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misterwisp's review
adventurous
emotional
tense
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? No
4.0
It's long but worth the time I think. The strengths are the characters and creative world. It's a large group of people but they all come across as having their own strengths and weaknesses and arcs that will keep playing out in the rest of the series. Nobody felt like a cliche stock fantasy character. I'm left interested to see what happens to the majority of them.
Insects are the dominant world building aspect and it works unexpectedly well. The different people across the map are grouped by whatever insect shapes their ancestry/abilities/race. There are intriguing hints as to how this all works although it's never laid out specifically. It was just an interesting approach I haven't seen before that doesn't seem explicitly based on anything else.
It has a bit of a WW2 vibe at times. There is this growing threat that only a small number of people recognize and are willing to take seriously. The world has mechanical technology and machines as well as a specific version of magic so there is a fun steampunk aspect to the setting too.
It starts out a little slow and gets a little slow in a few sections but I found myself increasingly drawn in as the tension built throughout the book and things reached a satisfying conclusion. I'm absolutely picking up the next book, so in my opinion this one does a lot of things right.
Insects are the dominant world building aspect and it works unexpectedly well. The different people across the map are grouped by whatever insect shapes their ancestry/abilities/race. There are intriguing hints as to how this all works although it's never laid out specifically. It was just an interesting approach I haven't seen before that doesn't seem explicitly based on anything else.
It has a bit of a WW2 vibe at times. There is this growing threat that only a small number of people recognize and are willing to take seriously. The world has mechanical technology and machines as well as a specific version of magic so there is a fun steampunk aspect to the setting too.
It starts out a little slow and gets a little slow in a few sections but I found myself increasingly drawn in as the tension built throughout the book and things reached a satisfying conclusion. I'm absolutely picking up the next book, so in my opinion this one does a lot of things right.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Confinement, Slavery, Violence, and War
Moderate: Blood, Classism, and Physical abuse
Minor: Sexual assault
jaedia's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, War, Xenophobia, Blood, Colonisation, Confinement, and Misogyny
Moderate: Abandonment, Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, Murder, Torture, and Trafficking
madibee's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
interesting world with hybrid insect humans, I always love when over the course of a fantasy book a group is formed. This book started out slow in not necessarily the best way, but I was glad I stuck through it. Books about war aren't usually my favorite, but I enjoyed the concept and characters enough to stay.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery
Minor: Torture, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
ketreads's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
2.5 stars
My first venture into the works of Adrian Tchaikovsky and I'm not sure if I'm a fan.
I love the books premise of different races ("kinden") are based on different types of insects, introducing us to many different possibilities of looks, powers, and abilities was exciting for me.
The book started strongly, dropping us into the madness of war, betrayal and death, never giving us a second to learn who our characters are but knowing we should care for them.
Sadly this is a theme throughout the rest of the book, never quite taking the time to let us get to know any character deeper than their surface level motivations. Tchaikovsky's style of jumping between characters, sometimes even mid-scene after a single paragraph, is off putting and hard to get used to. This style of writing ends up with me having finished the book and not really liking or relating to any of the characters because I don't care for them. One of his main characters, Totho, gets next to 0 screen (book) air time and we're expected to care about him as much as the other 3?? I'm not quite sure why the author made this choice but it isn't working for me.
Overall the story was interesting but felt like a 500 page prologue to the rest of the series, which I'm not sure I will continue with.
My first venture into the works of Adrian Tchaikovsky and I'm not sure if I'm a fan.
I love the books premise of different races ("kinden") are based on different types of insects, introducing us to many different possibilities of looks, powers, and abilities was exciting for me.
The book started strongly, dropping us into the madness of war, betrayal and death, never giving us a second to learn who our characters are but knowing we should care for them.
Sadly this is a theme throughout the rest of the book, never quite taking the time to let us get to know any character deeper than their surface level motivations. Tchaikovsky's style of jumping between characters, sometimes even mid-scene after a single paragraph, is off putting and hard to get used to. This style of writing ends up with me having finished the book and not really liking or relating to any of the characters because I don't care for them. One of his main characters, Totho, gets next to 0 screen (book) air time and we're expected to care about him as much as the other 3?? I'm not quite sure why the author made this choice but it isn't working for me.
Overall the story was interesting but felt like a 500 page prologue to the rest of the series, which I'm not sure I will continue with.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual violence and Sexual assault
There's a scene where one of the women characters are threatened with sexual violence, though nothing takes place.
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