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kpitts13's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
4.5
timinbc's review against another edition
4.0
It's an adventure story. Judge accordingly. Our gunrunner-empress is a good character, supported by some other interesting ones.
The plot's good at the macro level. Closer up, the protagonist is far too quickly able to convince people to help her. Even closer, at the page-by-page level, there's a lot of troping going on - the " I can sleep later" and "I'm too stressed to eat" and "it's only a flesh wound." C'mon, authors, let your people sleep and eat and use the bathroom once in a while.
The space-battle stuff is a bit thin. Hey. I've flown a shuttle, how hard can a battlecruiser be? Mile-long warp-drive ships have like automatic transmission, right? And my ship has shields that can hold for an hour against three enemy ships, but the enemy's battlecruiser blows to smithereens at the first shot, thousands of crew die, and our folks chuckle and move on. OK, there's a bit of remorse at all the killing.
And c'mon: a computerized gate asks for a code and our heroine rattles of the 218-digit string without any effort? One she hasn't used in years. Yeah, sure. Look, you have to tell us earlier that she has that kind of skill before you just use it in a crisis.
Still, it's a fun adventure.
The plot's good at the macro level. Closer up, the protagonist is far too quickly able to convince people to help her. Even closer, at the page-by-page level, there's a lot of troping going on - the " I can sleep later" and "I'm too stressed to eat" and "it's only a flesh wound." C'mon, authors, let your people sleep and eat and use the bathroom once in a while.
The space-battle stuff is a bit thin. Hey. I've flown a shuttle, how hard can a battlecruiser be? Mile-long warp-drive ships have like automatic transmission, right? And my ship has shields that can hold for an hour against three enemy ships, but the enemy's battlecruiser blows to smithereens at the first shot, thousands of crew die, and our folks chuckle and move on. OK, there's a bit of remorse at all the killing.
And c'mon: a computerized gate asks for a code and our heroine rattles of the 218-digit string without any effort? One she hasn't used in years. Yeah, sure. Look, you have to tell us earlier that she has that kind of skill before you just use it in a crisis.
Still, it's a fun adventure.
veereads's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I really liked the first book in this series as it is quite a departure from my usual type of novel. There's an addictive quality to the writing and Hail is a character that is easy to root for. I do think that this novel wasn't as good as its predecessor; things were solved too quickly and the emotional parts of the story didn't get the gravitas they deserved. It became hard to emotionally connect with certain character deaths when I was only given a couple of pages of buildup. Nevertheless, I will be continuing this series to see what else Hail gets up to as she attempts to take back her empire.
chaifanatic18's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
quantumcrayons's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
mary_soon_lee's review against another edition
4.0
This is the second novel in the Indranan War trilogy, picking up about a week after the end of book one. I greatly enjoyed Hail's continuing adventures, if not quite as much as book one. (That was a high bar!)
The central character and narrator is Hail, ruler of a far-future empire in a setting reminiscent of Star Wars, but without the Force. There are spaceships, battles, gunrunners, colorful settings, alien allies, and larger-than-life characters that I happily root for. While there is loss in the series, overall this is a fun, page-turning story. The characters are my principal pleasure: I continue to love Hail, Emmory, and Zin. Of the new characters, I especially like Hao.
Four out of five feisty stars.
About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).
The central character and narrator is Hail, ruler of a far-future empire in a setting reminiscent of Star Wars, but without the Force. There are spaceships, battles, gunrunners, colorful settings, alien allies, and larger-than-life characters that I happily root for. While there is loss in the series, overall this is a fun, page-turning story. The characters are my principal pleasure: I continue to love Hail, Emmory, and Zin. Of the new characters, I especially like Hao.
Four out of five feisty stars.
About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).
ewwa333's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
jmoses's review against another edition
5.0
So....I read this immediately after I finished [b:Behind the Throne|28118539|Behind the Throne (The Indranan War #1)|K.B. Wagers|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1463566588s/28118539.jpg|48129333]. I finished it the same day. It's as good as the first one, so go read what I said about that, and just add "again" to the end.
queenmackenzie's review
adventurous
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
xkou's review
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75