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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
I love Chris Wooding, but this is one of his lessor efforts, unfortunately.
I love that Rail's selfishness and hardness is balanced by Moa's kindness and soft heart, AND that they're not a couple (Rail does mention it, but it's a foregone hope), even though they didn't really go through much development. I really really wish we had more of an experience with the true danger and unpredictability of the chaos storms - the one we did experience didn't really do much, and they left before we could see the effects of the biggest one yet!
I love that Rail's selfishness and hardness is balanced by Moa's kindness and soft heart, AND that they're not a couple (Rail does mention it, but it's a foregone hope), even though they didn't really go through much development. I really really wish we had more of an experience with the true danger and unpredictability of the chaos storms - the one we did experience didn't really do much, and they left before we could see the effects of the biggest one yet!
Fantastic! The story and the writing held me captive; I had a hard time putting this one down!
Rail and Moa are thieves in a futuristic city in chaos. Orokos is an island that is inescapable and lashed by probability storms that can change whatever they touch. A probability storm can move streets, rearrange city blocks, move rivers, turn people to glass, make them disappear, or simply kill them. Rail lives with a respirator due to a probability storm years before that took away his ability to breathe freely; but that hasn't slowed him down at all. When he and Moa steal a centuries old artifact, that is wanted by the queen of thieves and the rulers of the city as well, they must unlock its secrets. But doing so could change Orokos forever.
I really enjoyed the world building and the characters to a point... sometimes they made me go 'really'? Because they can fall a bit into tropism. The plot itself was pretty good, too, and kept me guessing and for the most part it had great atmosphere.
Buut not enough atmosphere or world building or characterization. I feel like this book could have been a lot longer and the facets introduced, explored better. There's so much that's interesting about this city that's just kind of glossed over and the explanation for why things are the way they are seems tacked on at best and I've seen it before. There's a lot of unanswered questions...and I feel the characters could have been pushed further out of their roles.
Especially Moa. She falls into the role of a the kind of saint like figure that needs to be protected, the dreamer, the one that understands and sees past to the kindness of others. The believer of dreams. If this were a JRPG she'd be a healer. What's wrong with this? Nothing really. Except it's all she seems to be. There needs to be a little more juice. A little more passion.
Rail, too, needs a jolt of something as well as the Quasimodoesque Vago.
Also one thing that kind of dug at me was the character of Finch who is one of the antagonists, a kid roughly Rail and Moa's age from the same ghetto background, raised in the same way as Rail and believing that the best is to look after number one. But he's made to look ugly with rotting needle teeth and 'has nothing in his soul that can appreciate such beauty'. Come on. Can't he be a little more complex than that? He can still be an antagonist and be overcome by a pretty day. Or a blue sky. He doesn't have to be presented as twisted and evil.
Why not just have him be a kid not unlike Rail who does the job he's set out to do for money and personal gain --being a mirror or counterpoint to Rail-- Making bad choices but not being homfg bad! Same with the other antagonist really and the spoiled little rich girl.
tl;dr
The book was good and interesting, but it lacked the complexity to turn it from a good read into a great one.
Also the ending was good but kind of a wash out for me.
Buut not enough atmosphere or world building or characterization. I feel like this book could have been a lot longer and the facets introduced, explored better. There's so much that's interesting about this city that's just kind of glossed over and the explanation for why things are the way they are seems tacked on at best and I've seen it before. There's a lot of unanswered questions...and I feel the characters could have been pushed further out of their roles.
Especially Moa. She falls into the role of a the kind of saint like figure that needs to be protected, the dreamer, the one that understands and sees past to the kindness of others. The believer of dreams. If this were a JRPG she'd be a healer. What's wrong with this? Nothing really. Except it's all she seems to be. There needs to be a little more juice. A little more passion.
Rail, too, needs a jolt of something as well as the Quasimodoesque Vago.
Also one thing that kind of dug at me was the character of Finch who is one of the antagonists, a kid roughly Rail and Moa's age from the same ghetto background, raised in the same way as Rail and believing that the best is to look after number one. But he's made to look ugly with rotting needle teeth and 'has nothing in his soul that can appreciate such beauty'. Come on. Can't he be a little more complex than that? He can still be an antagonist and be overcome by a pretty day. Or a blue sky. He doesn't have to be presented as twisted and evil.
Why not just have him be a kid not unlike Rail who does the job he's set out to do for money and personal gain --being a mirror or counterpoint to Rail-- Making bad choices but not being homfg bad! Same with the other antagonist really and the spoiled little rich girl.
tl;dr
The book was good and interesting, but it lacked the complexity to turn it from a good read into a great one.
Also the ending was good but kind of a wash out for me.
It's been pretty good. The writings pretty good too. It has a good story line. It has a twist, I suppose you'd call it, that I didn't expect. I've read better, but over all it's a pretty good book.
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced