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A review by monniebiloney
A Circle of Stars by Craig Montgomery
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A Circle of Stars has a good ending. when reading this book, I felt torn about perhaps giving it a 3 star rating, but the ending, as they say, is paramount. The ending of the book made reading this book, dispite it's flaws, worth it I think. I'm surprised that this is a duologue, as I have no idea what book 2 is gonna be about. Politics?
The flaws of this book are 2 main things. The beginning has too many chapters from Casper's POV, this is a flaw as when reading this book, you don't get a lot of characters or information to get your self attached to. When reading, I really felt "what's the point?" And it's kind of annoying how rude the MC was always treated in those first 100 pages.
Helix's POV, works much better to set the stage and also gives you a cast of characters. a book isn't just about 1 character, and that was the problem with having so many Casper POVs in the beginning. I think if we mixed in a couple of more Helix POVs in the first half, the book would have been better off. For example, I think this book would have been far more engaging if chapter 6(our first POV of Helix) was actually ourfirst chapter, and then we have the five. Chapters of Casper.
It just sets the stakes, characters, and world buildings much better then Casper's did.
THE SEXOND huge flaw is that there is some issue with the dialogue in this book. I don't know whats wrong, but whenever characters would talk with each other, I would always get a sense of 'weird' and I have no idea why.
I also think this book would have been better as a portal fantasy, then as a SCI-Fi. This is because, the mix between the two worlds actually causes some minor plot holes. If the two worlds have a more aggressive separation, the world building would make more sense.
In gernal, the world building here is really good, and the plot holes are minor. I was quite engaged thought the second half of the book (this was probably majorly helped by having more POV switches).
It's kind of weird, cuz I like Casper, but I didn't like his POVs. I think this has to do with the dialogue, as Casper talks with random quips, like he's a marvel character doing their big joke line, and everyone kind of ignores him when he talks. It's weirdly not engaging for the majority of the book.
Anyway, I enjoyed this, but I have 0 intentions for continuing the series.
The flaws of this book are 2 main things. The beginning has too many chapters from Casper's POV, this is a flaw as when reading this book, you don't get a lot of characters or information to get your self attached to. When reading, I really felt "what's the point?" And it's kind of annoying how rude the MC was always treated in those first 100 pages.
Helix's POV, works much better to set the stage and also gives you a cast of characters. a book isn't just about 1 character, and that was the problem with having so many Casper POVs in the beginning. I think if we mixed in a couple of more Helix POVs in the first half, the book would have been better off. For example, I think this book would have been far more engaging if chapter 6(our first POV of Helix) was actually ourfirst chapter, and then we have the five. Chapters of Casper.
It just sets the stakes, characters, and world buildings much better then Casper's did.
THE SEXOND huge flaw is that there is some issue with the dialogue in this book. I don't know whats wrong, but whenever characters would talk with each other, I would always get a sense of 'weird' and I have no idea why.
I also think this book would have been better as a portal fantasy, then as a SCI-Fi. This is because, the mix between the two worlds actually causes some minor plot holes. If the two worlds have a more aggressive separation, the world building would make more sense.
In gernal, the world building here is really good, and the plot holes are minor. I was quite engaged thought the second half of the book (this was probably majorly helped by having more POV switches).
It's kind of weird, cuz I like Casper, but I didn't like his POVs. I think this has to do with the dialogue, as Casper talks with random quips, like he's a marvel character doing their big joke line, and everyone kind of ignores him when he talks. It's weirdly not engaging for the majority of the book.
Anyway, I enjoyed this, but I have 0 intentions for continuing the series.