For everyone wCWs:(view spoiler)[misogyny, physical abuse, animal cruelty, fatphobia (minor mention), rape (minor mention, not shown) (hide spoiler)]
For everyone who read Fourth Wing and thought that the part where (view spoiler)[dragons mating leading to their human partners mating (hide spoiler)] was interesting—let me introduce you to the OG.
I read this a long, long time ago, and I remembered parts of it being problematic, but I was curious to see how I'd feel about it now. And you know what, the problematic parts were still problematic. But the story and the world are just as interesting as they were when I read them the first time.
Instead of the conflict in this story being people at war with each other, the people are at war with their environment. That doesn't mean that there's no politics or in-fighting, because all of that exists, but it lends a different dynamic to it when one of the parties is in charge of protecting the entire planet. At the beginning of the book, the dragonriders have lost credibility in Pern, because the threat that they exist to fight hasn't been seen for 400 years. This leads to the different towns abandoning the agreements that have always been in place to support the Weyrs. Lessa is thrown into this chaos when F'lar decides she would make a good Weyrwoman. Through her, we slowly begin to piece together how the world functions, and to unravel all the mysteries we've been introduced to.
The strength of this book is really in the story it's telling, and not so much the characters or relationships. Yes, the bond between dragons and humans is cool, and it does get explored quite a bit, but I spent far more time being intrigued by the world and the Threads than the humans. There also isn't a romance to root for, even though one does develop between Lessa and F'lar eventually. Their relationship starts off extremely contentious, however, and it makes it hard to root for them as a couple, or for F'lar as a love interest specifically. There are multiple instances where he talks down to Lessa, shakes her, slaps sense into her, berates her, not to mention the implication of nonconsensual sex (fully off-page, but it is mentioned). And maybe it's a product of the time it was written in, but that doesn't make it more fun to read. Lessa is far from a doormat, though, and she gives as good as she gets at least 50% of the time. It also helps that she's the undisputed hero of this book, and her grit and determination makes it easy to root for her....more
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
The title of the book is a little bit of a misnomer, because most of the short stories ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
The title of the book is a little bit of a misnomer, because most of the short stories deal with villains and I didn't notice a lot of misunderstandings (maybe a couple). Overall, this was a pretty fun anthology. There are 22 very different stories (some of them are poems), written by a variety of authors. Some worked better for me than others, but there were definitely a few standouts.
Time Lock by James Rogers (5⭐) This was a really good story if you like (view spoiler)[time loops (hide spoiler)].
The Healer by Luke Hannon (5⭐) I really liked the concept. The story was pretty short, but the execution was well done and very effective.
City of Rot by Josh Clayton (5⭐) Great reveal at the end.
Practice and Preach by Jeannie Marschall (4⭐) This one was just a fun read.
6 Principles for a Stronger Relationship with Your Undead Minions by Merdhin Wylde (4⭐) Another fun one, very cohesive....more
But there are none so frightened, or so strange in their fear, as conquerors. They conjure phantoms endlessly, terrified that their victims will someday do back what was done to them—even if, in truth, their victims couldn’t care less about such pettiness and have moved on. Conquerors live in dread of the day when they are shown to be, not superior, but simply lucky.
This series is one of the best I've ever read. The only reason I didn't give the conclusion 5 stars is because I, personally, had a much better time with the first 2 books—when everything was a mystery, and my mind was racing to try and figure it all out. This is the final book, and there isn't much mystery left, which absolutely makes sense, but it did lower my enjoyment just a smidge. That, and the pacing felt slower to me.
They’re afraid because we exist, she says. There’s nothing we did to provoke their fear, other than exist. There’s nothing we can do to earn their approval, except stop existing—so we can either die like they want, or laugh at their cowardice and go on with our lives.
If you're worried that you'll still be left with questions by the end of this, don't be. I think that Jemisin skillfully explained everything you've been wondering about, and maybe more. The writing is gripping and beautiful as always, and the ways in which the characters and relationships develop stunned me with how deep it went. The journeys that Essun and Nassun go on separately, and how that impacts the way they see each other, everything was masterfully executed. This entire series, despite being heavy on the science as well, is so rooted in humanity, and I love seeing that within SFF.
