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arkmanxx's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
soft_sarah's review
2.0
I brought this on a whim in a bargain shop. I thoguht I would love it since I like watching sci- fi but don't read a lot of it. I found it to be too long winded . Sometimes the plot confused me and I didn't care for a lot of the characters. When it finally came to a character I was becoming interested in the author would move to a different narrator. I kept having to put the book down for a length of time before picking it up again and it felt like I was never going to finish it. Ultimately I am not going to finish it, though in a years time or something I might pick it up again.
ramseyhootman's review against another edition
4.0
This is one of those books I've passed over on bookstore shelves for years. Finally downloaded a sample and was hooked. In a purely literary sense, it's pretty rough. But that didn't matter. It was clever, it was interesting, it was epic in every sense of the word, and it had me turning pages all the way to the end. Which is all that really matters. I'm a sucker for alien culture stories of any kind.
My one criticism is that the end is rather abrupt and, honestly, did not feel emotionally satisfying to me. I think because most of the book spent so much time playing up extremes - everything was the MOST sensual or frightening or [whatever] that [whoever] had ever experienced, so there was nowhere further for the climax to go, if that makes any sense. I didn't feel like the emotional resolution really worked for the characters, either. A "bad" ending will usually sour a book for me, but in this case I'm going to call it a minor quibble. Because so many of the chapters are almost self-contained stories, I was satisfied on many counts on many occasions, and the ending was more of a minor disappointment.
Also, I do have to comment on the edition I was reading - I downloaded the 15th anniversary edition on my Kindle. And the thing is ridiculously riddled with typos. "To" instead of "too," actually incorrect words like "fly" instead of "try," and a ton of misplaced commas and other miscellaneous punctuation. There was even one paragraph that had been split by a break right in the middle. It felt like someone had manually re-typed the entire thing and not gone back to proofread. Yeesh.
My one criticism is that the end is rather abrupt and, honestly, did not feel emotionally satisfying to me. I think because most of the book spent so much time playing up extremes - everything was the MOST sensual or frightening or [whatever] that [whoever] had ever experienced, so there was nowhere further for the climax to go, if that makes any sense. I didn't feel like the emotional resolution really worked for the characters, either. A "bad" ending will usually sour a book for me, but in this case I'm going to call it a minor quibble. Because so many of the chapters are almost self-contained stories, I was satisfied on many counts on many occasions, and the ending was more of a minor disappointment.
Also, I do have to comment on the edition I was reading - I downloaded the 15th anniversary edition on my Kindle. And the thing is ridiculously riddled with typos. "To" instead of "too," actually incorrect words like "fly" instead of "try," and a ton of misplaced commas and other miscellaneous punctuation. There was even one paragraph that had been split by a break right in the middle. It felt like someone had manually re-typed the entire thing and not gone back to proofread. Yeesh.
lovmelovmycats's review against another edition
2.0
I'm in the middle of the first half, and I'm not loving it. I'm into it enough that I'll finish it. But I hate the Braxana, and find the Azeans annoying, and think that the main characters are unlovable.
Update: I finished the book. The main characters are despicable. I will not read any more of this author's early books.
Update: I finished the book. The main characters are despicable. I will not read any more of this author's early books.
samd's review
4.0
An elaborate, well-paced, exquisitely worldbuilt canvas for CS Friedman's towering m/f enemyfucking boner. I read it in, like, one and a half sittings. I can't criticize this any more than I could criticize a thunderstorm. (No, that's not true, I have a bone to pick here and there, but this was REALLY well-plotted, so I'm just going to sit back and enjoy it.)
errantdreams's review
5.0
I absolutely LOVE the characters in In Conquest Born. They have so many layers, some of which aren’t even revealed until close to the end. The characters are full of life: ambition, desire, fear, and hatred so strong it takes on a life of its own. Even the side characters reveal surprising depths. I always wanted to know more, and secrets came to light with great regularity.
The pacing is fantastic. I sat on the edge of my seat wanting to know how everything would come out. And while the ending was satisfying, I found it difficult to set the book aside. It has the gleam of a military SF novel, but its focus is on the wonderful characters. I need to track down more of Friedman’s books if this is any example of her work. I went into this hoping to find out that the wonderful book I read twenty or so years ago still looked brilliant with an adult eye, and I loved it every bit as much as I did then. I so rarely re-read books, but this one was worth the effort. The characters constantly strive–for life, for pleasure, for recognition, and mostly, for hate. They’re larger than life; their emotions are larger than life. Friedman does a fantastic job of making that work for her. Even characters who vanish for large parts of the book end up feeling fully fleshed-out, and they never feel like a deus ex machina since they were set up earlier. They help to keep the world feeling real and busy and full of life. The ways in which they’re treated by Zatar or Anzha says so much about those two characters as well.
The world-building is wonderful. We have two such different races in the Azeans and the Braxana, and yet you can feel the underlying shared human similarities. Both Anzha and Zatar are unusual members of their races in one way or another, which just brings out the racial issues so much more clearly. I would love to read more books set in this universe.
I set out to find out if the book was as good as I remembered, and frankly, it exceeded my expectations.
For more reviews, please visit my site: http://www.errantdreams.com/
The pacing is fantastic. I sat on the edge of my seat wanting to know how everything would come out. And while the ending was satisfying, I found it difficult to set the book aside. It has the gleam of a military SF novel, but its focus is on the wonderful characters. I need to track down more of Friedman’s books if this is any example of her work. I went into this hoping to find out that the wonderful book I read twenty or so years ago still looked brilliant with an adult eye, and I loved it every bit as much as I did then. I so rarely re-read books, but this one was worth the effort. The characters constantly strive–for life, for pleasure, for recognition, and mostly, for hate. They’re larger than life; their emotions are larger than life. Friedman does a fantastic job of making that work for her. Even characters who vanish for large parts of the book end up feeling fully fleshed-out, and they never feel like a deus ex machina since they were set up earlier. They help to keep the world feeling real and busy and full of life. The ways in which they’re treated by Zatar or Anzha says so much about those two characters as well.
The world-building is wonderful. We have two such different races in the Azeans and the Braxana, and yet you can feel the underlying shared human similarities. Both Anzha and Zatar are unusual members of their races in one way or another, which just brings out the racial issues so much more clearly. I would love to read more books set in this universe.
I set out to find out if the book was as good as I remembered, and frankly, it exceeded my expectations.
For more reviews, please visit my site: http://www.errantdreams.com/
sinisterinfant's review
4.0
Really great scifi. One of the best I've read in a long time. Does a great job moving to all kinds of different locations and stories while maintaining the huge plot it presents. Lots of moving parts that somehow manage to come together in a way that didn't annoy me or seem cheap. Not sure I'm in for the rest of the series, but that's mainly because the end of this one was satisfying enough for me.
librarianelizabeth's review
4.0
Solid space opera, with really interesting world and culture building. Not the best-written thing I've ever read, but I enjoyed it.