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A review by vailynst
Marked by Light by Jenna Bennett, Heidi Ruby Miller
3.0
In a futuristic world with four moons, hovercrafts, grav lifts, a strictly tiered society and where your whole life is determined by your genetics, a sadistic ruler takes complete control with immortality and becomes steadily insane when he's infected & made mortal. Sara Mendoza, a middle-class Socialite, is only thinking about continuing her genetic line by netting a good Prime and having her first child. Instead, she takes the fall for an information hijack and tortured until pain becomes the meaning of life.
From darkness and pain, Sara wakes up in an improved body, an expensive bio-tattoo, and higher status as Ambasadora. She's become one of the select few to portray intelligences and grace to the public for the Sovereign. Her first mission is to find the cure for the ruler's infection and kill the revolutionary ruffian that has it.
Rate: 3.5 Stars
The world is intricate and a little confusing in it's complexity. There are some details that are vivid and clear. Some other aspects are glossed over and I'm left wondering what it is & how it fits.
I love the intra-tat and it's complex biometrics that interfaces with the host body. When I imagine it in my mind, it's beguilingly beautiful and annoyingly noticeable. It's hard to hide in plain sight if your arm is glowing in changes beats timed to your pulse. That goes for the Voyeur feeds and the invasive methods that create really cool & unique responses. Music that syncs up to your biorhythms & sings lyrics from your thoughts--how cool is that? Scary, but cool!
Sara and Sean's torture sessions are amazingly brutal and very vivid. There is no mistaking what is happening and you can't close your eyes because you need them open to find out what's going on next. In a morbid way, those parts will stay with me as one of the best things about this book.
The fighting is described well and I like them except for how easily some of the damages occur. I love the first bike ride Sara takes with Sean. When they finally hook up, it's touching, fragile and a little frantic. There's a nice build up to them getting together but I felt that they accepted the feelings too quickly. Neither of them are people that bend easily and I felt they both took on a new paradigm with little work to conform to a new idea. David loving Mari is completely sweet. That had more time, development and acceptance of the choice both wanted to make. Plus, their sex scene is hot!
I enjoyed the sequences where the events taking place told the story rather than information being narrated via internal dialogue. Overall, I felt detached from the struggle that's taking place in the society. It was too much being told at me rather than inter-playing with the characters. The parts that really resonated with me were the torture scenes, Sara flipping out due to the drugs, Sara & Sean hooking up, the funeral, David proposing to Mari, and Rainer's "death". I was okay if he died there. It would have been heroic.
Chapter 54 is my favorite chapter of all! If Sara was a little bit more like that (true to whatever state she's in) throughout the book, I would love the story even more!
This part made me laugh snort-chuckle:
Chen wasn’t sure what disgusted him more--the thought of Faya docking Prollixer or the fact that she would alter her genes in such a drastic way.
Perhaps, in my mind, there were too many main characters. Sara should be the heroine and the rest are close but not it. Yet, I felt like there were four main characters: Sara, Rainer, Sean and David. Sean & David's development is very well done. Sara's is clear but not as personal in some aspects. Rainer doesn't really change so much as takes the best option open to him in any given state.
I admit that I'm stingy with my stars. Sometimes, I wonder if I'm too stingy with them. Ambasadora is a good novel that takes place in a richly textured world with characters that you'll grow to love. It would be fun to read more stories in this world. I'll be intrigued to see what else Heidi Ruby Miller will create and publish. Bring it on!
From darkness and pain, Sara wakes up in an improved body, an expensive bio-tattoo, and higher status as Ambasadora. She's become one of the select few to portray intelligences and grace to the public for the Sovereign. Her first mission is to find the cure for the ruler's infection and kill the revolutionary ruffian that has it.
Rate: 3.5 Stars
Spoiler
Be warned: Lengthy ReviewThe world is intricate and a little confusing in it's complexity. There are some details that are vivid and clear. Some other aspects are glossed over and I'm left wondering what it is & how it fits.
I love the intra-tat and it's complex biometrics that interfaces with the host body. When I imagine it in my mind, it's beguilingly beautiful and annoyingly noticeable. It's hard to hide in plain sight if your arm is glowing in changes beats timed to your pulse. That goes for the Voyeur feeds and the invasive methods that create really cool & unique responses. Music that syncs up to your biorhythms & sings lyrics from your thoughts--how cool is that? Scary, but cool!
Sara and Sean's torture sessions are amazingly brutal and very vivid. There is no mistaking what is happening and you can't close your eyes because you need them open to find out what's going on next. In a morbid way, those parts will stay with me as one of the best things about this book.
The fighting is described well and I like them except for how easily some of the damages occur. I love the first bike ride Sara takes with Sean. When they finally hook up, it's touching, fragile and a little frantic. There's a nice build up to them getting together but I felt that they accepted the feelings too quickly. Neither of them are people that bend easily and I felt they both took on a new paradigm with little work to conform to a new idea. David loving Mari is completely sweet. That had more time, development and acceptance of the choice both wanted to make. Plus, their sex scene is hot!
I enjoyed the sequences where the events taking place told the story rather than information being narrated via internal dialogue. Overall, I felt detached from the struggle that's taking place in the society. It was too much being told at me rather than inter-playing with the characters. The parts that really resonated with me were the torture scenes, Sara flipping out due to the drugs, Sara & Sean hooking up, the funeral, David proposing to Mari, and Rainer's "death". I was okay if he died there. It would have been heroic.
Chapter 54 is my favorite chapter of all! If Sara was a little bit more like that (true to whatever state she's in) throughout the book, I would love the story even more!
This part made me laugh snort-chuckle:
Chen wasn’t sure what disgusted him more--the thought of Faya docking Prollixer or the fact that she would alter her genes in such a drastic way.
Perhaps, in my mind, there were too many main characters. Sara should be the heroine and the rest are close but not it. Yet, I felt like there were four main characters: Sara, Rainer, Sean and David. Sean & David's development is very well done. Sara's is clear but not as personal in some aspects. Rainer doesn't really change so much as takes the best option open to him in any given state.
I admit that I'm stingy with my stars. Sometimes, I wonder if I'm too stingy with them. Ambasadora is a good novel that takes place in a richly textured world with characters that you'll grow to love. It would be fun to read more stories in this world. I'll be intrigued to see what else Heidi Ruby Miller will create and publish. Bring it on!