But for a society built on exploitation, there is no greater threat than having no one left to oppress.
Honestly, nothing I can say can ever fully express how I feel about this series. I can only say that it's absolutely worth picking up....more
Fools. That’s what you get for pissing off my rogga.
Reading this series reminds me of all the things I love about epic fantasy. The complexity, the constant confusion as you learn new things about the world and the characters that completely change your perception of what is going on, the feeling that the characters have massive impact on their world, and that their choices may save it or break it. This is why I once loved reading series like The Wheel of Time. Jemisin manages all of this with truly stunning writing, a diverse cast of characters that make me feel all sorts of things for them even when they do terrible things, horrors that are written into the story in such a way that it feels almost accidental, except she doesn't waste a word and is definitely highlighting the kind of themes I love to read about. And it's only 3 books long. I'm honestly in awe.
Even as the characters are grappling with a new season and all that entails, there is a lot of room for Jemisin to showcase humanity, the good and the bad. One of the things that I thought she really highlighted well are cycles of abuse. Essun was abused by her guardian Schaffa, and by the Fulcrum, and she passed that on to Nassun. It was interesting to see how both Schaffa and Essun now regret the choices they made and the harm they did, and how Nassun, even though she understands that her mother is the way she is because of the Fulcrum and Guardians like Schaffa, somehow doesn't blame Schaffa for Essun's abuse (and in fact loves him like a father), but blames her mother for the way her father turned out.
As with the first book, there are so many mysterious hints dropped in the narrative. Some of those do get explained, but for the rest I only have a lot of wild theories as to what is going on. That is part of the fun for me, and I trust Jemisin to deliver a cohesive whole that will explain everything by the end.
This is an experience unlike any other, and I completely understand why each book won the Hugo award....more
So, the good news is, compared to the first book, Ikenna frustrated me a lot less. The bad news is, this left space in my head to start noticing a lot of things about the writing, and none of it made me very happy.
Plot-wise, this is a complete departure from book one, which makes sense considering where we left off. There's no mystery left. Ikenna and her team are hellbent on getting rid of the corruption within Mareen. Before they can do that, they need to take care of the Blood Emperor, who is once more terrorizing the planet. It's a very straightforward plot of "how are we going to defeat the bad guys", but it's fairly fast-paced and overall entertaining enough. And I mostly liked the characters. But a lot of this doesn't feel like it's the end of a series. This is reinforced by the end of the book, which basically implies there's a whole new story waiting to happen. Things are set up by the author that never get any payoff. For example, the book starts off with Ikenna trying to broker an alliance with someone on the wrong side of the law. She demands soldiers and weapons, only she doesn't really do much with either of them afterwards, or with the alliance in general. There's maybe one or two off-hand mentions, and that's it, which makes me wonder why the author bothered to include it at all. It also leans a lot more fantasy than science fiction compared to The Blood Trials.
Other than all the major plot conveniences that riddle this story, I have two major criticisms.
The first has to do with Ikenna. Look, I get that she was always going to be special as our main character. She has the Blood Gift and all of that. But her level of special receives like three upgrades over the course of this book, and I guess it's not something I expect to see if we're talking about an adult fantasy. This much Chosen One-ness is something I see more often within YA, and it irked me. I also had trouble buying into her supposed development. One of my biggest issues with the first book was how little she thought things through, and how she kept deciding that people were murderers based on very flimsy "evidence". Only now I'm supposed to believe that she has become some sort of strategic mastermind.
But I could've ignored that, because I didn't have very high expectations for her anyway. However, I couldn't ignore all the issues I had with the writing.
