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atrailofpages's review
4.0
I purchased this book awhile ago because I thought it sounded like an interesting scifi story. I only just finally read this book, and I don’t understand why I waited so long to do so! This book to me was so good! It had such an interesting storyline and the action for me was on the edge of my seat action. I couldn’t get enough of this book!
It did start out slow at first, but I love slow starts. We really get to know the main characters Qole and Nev, and I’m all about character building! There was a lot of character building at the beginning to the point that I felt like I knew Nev and Qole very well, and fell in love with them. I loved learning a lot about the side characters. I feel like side characters never get enough attention, but I feel like this book really focused on side characters a lot.
This book has such an interesting storyline to me with Qole, a Shadow fisher who fishes for Shadow in space to sell because it was a natural resource used for many different items. Qole and her brother have an affinity to it and so can actually summon and use it, or at least Qole can. Enter Nev who is trying to find Qole to help his kingdom that is starting to lose ground amongst other kingdoms by learning about her affinity and to see how it can be used without harming others or herself.
I fell in love with Nev immediately! He to me is the very epitome of a cinnamon roll. Seriously one of the sweetest most caring characters I’ve ever read about. Which just made me feel sorry for him because he was sweet to the point of being naive when it came to his family. And when he realizes not everything is at it seems or what he expected, I just wanted to give him a hug and appreciated that he didn’t change despite all the wrong that occurred that he didn’t expect.
The Qole, she’s a feisty thing
It did start out slow at first, but I love slow starts. We really get to know the main characters Qole and Nev, and I’m all about character building! There was a lot of character building at the beginning to the point that I felt like I knew Nev and Qole very well, and fell in love with them. I loved learning a lot about the side characters. I feel like side characters never get enough attention, but I feel like this book really focused on side characters a lot.
This book has such an interesting storyline to me with Qole, a Shadow fisher who fishes for Shadow in space to sell because it was a natural resource used for many different items. Qole and her brother have an affinity to it and so can actually summon and use it, or at least Qole can. Enter Nev who is trying to find Qole to help his kingdom that is starting to lose ground amongst other kingdoms by learning about her affinity and to see how it can be used without harming others or herself.
I fell in love with Nev immediately! He to me is the very epitome of a cinnamon roll. Seriously one of the sweetest most caring characters I’ve ever read about. Which just made me feel sorry for him because he was sweet to the point of being naive when it came to his family. And when he realizes not everything is at it seems or what he expected, I just wanted to give him a hug and appreciated that he didn’t change despite all the wrong that occurred that he didn’t expect.
The Qole, she’s a feisty thing
the_horror_maven's review
3.0
I have to admit that I am not a big fan of young adult science fiction. This is because I find that most young adult science fiction novels seem to dumb down the genre for new science fiction readers, or younger science fiction readers. But I was excited to read Shadow Run, because it was marketed as being similar to Firefly and Dune. Unfortunately, this novel fell short of my expectations.
Michael Miller and AdriAnne Strickland make a nice writing pair. Sometimes novels written by two authors end up being inconsistent or sloppy, but Shadow Run read like the work of one author. The authors also made an eclectic cast of characters that are different from many other novels, but there were quite a few issues with this novel that I could not look past.
First off, the authors over describe the scenes in their novel too much. Instead of showing the reader, the authors talk at the reader. I found myself skipping multiple sentences just so I could get to the point. The dialogue was also dry and not used properly to give the characters depth and story.
But all of that aside, this novel could have worked if it wasn't for the way that the authors represented their diverse characters. There was racism present in this novel through the two main characters. This was because the authors showed how a white man essentially saved a black woman and planned to save her people. The white man in this context was seen as the savior, and that is not something that we need in contemporary literature. The authors' gender fluid character was also not represented correctly. A person in my family is gender fluid and they prefer to be referred to as "they or them". But in Shadow Run, the authors chose to refer to their gender fluid character as "he", which is not proper. I know that everyone has their different perceptions of how they want to be seen as or referred to as, but it felt like using this language was doing the gender fluid community a disservice. The authors didn't seem to be personally connected to gender fluidity at all, and their gender fluid character appeared to be a publicity stunt. This character also was not evolved and they seemed to be known only for their gender status. This is incorrectly teaching young adults about how gender fluid individuals should be represented.
I just hope that in the future young adult science fiction novels will take it up a notch. Young adults don't need unnecessary romances to drive their novels, and they don't need incorrect racial and gender representations in their books. We are living in a time where these issues are of great importance, and literature can make, or break, these important social concepts. My favorite saying to live by as a writer is "write about what you know" and it didn't seem to me that Miller or Strickland knew a lot about what they were writing about.
