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queer_swordmaster's review against another edition
Maybe I’ll try again another time
coffeeoverapples's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
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
2.75
pastelwriter's review against another edition
dark
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I have such…conflicting feelings about this book.
On the one hand, I enjoyed myself while reading this. I really liked our main cast of characters (i.e. Rig, Ginka, and Crane).
Rig and Ginka had great witty banter between each other. Their friendship was absolutely heartwarming 🥺💖 And Rig giving her the nickname Cactus? Be still my heart! They’re precious.
Ginka absolutely stole my heart with how awkward she was because she doesn’t really know how to express her feelings all that well. She’s the character that undergoes the most growth as she has to grapple with the beliefs she was raised with and her growing affection for Rig. Her relationship with Crane was also everything to me 😭 I adore them SO MUCH. Maybe the straights do deserve rights 🥺
Rig herself was also really fun to follow. She’s…a lot. But the best kind of a lot! I also enjoyed her relationship with June 💖 I didn’t really root for them as much as I did Ginka and Crane, but I largely blame this on the fact that they were in an already established relationship. Those are always trickier to get me to invest in.
My main issue with this book was that… there was absolutely NO NEED for it to be 437 pages long aka 14hrs long in audiobook format. There was so much that could have been cut out. That’s why I lean to say that this is a character driven novel. There’s for sure a plot in here, but it didn’t need this page count to resolve. I’m all for developing character dynamics, but this just felt like a drag at times. The plot felt both too present and too absent. I prefer my novels to pick a struggle if they’re really gonna prioritize something, because this lead to a book that read like it had no stakes…even though there WERE stakes. I felt very little to no urgency during most of a novel where the main character is trying to rescue her sister who has been kidnapped 🙃 like what?
I just felt like something about the writing was off. It was enjoyable, but it wasn’t quite satisfactory enough to lead me to love the novel as a whole. I loved pieces of it.
On the one hand, I enjoyed myself while reading this. I really liked our main cast of characters (i.e. Rig, Ginka, and Crane).
Rig and Ginka had great witty banter between each other. Their friendship was absolutely heartwarming 🥺💖 And Rig giving her the nickname Cactus? Be still my heart! They’re precious.
Ginka absolutely stole my heart with how awkward she was because she doesn’t really know how to express her feelings all that well. She’s the character that undergoes the most growth as she has to grapple with the beliefs she was raised with and her growing affection for Rig. Her relationship with Crane was also everything to me 😭 I adore them SO MUCH. Maybe the straights do deserve rights 🥺
Rig herself was also really fun to follow. She’s…a lot. But the best kind of a lot! I also enjoyed her relationship with June 💖 I didn’t really root for them as much as I did Ginka and Crane, but I largely blame this on the fact that they were in an already established relationship. Those are always trickier to get me to invest in.
My main issue with this book was that… there was absolutely NO NEED for it to be 437 pages long aka 14hrs long in audiobook format. There was so much that could have been cut out. That’s why I lean to say that this is a character driven novel. There’s for sure a plot in here, but it didn’t need this page count to resolve. I’m all for developing character dynamics, but this just felt like a drag at times. The plot felt both too present and too absent. I prefer my novels to pick a struggle if they’re really gonna prioritize something, because this lead to a book that read like it had no stakes…even though there WERE stakes. I felt very little to no urgency during most of a novel where the main character is trying to rescue her sister who has been kidnapped 🙃 like what?
I just felt like something about the writing was off. It was enjoyable, but it wasn’t quite satisfactory enough to lead me to love the novel as a whole. I loved pieces of it.
ganderson's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
3.75
Cheesy, and I loved it 🧀
zed_dog's review against another edition
This book was frustrating for a few reasons. First, it’s written in the wrong POV mode: it very clearly wants to be a first-person narrative (the phrase “…but she digresses…” has no reason to exist), and if it were, it might have had the chance to develop a compelling narrative voice (I kept wishing the story were being narrated by Murderbot, rather than in awkward close third person).
Then the main character: the thing is, I really wanted to like Rig, because she fits an archetype which I usually go for—the lovable rogue/outlaw with heart/underestimated eiron. But she doesn’t seem to be much more than the archetype. And I get really tired of narration that tells me how to think of a character: we keep being told what Rig is good at instead of shown; some of it checks out (she does seem to be good at flying a spaceship—but again, didn’t need to tell me), but other things not so much (she’s supposed to be clever and good at talking her way out of things, but we pretty much never see that happen). All throughout, the reader gets too much information that the MC isn’t privy to, and it makes the pace at which she figures things out annoyingly slow (which doesn’t help the “she’s remarkably smart!” claim). It feels generally over-written, in a YA-like way.
I finally put the book down after Rig tells a primary bad guy some vital information for no reason except to make sure it can come back to bite her later .
Overall: frustrating, because I so wanted to like it. Sword lesbians? Hell yeah. Space opera? Absolutely. Anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist allegory? Sounds grand; sign me up. I did like some of the aspects of the worldbuilding, especially the cultural details of the displaced/subjugated people, and their various forms of resistance.
faelan2000's review against another edition
adventurous
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? It's complicated
4.75
glennau's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
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? Yes
5.0