The author relies very, very heavily on similes/comparisons, whether they're necessary or not. Ikenna can never just be angry, she has to be angry like a thousand raging suns. Something can't just hurt, it hurts like fifty daggers stabbing into her stomach one after the other, the last one dragging her intestines out of her, so a final blade can twist into them until twenty gallons of blood come pouring out. Here are a few examples so you can get a sense of what to expect:
Conversely, the Blood Emperor allows his savagery, the utter barbarism that comprises him, to ooze from his skin like an open sore he doesn’t bother to bandage. It washes over him and coats him like an exoskeleton he clings to and dons as an additional weapon to spread fear and terrorize all who have the misfortune of stumbling into his orbit.
His cheekbones and jawline are pronounced, sharp as the Khanaian blade pressed against my hip and concealed beneath the black tactical pants and shirt Ajani first captured me in.
It’s so glacial it feels like icicles punch through my insides while my heart and blood and muscle and tissue and sinew freeze over.
I can't confirm this, but I wouldn't be surprised if every page had at least one sentence similar to these.
The author also really likes to use sentences with extra full stops/periods:
I grip the edge of the seat. “Be. More. Succinct. Immediately.”
Seriously, nobody talks like that.
Then there are sentences that are weird/nonsensical:
“What do you have for us?” Reed asks, his low, steady tone exuding all I could want from a voice.
This may sound like nitpicking, but I wouldn't have noticed all of this if it wasn't all over the book. I just don't think the writing is very good in general, and if you're someone who tends to see patterns and stylistic choices within the writing, you might be bothered.
(All quotes are from an ARC of the book and may not match with the published version. They are only included as an indication of the writing style.)...more
There were parts of this that I wasn't very interested in, but I liked the introduction of variousCWs:(view spoiler)[nudity, violence (hide spoiler)]
There were parts of this that I wasn't very interested in, but I liked the introduction of various people related to Marko, and what this reveals about him as a character. The art is still stellar, Hazel has a nice narrative voice, and the story is compelling and has me invested. ...more
It's really impressive the way this volume manages to introduce so many difCWs:(view spoiler)[nudity, slavery, prostitution of minors (hide spoiler)]
It's really impressive the way this volume manages to introduce so many different characters, races, worlds, and relationships, but somehow does it without feeling like utter chaos. I really like the magic system, where different spells need different things (for example, at one point Marko required a secret to perform magic). The art is stunning, the storyline is compelling so far, and I'm excited to see where this series will go....more
The first thing that struck me when I started this book was the dedication, which is one of the most memorable ones I've read. I spent some time looking up other reviews for this book before writing my own, and someone mentioned that all the main characters in this book are women or nonbinary. It isn't something I noticed at the time, but now the dedication makes even more sense.
When it comes to representation, Loki's Ring pretty much has it all. BIPOC rep, queer rep, mental health rep, neurodivergent rep, disability rep, and maybe there are more that I missed. And it works because there's a huge cast of characters. Some of them have smaller roles than others, but I do appreciate the effort the author put into this. I also liked that the characters were mostly older.
There are some really interesting aspects to the world, like the fact that humans can partner with young AIs and sort of raise them inside their brains. The other part I really liked has to do with the Ring itself, which I can't talk about more because it would be a major spoiler. I will say that it reminded me of the strange whimsy that I associate with a lot of my favourite Doctor Who episodes, so if that's something you are into, this book might work for you. It's apparently also set in the same world as Persephone Station, which is another book by the author, but I don't think you need to read that first to pick this up. I didn't, and I never got the idea that I was missing something.
While reading this felt like a fun ride, I do think the book was too long for the story it's trying to tell. The pacing could've been tighter by removing some of the side tangents we went on during the course of this elaborate rescue mission....more
Welcome to Aloisville, rainiest town in the rainiest state. Population: we don’t recall.
Told in the form of a diary written by our main character, Laverne, Nothing But the Rain is about a town called Aloisville, where something in the water erases people's memories. It's in the rain, in the pipes, and every leaky faucet is a potential danger. And the worst part is, they have no way of communicating with the outside world. The town is barricaded by mysterious soldiers wearing full body suits, and any and all signals have been cut off.
