I debated heavily whether to give this one three or four stars, but ultimately I settled on the former. I listened to the audiobook and I will say I think it was fantastically narrated and the reader was the perfect choice. I was recommended this as a follow up to the Red Rising series. I think it was unfair for me to jump into it with that in mind because, frankly, there really is nothing quite like that series.

Notwithstanding that this book didn't quite scratch the itch I was looking for, I found it interesting but fairly abysmal as far as pacing goes. There were isolated chapters sprinkled throughout that, on their own, were exciting and had me hoping that the story was about to "pick up," but that never really materializes. I think this book could do with being about 150 to 200 pages shorter just to help with the pacing issue.

The story itself is decent and I think the set up is there for a (hopefully) much more exciting book two, though I think this story suffers from being a bit too cute with the mystery. A bit too cute in this case means dropping dozens of disparate, highly confusing clues that the protagonist acknowledges are confusing only for very few things to actually be explained by the end of the story. The whole book effectively feels like a very long, complex setup with a shitload of world building and seeding for future events that, honestly, I'm not sure I'm invested enough to see whether it all gets realized.

I really do hope the series picks up and really pushes for more action and intensity in book two. For now, I'm going to pause this series and move on, but I'll return later to see what happens to Vis.