Michael Miller and AdriAnne Strickland make a nice writing pair. Sometimes novels written by two authors end up being inconsistent or sloppy, but Shadow Run read like the work of one author. The authors also made an eclectic cast of characters that are different from many other novels, but there were quite a few issues with this novel that I could not look past.
First off, the authors over describe the scenes in their novel too much. Instead of showing the reader, the authors talk at the reader. I found myself skipping multiple sentences just so I could get to the point. The dialogue was also dry and not used properly to give the characters depth and story.
But all of that aside, this novel could have worked if it wasn't for the way that the authors represented their diverse characters. There was racism present in this novel through the two main characters. This was because the authors showed how a white man essentially saved a black woman and planned to save her people. The white man in this context was seen as the savior, and that is not something that we need in contemporary literature. The authors' gender fluid character was also not represented correctly. A person in my family is gender fluid and they prefer to be referred to as "they or them". But in Shadow Run, the authors chose to refer to their gender fluid character as "he", which is not proper. I know that everyone has their different perceptions of how they want to be seen as or referred to as, but it felt like using this language was doing the gender fluid community a disservice. The authors didn't seem to be personally connected to gender fluidity at all, and their gender fluid character appeared to be a publicity stunt. This character also was not evolved and they seemed to be known only for their gender status. This is incorrectly teaching young adults about how gender fluid individuals should be represented.
I just hope that in the future young adult science fiction novels will take it up a notch. Young adults don't need unnecessary romances to drive their novels, and they don't need incorrect racial and gender representations in their books. We are living in a time where these issues are of great importance, and literature can make, or break, these important social concepts. My favorite saying to live by as a writer is "write about what you know" and it didn't seem to me that Miller or Strickland knew a lot about what they were writing about.
pantsreads's review
3.0
3.5/5
Fun science fiction story with familiar themes and great main characters.
Check out my full review at Forever Young Adult.
Fun science fiction story with familiar themes and great main characters.
Check out my full review at Forever Young Adult.
annmeyer's review against another edition
5.0
Listen up: I apologize in advance for all of the language that I am going to be using in this review. But I have a lot of feelings, and they are very strong.
Let me start off by saying that this book is so fucking good. All other books should just stop being books, because this one is the best. (Probably not actually, but maybe, I don't know, I'm extremely overwhelmed by how great this one is right now.)
I was feeling pretty down so I decided that tonight, I would read a fun book instead of doing the mountains of assigned reading I ought to be doing. I didn't feel like reading (or re-reading) anything I already had, so I scrolled through 21 pages on Overdrive and happened upon this. Though suspicious, as I am of almost all YA books that I've never heard of, I decided to check out what the other fair readers on Goodreads had to say. For some reason, this only has like a 3.78 overall (fucking idiots, anyone that doesn't rate this a 4 or higher - upon review, this is a harsh thing to say, but also, really? it's incredible!) but the first reviews I read inspired confidence; one person referred to this, in not as much colorful language, as if Six of Crows and Star Wars met, fell madly in love with each other, and had the most wonderful child to ever grace our brains. Those two masterpieces colliding are the best comparisons that someone could make to this, I think. Science fiction, romance, thievery, corrupt governments and lopsided societies, one wild-ass and extremely satisfying space opera, I don't know what else you could ask for.
For the first ten pages, I had my doubts. By the eleventh, I didn't have a single doubt about this ever again.
This writing is so good, I am in pain trying to figure out how to describe it. Just from the level of raw sentence construction, it's absolutely masterful. Even reviewing all the passages that I highlighted, I'm taken aback by how simple yet eloquent and intelligent and humorous it all is. It's so funny and witty, the dialogue is ridiculously pleasant to consume, it's like candy except that I don't think I could ever get tired of it.
I fucking love all of these characters and everything that comes out of their mouths. This book had me laughing out loud, something that I can't remember a book causing in a long, long time. It's all gold, and I would be honored to be half as quick-witted as Nev, one of my new favorite characters in the history of literature. Not to forget Qole, the baddest bitch ever written, seriously. And don't even get me started on Basra. I don't think anyone has ever created a character like him before, and I don't think anyone could create one from here on out either. I also love and adore Eton, because really, who couldn't? I do wish Arjan had more room to shine, and look forward to more of him in the next book, hopefully.
