reviews

Audiobook review: A Day in the Life of Abed Salama by Nathan Thrall

by Stefani

A Day in the Life of Abed Salama by Nathan Thrall

Audiobook narrated by Peter Ganim

Published: October 3, 2023 by Metropolitan Books

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / AbeBooks

Synopsis:

Five-year-old Milad Salama is excited for a school trip to a theme park on the outskirts of Jerusalem. On the way, his bus collides with a semitrailer. His father, Abed, gets word of the crash and rushes to the site. The scene is chaos―the children have been taken to different hospitals in Jerusalem and the West Bank; some are missing, others cannot be identified. Abed sets off on an odyssey to learn Milad’s fate. It is every parent’s worst nightmare, but for Abed it is compounded by the maze of physical, emotional, and bureaucratic obstacles he must navigate because he is Palestinian. He is on the wrong side of the separation wall, holds the wrong ID to pass the military checkpoints, and has the wrong papers to enter the city of Jerusalem. Abed’s quest to find Milad is interwoven with the stories of a cast of Jewish and Palestinian characters whose lives and histories unexpectedly converge.

Rating:

Review:

This is another example of a book that tried to do too much, and as a consequence it loses the premise that was promised. I was told that this was a book about a man stuck in the Palestine/Israel conflict. I was told that this was a book about a man whose son disappears after a tragic accident and his journey to try and find his son. Unfortunately, the journey of Abed Salama and his son was only about 10% of this book. At only six hours runtime, it was a short book. And the actual synopsis was only a small part of it.

Quickly after being introduced to Abed and his family, we get a short history lesson in the history of the Palestine/Israel conflict. A lot of other reviewers have felt this was irrelevant but I didn’t mind too much. While the book is titled “a day in the life”, there is a nuance to what someone’s day includes. Your day is never just about a singular 24 hour period. Your family influences your day. Your job. Where you live. The country that you live in. And, in the case of Abed, the long battles between Palestine and Israel influence his day. A single day can sometimes be shaped by 50 years of history. I enjoyed that nuance. I also enjoyed that the author conveyed this point without actually saying that was their point. It’s always appreciated when an author treats me like I am intelligent enough to understand the subtext.

We also get a very long history of Abed and how he grew up. His first wife. His struggles to accommodate his culture and his family. There was a lot of valuable insight to be gained by being introduced to this character in the depth that was presented in this book.

Where it falls off the rails was when we start following other characters. Honestly, I can only barely tell you who these people were. Their narratives are abrupt and presented with little to no explanation. I could piece together that one individual seemed to be the ambulance worker that arrives at the scene of the accident, another seemed to be a politician of some kind, another seemed to be an aid worker. I had a hard time keeping these characters straight because we launch straight into their narrative with no introduction to who they are or how they are relevant to the story of Abed. For some reason we spent an inordinate amount of time talking about a refugee camp in Jordan and the return to Palestine of those individuals who had been living in the refugee camp. I was quickly confused and tuned out because I couldn’t follow what was going on.

We only come back to Abed’s search for his son at the very end of the book. I wanted to spend more time on that, because that’s the story that I was sold. But it wasn’t the story that I got. In total this was a good book, but it got lost in its own narrative and forgot to tell me the story that was promised.

Audiobook Review: The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers

by Stefani

The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers

Published: January 30, 2024 by Redhook

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / AbeBooks

Synopsis:

A young woman descends into a seductive magical underworld of power-hungry scholars, fickle gods and monsters bent on revenge to break her family’s curse in this spellbinding contemporary fantasy debut.

For centuries, generations of Everlys have seen their brightest and best disappear, taken as punishment for a crime no one remembers, for a purpose no one understands. Their tormentor, a woman named Penelope, never ages, never grows sick – and never forgives a debt.

Violet Everly was a child when her mother left on a stormy night, determined to break the curse. When Marianne never returns, Penelope issues an ultimatum: Violet has ten years to find her mother, or she will take her place. Violet is the last of the Everly line, the last to suffer. Unless she can break it first.

To do so, she must descend into a seductive magical underworld of power-hungry scholars, fickle gods and monsters bent on revenge. She must also contend with Penelope’s quiet assistant, Aleksander, who she knows cannot be trusted – and yet whose knowledge of a world beyond her own is too valuable to avoid.

Tied to a very literal deadline, Violet will travel the edges of the world to find Marianne and the key to the city of stardust, where the Everly story began.

