Community Reviews
This was a different reading experience for me.
Now there's a loaded sentence.
In general I would prefer that anything new that I read feels "new". But like anyone else, I have a comfort zone. Especially if I'm blatantly reading scifi for escapism. For me, this book landed on the line between new and interesting and just a bit too far outside my range of enjoyment.
I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy military based science fiction, unreliable narrator aspects, and creative weaponry. I would say skip this book if you need descriptive (not just imaginative) action sequences, or dislike military-centric and often very violent stories.
I had a hard time getting into the first quarter or maybe even half of this book. I almost set it aside for something else a handful of times. But I devoured the last half of the book, and over all I'm glad I finished. I probably won't continue the series though.
Vague Spoilers Below
What I liked:
• I loved the dialogue and interactions between Cheris and Jedao. The whole "conversations with a voice in my head" thing might not be new. But the way it was put together was compelling. And those parts of the book were very well written. Jedao is "anchored" inside Cheris, but as a separate entity. They can't read each others minds, even though they are sort of sharing a mindpsace, but still can't completely trust each other, and this made things interesting. This interaction is really what drove my enjoyment of this story. I looked forward to the Cheris/Jadao parts of the book, and found myself skimming the other parts of the book.
• I liked the way that the author worked the servitors (sentient robot helper things) into the story. It was artfully done. I initially thought the servitor passages would be a bit of light hearted side story. But it ends up having both layers and importance. I would have taken more of that story, but maybe it was the scarcity of it that made it something I looked forward to.
What I didn't like:
• I couldn't get into the descriptions of the conflicts. Both large scale strategy and close up combat. They were just a bit too abstract for me. I suspect that for some this is a strength of the book. It was a very different way of describing both the battles in space and on the "ground". And though it was fun to read this different approach I found myself skimming over them and not really enjoying those parts.
• The "exotic weapons".
This is another one that is probably a strong point for some people. The Calendrical sword, Amputation gun, Threshold winnower, Fungal canister, Carrion bomb, Directional storm generator. The names for these weapons are creative and poetic. But reading the passages describing their use in combat just kinda threw me out of the story.
Now there's a loaded sentence.
In general I would prefer that anything new that I read feels "new". But like anyone else, I have a comfort zone. Especially if I'm blatantly reading scifi for escapism. For me, this book landed on the line between new and interesting and just a bit too far outside my range of enjoyment.
I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy military based science fiction, unreliable narrator aspects, and creative weaponry. I would say skip this book if you need descriptive (not just imaginative) action sequences, or dislike military-centric and often very violent stories.
I had a hard time getting into the first quarter or maybe even half of this book. I almost set it aside for something else a handful of times. But I devoured the last half of the book, and over all I'm glad I finished. I probably won't continue the series though.
Vague Spoilers Below
What I liked:
• I loved the dialogue and interactions between Cheris and Jedao. The whole "conversations with a voice in my head" thing might not be new. But the way it was put together was compelling. And those parts of the book were very well written. Jedao is "anchored" inside Cheris, but as a separate entity. They can't read each others minds, even though they are sort of sharing a mindpsace, but still can't completely trust each other, and this made things interesting. This interaction is really what drove my enjoyment of this story. I looked forward to the Cheris/Jadao parts of the book, and found myself skimming the other parts of the book.
• I liked the way that the author worked the servitors (sentient robot helper things) into the story. It was artfully done. I initially thought the servitor passages would be a bit of light hearted side story. But it ends up having both layers and importance. I would have taken more of that story, but maybe it was the scarcity of it that made it something I looked forward to.
What I didn't like:
• I couldn't get into the descriptions of the conflicts. Both large scale strategy and close up combat. They were just a bit too abstract for me. I suspect that for some this is a strength of the book. It was a very different way of describing both the battles in space and on the "ground". And though it was fun to read this different approach I found myself skimming over them and not really enjoying those parts.
• The "exotic weapons".
This is another one that is probably a strong point for some people. The Calendrical sword, Amputation gun, Threshold winnower, Fungal canister, Carrion bomb, Directional storm generator. The names for these weapons are creative and poetic. But reading the passages describing their use in combat just kinda threw me out of the story.
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