I have no idea why this doesn't have more of a following. I am in awe of Strickland and Miller now and look forward to consuming anything of theirs that I can get my hands on. And I am so fucking glad that I stumbled across this. Even their Acknowledgments and About the Authors (Ender Quartet? Hello, yes, please, these people know what's up) sections are a god damn joy to read. I LOVE THEM. I want to shrink myself down and find a way to alternate my time living in their brains. I am so glad that they chose to write this, that they spent so much of their time and energy crafting this, so that I might have the privilege to read it.
Jesus fucking christ this book is incredible. It's everything that YA, and YA Science Fiction, should be - and more. If you're reading my words right now, please find this book and read it. It's everything I ever wanted, and I didn't even know it.
Let me start off by saying that this book is so fucking good. All other books should just stop being books, because this one is the best. (Probably not actually, but maybe, I don't know, I'm extremely overwhelmed by how great this one is right now.)
I was feeling pretty down so I decided that tonight, I would read a fun book instead of doing the mountains of assigned reading I ought to be doing. I didn't feel like reading (or re-reading) anything I already had, so I scrolled through 21 pages on Overdrive and happened upon this. Though suspicious, as I am of almost all YA books that I've never heard of, I decided to check out what the other fair readers on Goodreads had to say. For some reason, this only has like a 3.78 overall (fucking idiots, anyone that doesn't rate this a 4 or higher - upon review, this is a harsh thing to say, but also, really? it's incredible!) but the first reviews I read inspired confidence; one person referred to this, in not as much colorful language, as if Six of Crows and Star Wars met, fell madly in love with each other, and had the most wonderful child to ever grace our brains. Those two masterpieces colliding are the best comparisons that someone could make to this, I think. Science fiction, romance, thievery, corrupt governments and lopsided societies, one wild-ass and extremely satisfying space opera, I don't know what else you could ask for.
For the first ten pages, I had my doubts. By the eleventh, I didn't have a single doubt about this ever again.
This writing is so good, I am in pain trying to figure out how to describe it. Just from the level of raw sentence construction, it's absolutely masterful. Even reviewing all the passages that I highlighted, I'm taken aback by how simple yet eloquent and intelligent and humorous it all is. It's so funny and witty, the dialogue is ridiculously pleasant to consume, it's like candy except that I don't think I could ever get tired of it.
I fucking love all of these characters and everything that comes out of their mouths. This book had me laughing out loud, something that I can't remember a book causing in a long, long time. It's all gold, and I would be honored to be half as quick-witted as Nev, one of my new favorite characters in the history of literature. Not to forget Qole, the baddest bitch ever written, seriously. And don't even get me started on Basra. I don't think anyone has ever created a character like him before, and I don't think anyone could create one from here on out either. I also love and adore Eton, because really, who couldn't? I do wish Arjan had more room to shine, and look forward to more of him in the next book, hopefully.
I have no idea why this doesn't have more of a following. I am in awe of Strickland and Miller now and look forward to consuming anything of theirs that I can get my hands on. And I am so fucking glad that I stumbled across this. Even their Acknowledgments and About the Authors (Ender Quartet? Hello, yes, please, these people know what's up) sections are a god damn joy to read. I LOVE THEM. I want to shrink myself down and find a way to alternate my time living in their brains. I am so glad that they chose to write this, that they spent so much of their time and energy crafting this, so that I might have the privilege to read it.
Jesus fucking christ this book is incredible. It's everything that YA, and YA Science Fiction, should be - and more. If you're reading my words right now, please find this book and read it. It's everything I ever wanted, and I didn't even know it.
whippycleric's review
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-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
4.0
I wasn't expecting huge amounts from this book, just because I normally find young adult books very middley. Commonly giving them either 3 or 3.5 starts, but this was definitely better than others. It's still quite tropey and very fast paced but it's a lot of fun. I can see the firefly in this heavily but Dune is a bit of a reach, it does not have that level of politicial intrigue. The 2 perspective structure works really well, and I couldn't tell at all that it was written by 2 authors. I found it simple to keep track of who's narrating despite it seemingly being a common complaint. Side characters are intriguing, especially Basra, who gives off a bit of the hidden past/life vibe you get from Shepard Bush in firefly. The world itself is interesting and the concept of shadow sets it up for some good plot lines. I'll be adding the next installments to my to-read list, and give it the highest rating yet for a young adult genre.
janeeyre_914716's review
3.0
**2 1/2 stars**
So I'm FINALLY DONE!!!! I want to thank netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review and even though I got distracted from other books and a few buddy reads, and now I'm done!