Rating:

Review:

The premise of this book is fantastic. A family curse. A missing mother. A deadline to meet or else certain doom. A magical world that might hold all the answers. This book had all the makings of a really excellent novel. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t executed very well. This is a debut novel and I feel like the author didn’t really know how to wrap her arms around this story. It got away from her.

Let’s start with the good stuff. The narrator for this audiobook was very good. Her voice was soothing, her pacing was excellent, and she presented the material in the best way possible. The villains in this book were also fantastic. Penelope is such a great villain, I enjoyed her from beginning to end. Some of the other side stories were very interesting also. I was eager to learn more about certain people.

The biggest problem that this book had was a lack of character building and a complete absence of world building. At the end of the book the only thing I know about Violet is that she’s stupidly naïve and looks a lot like her mother. I don’t know anything else about her. I do know that she showed no sense of urgency at the looming deadline to find her mother. She is casually going to parties and going for coffee in Prague. Not to mention the complete lack of urgency that her uncles displayed for the nine years before Violet finds out about the deadline. What were they doing all that time? We don’t really know because the author doesn’t tell us.

I was incredibly frustrating with the way the last year is handled. Violet has a year to find her mother. During this time she is learning about the scholars, learning about magic, learning about Penelope. This was a perfect opportunity for the author to explain this world to us. We could discover all of the amazing things that Violet is discovering! But instead we get a montage that is over in less than a few paragraphs. “Violet learned all of these amazing things, went all of these amazing places and then suddenly it was six weeks until the deadline.” It felt like a wasted opportunity. It was the perfect chance to build this world and instead we got nothing.

By the time we reached the end of the book, I mainly just wanted it to be over. It had gone on for too long. What I thought was the ending was still two and a half hours away from the ending of the audiobook. I couldn’t fathom what exactly we were going to do for that long. It got tiresome. At the end I was left disappointed because this could have been a five star book, but it wasn’t.

Review: Parabellum by Greg Hickey

by Stefani

Parabellum by Greg Hickey

Published: October 20, 2020 by Greg Hickey

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / AbeBooks

Synopsis:

A shooting at a Chicago beach leaves several dead and dozens injured. In the year before the attack, four individuals emerge as possible suspects.

An apathetic computer programmer.
An ex-college athlete with a history of head injuries.
An Army veteran turned Chicago cop.
A despondent high school student.

One of them is the shooter. Discover who and why.

Rating:

Review: ***Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Greg Hickey! My apologies that it took me so long.***

When I started reading this book, I looked up the title to see what it meant. Parabellum. I found a few interesting things. One definition of the word is a semiautomatic pistol, which in the context of the subject of the book seemed apt. But even more apt but that I found the term “Para bellum”. It’s a Latin phrase that means “prepare for war”, it is often included in a longer quote of “If you want peace, prepare for war.” This is also surprisingly topical for this book.

At the beginning of the book, I thought I had a pretty good idea who the shooter was. I initially suspected the programmer. He seemed the most likely suspect. Apathetic in general but with a hint of sociopathy. He seemed to view other humans as an experiment, something interesting to watch but ultimately non-consequential. Along the way, as we learn more about each of these characters, it honestly could have been any of them. The high school student who is hypercritical of himself, never feels good enough, and is largely ostracized by his peers. The former athlete who’s repeated head traumas have caused her to be experiencing a lack of control over her anger and fueling resentment at the world. And the veteran turned cop who is struggling with PTSD and having a difficult time finding meaning in his life now that the war is over. By the middle of the book, even though I thought the programmer was still the most likely, all of them were viable.

I really enjoyed learning about these characters, interspersed with passages that seemed to be from the killer’s manifesto. I found great sympathy for all of them. All of them had justifiable anger at the world and their community. My only complaint about this book was that the ending chapters were a bit confusing. I had to go back a few times a read over one of the pages because I wasn’t quite sure what was going on. And, when the killer is revealed, I didn’t think it was the best choice. It seemed to me that this person was the person that the author intended to be the shooter before writing the book. But as the story went on and the characters evolved, I didn’t feel like they were the best choice any longer. So, the ending fell a bit flat as a result. Overall, I enjoy the way the author writes and I love his ideas.

Audiobook Review: Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling

by Stefani

Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling

Narrated by: Emily Tremaine, Greta Jung and Graham Halstead

Published: April 4, 2023 by Simon & Schuster Audio

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

In the far north of Canada sits Camp Zero, an American building project hiding many secrets.

