Dan
This book tries so hard to be so clever but fails miserably. We get pages upon pages on pseudo philosophical rambling, like the author is explaining the most basic concepts to a toddler. On top of that we can witness the MC having irrational relationship fights for no reason other than drama. Yiekes.
I love Mr. Riddle's writing and his ideas but this one felt more like a draft than a finished book.
The first 1/3 was great and then it went to a downhill slog and a rushed ending. How the MC overcame the big villain corporation was the most laughable thing I have read in a long time. They walked straight in and inserted a virus via usb. yes, you read that right.
This is confusing and random. Half the time I have no idea whats going on, who is speaking to whom, what it is about or why I am even reading this instead of a better book.
What a fitting, hard to read, grim, sad, glorious, devastating, spectacular, moving, cruel, perfect ending for a great series.
There are a few issues with the book like unresolved storylines, rambling, repetitiveness, meandering and about 200 unneeded pages too much. For example, the whole trifecta storyline was pointless and just dragged book 3 out without any meaningful closure or impact on the plot.
Overall it was a fantastic, gripping book that conveyed hopelessness, despair and the horrors of war very vividly, so I am not sure if I can stomach reading any further R.F. Klang books tbh, glad I read this series though.
I am conflicted, just like Rin.
What a great, horrible, terrifying, terrific read. Instantly bought the other 2 books.
Easily 5/5.
4.5/5 stars
Awesome book from cover to finish.
It is almost worth it to suffer through the first book.
The only complaint I would have is that the 2 Yirella endings contradict each other and ends on a semi-cliffhanger.
I hope Mr. Hamilton picks up that thread some day.
If it was half as long it would have been better, the end drags on and on and on and on.
Very disappointing compared to the other 2.
Well that was going nowhere, slowly.
Paper thin plot, read a summary and hope for a better book 3.
This book is like a colourful, high sugar candy. It's fun to eat but for a meal you want something more substantial and like with candy, if you eat too much you get sick.
3.5/5 stars
This is a cool Sliders episode. I wonder what the next episode is gonna be like.
1.5/5 stars
As much as I liked the first book, as much did I dislike the second.
The once smart, strong female MC was relegated to literal kitchen and children duty, spending the rest of the time in bed, fainting or waiting for her guy to rescue everyone. Seriously? Why even have her as a PoV at this point.
The story revolves around shallow minded human vs human conflicts. While this is probably how it would be it's utterly boring to read about. There is so much more interesting stuff to explore than Prof. Chandler's personal vendetta against James.
Skip this one, read the summary and move on to book 3. It's not worth your time.
2/5 stars
The most amazing, funny, smart, likeable protagonist in the most boring, pointless, slog of a story.
The narrator of the audiobook was brilliant though, without her I probably would have dnf-ed it.
If you like following girls shopping for dresses and shoes, this one is for you.
If you like cool, adult epic scifi, this one is not for you.
The ending was kinda cool though, I have to admit. Not cool enough to keep on reading though.
3.5/5 stars
This was interesting and I am not sure what to make of it. It's hard to accurately rate this book since it felt much more as a first act than a book that can stand on its own. On it's own I can only give it 3.5 stars since I am not a fan of stories that end in a cliffhanger and this one ends with a big one.
We experience the story mainly through 3 characters.
Naranpa - The Sun Priest (think pope)
Xiala - a half human, half teek sea captain
Serapio - a young man groomed to fulfil a prophecy
I liked Xiala und Serapio, they have a nice dynamic and are interesting characters and interesting to read. Naranpa I did not know what to make of her. She is rather naiv bordering on dumb and it's a bit frustrating to read her parts and I am not sure if its intended but she comes of as a villain, kind of.
The story is overall somewhat predictable in great parts which did not negatively influence my enjoyment though, there were enough surprises to keep me interested. What is very cool Is that I have not figured out who the ‘bad guy' is in the story. Everyone has their comprehendible motivations, minus one annoying side character maybe.
This books makes use of the Xe/Xir pronouns, as a non American, non native English speaker I had a hard time getting used to that, it was very confusing at first. I thought Xe was a name and Xir was a typo but when it was repeated I had to look it up. Turns out it's a twitter thing ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Broke my flow and pulled me out of the story every time I encountered those since I had to reread the line to understand it, at first. Got a lot better near the end of the book when I got used to it, I expect to have internalised it by the end of book 2, which I instantly preorder after finishing this.
One great thing to mention here is the settings. It's influenced by South American culture which is refreshingly new and unique to read, at least for me who mainly read western themed fantasy. In my opinion the author could have used a bit more time to describe the world and people to a greater detail though, the book was very much focused on the story. But the description that we do get paint a wonderful, interesting and, to me, foreign picture of a world I want to know more of.
Lots of open questions, lots of untold lore lots to look forward to in book 2.
This was the most frustrating read this year, not because its bad, which it is but because there is an awesome book hidden between the endless pages of repetitive monolog somewhere.
This should be a 2 book series, not 3. More than half of the book is just pointless recap of what happened before and the same inner monologues again and again and again and again. No one can make a decision whatsoever, it's mindnumpingly boring.
The awesome parts are awesome though and kept me from DNF-ing it.
The world is great, the magic system is new and fresh, the moral dilemma the book throws at us are nice to think about but ultimately the execution is just not there.
:(
At least the cover is great...
The ending of the book I awesome but the 400 pages before are a slog with nothing much happening.