More tension and complex. More drama and intruige

Loving this book series. My title is a comparison to the first book.
The narration is better than the first one too as they have used a sound effect to help the excellent narrator deal with the alien voices.

Though deeply grounded in all that has come before. Lindsey ellis’s book brings a great deal of new ideas and interpretations to the table.

Really enjoyable listen and easy to fall into.

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1 person found this helpful

Spectacular

Genuinely don’t know how to sum this up but it’s amazing. This book is a stunning achievement, worth your time.

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*So* much better than the first one!

I liked Axiom's End a lot, but this one blew me away. I cried, I laughed. It made me think deep thoughts!

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A human experience

Navigating relationships have never been easy and even more so when you throw in aliens, ptsd, depression, and existential dread. I'm surprised at how such a frustrating experience that is trying to overcome mental illness can be so accurately depicted while still maintaining an engaging plot and pace.
Some parts did grow a bit too heavy for me but I'm thankful for the warning given in the author's note so I was prepared to pause and resume once I was more ready.
Looking forward to the next installment.

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Engaging throughout

An engaging follow-up to Axioms End and I couldn't stop listening. The voice acting really added to the depth of story telling and the addition of a separate voice actor for a new protagonist's viewpoint was at first a little jarring but ultimately made for effective story telling without it starting to feel like a radio drama.

I can't say too much about my main criticism of the way the story was delivered without spoilers but suffice to say the hardest part for me was that way that sometimes portraying the true-to-life can make for heavy-going.

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A great second novel.

Ellis has quite clearly advanced her writing style here from her initial book. Expanding on the themes tackled in its predecessor, Truth of the Divine deals with our understanding of God in all of its aspects. What truly makes our existence and the universe beyond us divine? There are some incredibly fascinating discussions on the topic here, all conspicuously omitting that name “God“. Apart from the very last.
On the other side, it deals with some of the darkest impulses and aspects that accompany the human condition. The hatred that we turn outwards as well as inwards. The ease by which we allow fear to dictate our actions. Fear of that which is misunderstood. Fear of the other. An unusual and unsettling look at issues that exist within our own cultures and societies. The anger and rage that will eventually turn inwards and consume us. Very big questions are asked here, and importantly she provides no answers. That work is for us to do.

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Great book

I really liked the book although it kind of broke my heart. Also the voice acting is amazing: 10/10.

It is not a fun book in the sense that the characters are not having fun. Characters live with the very realistic consequences of the things that happened in the previous book, both in a personal and social context.

I really enjoyed it and it the book explores very interesting and very relevant topics in a way that feels very organic and entertaining.

And also the reference to punching an alien in the face was so hilarious.

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A banger of a sequel

Brain full of endorfins the whole time I listened, despite of the dark subject matter. Enjoyed the new dynamic introduced as well. Can't wait for the next book!

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An excellent sequel!

I found Truth of the Divine every bit as good as Axiom's End, perhaps a little better now that we are more familiar with the characters to start with and so get to experience their personalities and interpersonal relationships with greater depth and attention to detail. It is a faster paced book than Axiom's End, with more tension and action which I feel is appropriate at this point in the story. It's a rollercoaster ride all the way through and touches on topics that are unfortunately painfully relevant at this time.

In terms of performance, I love and applaud the addition of a new character perspective. Kaveh's chapters are pleasantly read, often funny and add a lot of warmth to an otherwise (and frankly still) quite depressing story. Stephanie Willis does a great job setting the tone for Cora and I do think her narration and pace improved between this and the previous book, However I have to admit I struggled through her portrayals of Cora's spiraling. I understand that it's supposed to be uncomfortable to hear a person's panic and in that sense she does an amazing job. But as someone who has experienced panic attacks and hyperventilation quite a lot she lost me a bit in the overdramatization - like she was trying a bit too hard to sound out of control and almost crossed the line into caricature. Which is a difficult line to tread in fairness and I do not envy her for having to try! But it was difficult to get past the "Hollywood version" feel of the experience and I had to suppress the urge to skip those scenes.

I also found the drastic change in Ampersand's voice (compared to Axiom's End) difficult to get used to at first and it was too quiet in the beginning compared to Cora's narration, which was deeply frustrating as it made it difficult to hear what he was saying at all. The volume did improve later on however and I started appreciating the effect as time went on, but it really rather ruined the immersion initially.

I'm very much looking forward to the next book!

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wow that was... intense (SPOILERS!!!)

By god am I happy the phrase "Lizard brain" did not survive the first book.

Narrative: Wow this was far deeper and intense than I expected. I loved the difference in perspectives shown to the same issue. how some will stick it out to the end and others are broken under the weight of trauma and loss. this was not a "happy funtime" book but the way in which the scenes are written, from varying perspectives and through the way in which emotion is described made this book all the more effective. PTSD has never been described so well to me before and the description of this is visceral and horrifying. Very impactful presentation throughout.

Story: I do find it strange that Olive and Felix seem to have been forgotten about. I don't quite understand the motive for Kora to abandon her younger siblings and then intend to abandon them to a spiralling planet.

I found Ampersand's motivations to be... confusing. He wants to protect Kora, then he abandons her, says he respects her choice and yet sedates her without her consent. I find I feel far less empathy for him than in the first book.

All the characters that help my sympathy didn't make it to the last page. Even Kora felt less like a character than a leaf blown in the wind screaming "please, I'm begging you. help." and as much as I believe this to be a realistic helplessness it did not make for an engaging character.

Carve.... 👌💋 I love him and I hate what happened to him. how dare you break my heart like this Miss Lindsay Ellis.

Sol: I like him even if he is a CIA waterboarding scum bag.

Audio: sometimes when the male narrator was speaking the audio would shift and change and it made for uncomfortable listening. The starts and ends of words were also missing at some points.

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