Desperate to help her climate-displaced Korean immigrant mother, Rose agrees to travel to Camp Zero and spy on its architect in exchange for housing. She arrives at the same time as another newcomer, a college professor named Grant who is determined to flee his wealthy family’s dark legacy. Gradually, they realize that there is more to the architect than previously thought, and a disturbing mystery lurks beneath the surface of the camp. At the same time, rumors abound of an elite group of women soldiers living and working at a nearby Cold War-era climate research station. What are they doing there? And who is leading them?

An electrifying page-turner where nothing is as it seems, Camp Zero cleverly explores how the intersection of gender, class, and migration will impact who and what will survive in a warming world.

Rating:

Review:

“Why do men take so easily whatever they want? Because nothing will ever be enough, she realizes. The more a man possesses, the more he thinks he deserves.”

This book tried to accomplish a lot of things in its pages. This audiobook ran for 10 hours and some change, so an average length story. But this book wanted to be a dystopian thriller, a commentary on climate change, a commentary on race, and a commentary on gender, plus throw in some examination of misogyny. In the end, it was largely successful on these fronts. But not all of them.

This book follows the perspective of three individuals/groups. Rose is a half-Korean young woman who is hired at the camp as a “Bloom”, a woman who is hired to “entertain” the men in charge. What this means without euphemism is that she is a sex worker. Sex work seems to be a large part of the world of Camp Zero, and it’s an interesting examination of gender roles. Many of the woman seem perfectly happy to be involved in sex work, viewing it as a way to make a better living than most other jobs, and an opportunity to better their station in the world. In Rose’s case she is not only at camp as a sex worker. She has also been tasked as a spy. We don’t learn exactly what her mission in for quite a long time, but there are clues along the way. She also tells us about her childhood and her mother’s life. This was a really great way to not only build the character but the world. We see several different facets of life in the world of Camp Zero through her eyes. And they were all fascinating. I loved the bits that talked about Rose’s history, I learned so many interesting things.

We also follow Grant. He is a trust fund baby. His family is one of the wealthiest and most influential families in this world. But when a tragedy leaves him examining his privilege, he is desperate to escape his family’s influence and make his own reputation. That’s why he takes the job to be an English teacher at this remote northern camp. He figures that it is so remote that his father’s influence couldn’t possibly reach him and he will be free. But he quickly learns that the job he was hired for isn’t exactly what he thought it would be. He is also very troubled by the existence of the Blooms. All in all, I grew to like Grant by the end but found him horribly naïve. It was quite clear to me that he had lived in a giant bubble for his entire life.

The third narrative is that of White Alice. This narrative is presented in the plural, it is the story of a group of women. These women are tasked with manning a climate change research outpost. Every day they are to report on the changes to the environment and also work on methods of living independently in a largely inhospitable environment. At first the woman are apprehensive about working together, having come from the male dominated military. But, over time, they build relationships and a community and find the remoteness of their lives to be refreshing and comforting. I loved the story of the women of White Alice, though I struggled to understand their relevance to the larger story for longer than I thought. In the end the narratives came together, but it took awhile to get there.

Each of these narratives has its own narrator. I found all of the narrators to be very good at their job. They humanized their characters and their individual styles were complimentary to the other narrators, so the narration felt seamless. It also made it extremely easy for the listener to identify who was telling us the story and when we switched narratives.

My only complaints about this book are that it tries to take on too much. Between the climate change, gender roles, misogyny, racism, wealth privilege…it all just started to feel a little too surface level. We don’t get an opportunity to examine any of these issues with any depth because there’s so many other themes happening. The ending was very good, but it got a little bit confusing. There was a lot of action happening and frequent narrative switching and this was the only time I found it confusing to follow what was happening. I caught up in the end and enjoyed the conclusion. I feel that this book stands on its own perfectly well, but I would be very happy to see the author visit this world again.

New Releases Wednesday

by Stefani

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Archangel’s Lineage by Nalini Singh

Published: April 23, 2024 by Berkeley

Buy this book: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / AbeBooks

Synopsis:

New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh’s dangerous and beautiful world of archangels, vampires, and mortals has never faced a threat this cataclysmic…

Raphael and Elena are experiencing their first ever year of true peace. No war. No horrors of archangelic power. No nightmares given flesh. Until…the earth beneath the Refuge begins to tremble, endangering not only angelkind’s precious and fragile young, but the very place that has held their most innocent safe for eons.

Amid the chaos, Elena’s father suffers a violent heart attack that threatens to extinguish their last chance to heal the bonds between them and make sense of the ruins of their agonizing shared history.

