Reviews

Is this book good? Did I like it? I don't know! I think maybe it's kind of a mess? I'm sure that I read the whole thing, and it is very long so that's something. But I'm also sure I only cared or paid attention to part of it. Once again there were just too many points of view, too many characters, too many twists that became more exhausting than anything else. Part of why I don't feel like I know how to judge the book is that I just kinda let the actual plot wash over me and only paid attention to like, events, and action scenes, to the extent that they delivered me character moments. There's a lot of alien shenanigans and complicated political conniving, abuse of power comes as no surprise, etc, etc, sure whatever, give me more scenes of Sanda getting lectured about how she needs to talk to someone about her feelings.

My favorite part of this series remains the very beginning when it was just Sanda and Bero, and they're still the pair I care about the most, with some room for Tomas, and eventually...Rost? I thought he was pretty sus in the last book, and he sure was keeping a doozy of a secret, but maybe he is ok after all. Poor Biren spent the whole trilogy miserable, he deserves something nice even if I never cared that much about what he was doing.

Jules probably also deserves not to be miserable but she only exists in this story to suffer and the more fucked up and obsessive her storyline got, the clearer it became she would not once get a chance to do anything but suffer.

galexywitch's review against another edition

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adventurous tense 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

3.5

themanfromdelmonte's review against another edition

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4.0

I have a particular problem with this kind of space opera in that despite it being set nearly four millennia in the future, everything is very recognisable. There are some added spaceships and blasters and some hi tech gizmos but otherwise it’s Americans In Space.
Another issue is that despite potential humanity extinction events taking place in this corner of the settled galaxy, the powers that be seen content to leave it in the hands of a brother and sister.
The ending is a little erratic with some quite big reveals and plot twists at the denouement.
That said the author handles all the stands without ever looking as if she’s making it up on the hoof.

_tea_'s review

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4.0

4.5 stars

michalski19's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

I feel like the first book was a great idea and so much time was spent on the idea that books 2 and 3 had to flesh out a ton of the story and then wrap it all up. Not terrible but not my cup of tea. Also didn’t like how 2/3 of the way through this the main character went from cool and collected to being reckless and thoughtless.

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