Atropos was a well written dive into a fascinating world. The story sprawls across a more than 300 year time span and shows the progression of humanity after a world altering event. It blends sci-fi with mystery and creates an engaging narrative despite the extended timeline. This story is heavily premise focused rather than being character or plot focused.

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My biggest complaint was that the book suffered a little from saggy middle syndrome. A lot gets set up early in the book, and in the middle, there are a few places where the narrative drifts and the story doesn’t weave together well for me. The mystery plot helps pull the story out of this dull drum, but it does slow down for a bit in the middle.

My minor grips are that there is some heavy handed repetition of exposition and that it’s a bit of a sausage fest. There are a few women present, but most are only significant as mothers and significant others. This is only a minor gripe. I tend to read books that are female centered, so I could just be a bit off center in preferring more women in books.

I was impressed by the professional polish on this book. Other than the repetitious exposition, the book was extremely well edited and read smoothly.

The expansive world of this story was incredible. I’ve come across a few premise driven books in the sci-fi genre and they are difficult to pull off. They have a tendency to be interesting at first, but get boring as there’s nothing to pull the reader through the story. This book solves that problem by incorporating a mystery that keeps the reader engaged and interested in what happens next.

The mystery itself was well written. It was planted well throughout the story and the reader had enough information to figure out the mystery on their own, but not enough to make it boring. I was engaged with the mystery until the very last page!

The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis

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adventurous emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A great book. The start was a little rocky, but I enjoyed it once I got into it.

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Love Murderbot! I recommend it to anyone who will listen to me!

Tam Lin: A Modern, Queer Retelling by Tammy DesChamps, T. J. DesChamps

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adventurous dark fast-paced

5.0

My philosophy on reviewing books is linked here: http://www.curiousdoodler.com/myblog/...

Overview:
This novella was good! It started out slow, but by the end I was enjoying the story! The writing was fantastic.

Deep Dive:
My biggest challenge with this story was that the pacing felt off. A lot of time was devoted to the set up, but the set up wasn’t used much in the actual story. It’s a short novella, so lingering on something that didn’t affect the plot left the story feeling disjointed and awkward.

My minor gripe is the kilts. I realize the story explains why there are kilts in Ireland, but I don’t understand why an element that needed so much explaining was included. It felt awkward and shoe horned in for a few one lines. Also, women wear men’s kilts which doesn’t make sense, even with the justifications used in the text.

The writing in this is very polished. The formatting had some errors, but the writing itself was a pleasure to read.

I was impressed by how well the main character was developed through the story. At the beginning, I couldn’t stand the main character and almost didn’t finish reading it, but as the story progressed the character evolved and I grew to like him. I’m impressed that so much development was crammed into such a small story.

Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly

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adventurous challenging emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I wanted to read some vintage fantasy, and Brandon Sanderson sited this as the book that got him into fantasy as a kid. His description hooked me and I'm so happy I read this! It definitely has a different flavor to modern fantasy, but the story was incredible. I have been looking for something with mature protagonists and really got that here. I love how love was a major theme without being a romance story, and the approach to motherhood was fresh and exactly what I was looking for! Neither glorifying nor vilifying it.

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curiousdoodler's reviews 68 reviews

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curiousdoodler's reviews
68 reviews