Even as Elena battles grief, Raphael is torn from her side by the sudden disappearance of an archangel. But worse yet is to come. An Ancestor, an angel unlike any other, stirs from his Sleep to warn the Cadre of a darkness so terrible that it causes empires to fall and civilizations to vanish.

This time, even the Cadre itself may not be able to stop a ticking clock that is counting down at frightening speed…

Why I’m going to read it:

I have been absolutely obsessed with the Guild Hunter series by Nalini Singh. I have read at least 7 of the books so far and have adored every single one. Raphael and Elena was one of my favorite stories and to see Singh touching on them again is fantastic. I have missed Raphael and Elena. I am so excited to jump back into their story. If you haven’t read this series, it comes highly recommended.

The Familiar by Leah Bardugo

Published: April 9, 2024 by Flatiron Books

Buy this book: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Abebooks

Synopsis:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Ninth House, Hell Bent, and creator of the Grishaverse series comes a highly anticipated historical fantasy set during the Spanish Golden Age

In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family’s social position.

What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain’s king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England’s heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king’s favor.

Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the line between magic, science, and fraud is never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition’s wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santangel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.

Why I’m going to read it:

If you were reading the site when I discovered Leah Bardugo, then this needs no explanation. I ran through the Shadow and Bone series in record time and I couldn’t get enough of that world. It cemented Bardugo in my list of “Will Read Anything They Ever Publish” authors. I also love historical fiction. Historical fiction plus magic plus Leah Bardugo = yes please!

The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson

Published: April 2, 2024 by Delacorte Press

Buy this book: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / AbeBooks

Synopsis:

A new true-crime fueled mystery thriller about a girl determined to uncover the shocking truth about her missing mother while filming a documentary on the unsolved case.

Lights. Camera. Lies.

18-year-old Bel has lived her whole life in the shadow of her mom’s mysterious disappearance. Sixteen years ago, Rachel Price vanished and young Bel was the only witness, but she has no memory of it. Rachel is gone, long presumed dead, and Bel wishes everyone would just move on.

But the case is dragged up from the past when the Price family agree to a true crime documentary. Bel can’t wait for filming to end, for life to go back to normal. And then the impossible happens. Rachel Price reappears, and life will never be normal again.

Rachel has an unbelievable story about what happened to her. Unbelievable, because Bel isn’t sure it’s real. If Rachel is lying, then where has she been all this time? And – could she be dangerous? With the cameras still rolling, Bel must uncover the truth about her mother, and find out why Rachel Price really came back from the dead . . .

From world-renowned author Holly Jackson comes a mind-blowing masterpiece about one girl’s search for the truth, and the terror in finding out who your family really is.

Why I’m going to read it:

I’m a big fan of true crime. I love watching true crime documentaries, listening to true crime podcasts. This idea intrigues me. I like the idea of a girl who agrees to participate in a documentary about her missing mother and the suddenly her mother reappears with an outrageous story. I look forward to following that journey and finding out what really happened.

Audiobook Review: These Vengeful Hearts by Katherine Laurin

by Stefani

These Vengeful Hearts by Katherine Laurin

Published: September 8, 2020 by RB Media

Buy this book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

Rating:

Synopsis: Anyone can ask the Red Court for a favor…but every request comes at a cost. And once the deed is done, you’re forever in their debt.

Whenever something scandalous happens at Heller High, the Red Court is the name on everyone’s lips. Its members–the most elite female students in the school–deal out social ruin and favors in equal measure, their true identities a secret known only to their ruthless leader: the Queen of Hearts.

Sixteen-year-old Ember Williams has seen firsthand the damage the Red Court can do. Two years ago, they caused the accident that left her older sister paralyzed. Now, Ember is determined to hold them accountable…by taking the Red Court down from the inside.

But crossing enemy lines will mean crossing moral boundaries, too–ones Ember may never be able to come back from. She always knew taking on the Red Court would come at a price, but will the cost of revenge be more than she’s willing to sacrifice?

Review: ***Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley and RB Media!***

I have to confess that I am a sucker for a book about a dark secret society that has a pretty cover. That is exactly the reason why I asked for this audiobook. I was intrigued by the synopsis of a girl who wants to take down the secret mean girls society from the inside. That’s a compelling story! Unfortunately it just wasn’t that good.

Ember started out as an interesting narrator but she lost her shine very quickly. She is supposed to be enacting this giant plot for revenge on behalf of her sister! But most of the time she is worrying and comiserating on the steps she has to take to get there. Surely you thought about these things when you were hatching this plan? No? Why not?