There's not much I can say about this novella that won't spoil something about it. I really loved what this story was doing. The writing was excellent, and the ending was well-executed. It will leave you with more questions than answers, however, and that is maybe one of the few complaints I have. While I wasn't expecting to have everything explained, and, in fact, appreciate an open ending when I feel the story warrants it, in this case it felt weird because of how the story wrapped up. There are several mysteries that are alluded to in Laverne's journal, and I wanted at least some of them to be resolved.
The other thing is that, despite how short it is, some of it felt a bit repetitive. But overall, a fantastic debut, and I would definitely recommend picking this up....more
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The way this book is structured almost feels like a collection of shoARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The way this book is structured almost feels like a collection of short stories, all featuring the same main character, who remains unnamed for most of it and is instead known by a different nickname in each chapter/section. The fact that the protagonist remains the same prevents the story from feeling completely disjointed; however, I did feel confused a few times, wondering if we were still following the same person, or the woman she was looking for. The intentional withholding of the character's name didn't help with that.
That said, the scenarios the protagonist finds herself in were all interesting to read about, and told me a lot about this version of Earth. Through her and the people she meets along the way, we get to find out about the dominant religion, how law & order works, how much Earth and its people have changed since a part of humanity abandoned the planet, and how in other ways, they haven't changed at all. I really liked a lot of the side characters that we meet as well, and wish there had been time to explore some of them a bit further.
I don't think I would call this a romance, since it takes a good while for our main character to find the person she's looking for, but if you're looking for a scifi Western, give this a go....more
"You'll never fear your wife. But every wife fears her husband, even if she doesn't say so."
I actually don't have too much to say about this book. I wasn't familiar with Antigone and didn't look up the original story until after I'd read this. I can see the inspiration, but the motivations are very different, and I don't think I really understood why characters acted the way they did here. The world gets established reasonably well within the smaller scope of the novella, but there are a few things that left me with questions. I think it would've benefited from more pages to flesh everything out just a bit more.
Having read Poster Girl last month, it's interesting to me that this is another story where the author does something with women's autonomy over their bodies. In this universe, most of humanity has died out, and women's bodies are valued because of their ability to give birth. Pregnancy is no longer a choice but a duty. It's anti-abortion laws kicked up to 11—fitting for a dystopian world.
The ending felt extremely rushed to me, and maybe a bit unsatisfying. I also think there were too many different POVs for something this short. I ended up not really connecting to any of them, which makes the ending less impactful than it could've been....more
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
This had a lot of ups and downs, and if I'm being honest, for me, they were mostly dowARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
This had a lot of ups and downs, and if I'm being honest, for me, they were mostly downs.
The first 25% of this book is a lot of setup where we get introduced to the world, the alloys, constructs, pilots that can carry humans inside of them, etc. The preamble leading up to our main characters arriving on Meru felt pretty long, but I started to warm up to the entire endeavor once Jayanthi and Vaha meet. I liked their interactions and discussions, and was curious to see how they would bond once they got to Meru. I tend to enjoy scifi that focuses on the connection between characters, usually more than I do hard scifi, and watching two people settle on an uninhabited planet as they try to prove that humans can be trusted to travel in space sounds like a setup I could really like.
Unfortunately, the time we spend on Meru is cut short. I think this part of the story takes up maybe another 25%. The rest of it was consumed by one of my least favourite plot devices: (view spoiler)[amnesia (hide spoiler)]. I think I could've overlooked that if the book had been shorter, or the characters less repetitive in their monologues, but after the nth time of them wondering what had happened, or bemoaning their general uselessness, I just got frustrated at having to sit through it....more
I know this is technically a scifi mystery, but if I take a moment to really CWs:(view spoiler)[suicide, forced birth control, murder (hide spoiler)]
I know this is technically a scifi mystery, but if I take a moment to really analyze the themes here, I would almost consider this horror. Not the slasher kind, or the kind with monsters and supernatural creatures, but a type of psychological horror born from living in a surveillance state. Of course this book paints an extreme picture where every choice you make has positive or negative consequences, and the government monitors you constantly, but I think the surveillance part especially probably happens far more than we think it does. Which is a scary thought.
