A review by porcinitortellini
The Old Universe by Forbidden Origins, Eric Martinez, Armani Salado

Did not finish book. Stopped at 34%.

So usually I try to find the good in everything, but this book TESTED me. A friend sent me a TikTok about the book from the author/publishers account and it really caught my attentions! Star Wars meets Lord of the Rings?? It sounded like the most epic sci-fi/fantasy space opera lovechild, but it was just...not good.

The writing was...bad. It wasn't even not good, it was just bad. Like I'm not sure if they had an editor? The story was painted with incredibly broad strokes, the characters personalities and actions was all over the place, and the pacing was incredibly clunky. It seriously reminded me of a Wattpad fanfic. I wanted so bad to keep going because another review said that they did representation really well! Being a big consumer of sci-fi and a lady, I was dying for some amazing female representation. The whole reason I FINALLY gave up was because

the two only named female characters so far were being set up to fight over the main male character.

Maybe that's not the case, and MAYBE one day I'll try again, but I wouldn't hold my breath...