A review by sugarpal
Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

3.5 stars 
 
Reread to refresh my memory, because I won a giveaway for an arc of the second book, Truth of the Divine. 
 
Axiom’s End is Youtuber Lindsay Ellis’s debut novel. Set in 2007, the book explores what might have happened if the conspiracy theorists were right, and First Contact was real. Moreover, the public knows about it, thanks to the whistleblowing of the main character Cora’s father, Nils (basically the Julian Assange of this world). When she becomes the sole interpreter for one of the aliens, Cora gets wrapped up in the mess of alien politics and government secrecy, and as the secrets unravel and her relationship with the alien evolves, she finds herself caught between humanity and the otherworldly. 
 
I stand by my original review of 3.5 stars. For whatever reason, it took a long time for me to feel very connected to the characters, or invested in their relationships –– I only really started to like them towards the end. The writing was also unremarkable, not terrible, but not beautiful either. Still, I found this book very thought-provoking: I remember the first time I read it, I couldn’t stop thinking about it for a week, so Ellis must have done something right. I was especially interested in Ellis’s exploration of humanity’s [hypothetical] relationship with aliens, the inherent gap in understanding between alien species, and how that might make conflict inevitable. (I was less interested in the debate in the theater of public opinion led by Nils, over whether ‘Truth is a human right.’) 
 
I’m excited to see where Ellis takes the story in Truth of the Divine! 
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