2.5/5 rounded up. I really wanted to like this one but I mostly did not. Cool world, concepts and even character ideas but the writing didn’t follow through. *Sigh*
I got this as a post release ARC from Netgalley (my first! I’m still figuring out how it works and if I actually want to do it). This obviously did not affect what I am about to say lol
Full review:
I wanted this to work for me so much. This really should be right up my alley. But it just failed to engage me on so many levels.
This sci fi follows the stories of First Sister, a member of a religious sect in the society that encompasses Mars and Earth. The sisters are forced into ‘blessing’ men during wartime, which they are in with the other planetary group of Mercury and Venus who are more technologically advanced and worship science. Lito is a member of an elite fighting squad for this group and is assigned to track down and eliminate his former partner, Hiro, who has apparently turned traitor.
The ideas, setting, characters, and diversity in this book really is a powerful draw and SHOULD have been enough for me to enjoy it but…
This book felt unedited. I know this makes me sound like a grammar stickler but really its almost never a problem for me. I never notice syntax and grammar and whatever. I mean, look how I write. Its barely strung together sentences! But I could pick up this book at almost any random page and feel like I would see a clunky sentence. I found myself rereading sentences to understand exactly what it was saying. This obviously created a flow problem for me and was super frustrating. I think this was the biggest snag for me and obviously affected my enjoyment for the entire book. If you don’t mind how its written its other sins might be more easily glossed over.
I had a problem with the story telling. We get multiple perspectives which I am not a general fan of anyways. One of the perspectives is from Hiro and is supposedly a recording they left for their partner Lito. Lito listens to this as the story progresses. Except…as a recording it makes zero sense. Hiro speaks in a way that makes absolutely no sense, recapping entire scenes in detail that Lito was there for. It seems as if Lito is listening along with us as we go along with the story but then near the end, he makes it clear that he had knowledge from the next ‘recording’ that we just read when he had ZERO time to actually listen to it. So did he listen ahead? Does he have more knowledge than we do? But then that doesn’t make any sense because he is still asking questions in the last few chapters that he would have known if he listened to the next chapter. I was totally lost.
The multiple perspectives dilutes the story as well. I feel like it should have picked a character to focus and develop because the splitting our time lead to both of them feeling like half a person. Both stories are theoretically interesting and compelling but neither got the focus they needed to be built up correctly. First Sister and Saito Ren’s relationship especially felt underdeveloped and like something that just happened.
Some plot points seem to fully rely on the main characters or villains being stupid in order for them to occur. Which is never really fun.
Overall, this was disappointing but maybe others can enjoy it more than I did? The writing was really jarring for me and totally made everything feel sluggish in the story. I probably should have tried the audiobook.