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A review by grid
Inheritance by Jennifer Foehner Wells
2.0
I liked the first two books in this series well enough, but suddenly in this one we have a new main character and while it’s the same universe, the tone has changed substantially. The scope or scale of the story also felt different, because that character is kept locked up and in the dark for the majority of the book.
I found the treatment of the primary subject matter, namely: slavery - to be incredibly distasteful. The whole book was cringy in how it dealt with this topic. Mainly it was that it really didn’t deal with it at all, just used as a flimsy and poorly drawn backdrop.
I guess another thing I really disliked was how there was a super interesting and sympathetic character introduced in a short story before the book (Hain), who is then turned into a villain in this book. Oh sure, there are hints that she’s being forced to act as a henchman for the true villain, and then at the end her actions are described to have been the result of blackmail. But her actions were to directly participate in (and in fact help run!) a galactic slavery ring. I cannot believe for a second that she should be redeemed or forgiven for them. She clearly had plenty of freedom on the ship and opportunity to act against her “master”. If this character returns (and is trusted at all), I will be upset about it.
I also have a general dislike for the trope where magic or super powers exist in some percentage of humans, we just don’t know how to unlock or access it. This is such a fantasy cliche that I often have to forgive it or get over it to enjoy a book. It was just slightly more annoying to find it in science fiction. :P
I found the treatment of the primary subject matter, namely: slavery - to be incredibly distasteful. The whole book was cringy in how it dealt with this topic. Mainly it was that it really didn’t deal with it at all, just used as a flimsy and poorly drawn backdrop.
I guess another thing I really disliked was how there was a super interesting and sympathetic character introduced in a short story before the book (Hain), who is then turned into a villain in this book. Oh sure, there are hints that she’s being forced to act as a henchman for the true villain, and then at the end her actions are described to have been the result of blackmail. But her actions were to directly participate in (and in fact help run!) a galactic slavery ring. I cannot believe for a second that she should be redeemed or forgiven for them. She clearly had plenty of freedom on the ship and opportunity to act against her “master”. If this character returns (and is trusted at all), I will be upset about it.
I also have a general dislike for the trope where magic or super powers exist in some percentage of humans, we just don’t know how to unlock or access it. This is such a fantasy cliche that I often have to forgive it or get over it to enjoy a book. It was just slightly more annoying to find it in science fiction. :P