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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
the beginning was the strongest part for sure, but the characters were enjoyable the whole way through, and I thought the world building was very interesting.
This book was a great balance of comic sci-fi and philosophical adventure. The world-building serves to set up some fascinating scenarios involving the internet's effect on galactic civilizations and the place of the soul in experience. The main character, Viv, is swept suddenly away from Earth and has to join up with a gang of misfits to find her way home. But that's only like a fifth of what's going on here. Really, I need to read it again to digest everything.
Cute and fun. Atmosphere and plot reminiscent of Guardians of the Galaxy movie #2.
Overall I liked it but there were definitely some big drawbacks.
Pros: strong female characters, lgbt representation, making friends with assorted oddballs a la Guardians of the Galaxy, space travel and magic together.
Cons: the big plot twist you saw coming from miles away, main character that feels pretty useless, friendships that are based on nothing at all, supposedly deep romantic relationships that seem to be just based on attractiveness, the seemingly endless buildhup to the story's climax/ultimate battle.
It was just interesting enough that I would try out this author's other books just to see if maybe the other were better written.
Pros: strong female characters, lgbt representation, making friends with assorted oddballs a la Guardians of the Galaxy, space travel and magic together.
Cons: the big plot twist you saw coming from miles away, main character that feels pretty useless, friendships that are based on nothing at all, supposedly deep romantic relationships that seem to be just based on attractiveness, the seemingly endless buildhup to the story's climax/ultimate battle.
It was just interesting enough that I would try out this author's other books just to see if maybe the other were better written.
Read like the novelization of a really good video game, or someone else's tabletop campaign. Worldbuilding is quite nice but the narrative structure of meet a character -> do their companion quest -> meet another character doesn't quite work. The best character is Zanj by far, followed by Grey the baby virus/demon/cookie monster, then the monk, and finally in last place is the too-on note barbarian princess love interest.
Vivian, despite being the main, never really gets that much of an internal transformation. I liked her using her rhetorical skills more than fighting, but wish I could see more of the darkness that makes her a potential Empress. Without it, she's kind of generic protagonist, and the really cool aspect of her having to face a future self doesn't quite hit.
Zanj is fascinating though, and the style with which Gladstone depicts all the various alien worlds is fun. Could have been game of the year but had to be a book instead.
Vivian, despite being the main, never really gets that much of an internal transformation. I liked her using her rhetorical skills more than fighting, but wish I could see more of the darkness that makes her a potential Empress. Without it, she's kind of generic protagonist, and the really cool aspect of her having to face a future self doesn't quite hit.
Zanj is fascinating though, and the style with which Gladstone depicts all the various alien worlds is fun. Could have been game of the year but had to be a book instead.
It felt like Gladstone wanted to go for a bombastic space opera here. And it is; there's lots of action and a team and all the trimmings of far future transhumanist ideas. It all feels hollow though. Especially the characters. The ideas too though. They're grand, but somehow also bland and boring. Generally I found this book pretty self-indulgent and also way too long. Not recommended.
Dnf at NINETY PERCENT - that should tell you how fed up I was by the end. Other reviewers have summed up my feelings very well, but what finally did me in was the endless inspirational tirades about friends and needing people and "I'm nothing like you" that fully have no reflection of how the characters are actually behaving towards each other and really feels like just the author showing off how well he can make characters verbally spar.
Also I truly hate having superhero level characters (xanj can move so fast she can do a million things without being seen, literally is impossible to defeat in battle blah blah blah) with zero explanation as to why she is like this. Hugely disappointed when they finally got to her home world and it was like " oh yeah they aren't like me either I kinda just appeared and made myself look like them and saved their whole civilization wtv shrug".
And man do I not want to read about selfish tech billionaires.
Also I truly hate having superhero level characters (xanj can move so fast she can do a million things without being seen, literally is impossible to defeat in battle blah blah blah) with zero explanation as to why she is like this. Hugely disappointed when they finally got to her home world and it was like " oh yeah they aren't like me either I kinda just appeared and made myself look like them and saved their whole civilization wtv shrug".
And man do I not want to read about selfish tech billionaires.
adventurous
mysterious
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:
Yes
I understand why publishers feel the need to call books "the female [famous book or movie]" or whatever, it helps sell books. But this stands on its own and is in no way similar to Guardians of the Galaxy except that they are in space and the protagonist is a horny Earthling.
Se supone que es Space Opera, pero al final todo son magos del espacio con naves espaciales.
Se me ha hecho muy densa porque la historia avanza metiendo problemas en cada giro, y aunque no hay muchos personajes, al menos los que hay están bien.
Se me ha hecho muy densa porque la historia avanza metiendo problemas en cada giro, y aunque no hay muchos personajes, al menos los que hay están bien.