DNF @ 71%. I really wanted to like this book, especially with such an intriguing sounding cast. The first half of the book is a bit of a slog, sometimes there were typos/missing words, ‘said’ is overused, and imho it took way too long for the main group to meet up with the aliens from the first chapter. I also wish the world had been a little more alien outside of a Brynner, especially the Emissaries' home. I am not invested enough to finish now that I've picked up something else. :(
"The plot was fine," she said. "Lots of telling and not a lot of showing," she said. "Things were going on, but I didn't feel very connected with the characters," she said. "And I got really tired of the dialogue feeling so same-y," she said. "I had to stop reading," she said.
Hey look at that! It is possible to write an action packed space opera filled with female and non-binary characters! Whodda thunk? (Besides literally every female and nonbinary person I mean.) There were some cool ideas about AI, mech suits, and revivication (not zombies), and the political situation was interesting enough, but unfortunately the ending comes a little too fast for those ideas to get as much attention as I would like. Still, I'm happy to find space adventure fun times without there once being a mention of women being obsessed with their own anatomy, which has been a problem in the last few sci-fi novels I've read where women were allowed to take part in the action. There was even talk of having children that wasn't cringy at all. That feat alone almost makes me want to give it four stars.
So this was sort of a hard book to get through. The beginning had promise, introducing some intriguing world building and a fascinating alien race. I was also excited for a diverse and queer sci-fi with nonbinary rep. First, this was a multiple POV story, that didn't have very distinct voices. I was confused at the start of each chapter for a large chunk of the book which character we were following. I also just did not care about any of the main cast, they felt quite flat and their relationships were not compelling. It took me about 30% of the way in to finally get a feel for where the story was going, needless to say it felt like a lot of set up. But then, set up for what exactly? There didn't seem to be anything driving these characters …
Thank you to Netgalley and Gallery for the ARC
So this was sort of a hard book to get through. The beginning had promise, introducing some intriguing world building and a fascinating alien race. I was also excited for a diverse and queer sci-fi with nonbinary rep. First, this was a multiple POV story, that didn't have very distinct voices. I was confused at the start of each chapter for a large chunk of the book which character we were following. I also just did not care about any of the main cast, they felt quite flat and their relationships were not compelling. It took me about 30% of the way in to finally get a feel for where the story was going, needless to say it felt like a lot of set up. But then, set up for what exactly? There didn't seem to be anything driving these characters so the plot felt sloppy. I ended up purchasing an audiobook to aid me as I read because it was hard to follow and stay interested.
On another note, this book claimed to have queer and nonbinary rep, but then made non-binary out to be a third gender. As a non-binary individual myself, I did not really like this "rep". When a protagonist was describing a group of people, it was easily discernible who was "male", "female", and non-binary. It would be one thing, if this was some alien race that has a different set of sexes then humans, but these were humans. One would think that an advanced human civilization would not have such a binary sense of gender if non-binary was going to be included.
Once I finished the book, I felt myself thinking, "what was the point?". Not once did I connect to any of the characters or feel enticed by the plot, it was just a really odd read.
This kept infodumping, telling me how I should feel about something in a kind of irksome way. I don’t mind infodumps of information, but the barrage of info and how I should process felt like I wasn’t being trusted to figure anything out. There was a particular scene right before I stopped reading where a character narrates this whole initial meeting, change of heart, and now strong ties between herself and a person she’s telling us about who’s asleep in the next room. It’s the kind of backstory that either needs its own novella or just two sentences to say where they are now, because the choice to do this in-between thing felt like I was being told about some other story I could have been reading instead. I constantly felt like I had both too much and not enough information about what was happening, and I decided to stop.
This kept infodumping, telling me how I should feel about something in a kind of irksome way. I don’t mind infodumps of information, but the barrage of info and how I should process felt like I wasn’t being trusted to figure anything out. There was a particular scene right before I stopped reading where a character narrates this whole initial meeting, change of heart, and now strong ties between herself and a person she’s telling us about who’s asleep in the next room. It’s the kind of backstory that either needs its own novella or just two sentences to say where they are now, because the choice to do this in-between thing felt like I was being told about some other story I could have been reading instead. I constantly felt like I had both too much and not enough information about what was happening, and I decided to stop.