"It seems to me," she says, "that if your every choice is in defiance of a system, you are as much a servant of that system as someone who obeys it."
I'd consider this book more of a character-driven story than a solid mystery. It's about Sonya learning to let go of all the rules she has lived by her entire life, and about how the Delegation isn't the utopian society she still considers it to be. The mystery of the missing child is what forces her to confront some of her convictions, but it ultimately feels more like the driver for Sonya's character development than the core of the story. That said, I enjoyed seeing Sonya come to terms with what she thought to be true. She comes across initially as someone who is a stickler for the rules. She keeps a constant tally in her head of all the things she does, and how many points they would get her in the old system. However, there are also moments where she exhibits an unexpected fierceness and unwillingness to let others walk over her, and I think we got more of those moments as the story progresses.
I do feel like there are some plot holes here. For example, Sonya has an Insight in her eye, which allows the current government to access footage of where she has been and what she's been doing. I just keep wondering, why didn't she cover it with an eye patch to stop them from tracking her? She even mentions how uncomfortable she used to find the thought that they could watch her undressing, and how she had to let go of doing everything in the dark because it just wasn't possible. An eye patch seems like a pretty decent solution to me....more
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I really loved the theme of this anthology that focuses on 3.5 stars
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I really loved the theme of this anthology that focuses on older characters being the Chosen One and saving the world. Some were more epic in scale than others, where I think the author interpreted the theme very loosely. Most of the stories would fall within fantasy, but there are a couple that are more scifi.
Lean In: The Lord of Hell Is Coming by Ericka Kahler (4⭐) I liked this take on the Chosen One refusing violence. Not very subtle and a bit repetitive, though.
Big Momma Saves the World by Maurice Broaddus (2⭐) The idea behind this was interesting, but I was just very confused.
A Legacy of Ghosts by Sarah Hans (4⭐) I liked the drama of this one. It did a lot for a short story.
The M.A.M.I. Incident by Guadalupe Garcia McCall (2⭐) The idea behind this was interesting, but the story itself felt chaotic and unhinged, with a plot twist that came out of nowhere.
Adya and the Messengers by Jaymie Wagner (5⭐) This was really sweet, and I loved the fairytale vibes.
Soccer Mom Saves the World by Addie J. King (3⭐) It got a bit chaotic at one point, but was fun overall.
My Roots Run Deep by John F. Allen (1⭐) This was a mess. The plot was nonsensical, and words were used that don't mean what the author apparently thinks they mean.
It's My Nature by JD Blackrose (4⭐) Enjoyed this overall, some of the dialogue was really good.
Truthteller by Linda Robertson (5⭐) Really liked the premise and execution. A lot of worldbuilding packed into this one without making it feel like an infodump.
Utopia by Vaseem Khan (4⭐) I enjoyed this but the ending was very abrupt.
Jackalope Wives by Ursula Vernon (5⭐) This is the reason I picked up this anthology, and I was not disappointed. Vernon's prose and stories always hit. Love the dark fairytale vibes.
Granny by R.J. Sullivan (2⭐) There was nothing wrong with this, it just wasn't very memorable and had some cheesy dialogue.
Launch Day Milkshakes by Jim C. Hines (3⭐) This was mostly a conversation between 2 characters, which is a shame because the concept was interesting, it just felt underutilized/underdeveloped.
The Sunspear by Alexandra Pitchford (2⭐) This was very vague and very chaotic, and I never really got a handle on what was going on.
Once a Queen by Alana Joli Abbott (4⭐) Even though not much happens, this was still cute. Wish there had been more time to explore the portal world.
By the Works of Her Hands by LaShawn M. Wanak (5⭐) Loved the writing and the idea of a social worker going to a portal world and helping different creatures from that world find better places in our own.
All the World's Treasures by Kimberly Pauley (4⭐) Por por was a force to be reckoned with. Loved reading about her.
