DNF at page 52/end of Chapter 9. Specifically, at this exchange of dialogue:
"I'm sorry I was being a butt." "You were a total space butt." "I was an int
DNF at page 52/end of Chapter 9. Specifically, at this exchange of dialogue:
"I'm sorry I was being a butt." "You were a total space butt." "I was an interestellar cosmic super-butt."
This reads like it should have been middle grade. These characters are in high school - one of them can drive, and they've been to junior prom, so I assume they are at least 16/17 - and they do not talk, think, or act like it. If I had read this as a teen, I'd have felt incredibly patronized, and probably wouldn't have even made it 50 pages in.
I'm still open to reading CJA's adult books, but this... oof. Nothing about this was at all appealing....more
Call this more of a 2.5. Read as part of my ongoing shelf audit; this one's not a keeper.
Okay. Here's the thing. This book is exactly how Kylo Ren/BenCall this more of a 2.5. Read as part of my ongoing shelf audit; this one's not a keeper.
Okay. Here's the thing. This book is exactly how Kylo Ren/Ben Solo's redemption arc should have been written, if Disney/Lucasfilm had planned the Star Wars sequel trilogy in advance instead of flying a multi-million-dollar franchise by the seat of their pants. The character development and reveals are good, the arc makes sense, it all works.
One problem for me, personally, is that I just freaking hate Kylo Ren. If I'd read this before watching 'Rise of Skywalker', this might not have been a stumbling block, but I couldn't unsee the parallels and thus couldn't stop thinking about something that massively pissed me off. So there's that, and that's not Joseph Brassey's fault. Which is why I have to rate this three stars, and not two out of sheer emotional reaction.
Setting the Star Wars parallels aside, though, this still didn't... quite strike me. The swordfighting sequences are good, as is the action in general, but that's kind of it. The setting (floating continents in the sky) is interesting, but not really used or explored. The magic has a cool scientific structure, but wasn't really a focus of the narrative. There's a McGuffin, and a quest, but the quest itself also wasn't particularly motivating to the plot; the good guys want to get the McGuffin to keep it away from the bad guys, but there's little sense of what it can do, why it would be dangerous in the wrong hands, or how it might be instrumental for good in the right hands.
And speaking of things that don't motivate the plot... Aimee. I didn't care for Aimee, and that was uncomfortable for me, because usually I'm an easy sell on badass female characters! But despite being half of the POVs, Aimee simply did not feel like a very important character in this story. She doesn't really face challenges or grow; even when she fails, it doesn't seem to impact her confidence or lead to self-reflection ((view spoiler)[and in fact, each time she 'fails', it either wasn't her fault or has no bad outcome (hide spoiler)]). Her sheltered upbringing and naivete could be a weakness, except that when she's called out it by other characters, the narrative treats her as if she is justified - e.g., when Silas points out that she's not entitled to know all of his order's secrets, the last word still goes to Aimee, and no self-reflection occurs. She starts the story powerful, clever, confident, and excited for adventure, and she ends exactly the same way.
The only way in which she grows is in her attitude towards Azrael. Because, ultimately, this book is about him, and no one else. His actions push the plot forward; the crew of the Elysium are reacting to him at all times, trying to stay ahead, never given the chance to take initiative. Multiple special magical objects respond to him as they do to no one else. His choices determine how the story ends, and his final battle is much more detailed and complex than Aimee's (view spoiler)[even though he's fighting a fellow human and she's fighting some sort of eldritch nightmare (hide spoiler)]. He grows, and changes, and experiences complex emotions and doubt, and no one else really does. I honestly think that if the entire book had been from his perspective, it would have been more compelling, because everyone else sort of feels like a distraction.
Ultimately, not for me. That said, I do think it's fucked up that Angry Robot hasn't put the third book out. If an author is contracted to deliver three books in a series, the publisher should be similarly bound to publish them!...more
Read as part of my ongoing shelf audit. Verdict: Not for me, and I think my curiosity is satisfied re: Stina Leicht in general.
An important disclaimerRead as part of my ongoing shelf audit. Verdict: Not for me, and I think my curiosity is satisfied re: Stina Leicht in general.