The plot was very cliqued with people asking the Red Court to make them homecoming queen, breaking up a couple, or embarrass someone for stealing a boyfriend. But the logistics are never really fleshed out. What if multiple people are asking to be made homecoming queen? Which one do you choose to help over the others? It’s all about trading in favors and this secret society is largely an unspoken about open secret. None of those things are talked about, which made the story seem trite.

I can’t tell you how this ended, to be entirely honest, because I tuned out. I was so bored with the story that it just became white noise. And then suddenly it was over and I didn’t even hear how it ended.

Review: The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey

by Stefani

The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey

Published: April 14, 2020 by Orbit

Buy this book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

Rating:

Synopsis: Beyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognizable world. A world where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly vines and seeds that will kill you where you stand. And if they don’t get you, one of the dangerous shunned men will.

Koli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life. He knows the first rule of survival is that you don’t venture beyond the walls.

What he doesn’t know is – what happens when you aren’t given a choice?

The first in a gripping new trilogy, The Book of Koli charts the journey of one unforgettable young boy struggling to find his place in a chilling post-apocalyptic world. Perfect for readers of Station Eleven and Annihilation.

Review: ***Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley and Orbit!***

On a side note, expect to see a lot of this disclaimer. Somehow I got behind like 20 ARCs from places like NetGalley and authors. So, flurry of reviews!

On to this book. It was fairly good. The biggest annoyance that I had with it was the writing style. It was written in a world where humans have brought on their own demise. Through genetic engineering that was weaponized and AI used to fight a war, humans have been decimated. Human beings now live in separate small communities in a world that is constantly attacking them. Because while the war between humans may be over, no one told that to the attack drones or the killer trees. As a result, humans have lost a lot of the knowledge they had. And the writing style was done to match. It was also kind of annoying.

The beginning of this book wasn’t very good. Koli was not a very interesting narrator and most of what he did was pine over a girl. I was more interested in the wider world. I mean trees are out there attacking people! Can we not spend so much of our time in Koli’s bland little town of less than 200 people? Pretty please.

Once the plot moved on from his little town the story got a lot better. I liked the dynamics of the wider world and the resolution of the story. It was more of cliffhanger ending than I usually like but since I am invested in the story that’s okay with me because I planned on reading the next book anyway.

Audiobook Review: A Cry From the Far Middle by P.J. O’Rourke

by Stefani

A Cry from the Far Middle by P.J. O’Rourke

Published: September 15, 2020 by Atlantic Monthly Press

Buy this book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

Rating:

Synopsis: P.J. O’Rourke says we’ve worked ourselves into a state of anger and perplexity, and it’s no surprise because perplexed and angry is what America has always been about. This uproarious look at the current state of these United States includes essays like “Woke to the Sound of Laughter,” about the upside of being “woke” (and unable to get back to sleep); “Sympathy vs. Empathy,” which considers whether it’s better to hold people’s hands or bust into their heads; a brief digression “On the Additional Hell of the Internet of Things” because your juicer is sending fake news to your FitBit about what’s in your refrigerator; and many more.

Dotted with a quiz to determine where you stand on the spectrum of “Coastals vs. Heartlanders;” “An Inaugural Address I’d Like to Hear” (ask not what your country can do for you. Ask me how I can get the hell out of here); and an impassioned argument on licensing politicians (we license doctors, we license dentists, we license beauticians…), this is P.J. at his finest.

Review: ***Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. Thank you HighBridge Audio and NetGalley!***

I had never heard of P.J. O’Rourke before this book. I was drawn in by the title and wanted to check it out. This is essentially a collection of this columnist’s previous columns about politics. This made it very easy to listen to. Nothing dragged out too long before we were on to the next essay.

It was such a breathe of fresh air. Funny, self deprecating, insightful, and thought provoking. I consider myself a political junkie and also a staunch Libertarian. If you’re wondering who the person in your neighborhood who thinks you should be able to own a grenade launcher, legalize prostitution, legalize all drugs, feels that taxation is theft and wants to fire most politicians….that person is me. While I have a feeling that Mr. O’Rourke falls more on the Conservative side of Libertarian than he believes he does, he did a fairly even handed job in this book. I have already quoted a few of these essays in other forums because I felt his point was right on the money. I will have to seek out more of his work.

Review: Unearthed by Marc Mulero

by Stefani

Unearthed by Marc Mulero

Published: July 26, 2020 by Amazon CreateSpace

Buy this book: Amazon | Book Depository

Rating:

Synopsis: I wish the global quake had buried me. It would be easier, then, to cope.

