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A review by scriptrix
Those Left Behind by N.C. Scrimgeour
Did not finish book. Stopped at 35%.
There was a lot to like here. This gave me vibes of Mass Effect, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, and other iconic scifi.
However, I struggled with 2 things: the number of characters and the number of "alien" words peppered in with little to no explanation. I lean toward preferring more explanation, not less, when entering someone else's world, especially when it's very different. I tried to stick it out because sometimes context clues, given enough time, are a satisfactory explanation. But that plus the narrative continually introducing new characters made the barrier to entry feel a little too high here. By over a third of the way in, I want to be connecting to a main character and have some idea of what their goal is. And I wasn't feeling that.
However, I struggled with 2 things: the number of characters and the number of "alien" words peppered in with little to no explanation. I lean toward preferring more explanation, not less, when entering someone else's world, especially when it's very different. I tried to stick it out because sometimes context clues, given enough time, are a satisfactory explanation. But that plus the narrative continually introducing new characters made the barrier to entry feel a little too high here. By over a third of the way in, I want to be connecting to a main character and have some idea of what their goal is. And I wasn't feeling that.