Great!

Apart from the ending feeling rushed, I really enjoyed this sci-fi take on a small band of warriors defending a village against the might of a corporation. I hope we see the characters (especially the embodied AI) in future stories set in this world.

Narration was good, although no fault of the narrator, the ‘he said she said’ parts of the text were sometimes tedious to hear.

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I Really Wanted to Like This

After listening to the acknowledgements, the author seems genuinely lovely, have a way with words, and clearly put a great deal into the creation of this novel. I just wish I enjoyed the book as much as the acknowledgements.

This is a sci-fi novel. Unfortunately, that's really all I can say as it just slid off my brain as I was listening to it. If you want a soupson of The Murderbot Diaries with some sci-fi antics, you might get something out of this.

The only things that really stood out were the way dialogue is written with "X said" after every phrase, which takes all rhythm out of every conversation. Readers are generally trusted to follow a conversation between two people, but not here. This isn't helped by the way the narrator handles this predilection.

The other is much more positive and I would be lying if it wasn't the main reason I decided to stick with it and finish the book. The inclusion and discussion around gender and the characters is handled really well, which was honestly a delight to read. While I have a lot of other criticisms and largely didn't enjoy this book, I truly appreciate the effort the author went to in this regard, especially after so much awfulness in many of sci-fi and fantasy offerings.

I hate leaving bad reviews, especially for authors who really seem to care and are trying, but this really wasn't for me and read like a decent amateur affair.

The story was also let down by narration that was flat with some odd and, I'm almost certain, at least one mispronunciation or incorrect word used. Sadly, they did nothing to elevate the story and only made the issues more glaring with how they hit them.

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Fine YA-style fiction

I gave this a shot but did not finish it, stopping about 4 hours from the end. The main difficulty seemed to me to be the fact that there is almost no conflict of any substance between the characters. Great lengths are taken by the author to make them likeable and friendly, and although my favourite characters are usually the nice ones, there was so little tension between them I felt no overwhelming drive to the plot. I think this is a shame as Sukyi was a good character but really the only one I felt anything for. Angel started out the same way but her presence as anything other than the read POV seemed to fade over time. I was not compelled to want to know more about who Angel was or her motivations beyond the fact that she was paid to do something.

I also think it's worth analysing the progressivism in the book. You can see its an all-women cast, and I understand that the presence of women in a text alone can make it feminist, but I felt like there was no comment on why the author had done this other than to have it that way, which in 2023 just isn't particularly transgressive. And in isolation, such a criticism wouldn't be valid at all: would I question a text populated by men the same way? Patriarchy says I wouldn't, but this tokenism is an example of other forms of progressivism in the book that is assumed to be good, without saying why it is good or what the material outcomes provide for people, which explain why it is of ethical necessity. There are multiple comments on gender, but no point made on why including these or representing them is of value to the reader or their perspective on gender. There are points made about indigenous rights and consent but they aren't explored beyond Angel's surprise that such things were not upheld by the ruling class. My overall point is that these token gestures are symptoms of 'presence, not power'. One cannot help noticing there are no men in the story - but what point is being made by this in 2023? It feels like not commenting on these progressivisms whilst working to include them is not a point in of itself anymore, as it might have been 40 or 60 years ago. the writer feels like they are important but won't or can't say why. Clearly I wouldn't make such a demand of an all-man text, but I would, I'd know it was arranged thusly because we live under capitalist patriarchy. It is assumed I should know indigenous rights and consent are good things, but Angel is a solider, as are her crew, and little is made of any notions of imperialism, colonialism, or militarism. she may be helping out those who need it now, but what of her past actions, where are the questions concerning her prior sins. The book is reported as a feminist, queer text but there's nothing subversive about it, it's really just quite neoliberal. it feels like in 2023 one should do more than just 'reverse the roles' and feature all women instead of all men; there should be something more to say than just 'you like women taking centre stage right?' 'here's so many women that they're start to lose definition and bleed into one'.

I think Stina Leicht had good intentions, but I'd like to read the book after the one after this, when she maybe feels more like she can twist the knife in what she's trying to say, rather than just putting it on display and hoping you'll think it's important somehow.

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I appreciate what the books wanted to do but it didn't quite deliver

I was frustrated about not enjoying this book. I like the premise and I was really drawn by the queer feminist set of characters. The story line is also overall good/interesting. But I do think the writing style was an issue, it just didn't flow properly, the pacing wasn't quite right and overall the dialogues felt forced. I feel like essentially this book needed a more thorough edit, and more thought into the writing style. I don't really like giving negative reviews to book that aimed to do something innovative and positive, but I did feel like there was potential that didn't quite deliver. What I'll say though is that I did enjoy the world building and the technological aspects, I thought that worked well.

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DNF but I'm sure others will like it.

I really wanted to like this and I tried I really did but I gave up 3 hours from the end because I wasn't listening anymore I was just waiting for it to be over.

The intro was great and I thought ooh great we'll get to find out about this planet and it's people, it's a great idea for a speculative sci fi story. Unfortunately that was about it we went into a town where we met loads of characters and found out about everyone's outfits, how they decorated their homes and about their love lives. After this the story gets going but it's completely different from what I imagined and there's just lots of fighting and nothing else. we got a paragraph about the indigenous people and how they came to be and then guns guns guns. I don't mind battle stories but this isn't particularly well done.
there's a lot of 'she said' as well which I tried very hard to ignore.

Basically I got bored and gave up. it's a shame because I would love to know more about this unique planet and it's people.

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not ready for prime time

Sorry for the negative review and for picking on this author in particular. The same sorts of things are holding back a bunch of recent scifi titles from all over the place that would otherwise be decent I reckon.

This novel is just not ready. The way dialogue is written is extremely stilted, "xxx said" just keeps hitting you. I'm trying out new authors all the time and will try something else from this author, but man, I feel book editors just got mass teleported off-planet or something.

The publisher can't pay like a grand to get some really strong notes from a reviewer/editor? It would have made a huge difference imo. Do I care if that delays publishing or increases the price? No I just want incredible stories and prose. Have you read The Bone Clocks? That book will knock you out.

The audio recording was kinda uneven, Maybe overcompressed or the mic was from temu? I've been on Teams calls with better fidelity. Some of the accents meandered around but others were quite charming.

The author instils humour which is nice, there's nothing worse than a bad novel except a dry bad novel. The jokes were a little weird though, deflating the high stakes in a way that Firefly doesn't, for example.

There's a lot of 2020s progressive cues given in a way that feels designed to get the title into a particular highlight shelf in the bookshop/booktok. Everything feels "Approved", does that make sense?

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