My love? Murdered. My family? Betrayed. Friends? Fallen.

And all that in the name of the Hiezers.

My name is Blague. Just Blague. My surname was stripped the day I was marked for exile. Now I wander in the sands of the forgotten continents, scraping by among the rest of the outcasts. There are others like me, out here. Capable minds and able bodies, all scorned in one way or another by our oppressors. Every one of us has witnessed that same terrible scene: screaming citizens as they’re bagged and dragged off into labs, intended for some experimental purpose. We dare not act out, of course. Not under the watchful gaze of the Hiezers. Not beneath their lashing whips, where one false move could be our last.

It’s only in the shadows where we can plot. Tactically. Quietly. Gathering munitions until the time is right. I know something is amiss about the chemical they’ve used to brand our skin. It burns hot when we fight. So I’ll use it… I’ll use it, and light the fire that defines the legacy of an entire rebellion, even if it kills me.

By the time this is over, I’m going to make them wish they’d buried me too…

Review: ***Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley!***

I really wanted to like this book. The premise sounds interesting, the synopsis piqued my interest, and the cover is awesome. I really tried to love this book. But I just couldn’t. I made it about 75% if the way through but then just lost interest.

None of the characters really made a dent for me at all. Blague was incredibly dull and he had no reason to be. He should have been a really compelling character. But all he did was quiet and brooding, never saying much, then he’d come out with a rousing speech and that was about it. None of the other characters felt authentic to me. They didn’t feel like real people and they didn’t feel like the personalities they were given fit them at all.

There were a lot of great ideas in this book and I wanted to look forward to where it was going. The writing needs a lot of work though. The sentences are very clunky and there’s so many similes and metaphors stuffed in there that I had no idea what was going on most of the time. And other times there was way too much description, so much that it confused the situation. In a fight scene a character is described as having a mohawk, and I get reminded about his hair style no less than four times in the scene. I got it. I know. I didn’t forget. I could tell that there was a really good idea in there somewhere, but the abundance of simile and metaphor and flowery language just obliterated the meaning of the words.

There also wasn’t much explaining of this world at all. What is a sin? How did the world get this way? What exactly is the social structure here? Who are the ruling class? Why? I feel like we spent so much time on fighting scenes that we didn’t actually explain this world and that’s a problem because I needed to live in it for a time.

I also don’t really see how the first part of the book related to the second part of the book. Maybe it all came together at the end, but I just couldn’t get that far. If the author decided to get some serious editing and rework this and publish it again, I would give it another shot for sure.

Audiobook Review: To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini

by Stefani

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini

Published: September 15, 2020 by Macmillan Audio

Buy this book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

Rating:

Synopsis: Kira Navárez dreamed of life on new worlds.

Now she’s awakened a nightmare.

During a routine survey mission on an uncolonized planet, Kira finds an alien relic. At first she’s delighted, but elation turns to terror when the ancient dust around her begins to move.

As war erupts among the stars, Kira is launched into a galaxy-spanning odyssey of discovery and transformation. First contact isn’t at all what she imagined, and events push her to the very limits of what it means to be human.

While Kira faces her own horrors, Earth and its colonies stand upon the brink of annihilation. Now, Kira might be humanity’s greatest and final hope . . .

Review: ***Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio!***

I wanted to read this book so much. The cover is breathtaking. The author is renowned. The synopsis is striking. I wanted this book more than any book I have wanted in quite a long time. It didn’t disappoint.

Kira was a great narrator to take us through this tale. She studies alien lifeforms for a living. Popping around to different galaxies to discover what she can about different lifeforms that they run across. What she finds on this trip is not at all what she expects and it unwittingly unleashes a war that threatens to consume all of humanity. But what does it even mean to be human after what she discovers anyway? I really loved her narration and watching her evolve through the situation. She reacted much like anyone would in similar circumstances, which is something I always appreciate in a novel character.

The world in this book was just stunning. I don’t think I’ve ever read a world that was more thoroughly and entertainingly rendered. The history, dynamics, politics, all of it was there. I was quickly transported into this universe and I loved it.

The biggest problem with this book was that it was just so long. The print version is 880 pages and the audiobook is over 32 hours long. I loved the story but after awhile it all started to blend together a bit. I was no longer clear what exactly the goal was anymore. And that’s when it started to drag for me. So while I loved this story as a whole, it was just too long.