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kiwiwonder 's review for:
Carve the Mark
by Veronica Roth
By the same author as Divergent - which is a very high recommendation as far as I'm concerned - but a new book, new series.
In Carve the Mark, two cultures existing on a planet (in a different solar system than ours, and hence a much different world) are diametrically opposed to each other. Tensions are high between the two, and although they're not in all-out war, that feels like a distinct possibility. Complicating matters, the solar system has a limited number of people who are oracles - they can see visions of the future, some of which are considered unalterable, and deemed to be "fates". Other visions they see are possible futures, and may be changed by actions. On the surface of this, there is a strong theme running of the idea of fate, and how much free-will we have to control our own destiny. Beyond that though, the plot thickens, and indeed gets fairly muddy.
I found this book much harder to get into than I did Divergent. Partially I think this is because there's more worldbuilding that had to occur, whereas Divergent, being dystopian, was easier to imagine... as a not-so-distant possible future for our own society. This on the other hand, while somewhat futuristic (being based in times of space travel, but on different solar systems...) was at once immediately foreign. I like sci-fi in general, but something about this particular book seems hard to grasp.
Although told in the first person narrative viewpoint of Cyra, it also follows our male protagonist, Akos, tho his story is told in third person (limited). It's an interesting shift in perspective, though smooth enough that I didn't pick up on it immediately. They two perspectives start off as different stories, but of course become one in reasonably short order.
At the time I picked this book up, all the conditions were ripe for it. I've been playing a lot of the game "Stellaris", which takes place in space-travel times, and talks about settling on different planets, and politics are important there as well... all of which are also in this book. It should have been able to fit fairly seamlessly into my current themes, so to speak. Yet, I still had some difficulty with it, and at times it was a slog.... though at other times I was fairly riveted.
I've talked about readability in some of my more recent reviews, and I think that this one is largely affected by that. When I was actively reading the book, it kept me engaged enough that it was easier to keep going than to put it down. But the draw to pick it back up once I had stopped, that was largely missing, making this a slower read than it might otherwise have been. I wanted to know what happened, but at the same time, don't feel massively involved in the characters. The main characters themselves are okay - I like them, but I don't necessarily relate to either one of them - but the side characters are by and large not developed and thus hard to picture or get a firm grasp of. In all respects, there is something about this book that feels one step removed for me. As a reader, I don't feel in the thick of the action, but rather, one or two steps removed, and hence I'm somewhat passive in my feelings about what happens to them.... which isn't the best thing for a book, in my opinion.
Without any true spoilers, it's fair to say that the story in this book is not finished, and clearly continues in the next book. On the one hand, I'd like to read it, as I'm still interested in how the fates of the various characters play out. On the other hand though.... I'm not necessarily eagerly searching for it, either, because again.... not as heavily invested in the story or the characters as I had hoped.
In Carve the Mark, two cultures existing on a planet (in a different solar system than ours, and hence a much different world) are diametrically opposed to each other. Tensions are high between the two, and although they're not in all-out war, that feels like a distinct possibility. Complicating matters, the solar system has a limited number of people who are oracles - they can see visions of the future, some of which are considered unalterable, and deemed to be "fates". Other visions they see are possible futures, and may be changed by actions. On the surface of this, there is a strong theme running of the idea of fate, and how much free-will we have to control our own destiny. Beyond that though, the plot thickens, and indeed gets fairly muddy.
I found this book much harder to get into than I did Divergent. Partially I think this is because there's more worldbuilding that had to occur, whereas Divergent, being dystopian, was easier to imagine... as a not-so-distant possible future for our own society. This on the other hand, while somewhat futuristic (being based in times of space travel, but on different solar systems...) was at once immediately foreign. I like sci-fi in general, but something about this particular book seems hard to grasp.
Although told in the first person narrative viewpoint of Cyra, it also follows our male protagonist, Akos, tho his story is told in third person (limited). It's an interesting shift in perspective, though smooth enough that I didn't pick up on it immediately. They two perspectives start off as different stories, but of course become one in reasonably short order.
At the time I picked this book up, all the conditions were ripe for it. I've been playing a lot of the game "Stellaris", which takes place in space-travel times, and talks about settling on different planets, and politics are important there as well... all of which are also in this book. It should have been able to fit fairly seamlessly into my current themes, so to speak. Yet, I still had some difficulty with it, and at times it was a slog.... though at other times I was fairly riveted.
I've talked about readability in some of my more recent reviews, and I think that this one is largely affected by that. When I was actively reading the book, it kept me engaged enough that it was easier to keep going than to put it down. But the draw to pick it back up once I had stopped, that was largely missing, making this a slower read than it might otherwise have been. I wanted to know what happened, but at the same time, don't feel massively involved in the characters. The main characters themselves are okay - I like them, but I don't necessarily relate to either one of them - but the side characters are by and large not developed and thus hard to picture or get a firm grasp of. In all respects, there is something about this book that feels one step removed for me. As a reader, I don't feel in the thick of the action, but rather, one or two steps removed, and hence I'm somewhat passive in my feelings about what happens to them.... which isn't the best thing for a book, in my opinion.
Without any true spoilers, it's fair to say that the story in this book is not finished, and clearly continues in the next book. On the one hand, I'd like to read it, as I'm still interested in how the fates of the various characters play out. On the other hand though.... I'm not necessarily eagerly searching for it, either, because again.... not as heavily invested in the story or the characters as I had hoped.