a utopian Earth and Constructed Democracy of Sol, home to humans, alloys, and constructs. But as the book progresses, we see how there are many dystopian aspects of this society. Divya is able to achieve this depiction craftily without being too on the nose about it, which for me puts this book in the category of political science fiction in addition to a space opera, coming of age, and romance.
I highly recommend this book!
The exposition portrays a utopian Earth and Constructed Democracy of Sol, home to humans, alloys, and constructs. But as the book progresses, we see how there are many dystopian aspects of this society. Divya is able to achieve this depiction craftily without being too on the nose about it, which for me puts this book in the category of political science fiction in addition to a space opera, coming of age, and romance.
I highly recommend this book!
makropp's review against another edition
3.0
Jayanthi is the adopted child of alloy parents. Alloys are genetically derived descendants of humans and are the governing species on a ruined Earth. Alloys believe humans are inherently destructive and should be kept confined to Earth, where they can live and create, but not have the freedom to roam the universe (as the sentient, biological spaceships do) in order to prevent them from ruining other planets as they have both Earth and Mars. Jaya has a form of sickle cell anemia that makes her life on Earth difficult but she is well-suited to the newly discovered Earth-like planet, Meru. She is given the opportunity to travel to Meru with one of the biological spaceships to prove that humans can live on another planet without destroying it. But what Jaya doesn't know is that behind the project as she knows it are those who would like to see her fail, and have set up the experiment to fail. With the help of her Construct ship, Jaya must find a way to survive and succeed to give humanity a new chance at life among the stars.
This was an interesting book. The idea of the somewhat humanoid Alloys and very different Constructs (some have wings and/or tails) is a different spin on the future of mankind. The world-building, both on Earth and Meru, is decent, and with the Earth side, definitely gives the impression that the humans are considered less than by their Alloy governors. The author does give both sides of that issue- there are many humans who are perfectly content to live as they are, making music, art, and other creative things without needing to do or be more. Characters are drawn adequately, even if some, particularly Jaya's Alloy parents, seem a bit flat. Jaya is intelligent, a bit impulsive, and determined, all of which make her need to be more than the Alloys deem right for humans a driving force in the story. The plot is fine, with political intrigue, friendships betrayed, and a budding romance woven through. The story does slow down once we arrive on Meru, mostly because there really isn't a lot there. Jaya and her habitat, plus the Construct she traveled on are on an isolated part of the planet. They don't really have contact with anything else, so action isn't a bit part of this story. It's more an internal plot, delving into ethics, politics, genetic manipulation, and relationships. There are some plot twists to keep things moving along.
Overall, this was a decent read. Fans of alternate world sci-fi with a bit of a dive into the points mentioned above will likely enjoy it.
This was an interesting book. The idea of the somewhat humanoid Alloys and very different Constructs (some have wings and/or tails) is a different spin on the future of mankind. The world-building, both on Earth and Meru, is decent, and with the Earth side, definitely gives the impression that the humans are considered less than by their Alloy governors. The author does give both sides of that issue- there are many humans who are perfectly content to live as they are, making music, art, and other creative things without needing to do or be more. Characters are drawn adequately, even if some, particularly Jaya's Alloy parents, seem a bit flat. Jaya is intelligent, a bit impulsive, and determined, all of which make her need to be more than the Alloys deem right for humans a driving force in the story. The plot is fine, with political intrigue, friendships betrayed, and a budding romance woven through. The story does slow down once we arrive on Meru, mostly because there really isn't a lot there. Jaya and her habitat, plus the Construct she traveled on are on an isolated part of the planet. They don't really have contact with anything else, so action isn't a bit part of this story. It's more an internal plot, delving into ethics, politics, genetic manipulation, and relationships. There are some plot twists to keep things moving along.
Overall, this was a decent read. Fans of alternate world sci-fi with a bit of a dive into the points mentioned above will likely enjoy it.
junkie_forthe_written_word's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this book's premise, world-building, and political take on how humans would be treated if we encountered alien life... however, I just can't say I liked the book. I was honestly bored quite often and had trouble making myself read it.
alenao's review against another edition
I couldn't get into this book. It might not be for me. I frequently try other books outside of my typical genre, so I might come back to this one later. It sounds very interesting! If you like Scifi, give it a try.
oldfangledforest's review against another edition
3.0
If GoodReads allowed for half stars, I’d round this up to 3.5 stars. I enjoyed the overall storyline, but there were a couple of things that prevented me from really getting into this.
I thought the world building was fantastic, this is such a cool futuristic concept. I also really like that this encompasses the idea of attempting to terraform other planets, in addition to the complex societal changes arising between humans and engineered humanoid beings called alloys. Although it did take me some tile getting use to the pronoun “zir”, I thought it fit the concept of alloys very well.
The two main things that really held me back from enjoying this more were the follows: the development of the relationship between the main human character, Jayanthi, and the main alloy, Vaha, and the swapping of the POV between the two of them.
I feel like I really missed the relationship between them developing them, it didn’t really build up to it in my opinion and felt very rushed. Since it felt so rushed, it felt very inorganic to me and unbelievable. I was even more confused by the development of their family, which I felt came out of nowhere and was extremely rushed given that their relationship felt inorganic to begin with.
I usually don’t mind the swapping of POVs in books, but I felt that the swapping between them did not really lend anything additional to the story and it didn’t lend to creating a connection to the characters either. I thought Vaha’s chapters were very dull and I couldn’t wait for them to swap back to Jayanthi’s.
I thought the world building was fantastic, this is such a cool futuristic concept. I also really like that this encompasses the idea of attempting to terraform other planets, in addition to the complex societal changes arising between humans and engineered humanoid beings called alloys. Although it did take me some tile getting use to the pronoun “zir”, I thought it fit the concept of alloys very well.
The two main things that really held me back from enjoying this more were the follows: the development of the relationship between the main human character, Jayanthi, and the main alloy, Vaha, and the swapping of the POV between the two of them.
I feel like I really missed the relationship between them developing them, it didn’t really build up to it in my opinion and felt very rushed. Since it felt so rushed, it felt very inorganic to me and unbelievable. I was even more confused by the development of their family, which I felt came out of nowhere and was extremely rushed given that their relationship felt inorganic to begin with.
I usually don’t mind the swapping of POVs in books, but I felt that the swapping between them did not really lend anything additional to the story and it didn’t lend to creating a connection to the characters either. I thought Vaha’s chapters were very dull and I couldn’t wait for them to swap back to Jayanthi’s.