Strange Wings by Kathryn Ivey (2⭐) This was description-heavy, and then there was a lot of walking, and when we finally got to the good part, the story ended.
The Mountain Witch by Lucy A. Snyder (3⭐) Discusses how history is historically rewritten to suit what men want/need....more
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I had such a good time with this book. I loved the setting (isolatedARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I had such a good time with this book. I loved the setting (isolated closed circle mystery on a space ship!), the characters, and all the weird elements that have to be part of this because we're dealing with a murder in space. I really appreciated how much effort the author made to make sure the science part wasn't neglected; the frustration of Tesla's lawyer being on earth and the communication delay getting longer and longer was palpable, but it also made everything feel more real.
Tesla, Shal, and Gimlet were delightful, and I loved spending time with them. The banter and humor between characters was fun. However, I didn't feel like the murder mystery had enough foreshadowing so that readers could figure everything out on their own, which is usually part of the fun for me, but it could also be that I just wasn't smart enough for it.
There's a small learning curve at the beginning of the book where you need to get used to all of the terms and technology that exists in the book, but I thought the author did a good job of easing me into it without a lot of infodumping. I also appreciated the way she dealt with Tesla's chronic pain, including Gimlet, the adorable service dog. One thing I did notice is that even though Tesla makes it a point to mention that people shouldn't just touch her dog because she is on duty, she also sends Gimlet off to distract people with cuteness and pets ridiculously often. And I know Tesla and Shal were on their honeymoon, but there was a lot of making out considering how dire the situation was....more
It has honestly been a really long time since I've read a hard scifi that was this compelling. The premise of the book is that a scientist discovers a mysterious object in space, and humans plan a mission to investigate it. Because of how far it is, they end up sending clones. I wasn't sure I would even finish this book when I started--looking at my track record for hard scifi this year, there have been mostly misses. But I think the reason this worked for me, is because it's not so much about the destination, but the journey.
We operated that way because that's the way many Earth societies operated--they didn't respond to potential tragedy, only actualized tragedy. Once we could make our own laws we needed to abandon those ways. We were no longer bound to Earth by its gravity, why should we remain bound by its customs?
This book focuses a lot on characters, relationships, and what a society in space would look like. How communities would evolve. What traditions, rules, and laws would they retain from Earth, and what would inevitably end up changing. If you have finite resources, how do you make sure you don't run out because of population growth? How could AIs develop? What problems might they run into, despite the careful selection of the genes that should go on this journey? And the exploration was fascinating to me. All the scenarios the author came up with felt plausible, even if they were hard to swallow sometimes.
The way it's structured allows us to follow many points of view, without it ever feeling overwhelming. This includes the world building, which is one of my most common complaints when it comes to scifi. But I thought everything was very well explained; you don't always get the answers right away, but you also don't have to wait half a book for them. Things progress slowly but steadily, and each perspective is a jump forward in time, and a jump forward in the development of their society, which means we get to learn a bunch of new things about the challenges they face and how they deal with them.
The last chunk of the book didn't work as well for me. I know it's a series, but I don't feel like I need to know more about the mysterious object than I do now. The journey to get there was enough.
I'm ending this review with two of my favourite quotes, hidden under a spoiler tag because they are definitely spoilers: (view spoiler)[
The prisoners were all criminals, but not a one knew what his or her crime had been--just that it was a crime in their genes, not one they'd enacted themselves.
and
"You realize this isn't a homecoming, don't you?" he said sternly. "I know," she said, running a hand through her hair. "It's First Contact."
This has some interesting ideas, like afthands and being able to manipulate the chemicals in your brain so you don't overreact to bad situatiDNF @ 26%
This has some interesting ideas, like afthands and being able to manipulate the chemicals in your brain so you don't overreact to bad situations. I was also really intrigued when they finally reached the ship they were looking for and the events surrounding that.
My biggest problem is the chatty inner monologue of the main character. On page 14, she says:
But my log might turn out to be important: a historical document or evidence in a hearing or even an inquest and trial. So now I'm thinking about, well, who am I talking to? Because I'm not just talking to myself anymore.
