tankfurter 's review for:

Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey

4.25

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: Yes

---

This one left me a bit split, and I have been trying to figure out why.

I think it was a very compelling story, overall extremely interesting and rich with a lot going on. Classic space opera with many moving pieces, deep motivations, and high risk.

This one was particularly action-packed, with all the battles from many points of view.

For me, there were slightly too many points of view, at least for a ~550-page book. There were a number of them that just did not feel necessary. One or two of them could have been cut, and the book would have been better for it.

There were also a few factions that I know we were meant to be empathetic towards (and normally, I would be), but the way they were written, their motivations were just not as sympathetic as they should have been.

For some characters, like Filip, I think that worked well as an example. For others, it felt like an unintended consequence of the writing style.

Overall, still a great book.