So, shoot me but I've never seen Firefly but I DID see the first 2-3 episodes of it one time and enjoyed them and mainly to get a feel for this book. For awhile I could point out some similarities but with the book, it was REALLY good and exciting but once they get to Nev's home planet and we meet his family, I felt it started to escalate for me. After an AWESOME fun first half, it went downhill from there. DEPENDING on the ending I was going to give this 3 1/2 stars but the more the end was played with it still kept going downhill. And the big battle/rescue mission at the end dragged on for WAAAAAY too long and felt rushed. So overall, I wasn't at all impressed the second half and came out a little disappointed. But I see mixed reviews for this one and so if you liked it or want to read it go for it and decide for yourself. But me, it just lacked WAAAAAY too much and had other dragging moments second half. But I'm also piqued what's going to happen in book 2 next year......
Also.....after having a HORRIBLE MISERABLE month of allergies and having my reading steak ruined by them this month, I was soooo afraid I'd get 2 books in this month (which I did) but I got 3 before midnight!! Yaaaay!!!! :D :D :D *celebrating*
So I'm FINALLY DONE!!!! I want to thank netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review and even though I got distracted from other books and a few buddy reads, and now I'm done!
So, shoot me but I've never seen Firefly but I DID see the first 2-3 episodes of it one time and enjoyed them and mainly to get a feel for this book. For awhile I could point out some similarities but with the book, it was REALLY good and exciting but once they get to Nev's home planet and we meet his family, I felt it started to escalate for me. After an AWESOME fun first half, it went downhill from there. DEPENDING on the ending I was going to give this 3 1/2 stars but the more the end was played with it still kept going downhill. And the big battle/rescue mission at the end dragged on for WAAAAAY too long and felt rushed. So overall, I wasn't at all impressed the second half and came out a little disappointed. But I see mixed reviews for this one and so if you liked it or want to read it go for it and decide for yourself. But me, it just lacked WAAAAAY too much and had other dragging moments second half. But I'm also piqued what's going to happen in book 2 next year......
Also.....after having a HORRIBLE MISERABLE month of allergies and having my reading steak ruined by them this month, I was soooo afraid I'd get 2 books in this month (which I did) but I got 3 before midnight!! Yaaaay!!!! :D :D :D *celebrating*
librarytech4's review
1.0
This book did not do a good job of keeping me interested or grabbing my attention. From the beginning I had no interest in Qole arc of the book. The only thing that kept me vaguely interested was the Nev arc, but 3/4 through the book that wasn’t even good enough to convince me to finish the novel.
novelheartbeat's review
2.0
What I liked:
• Space!
• Shadow, and Qole's ability to wield it
• ....well, crap, that's it
What I didn't like:
• The horrible pacing
• The dual POVs. It was very confusing and I often forgot who I was reading. There wasn't really a distinction between them
• The "white people are royalty and dark people are savages" trope. I'm not sure it was intended that way, as there were dark skinned people in the palace as well, but poor/careless writing nonetheless (am I the only one that noticed this?? Or is it just a problem in the ARC?)
• Also what is going on with Basra?? He was randomly a woman with no explanation? Or was he just dressing like one?? I feel like it was haphazardly thrown in as an afterthought simply for the sake of diversity. It was never re-visited, which seems lazy to me. "Let's make this dude that's been a he through the whole book be a she in this scene so we can be diverse"
I was pretty bored throughout most of this book. The concept of shadow was very unique and intriguing, but everything else felt rather bland and generic. The pacing dragged as well because the writing was dry. I think having to force myself through this one for a tour also killed a lot of enjoyment for it, but it felt rather apathetic. I couldn't connect to the story or the characters at all.
I usually love space books, but this one just didn't work for me I'm afraid.
This review was originally posted on Novel Heartbeat. To see a breakdown of my assessment, please visit the full review here.
katleap's review
4.0
4 stars
I liked this book. It started out a little slow but then it picked up. Nev and Qole were interesting but Basra is amazing. I feel a little bit like this book was set up and action and the beginning of Nev's relationship with the crew to of the Kaitan. I want to know what going to happen next. I hope Solara shows up again. I'm looking forward to next book.
I ended up reading this book in 2 spats. I checked it out from the library, started it right before it need to be back and then had to wait for it to come back. Hence the long time I took me to finish.
I liked this book. It started out a little slow but then it picked up. Nev and Qole were interesting but Basra is amazing. I feel a little bit like this book was set up and action and the beginning of Nev's relationship with the crew to of the Kaitan. I want to know what going to happen next. I hope Solara shows up again. I'm looking forward to next book.
I ended up reading this book in 2 spats. I checked it out from the library, started it right before it need to be back and then had to wait for it to come back. Hence the long time I took me to finish.