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aatiii's review against another edition
2.0
Author’s like: ‘I can write a space adventure, too. With swords and ships and mystical warriors.” Turns out that writing something to match Star Wars is harder than it looks.
_tourist's review
1.0
truly dreadful. abysmal prose, characters flatter -and about as interesting- as a single blank sheet of paper. boring cliched story. just the absolute worst in terms of what sci-fi has to offer. aiya, this book en't worth your time.
arachnichemist's review
5.0
As I was reading this I constantly thought, man this is what star wars could have been. A really good story that isn't afraid to pull punches. There is a version of the force in this but it is pretty different in scope and use. I loved this book a lot and I am glad book three comes out on the 27th as it won't take long burn through book 2.
rocketiza's review against another edition
3.0
Not bad, but pretty short for a space opera entry and didn't distinguish itself enough for me to need to read the rest.
ejopet's review
This book was hella fun. Violent and sometimes dark, but fun nonetheless.
The characters are one of the high points. Jaqi is awesome. She's also a type of character that I haven't seen much of, because she's...not very smart. She's brave and worth rooting for, but she'll only think a step ahead. It's refreshing in a genre with a lot of "canny" or analytical protagonists.
The book also manages to have small children as main characters who felt real but weren't annoying, which is hard! I was less interested in Araskar--he knows a lot more of the plot than Jaqi, so his scenes tend to be higher on information, but I always wanted to get back to her. I couldn't connect with his romance subplot--in a novella you can't spend time on everything, and that was one of the things that didn't get elaborated on enough for me.
Most of the book is told through either Jaqi or Araskar's point of view, which I thought worked well. Jaqi especially has a distinctive "slang-y" voice, which makes her come alive. Seeing the same scene from two perspectives keeps the tension high.
The action scenes are particularly well done. They're well described enough to be legible, but the pace never suffers for it.
I did find myself a bit confused about characters' plans at a few points. For example, the scene that ends with Jaqi meeting the kids: Why is Jaqi following Palthaz in the first place? Where does she think he's going, and why would following him help? The scene was obviously written to lead Jaqi to the kids, but it could have been less clumsy about it. There were a couple of other moments where I lost what characters believed and why they were doing what they were doing, though not so much that it hurt my enjoyment.
I do recommend this book--as a novella it's only 200 pages, but it manages to pack fun characters and cool action (and space bugs!) into it. I'll definitely be reading the rest of the series!
The characters are one of the high points. Jaqi is awesome. She's also a type of character that I haven't seen much of, because she's...not very smart. She's brave and worth rooting for, but she'll only think a step ahead. It's refreshing in a genre with a lot of "canny" or analytical protagonists.
The book also manages to have small children as main characters who felt real but weren't annoying, which is hard! I was less interested in Araskar--he knows a lot more of the plot than Jaqi, so his scenes tend to be higher on information, but I always wanted to get back to her. I couldn't connect with his romance subplot--in a novella you can't spend time on everything, and that was one of the things that didn't get elaborated on enough for me.
Most of the book is told through either Jaqi or Araskar's point of view, which I thought worked well. Jaqi especially has a distinctive "slang-y" voice, which makes her come alive. Seeing the same scene from two perspectives keeps the tension high.
The action scenes are particularly well done. They're well described enough to be legible, but the pace never suffers for it.
I did find myself a bit confused about characters' plans at a few points. For example, the scene that ends with Jaqi meeting the kids: Why is Jaqi following Palthaz in the first place? Where does she think he's going, and why would following him help? The scene was obviously written to lead Jaqi to the kids, but it could have been less clumsy about it. There were a couple of other moments where I lost what characters believed and why they were doing what they were doing, though not so much that it hurt my enjoyment.
I do recommend this book--as a novella it's only 200 pages, but it manages to pack fun characters and cool action (and space bugs!) into it. I'll definitely be reading the rest of the series!
collinpowchow's review
5.0
I really couldn't put this down. It's over in a heartbeat, on to book 2! It follows two characters rather reluctantly on either side of the last vestiges of a galactic war as it winds down. But there's a slight problem in the aftermath that starts the whole story moving: maybe it's the humans that need to go...
The setting is big and bold, something like 1000 years into the future where more than one Empire has risen and fallen. The book holds has the mystical elements of Star Wars but is close up--first person present like the Hunger Games for strong characters. I really yearned for more backstory on important world elements: the Shir, Starfire, shards, Jorians/humans?, Suits, ahhhhh there's a lot! So I expect there will be more history and lore in the next books. Looking forward to them.
The setting is big and bold, something like 1000 years into the future where more than one Empire has risen and fallen. The book holds has the mystical elements of Star Wars but is close up--first person present like the Hunger Games for strong characters. I really yearned for more backstory on important world elements: the Shir, Starfire, shards, Jorians/humans?, Suits, ahhhhh there's a lot! So I expect there will be more history and lore in the next books. Looking forward to them.
hxlia's review
3.0
Enjoyed this short little sci-fi read! Was a little confused at some points, due to lack of vocabulary and information. Still enjoyed it though! Nice quick read
ricparks's review against another edition
4.0
Exactly what I've been seeking. Exciting, fun, compelling space opera well-written without the purposely obscure approach so common in science fiction today.