Ratings18
Average rating3.4
“Overall the story reads as if Roanhorse did her best with an incredibly tight outline from the powers that be, but then found little moments to add her own sparkle.” - Amazing Stories ReviewThat's a pretty good summary. I've read [a:Rebecca Roanhorse 15862877 Rebecca Roanhorse https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1512417497p2/15862877.jpg]'s Sixth World novels and in those her writing just buzzes with energy and sucked me in like an overcharged magnet...this book felt like all that energy was muffled - kind of like a distant thunderstorm. You could feel it was there, but you weren't getting the full blast.Also, unless you are an elite Star Wars expert, you are going to need access to Wookieepedia to find out who half the characters are, the novel does seem to assume you've read every comic, watched every cartoon and know the names of characters who are onscreen but never actually named in the movies.That aside, did I enjoy the book? Yes!If I was rating the final quarter, then this book would be verging on 5 stars, once Ms Roanhorse gets going her true talent explodes. It took me ages to slog through the first three quarters of this slim book - the last quarter got blasted through in one breathless sitting, it was epic and made me ache for a real unconstrained space SF novel from this author. I can see why they chose Rebecca Roanhorse to write this book, she can really make the internal struggle and pain of a character seem real and moving - and she does defiance really, really well.