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chronicallybookish 's review for:
Aetherbound
by E.K. Johnston
Quick Stats
Age Rating: 13+
Overall: 2 stars
Characters: 2/5
Plot: 2/5
Setting: 2.5/5
Writing: 2/5
This book… was… so… boring. According to Goodreads, it’s only 250 pages. I’m shocked, because it felt so long.
There was so much potential in the premise and in the characters, but everything fell short. The plot slogged, and I had to force myself to finish the book. I felt like I should have liked the characters, but I couldn’t get myself to connect with any of them. They felt emotionless. I liked Fisher, I guess, and I was rooting for him, but I still didn’t care about him or connect with him nearly as much as I wanted to.
If I hadn’t gotten this book as an ARC, I’d have DNFed it a couple pages in. It was just so dense. The book is split into 4 or 5 parts, and each part is preceded with a 5+ page info dump of history of the character/galactic politics/etc. and they were not presented in an interesting way. Using back story before each chapter or part is something I tend to really enjoy, if it’s done right. This was pure info dump, and it was painful to get through. Not to mention, everything in those info dumps was explained well enough within the body of the story as needed, so they were completely unnecessary in the long run.
There was also this huge plot hole that just bothered the hell out of me the whole time—why didn’t Ned just sleep around. Like, they spend all this time stressed because if he dies, the whole station dies with him. He’s a man. It would not be that hard to get a bunch of girls pregnant and guarantee the safety of your people. Like, I get population control, but they never talked about being concerned with that. They let people immigrate in. Just close your borders, dont let other citizens procreate until you have a solid two male heirs to protect yourselves. Humans are incredibly easy to kill. Why was there no back ups?
The point is, I did not enjoy this book. It sounded like it was going to be interesting, but the plot was extremely slow and lacking, the characters’ personalities and growth were nonexistent, and it just wasn’t worth it.
Age Rating: 13+
Overall: 2 stars
Characters: 2/5
Plot: 2/5
Setting: 2.5/5
Writing: 2/5
This book… was… so… boring. According to Goodreads, it’s only 250 pages. I’m shocked, because it felt so long.
There was so much potential in the premise and in the characters, but everything fell short. The plot slogged, and I had to force myself to finish the book. I felt like I should have liked the characters, but I couldn’t get myself to connect with any of them. They felt emotionless. I liked Fisher, I guess, and I was rooting for him, but I still didn’t care about him or connect with him nearly as much as I wanted to.
If I hadn’t gotten this book as an ARC, I’d have DNFed it a couple pages in. It was just so dense. The book is split into 4 or 5 parts, and each part is preceded with a 5+ page info dump of history of the character/galactic politics/etc. and they were not presented in an interesting way. Using back story before each chapter or part is something I tend to really enjoy, if it’s done right. This was pure info dump, and it was painful to get through. Not to mention, everything in those info dumps was explained well enough within the body of the story as needed, so they were completely unnecessary in the long run.
There was also this huge plot hole that just bothered the hell out of me the whole time—why didn’t Ned just sleep around. Like, they spend all this time stressed because if he dies, the whole station dies with him. He’s a man. It would not be that hard to get a bunch of girls pregnant and guarantee the safety of your people. Like, I get population control, but they never talked about being concerned with that. They let people immigrate in. Just close your borders, dont let other citizens procreate until you have a solid two male heirs to protect yourselves. Humans are incredibly easy to kill. Why was there no back ups?
The point is, I did not enjoy this book. It sounded like it was going to be interesting, but the plot was extremely slow and lacking, the characters’ personalities and growth were nonexistent, and it just wasn’t worth it.