You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
This book was the first one I picked up as part of the 2015 Booktubeathon and I have to say it's well worth reading. This is a debut book by Kameron Hurley and whilst I haven't ever read anything by Hurley before now I had heard a lot about the originality and uniqueness of her ideas and concepts. Having now read her debut (which is the first in a series and one that I want to continue with) I can certainly say that Hurley does have a great way of coming up with original ideas that I had never seen done before.
This book focuses on a character called Nyx (what a cool name, may I just say) who is a Bel Dame and her team of Mercenaries. A Bel Dame is basically an elite assassin in this world, but this world is anything but normal. On the world of the Bel Dames there's a war raging between two nations. It's a war which is called the God's War and thus religion (and particularly Islamic beliefs) seem to take centre stage and be very prominent worries and concerns for may of our characters.
We follow Nyx as she and her team are forced to find a missing individual, but along the way we find out a lot about their pasts, their secrets, their beliefs and their (absurd) world. It's an adventure, a battle and a never ending war. It's certainly exciting!
The elements I found most interesting in this book were the world-building elements. Hurley has managed to create an alien world which runs off of Bug-powered technology and features magicians, assassins, gender-divisions and interesting characters. All of these elements are pretty balanced when you do get into the story (after about the first 50pgs) but it's certainly a bit of an experience to get used to it. I found myself believing in the world more the further through I went because Hurley, although very imaginative with the world-building, has it all worked out so well it feels convincing.
I also liked that we had some focus on boxing (something Hurley is apparently interested in and has a past with) and magicians (something I love in fantasy). It's never truly clear quite whether there is 'magic' in the conventional sense within this story or whether it's more genetic engineering so this is certainly a blurring the lines of Sci-fi and Fantasy. I highly enjoyed the Bug-magic-craziness throughout though!
On the whole I would say that this is probably not a book everyone will like because it takes a while to get to grips with it all and feel fully immersed but it is a fast-paced and highly original read. I would recommend it if what I've described appeals to you, and I gave this a solid 4* rating. I will certainly be looking out for the next few books in the series some time soon :)
This book focuses on a character called Nyx (what a cool name, may I just say) who is a Bel Dame and her team of Mercenaries. A Bel Dame is basically an elite assassin in this world, but this world is anything but normal. On the world of the Bel Dames there's a war raging between two nations. It's a war which is called the God's War and thus religion (and particularly Islamic beliefs) seem to take centre stage and be very prominent worries and concerns for may of our characters.
We follow Nyx as she and her team are forced to find a missing individual, but along the way we find out a lot about their pasts, their secrets, their beliefs and their (absurd) world. It's an adventure, a battle and a never ending war. It's certainly exciting!
The elements I found most interesting in this book were the world-building elements. Hurley has managed to create an alien world which runs off of Bug-powered technology and features magicians, assassins, gender-divisions and interesting characters. All of these elements are pretty balanced when you do get into the story (after about the first 50pgs) but it's certainly a bit of an experience to get used to it. I found myself believing in the world more the further through I went because Hurley, although very imaginative with the world-building, has it all worked out so well it feels convincing.
I also liked that we had some focus on boxing (something Hurley is apparently interested in and has a past with) and magicians (something I love in fantasy). It's never truly clear quite whether there is 'magic' in the conventional sense within this story or whether it's more genetic engineering so this is certainly a blurring the lines of Sci-fi and Fantasy. I highly enjoyed the Bug-magic-craziness throughout though!
On the whole I would say that this is probably not a book everyone will like because it takes a while to get to grips with it all and feel fully immersed but it is a fast-paced and highly original read. I would recommend it if what I've described appeals to you, and I gave this a solid 4* rating. I will certainly be looking out for the next few books in the series some time soon :)