An important disclaimer: the copy I read was an old ARC, so there may have been changes made before the final publication edition. However, I doubt they were on the structural level that, in my opinion, the story really needed. (I do hope that some of the typos and formatting/dialogue tag errors were fixed, as that was more distracting than most ARCs.)
This book... wants to be a lot of things, and it about half-succeeds at all of them. It felt a little bit like a trendy burger with all sorts of unexpected ingredients: maybe it could work if prepared just right, but mostly it's just a mess of mixed-up flavors competing with one another. There was an effort in the last ~50 pages to tie everything together, but I felt it was too little, too late.
The queerness of the cast is a good example of this sort of half-success. On the one hand, we've got a major nonbinary POV character (cool) and a cast of mostly women (cool), some of whom have relationships with other women and/or indiscriminate of gender (cool). However, other than Rosie's POV, there's very little onscreen queer visibility - and to be clear, I'm not inherently opposed to this, because there is definitely a need for representation of queer people as just a part of the average population. But. Then you get to the fact that the book treats 'nonbinary' as a third gender category, and somehow all genders (as in male, female, and nonbinary) are still completely identifiable on sight... I don't know. It starts to feel half-assed, like adding this third group suddenly means nobody's gender-nonconforming anymore; everyone fits neatly into boxes, just now with one more. Weird. Not fully rendered.
And then there's the alien plot. The prologue deals with these aliens in a confrontation with corporate forces, and one of them seems to unleash some sort of bioweapon against a corporate representative... which never comes up again. There's a conversation between two well-informed characters which could imply a larger threat to humanity which the aliens could help with... but that also never comes up again. In a setting where corporations can own entire planets and there's a whole corps of marines known for dying in combat and then being reanimated, everyone is somehow completely sure that if they just tell the government about the aliens, they will definitely punish the corporation and protect the defenseless (powerless) nonhumans! And etc. The aliens never feel fully rendered and honestly never feel like they're that relevant to the plot, despite nominally driving most of the page count.
What turns out to be more important is the AI subplot, which is weird because it comes up fairly early, and then gets dropped completely for around 250 pages before coming into the rushed resolution. I'm being vague here to avoid spoilers but - if a character has journeyed through space to track down a mystery signal, I would think??? she would keep looking??? actively???
Stylistically, I also didn't like the prose. Lots of telling when showing was an option, lots of pauses in scenes for semi-relevant flashbacks or infodumps, weird references to Earth culture and biology which detracted from the setting and characters (no, they're not aspen trees or cedars and yes, I AM tearing my hair out. Just describe the alien thing and let it be alien!). Limited sense of voice - even the non-sentient ship AI makes quips, and everyone says "Point." when someone has made a point. Action scenes that feel more like an NPR recap of a TV episode than prose narrative - ex: "At one point, they dropped the roll, but they were able to recover it before it rolled off." (No details like trembling hands or having to lunge towards the abyss, just dry description which adds nothing.)
Oh, and while the story takes place on the planet Persephone, I'm not sure who named this book because Persephone Station doesn't even show up until page 440 out of 500. Just a weird choice.
Mostly, this made me wish I was reading better SF with a more coherent idea behind it. However, it was a quick read when I actually sat down with it, and I didn't actively hate it, so two stars....more
At this point I think it's pretty much a guarantee that I will enjoy anything Emily Skrutskie writes. She's got a mix of funky SF worldbuilding, actioAt this point I think it's pretty much a guarantee that I will enjoy anything Emily Skrutskie writes. She's got a mix of funky SF worldbuilding, action, and messy queer characters that just works, and throws in plot twists and side characters which take me (pleasantly) by surprise.
I do wish this book had been a bit longer, mostly because I wanted more of it! There were several characters and relationships which I felt were sketched out in interesting shapes, but didn't have time to be really developed. (Specifically, I wanted more Fitz backstory and more about her perspective on Hark - it's clearly really different from Murdock's, but Murdock doesn't really register that, and it would have added interesting depth/nuance). The last few chapters went by very quickly considering the gravity of the decisions and developments they included, and I would have enjoyed more detail/depth there as well.
As a side note... the Justice and Scarlett's machinations would have worked on me. Like, almost immediately. Not sure how I feel about that......more
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