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This book is a very conflicting experience. The most obvious thing that jumps out to you after reading it for a bit is the dubious grammatical errors. I highly doubt this was proofread much, and I also don't think this book had an editor. There are moments where it causes genuine confusion due to bad sentence structure, but it isn't overpoweringly bad. The main problem of the book is the two different plot lines that are followed.
One is about Felix, a scout, fighting the Antwar, and his struggle psychologically and physically to get through hell itself, while his superiors seem to repeatedly send him on death missions. I really liked this story and thought it had some interesting things to say. If the book was literally just this (which would mean it wouldn't have an ending) I'd probably give it 3 maybe 4 stars. If the book was actually structured entirely around this plot line, I'd probably give it 4 maybe 5 stars. However, we are not blessed with such a story, and instead, we are thrown a book mainly about Jack Crow.
This story line just isn't good. Jack Crow is an uninteresting and confusing character. He is written to be a sort of space badass who is the victim of everyone's perceptions of him. This is not what he comes across as. He comes across as a giant baby who cannot control himself, his sexual desires, or any of his interactions with others. Most frustratingly of all it seems that nobody, not even himself, notices these faults. This plot line is mostly focused around Jack Crow's exploration of a backwater town where he gets to know the locals and does some science. He also spends a lot of time bemoaning his situation and psychological issues, but it just rings incredibly hollow when we swap back to Felix going through hell itself. I cannot stress enough how much of a shock it is to go from a very competent emotionally compelling story about a man struggling to deal with the horrors of war to a story about a guy screwing about in nowhere while the author treats both stories with the same amount of gravity.
Jack Crow is also the story line that gets treated to the actual conclusion of the book, which is honestly pretty disappointing. I won't spoil it but it is simply not a conclusion that has any emotional payoff and fails to deliver on a lot of the really serious psychological problems that had been built up for all its characters.
One is about Felix, a scout, fighting the Antwar, and his struggle psychologically and physically to get through hell itself, while his superiors seem to repeatedly send him on death missions. I really liked this story and thought it had some interesting things to say. If the book was literally just this (which would mean it wouldn't have an ending) I'd probably give it 3 maybe 4 stars. If the book was actually structured entirely around this plot line, I'd probably give it 4 maybe 5 stars. However, we are not blessed with such a story, and instead, we are thrown a book mainly about Jack Crow.
This story line just isn't good. Jack Crow is an uninteresting and confusing character. He is written to be a sort of space badass who is the victim of everyone's perceptions of him. This is not what he comes across as. He comes across as a giant baby who cannot control himself, his sexual desires, or any of his interactions with others. Most frustratingly of all it seems that nobody, not even himself, notices these faults. This plot line is mostly focused around Jack Crow's exploration of a backwater town where he gets to know the locals and does some science. He also spends a lot of time bemoaning his situation and psychological issues, but it just rings incredibly hollow when we swap back to Felix going through hell itself. I cannot stress enough how much of a shock it is to go from a very competent emotionally compelling story about a man struggling to deal with the horrors of war to a story about a guy screwing about in nowhere while the author treats both stories with the same amount of gravity.
Jack Crow is also the story line that gets treated to the actual conclusion of the book, which is honestly pretty disappointing. I won't spoil it but it is simply not a conclusion that has any emotional payoff and fails to deliver on a lot of the really serious psychological problems that had been built up for all its characters.