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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
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:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
tense
fast-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:
Yes
WHAT
WHAT
WHAT
My mind is SO BLOWN. That was phenomenal. My GODS!
Proper review to come if I figure out how to be coherent about this freaking book!!!
ACTUAL (BUT WOEFULLY INADEQUATE) REVIEW:
HIGHLIGHTS
~souls + science
~add narrative to the list of universal forces
~an evil space empire
~I ship the snake-alien and the war-orphan
~how hard would you fight for your world?
I CANNOT EVEN.
WHAT.
WHAT.
WHAT.
I really had no idea what to expect of Exordia – I adore Dickinson’s Masquerade series, so obviously I was interested to see what he’d do with sci fi.
But THIS!!! There’s not knowing what to expect – and then there’s getting hit with THIS, this LSD-cocaine combo with medusa-aliens and sapphic science geniuses and honest-to-gods paladins (that’s a pun, and you’ll get it when you read the book), all racing to save the world and the galaxy and the souls of an entire species. (Maybe the souls of more than one species.) Exordia is a high-octane religious experience, a blockbuster of an action-movie that is achingly profound, with alien weaponry that shreds souls and the secrets of the universe hidden in pink noise, a tenderly merciless dissection of humanity and morality that still manages to make you giggle-snort at the most inappropriate moments. Dickinson plays the threads of the reader’s nerve-endings like a modern bard on the strings of an electric harp, and the result is a rock-n-roll-meets-death-metal concert of a story, complete with pyrotechnics and enough heart to have you screaming your throat raw.
You sure as hell won’t know who the fuck to cheer for, but you can’t help loving every character at least a little bit. (Except Iruvage, that fucker.) And they might all be queer??? Dickinson is definitely doing something with queerness that I’m not smart enough to articulate – check out the review I linked for a better breakdown on that. (And honestly, a better breakdown of the whole book, really!)
And yeah, parts of Exordia go heavy on the physics, but if I, who slept through my entire last year of physics classes when I was 16, can make it, so can you!
Oh, and this is another excellent review that says it all so much better than I can, please read it too! Whether you need more convincing or not.
Push comes to shove, I feel like the only thing I can say is – just dive in, head first. Make sure you have water bottles ready to keep yourself hydrated, because once you pick this up, you will be GLUED to the pages. Things like eating and sleeping will become so much less important than what happens next. This is the sort of book you inhale and it has left me with such a book-hangover, I don’t know how I can possibly read anything else again after this. What can compare???
My first six-star read of the year, easy.
WHAT
WHAT
My mind is SO BLOWN. That was phenomenal. My GODS!
Proper review to come if I figure out how to be coherent about this freaking book!!!
ACTUAL (BUT WOEFULLY INADEQUATE) REVIEW:
HIGHLIGHTS
~souls + science
~add narrative to the list of universal forces
~an evil space empire
~I ship the snake-alien and the war-orphan
~how hard would you fight for your world?
I CANNOT EVEN.
WHAT.
WHAT.
WHAT.
I really had no idea what to expect of Exordia – I adore Dickinson’s Masquerade series, so obviously I was interested to see what he’d do with sci fi.
But THIS!!! There’s not knowing what to expect – and then there’s getting hit with THIS, this LSD-cocaine combo with medusa-aliens and sapphic science geniuses and honest-to-gods paladins (that’s a pun, and you’ll get it when you read the book), all racing to save the world and the galaxy and the souls of an entire species. (Maybe the souls of more than one species.) Exordia is a high-octane religious experience, a blockbuster of an action-movie that is achingly profound, with alien weaponry that shreds souls and the secrets of the universe hidden in pink noise, a tenderly merciless dissection of humanity and morality that still manages to make you giggle-snort at the most inappropriate moments. Dickinson plays the threads of the reader’s nerve-endings like a modern bard on the strings of an electric harp, and the result is a rock-n-roll-meets-death-metal concert of a story, complete with pyrotechnics and enough heart to have you screaming your throat raw.
What will she say to the alien? She has not planned that far. “Take us so your leader”? No, the alien’s supposed to use that one. “We come in peace” has the same problem, and would, anyway, be a lie. Anna has no peace to offer. “Invade us, I beg you.” At least this would resolve the problem of her Argentina-sized debt.
You sure as hell won’t know who the fuck to cheer for, but you can’t help loving every character at least a little bit. (Except Iruvage, that fucker.) And they might all be queer??? Dickinson is definitely doing something with queerness that I’m not smart enough to articulate – check out the review I linked for a better breakdown on that. (And honestly, a better breakdown of the whole book, really!)
And yeah, parts of Exordia go heavy on the physics, but if I, who slept through my entire last year of physics classes when I was 16, can make it, so can you!
Oh, and this is another excellent review that says it all so much better than I can, please read it too! Whether you need more convincing or not.
Push comes to shove, I feel like the only thing I can say is – just dive in, head first. Make sure you have water bottles ready to keep yourself hydrated, because once you pick this up, you will be GLUED to the pages. Things like eating and sleeping will become so much less important than what happens next. This is the sort of book you inhale and it has left me with such a book-hangover, I don’t know how I can possibly read anything else again after this. What can compare???
My first six-star read of the year, easy.
Loved the opening chapters but didn’t care much about the military stuff later on.
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
r/fantasy bingo 2024-25; Multi POV
Hard Mode: At least five point of view characters. (DONE)
Another in the series of hard books with fairly hard sci-fi that I found difficult to read! However, I'd been looking for an excuse to read Exordia for this year's bingo so after some shuffling and DNFs I was SUPER thrilled to be able to shoehorn it in!! Because oh boy, did I ever fucking love it!! Seth lost me with the physics and maths a good amount of time, but it didn't stop me from being fully invested at all. I loved the characters and their fucking complex relationships, I loved the setting and the sheer alienness of the aliens (IRUVAGE!!! My beloved genocidal HAM OF A SNAKE!!!)! I came out with a bunch of ships and a huge boner for Clayton and Erik killing each other because my god. Hello? It'll keep me satisfied while I wait patiently for Baru 4 anyway. I originally put this in for the pubbed in '24 square, but realised that hard mode for that has to be a debut, so I switched it into this one.
Hard Mode: At least five point of view characters. (DONE)
Another in the series of hard books with fairly hard sci-fi that I found difficult to read! However, I'd been looking for an excuse to read Exordia for this year's bingo so after some shuffling and DNFs I was SUPER thrilled to be able to shoehorn it in!! Because oh boy, did I ever fucking love it!! Seth lost me with the physics and maths a good amount of time, but it didn't stop me from being fully invested at all. I loved the characters and their fucking complex relationships, I loved the setting and the sheer alienness of the aliens (IRUVAGE!!! My beloved genocidal HAM OF A SNAKE!!!)! I came out with a bunch of ships and a huge boner for Clayton and Erik killing each other because my god. Hello? It'll keep me satisfied while I wait patiently for Baru 4 anyway. I originally put this in for the pubbed in '24 square, but realised that hard mode for that has to be a debut, so I switched it into this one.
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
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:
Yes