Lisa Cole
3.5 * pretty decent with a few interesting characters. I'm still not quite sure why this day/night divide happened and especially why it is still in place. Yeah, it started during the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. But why? Less people mixing, I suppose. Anyway.....
Brilliant, visceral, best yet of the Red Rising series. The battle scenes are so well written, so brutal and intense. There are crushing moments of sadness. Beloved characters endure so much. And a terrifying new enemy from beyond the Rim appears.
I cannot say enough good things about Dark Age.
Jemisin has created great characters who inhabit a fascinating world. The Fifth Season is completely engrossing, the main character's journey so far both heartbreaking and triumphant. I cannot wait to see what happens to everyone. Brilliant!
The thirty year time jump threw me for a loop. It was difficult imagining Amos and Holden and Bobbie and Alex and Naomi in their fifties and sixties. Hell, wouldn't Amos be in his seventies? I'm pretty sure he's supposed to be fortyish in the earlier books.
And one of my first thoughts was ‘Oh shit, this means Avasarala is dead.' When she showed up I grinned with delight.
Besides the period of adjustment, I enjoyed the book thoroughly. I love how so many threads from previous books continue on in Persepolis rising, whether people or events. I love getting all the different perspectives, especially one from the enemy. Though, I did not like Singh. He was an indecisive, weak, brainwashed little jerk. Though I suppose everyone in Laconia has sipped the Kool Aid.
Duarte and Laconia are disturbing and I want to see him and it taken down. Why is there always someone who thinks he, and only he, knows what is best for the entire human race and is willing to do anything to achieve his absolute rule?
Anyway, I continue to love the core group of characters, even Clarissa. Her willingness to die for the group and her badass end almost made up for the suffering she endured. I know it was brought on by herself. But she grew and changed and that has to count for something.
The tension, as with the with the whole series, is wonderfully built up. There is a real sense of danger for our heroes.
And the science, the actual space stuff (not that I know anything about any of it) is fascinating and detailed. I've read that the science in the books is actually quite accurate. That makes it even more appealing.
I hope the group gets back together again. I hate seeing them separated. Naomi's pain broke my heart.
Until ‘Tiamat's Wrath' which I pre-ordered today......
This book, these two books, kind of blew my mind. Zebulon Finch's search for meaning, his century long tour of the world's and America's decay, his first hand experience of so many huge historical moments and movements is compelling. From Nazi Germany to 9/11, with the oppressive conformity of 1950's suburbia, the space race, the civil rights and anti war movements of the 1960's, a desert cult, and asylum in between, Finch gives us insight into each as he struggles to understand himself.
I love the language of the book, the characters are interesting, the descriptions are great.
Zebulon is continually seeking, wanting to know why he of all people was brought back from the dead and what role he should play..
His past comes back to both haunt and heal. All of it together makes a fantastic, unique, visceral read.
I will miss Mr. Finch.
4.5 * Lily Brooks-Dalton's book is a very moving and poignant look at look at the human condition, and shows us that even the most selfish and closed off of us, if we're willing to work for it, can find love and peace.
A well written page turner....it's my first Jo Nesbo book and I enjoyed it enough to want to read more.