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A review by overallshowman
The Last Gifts of the Universe by Rory August
4.0
The Last Gifts of the Universe follows Scout, an archivist who travels the cosmos for their "last gifts", which means everything that a dead world has left behind that could be proven useful for their world and its survival. They are joined by their brother Kieran and a really flashy cat I've enjoyed reading about: Pumpkin. During one of their escapades, they received a signal from a world that was wiped out hundreds (thousands?) years ago. The alien who sent it, Blyreena, leaves not just instructions about how to save the universe, but she also leaves stories of her past.
Through reading the synopsis, one would expect this book to be flashy and full of quick adventures—but really, at its heart, it's a lot more quiet and pays a lot more attention to the ideas of life and death, both for individuals and for the universe as a whole. This sounds like a book that I would love, and the only reason I'm not rating this 5-stars is because this short read was not able to hold my attention quite well. The writing is good—sometimes it tells too much—but I didn't exactly feel the high stakes that our protagonist is fighting for even if they're fighting for the good of the universe. I'm not sure if this could've been better if it were longer, but really I've enjoyed how "human" this is. The main protagonists aren't trained fighters and the story dwells more on emotions and ideas of mortality.
Overall, it's a solid debut and it will be released on April 7th! I would recommend it to readers who enjoy short and quiet space adventures (with a cat!). You don't even need to be a science fiction fan to enjoy this, and if you are, I think you'll devour this too.
I received an advanced review copy for free from BookSirens and I am leaving this review voluntarily!
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Through reading the synopsis, one would expect this book to be flashy and full of quick adventures—but really, at its heart, it's a lot more quiet and pays a lot more attention to the ideas of life and death, both for individuals and for the universe as a whole. This sounds like a book that I would love, and the only reason I'm not rating this 5-stars is because this short read was not able to hold my attention quite well. The writing is good—sometimes it tells too much—but I didn't exactly feel the high stakes that our protagonist is fighting for even if they're fighting for the good of the universe. I'm not sure if this could've been better if it were longer, but really I've enjoyed how "human" this is. The main protagonists aren't trained fighters and the story dwells more on emotions and ideas of mortality.
Overall, it's a solid debut and it will be released on April 7th! I would recommend it to readers who enjoy short and quiet space adventures (with a cat!). You don't even need to be a science fiction fan to enjoy this, and if you are, I think you'll devour this too.
I received an advanced review copy for free from BookSirens and I am leaving this review voluntarily!
Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Ko-fi | Carrd