rachit

This is the first horror book I've read, so I started with zero expectations. The writing grew on me quickly: Our teenager hero Frank lives in a Scottish countryside on a small island with his Father. He is a ruthless, troubled kid, but with a weird air of playful innocence around him. I also loved the dark humor that goes along with the deceptions of violence and ‘eccentricities'. I am looking forward to read more such books!

Heist story with slick turns set in a magical world where our heroes don't do magic.

I loved the banter between our crew and dark humor spread throughout the book. I loved how the humor (by everyone, not just the heoros) hide the grimdark setting until you get reminded of it every so often by casual brutality. I also liked the religions, especially of the Crooked Warden, who will advocate for the thieves in the afterlife, stealthily tipping the scales while their souls are being weighed.

My feelings about the series are mixed: I liked the way science concepts are introduced. The story in the first book starts from 1960s and with each time-jump, new technologies are introduced. The new science/technologies seem consistent, well-explained, believable, and build upon the previously introduced ones. The scenes in Gravity and Blue Space feel genuinely mystifying and extremely well-thought of. I also liked the fairy tales and guessing at deciphering the message.

Since this is a translation, I didn't expect natural or powerful prose. But even with this low expectation, the story feels like reading summary of the story. I also didn't like the main characters with the exception of Luo Ji and Da Shi. The main character of this book makes weird decisions that made her hard to root for. The overall tone of the narration seemed to glorify authoritarianism, sexism ( males are all for conviction and discoveries, females apply brakes on the progress by favoring love ), and herd mentality (population is neatly divided into groups whose members all think alike).

Loved the way the story unfolds until the end of the universe.