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_reese__'s review
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
It’s a fun read; mostly just for entertainment though brings up some interesting ethical questions. Overall I’m happy to have read it but nothing to rave about and I’m not on the edge of my seat for the next book despite the cliff hanger.
A few things:
1) It’s a pet peeve of mine when authors take things exactly as they are from the real world and insert them into sci-fi without changing much besides the name. I understand taking inspiration from the real world but I’d like to see a bit more creativity. For example, in this book the religion centered on “The God who shed Blood for Us”…so basically Catholicism. And Kystrene seems to just be Irish.
2) The budding relationship between Sean and Indigo was interesting but after finding out Indigo was the general that lead the battle/mass murder on Kystrom that wiped out Itaka (the largest city on Kystrom and Sean’s home) , it was kind of ruined for me. The author seems to try to make this ok by having Sean kill Benny so Sean and Indigo together made the people of Itaka extinct (Sean literally says this at the end of chapter 84) but the scale of murder committed but Indigo (it’s literally referred to as a genocide at some point) is no where near comparable to Sean’s killing of Benny. This is especially true considering Sean has repeatedly shown a distaste for killing of any kind (even the monsters that are trying to kill them on the ship) and only kills Benny (unintentionally at that) because he was going to destroy the data needed to save an entire population (the Ministers).
3. Someone else mentioned this in another review but the editing of this book could have been better. I caught a character referring to “degrees Kelvin”…. Just “Kelvin” is the unit of temperature. You only say degrees for Celsius, Rankine, or Fahrenheit. This is the kind of simple thing I expect to be right in sci-fi, especially if the author got a degree in physics.
A few things:
1) It’s a pet peeve of mine when authors take things exactly as they are from the real world and insert them into sci-fi without changing much besides the name. I understand taking inspiration from the real world but I’d like to see a bit more creativity. For example, in this book the religion centered on “The God who shed Blood for Us”…so basically Catholicism. And Kystrene seems to just be Irish.
2)
3. Someone else mentioned this in another review but the editing of this book could have been better. I caught a character referring to “degrees Kelvin”…. Just “Kelvin” is the unit of temperature. You only say degrees for Celsius, Rankine, or Fahrenheit. This is the kind of simple thing I expect to be right in sci-fi, especially if the author got a degree in physics.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Child death, Death, Gore, Cursing, Violence, Gun violence, and Grief
adancewithbooks's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.0
Thank you to Netgalley and Rebellion Publishing for the review copy in exchange for an honest review. This does not change my opinion in anyway.
The Immortality Thief grabbed my attention with that awesome spaceship on the cover. It looks epic and from what I have read, this space ship is actually just that epic. While it didn't completely sweep me up as others have said it would, I did really enjoy this book.
This book introduces us to the rather talk active Sean as he is navigating a space ship to a deserted patch of space. To a deserted space ship where he and his 'crew' have to pick something up. As we spend some time with him we learn that he is good in languages and apparently a criminal. He is very focused on not wanting anyone dead. I thought that was an odd fixation for every situation but as we learn of his past with his 'friend' Benny, that starts making a bit more sense.
What I found most interesting in this book was the set up. A few hundred years ago the humans, who at that point had a good bit of technology, were set back by the ministers who seemed to have come out of nowhere. Thought to be aliens who came to punish them for having too much for their own good. The ministers took over ruling the humans in a set part of space, letting there be room for a human Republic to rise in another part of space. One can imagine they do not get along very well. But this setting set off a lot of questions. Who are the ministers? What really did happen all those hundred of years ago? Well I can tell you, you will get some answers to that. I was glad for that because we aren't going to be stringing along in a series to get some of these answers. Instead we get the answers by the end of this book and then we get the chance to explore and move on with the story more.
While this book is a science-fiction book, it strongly borders into horror as our group of characters navigate the ship. Human like creatures that want to eat them with razor sharp teeth, children with more sharp teeth and lets not forget the nanobots from the ships computer who sees humans as a threat. There is a bit of gore, blood and violence in it because of that.
Having said that, I didn't immediately warm up to our main character or the other characters. With Sean I really needed to get a good feel for his character. Getting a good look into his past and how his alliance with his 'friend' Benny came to be. I was glad to find him in different company for most of the book because there he got the chance to develop himself without that influence. As I warmed up to him however I was able to extend that to his two companions who both came from very different sides. They were a contrast but a good addition to Sean.
All in all I'm excited to read on in this setting and series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Violence, and Gun violence
Mentioned human experimentations
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