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A review by chrissie_whitley
The Fates Divide by Veronica Roth
3.0
Where the first book, [b:Carve the Mark|30117284|Carve the Mark (Carve the Mark, #1)|Veronica Roth|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1462467867s/30117284.jpg|44736077], felt slow and steady and purposeful, this sequel just came in with slow and fragmented. On the whole, I'm disappointed because I wanted this to feel as ancient and cemented as its predecessor, but it just felt like a whole lot of typical and ordinary, making me feel as if Roth is simply better at beginnings than endings.
It seems that most of the points I loved from Carve the Mark were just not present here with its sequel. I missed the feeling of history and steady heartbeat I imagined thrumming throughout; I missed the solid relationship Cyra and Akos had slowly built, established, and achieved; I missed the awareness of greater things occurring in the universe around them while maintaining that laser focus on our two main characters; and I missed the momentum that carried me through each chapter.
The world-building really suffered in this novel losing all its power through confusing reintroductions to each character and setting. I felt a little lost more than once all the way through, as though I was expected to just know and remember everything as if the previous book was just the previous chapter and not from a publication released over a year before. All the names, planets, places, and perhaps especially the characters' fates just couldn't reconnect with their places in my mind and nothing was properly reintroduced for the benefit of the reader.
However, though Roth failed to build further upon the sturdy foundation laid in place with her first book, I must admit that on the whole both the story and scope of it are still entertaining enough. The places, characters, and ideas from Carve the Mark carried over and managed to hold this book together.
I feel there were several missed opportunities within where Roth could've maintained that fantastic mix of ancient societies with space-traveling technologies not often found in YA Sci-Fi, but which I felt she deftly handled in Carve the Mark. Meeting another oracle, establishing more of the family trees for some of the fated families, spending more time within the political arena and with Chancellor Isae, and both Cyra and Akos exploring more of their respective currentgifts, all took place and could've and should've spawned a greater discussion and less of the trivial points of that current day. I would loved to have been told more of the histories for the places visited, the histories behind currentgifts and the understandings of them to that point, histories of the oracles, the political history as far as the establishing of such a governing body in the first place, and the first inklings for the fated families and the beginnings from whence this faith spawned.
Also, my main issue with the first book, the odd shift in POVs was present again here, and because of the novel's lacking in other areas, I felt the shift more pointedly with The Fates Divide and it only made a slow story even slower. Cyra, Cici, and Eijeh all take the helm as narrator at various points and all guide the story through first-person point-of-view (though Eijeh's is more of a collective and shared first-person). Inexplicably, and irritatingly so, when it is Akos's turn to narrate, he does so in the removed but focused third-person limited. I fail to see the reason behind this, and an explanation is never provided. Admittedly, I have no idea how an explanation would surface within the realms of a fictional story without the explanation being from the author herself, but it was an established irritant from the first book that was not as easy to overlook here in the lackluster second book.
Simply, this book was fine and entertaining enough, but fell back to a middle-of-the-road journey rather than what my expectations from Carve the Mark had me ready to read.
It seems that most of the points I loved from Carve the Mark were just not present here with its sequel. I missed the feeling of history and steady heartbeat I imagined thrumming throughout; I missed the solid relationship Cyra and Akos had slowly built, established, and achieved; I missed the awareness of greater things occurring in the universe around them while maintaining that laser focus on our two main characters; and I missed the momentum that carried me through each chapter.
The world-building really suffered in this novel losing all its power through confusing reintroductions to each character and setting. I felt a little lost more than once all the way through, as though I was expected to just know and remember everything as if the previous book was just the previous chapter and not from a publication released over a year before. All the names, planets, places, and perhaps especially the characters' fates just couldn't reconnect with their places in my mind and nothing was properly reintroduced for the benefit of the reader.
However, though Roth failed to build further upon the sturdy foundation laid in place with her first book, I must admit that on the whole both the story and scope of it are still entertaining enough. The places, characters, and ideas from Carve the Mark carried over and managed to hold this book together.
I feel there were several missed opportunities within where Roth could've maintained that fantastic mix of ancient societies with space-traveling technologies not often found in YA Sci-Fi, but which I felt she deftly handled in Carve the Mark. Meeting another oracle, establishing more of the family trees for some of the fated families, spending more time within the political arena and with Chancellor Isae, and both Cyra and Akos exploring more of their respective currentgifts, all took place and could've and should've spawned a greater discussion and less of the trivial points of that current day. I would loved to have been told more of the histories for the places visited, the histories behind currentgifts and the understandings of them to that point, histories of the oracles, the political history as far as the establishing of such a governing body in the first place, and the first inklings for the fated families and the beginnings from whence this faith spawned.
Also, my main issue with the first book, the odd shift in POVs was present again here, and because of the novel's lacking in other areas, I felt the shift more pointedly with The Fates Divide and it only made a slow story even slower. Cyra, Cici, and Eijeh all take the helm as narrator at various points and all guide the story through first-person point-of-view (though Eijeh's is more of a collective and shared first-person). Inexplicably, and irritatingly so, when it is Akos's turn to narrate, he does so in the removed but focused third-person limited. I fail to see the reason behind this,
Spoiler
unless it has to do his bloodline,Simply, this book was fine and entertaining enough, but fell back to a middle-of-the-road journey rather than what my expectations from Carve the Mark had me ready to read.