Based on that, I was expecting a much snappier, to the point story. Instead, it took me an incredibly long time to get as far as I did, because the interesting parts are bogged down by every single thought the main character has ever had, even though she is apparently logging this after the fact.
I went ahead and looked up a few reviews, and based on those I don't think my level of interest warrants pushing through, so I'm putting the book aside....more
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
CWs: torture
This was my first Blake Crouch book, and I can see why sARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
CWs: torture
This was my first Blake Crouch book, and I can see why so many people enjoy his stories. This was fast-paced, easy to read, and compelling to boot. Our main character is the son of the woman who caused one of the biggest humanitarian crises in history, resulting in gene manipulation being banned. To atone for his mother's sins, he joined the Gene Protection Agency. But while acting on a tip, he gets exposed to something that begins to alter his own genes. He just doesn't know into what.
Parts of this do get pretty science heavy. I didn't feel like I missed anything or didn't understand what was happening, but I did feel overwhelmed sometimes by the lists of genes that we get throughout the book. I guess it does add to the science fiction vibe. It's nowhere near the level of, say, Andy Weir, though, so if you enjoy that you probably won't mind it here. The idea of gene manipulation and how it was used was interesting. The story lags a bit in the middle, and there's a time jump that didn't really make sense to me, but I was entertained and look forward to reading the author's other works....more
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Writers learn about themselves through their words, and that educati
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Writers learn about themselves through their words, and that education feeds our work, making it richer. Our lives leave an impression on the page, but the page marks us, and each word we write prompts change, so in the end it is impossible to tell whether the writer or the imagined world is most altered by the process.
The story wasn't what I was expecting, but it definitely kept me interested until the very end. Unfortunately, I think this book was bogged down by excessive exposition and explanations for the character motivations, when just letting them do something and leaving the reader to ponder why would have worked better. Definitely more telling than showing, but I can't tell if that is just the way this author writes, or if it's a choice he made because of the narrative device, which is kind of a book within a book. David Asha, a writer, is the one supposedly telling us this story. He introduces the book, after which we get multiple chapters from Harriet's perspective, and then interrupts it during the climax to take over the telling of it again. I wasn't a huge fan of the structure, and I think it's part of what dragged the pacing down in what should have been the most exciting part.
I can't discuss anything about the story and what did or didn't work for me without spoiling it, so unless you do not intend to read this book or have already read it, I'd advice not clicking the spoiler link.
(view spoiler)[First things first: The Doctor would not approve of this book. The plot hinges on time travel, where Elliot travels back in time as Ben to save his parents, and then teach his younger self enough physics to make this entire journey possible. A lot of time travel stories have pretty strict rules about meeting with different versions of yourself. In this book, there is no paradox and no consequences. It's interesting, but also a lot to wrap my mind around, and I do think it makes everything too easy in a way. Ben knew exactly what to say to Elliot, because he had lived it. I get that this is on the light side of scifi, though, and I don't think the author really intended to explore the ramifications of time travel and meddling in your own future (even though I think that could've been very interesting). Also, I know it's technically not a huge age gap, since Ben and Harri are close to the same age when they meet, but the reveal that Elliot is Ben soured what was already a not great romance. It might just be me, but having Harri desperately in love with someone she also knew as a child feels a little icky.
Everything wrapped up a little too conveniently, and while it does end up making sense somehow, there are a few elements that feel very forced. For example, Harriet started investigating the Ashas because of a book she found that had a plea for help with a warning that someone was going to kill someone else written in the margins. But by the end, we find out that nothing was going on, and those lines were written there purely because Ben knew this had to happen for Harriet to start investigating. We also never get a real explanation for why Ben decided to travel to a time where he couldn't reproduce this technology, rather than joining his parents in the future, but I guess that wouldn't have been nearly as dramatic. But that's part of the problem; everything that's in the book that could have been a touching or sad moment, feels like it was put there just to manipulate the reader, and not because it's the logical way for the story to go. (hide spoiler)]...more
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