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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The beginning was good and then it got too convoluted and complicated. I could not stomach all the pseudoscience and philosophy about souls.
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I’m a big fan of Dickinson’s Baru Cormorant series, so I was curious to see what he’d been working on in the meantime. I was excited to see how he handled a different genre but I think through reading Exordia I realized that what I liked so much about Baru Cormorant isn’t very specific to the genre, what grabbed me were the compelling, fully fleshed out main cast and relationships I became invested in, along with the great, intricate worldbuilding.
Other reviewers have mentioned that the first section stands out and was originally published as a separate short story. I think the first section is the strongest part of the book, and Anna and Ssrin’s weird-ass relationship was super compelling and drew me in, and then we basically never saw these characters interact again until the very end of the book.
I also think Dickinson bit off more than he could chew with all the topics he covers in the book. Pure math, the history of outside interference in Kurdistan, the Obama-era drone program and military in general, alien technology that interfaces with souls- it’s an ambitious amount of ground to cover and even with how long the book is, to me it spent so much time jumping around that it didn’t really fully deliver on any of these aspects.
I found the overarching plot and the POV characters engaging, but I struggled with the choppiness of the narrative. At the climax, I was genuinely too confused with what was happening with all the different characters and their motivations actually digest what was happening. Overall, I liked parts of it but struggled with the book as a whole, and would recommend people go in knowing that it’s hard sci-fi and pretty different from the Baru Cormorant series.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
Other reviewers have mentioned that the first section stands out and was originally published as a separate short story. I think the first section is the strongest part of the book, and Anna and Ssrin’s weird-ass relationship was super compelling and drew me in, and then we basically never saw these characters interact again until the very end of the book.
I also think Dickinson bit off more than he could chew with all the topics he covers in the book. Pure math, the history of outside interference in Kurdistan, the Obama-era drone program and military in general, alien technology that interfaces with souls- it’s an ambitious amount of ground to cover and even with how long the book is, to me it spent so much time jumping around that it didn’t really fully deliver on any of these aspects.
I found the overarching plot and the POV characters engaging, but I struggled with the choppiness of the narrative. At the climax, I was genuinely too confused with what was happening with all the different characters and their motivations actually digest what was happening. Overall, I liked parts of it but struggled with the book as a whole, and would recommend people go in knowing that it’s hard sci-fi and pretty different from the Baru Cormorant series.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Exordia is an absolute masterpiece of a book, and a rare instance (for me at least, recently) of a book that I really had trouble putting down. A book where you read 275 pages in an afternoon is a beautiful thing.
A complicated story that involves the meta power of narrative and emotion, Exordia is one of the most interesting and “genre-savvy” reading experiences a person can have. And because you inhabit the minds of many different characters (nerds) throughout the book, you’ll see lots of references that appeal to people such as myself. Twin Peaks references, which I just started watching the other day, Kurt Vonnegut references that appear literally after you just talked about Kurt Vonnegut in real life… am I being watched..?
Read this book if you love science fiction, or want to learn to love it again.
A complicated story that involves the meta power of narrative and emotion, Exordia is one of the most interesting and “genre-savvy” reading experiences a person can have. And because you inhabit the minds of many different characters (nerds) throughout the book, you’ll see lots of references that appeal to people such as myself. Twin Peaks references, which I just started watching the other day, Kurt Vonnegut references that appear literally after you just talked about Kurt Vonnegut in real life… am I being watched..?
Read this book if you love science fiction, or want to learn to love it again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic
Certainly I’ve added a lot of tags, though I haven’t really sorted them into categories correctly - but in my admittedly limited opinion, these aspects of the book enhance as opposed to harm. Obviously mileage may vary depending on your tolerances, but be warned, Exordia (a book about mathematically evil aliens) deals with many real world issues.
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes