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infinispace's review
4.0
Full review here: https://infinispace.net/book-review-the-promise-of-the-child-by-tom-toner/
vinjii's review
5.0
After my re-read I'm upping this to five stars in July 2018. (First read was in 2016.)
Tom Toner may be the new Steven Erikson of Science Fiction, because he drops the reader straight into an unfamiliar world without any explanation. I'm a fast reader and sometimes tempted to skim more than I should, which works with books set on our world where not every third word is strange and unfamiliar. After reading a third of this novel, almost putting it away for good because I had no idea what was going on, I decided to start from the beginning and take my time.
Whew, what a ride. I've hardly ever been this immersed in another world. Tom Toner presents a world so rich and so fleshed out, I was blown away. It's a creative mix between Science Fiction and Fantasy presenting an innovative future filled with diverse, unique cultures and breathtaking ideas.
Now, let me mention two negative things, because I think they're important. The first thing that bothered me is that this the first book in a series, and it does not stand on its own. It's more a chess board, and now all the pieces have been set, ready to attack.
The second thing is the complexity of the book. While I personally do not mind not knowing what's going on for a good portion of a book, I think Toner expects a lot of attention from the reader, introducing many characters and a dozen different species and places. I was actually taking notes in the beginning. It's not a fast read either, the prose is beautiful but dense. However, the fact there's so much world building, lore, and attention to detail in this book, made it absolutely worth devoting so much time to.
The characters are well developed. Lycaste was a tough one to emphasise with at first, because his mind is so very childlike, but I am very intrigued to see where Toner takes him.
Everything else is fantastic. Toner has definitely created something ambitious and memorable.
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, but I loved this so much, I have purchased a paperback copy of this one and the sequel, [b:The Weight of the World|28695475|The Weight of the World (The Amaranthine Spectrum #2)|Tom Toner|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1470695042s/28695475.jpg|48893245].
Tom Toner may be the new Steven Erikson of Science Fiction, because he drops the reader straight into an unfamiliar world without any explanation. I'm a fast reader and sometimes tempted to skim more than I should, which works with books set on our world where not every third word is strange and unfamiliar. After reading a third of this novel, almost putting it away for good because I had no idea what was going on, I decided to start from the beginning and take my time.
Whew, what a ride. I've hardly ever been this immersed in another world. Tom Toner presents a world so rich and so fleshed out, I was blown away. It's a creative mix between Science Fiction and Fantasy presenting an innovative future filled with diverse, unique cultures and breathtaking ideas.
Now, let me mention two negative things, because I think they're important. The first thing that bothered me is that this the first book in a series, and it does not stand on its own. It's more a chess board, and now all the pieces have been set, ready to attack.
The second thing is the complexity of the book. While I personally do not mind not knowing what's going on for a good portion of a book, I think Toner expects a lot of attention from the reader, introducing many characters and a dozen different species and places. I was actually taking notes in the beginning. It's not a fast read either, the prose is beautiful but dense. However, the fact there's so much world building, lore, and attention to detail in this book, made it absolutely worth devoting so much time to.
The characters are well developed. Lycaste was a tough one to emphasise with at first, because his mind is so very childlike, but I am very intrigued to see where Toner takes him.
Everything else is fantastic. Toner has definitely created something ambitious and memorable.
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, but I loved this so much, I have purchased a paperback copy of this one and the sequel, [b:The Weight of the World|28695475|The Weight of the World (The Amaranthine Spectrum #2)|Tom Toner|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1470695042s/28695475.jpg|48893245].
diesmali's review
2.0
Few authors are able to mix sf and fantasy successfully and make it interesting. At first I thought it was going pretty well, but then I grew a bit bored with it. I think the author tried to encompass too many things and should have stuck to a smaller piece of the story. Also, I feel that the main protagonist took no real action except to run away, the rest only happened to him.
somecharm's review
4.0
How little is the promise of the child fulfilled in the man
The Promise of the Child was one of those impulse books bought because I’d attended a festival (Gollancz festival October 15th 2016 I think) with the author in attendance and I liked the sound of both him and his debut novel; I have no regrets for purchasing this book on impulse unlike some of my impulse buys.
I think, personally, that 100 pages is all you get to grab me, if your book fails to grab me by then there’s a likelihood that I’ll abandon it sooner rather than later and I will admit I came so incredibly close to abandoning at about 80 pages because the book hadn’t grabbed me enough to keep me interested – I am glad I didn’t and persevered to the 100 page mark as shortly after my thoughts to abandon the book picked up massively.
The book is understandably a little confusing in places, sometimes a touch frustrating also but the world building was brilliantly done. It’s the 147th century and there are so many species of creature as to overload a new reader – which I will admit, I am and yes, it did happen – but there’s a wonderful glossary at the back of the book which for the first 150 pages or so I kept flicking backwards and forwards between to understand what it was I was reading. Tom also kindly answered my random Twitter message about the Melius – a giant non-reptilian chameleon-esque creature that wear colours instead of clothes (can I get a hell yeah?) and he’s such a nice guy (Tom, not the Melius, though they are quite nice too) he also suggested that the glossary would basically be my new best friend and no truer words have ever been spoken.
The characters were great – three main characters and a few main side characters that got a little more page time that you’d expect a secondary character to get.
Lycaste – a Melius who has been blessed/cursed with good looks and a soft heart.
Sotiris – an Amaranthine approximately 12,000 years old who mourns the death of his sister and plots to stop the man determined to become Emperor.
Ghaldezuel – a Lacaille knight of the stars who must steal the object that the Pretender will stop at nothing to obtain.
Each character had their own little quirks which didn’t deter from their overall character view but merely added to it. Lycaste for example is really soft hearted in the beginning but then another male encroaches on what he considers his territory and he flips – he’s a totally different man from how I’d gotten used to him and what I liked was that this new Lycaste continued throughout the rest of the book – he became infinitely more “masculine” than the hermit Lycaste of the beginning of the book.
For a debut novel the writing style was fresh if just a touch wordy, a lot of new words and styles of words specifically designed for The Amaranthine Spectrum world and though they’re long, and do put a bit of potentially unnecessary wordage in the book, I think that without them, The Promise of the Child wouldn’t have been the book it was.
On occasion, the book didn’t quite flow as well as I would have thought but it was made better by the general flow of it and the overall world building, characters and the plot line. The plot line was at first a bit confusing (I’d like to point out that I knew this going into the book and that this is no detriment on the book as a whole) but once it hit past the 100 page mark the plots stabilised and became their own individual side plots mixed together to make the one big plot.
The ending of the book threw me for a loop as I didn’t expect that ending in the slightest. It didn’t seem to match up with the beginning of the book where a random kid is taken by the Pretender and you don’t really hear about this child for the rest of the book. Then BAM! Dinosaur.
Yes. Dinosaur.
The book is perfectly spacey and sci/fi but it has that sweet touch of fantasy with the seemingly random designed creatures and alien species.
In all, this was a good book and I’d recommend it.
meags1's review
4.0
There is a lot I am able to forgive because of really good writing and strong world building.
Telepathy, removing the "science" from the science fiction, are basically my list of sins.
At the point where thespace dinosaurs were revealed I just snickered, but when they became relevant to the plot?
I laughed for three minutes straight.
Telepathy, removing the "science" from the science fiction, are basically my list of sins.
At the point where the
I laughed for three minutes straight.
wordsofclover's review
2.0
DNF - 25%
Unfortunately i had to put this down, I wasn't getting anywhere with it and i was just really confused about everything that was happening. There were way too many characters and they all became a jumble to me and i couldn't remember who was who and where they were - they all seemed to be different sort of creatures as well, which could have done with more explaining. AT 25% the story still hadn't kicked off properly and at another time, I would have kept going but unfortunately at the moment I'm too busy and have other books I need to read on my TBR, so chose to make the choice to DNF. Maybe I will go back to this book at a better time to finish the story, I don't know - the writing skill is there, and I really liked the chapters with Lycaste. I just didn't care about anyone else.
Unfortunately i had to put this down, I wasn't getting anywhere with it and i was just really confused about everything that was happening. There were way too many characters and they all became a jumble to me and i couldn't remember who was who and where they were - they all seemed to be different sort of creatures as well, which could have done with more explaining. AT 25% the story still hadn't kicked off properly and at another time, I would have kept going but unfortunately at the moment I'm too busy and have other books I need to read on my TBR, so chose to make the choice to DNF. Maybe I will go back to this book at a better time to finish the story, I don't know - the writing skill is there, and I really liked the chapters with Lycaste. I just didn't care about anyone else.
kevinwkelsey's review
4.0
Posted at Heradas Review
I haven’t seen worldbuilding of this breadth and scale since Iain M. Banks’ Culture series, Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun, or Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space. That’s not to say that the story is anything like those other series, but the worldbuilding is just as expansive as they are, if not more. It’s just absolutely massive, and well thought through. I think when all is said and done The Amaranthine Spectrum will stand at a similar level as those Culture/New Sun/Revelation Space novels in the canon of great SF works.
This is far future Speculative Fiction with tight roots to its past. A lot of that past is still the future for us, some is closer to our present, and some is our past both recent and ancient. The future of 14,6xx that Toner has assembled is fascinating. Humanity has fractured into a prism of species, spread across the galaxy. There are various wars between them and among them. At the top of the power structure and social hierarchy are the Amaranthine, the descendants of humanity who have unlocked some of the secrets of immortality. But, a new secret has been unlocked by a member of a lower - as far as the Amaranthine are concerned - Prism species, and a new challenger to the Amaranthine’s rule is gaining traction among some of their factions. Things are changing for the first time in a long time.
The story starts in the deep end, and you have to learn to swim in this world to understand what’s going on. I’ve always been a big fan of this approach to storytelling. It’s more challenging, but it makes the story that much more rewarding, the journey that much more exciting as you unpack things in your mind. This learning-to-swim stage lasts for around 200 pages or so, and then you’ve firmly got it and you’re swept away in the novel. There’s a lot of mystery, secretive dealings and espionage in the story, which always adds a fun layer for me. The prose is fluid and beautiful, the characters and their societies well rounded and interesting. The narrative throughout is subtle and requires some focus at times. This isn’t a book that spoon feeds the reader; you have to pay attention, but your attention is rewarded.
This first book in the series feels a little disjointed at times on a first read. Mostly I think it had a lot of heavy lifting to do, introducing the reader to this massive universe, and telling a compelling story at the same time, are difficult tasks to do simultaneously. It mostly succeeds at both, but sometimes I felt a little lost in it. I believe it will age very well when taken in context with the series as a whole. Flipping back and rereading parts after finishing, I think it has huge potential for future rereads. This is one of those books that you get a lot more out of the second time through, when the worldbuilding is already established, and you can just enjoy the story and let it take you on a journey.
I’m excited for the second book in this series for the same reason: a lot of the heavily lifting has already been done. I can’t wait to see where this all goes. It’s new and fascinating territory.
I haven’t seen worldbuilding of this breadth and scale since Iain M. Banks’ Culture series, Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun, or Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space. That’s not to say that the story is anything like those other series, but the worldbuilding is just as expansive as they are, if not more. It’s just absolutely massive, and well thought through. I think when all is said and done The Amaranthine Spectrum will stand at a similar level as those Culture/New Sun/Revelation Space novels in the canon of great SF works.
This is far future Speculative Fiction with tight roots to its past. A lot of that past is still the future for us, some is closer to our present, and some is our past both recent and ancient. The future of 14,6xx that Toner has assembled is fascinating. Humanity has fractured into a prism of species, spread across the galaxy. There are various wars between them and among them. At the top of the power structure and social hierarchy are the Amaranthine, the descendants of humanity who have unlocked some of the secrets of immortality. But, a new secret has been unlocked by a member of a lower - as far as the Amaranthine are concerned - Prism species, and a new challenger to the Amaranthine’s rule is gaining traction among some of their factions. Things are changing for the first time in a long time.
The story starts in the deep end, and you have to learn to swim in this world to understand what’s going on. I’ve always been a big fan of this approach to storytelling. It’s more challenging, but it makes the story that much more rewarding, the journey that much more exciting as you unpack things in your mind. This learning-to-swim stage lasts for around 200 pages or so, and then you’ve firmly got it and you’re swept away in the novel. There’s a lot of mystery, secretive dealings and espionage in the story, which always adds a fun layer for me. The prose is fluid and beautiful, the characters and their societies well rounded and interesting. The narrative throughout is subtle and requires some focus at times. This isn’t a book that spoon feeds the reader; you have to pay attention, but your attention is rewarded.
This first book in the series feels a little disjointed at times on a first read. Mostly I think it had a lot of heavy lifting to do, introducing the reader to this massive universe, and telling a compelling story at the same time, are difficult tasks to do simultaneously. It mostly succeeds at both, but sometimes I felt a little lost in it. I believe it will age very well when taken in context with the series as a whole. Flipping back and rereading parts after finishing, I think it has huge potential for future rereads. This is one of those books that you get a lot more out of the second time through, when the worldbuilding is already established, and you can just enjoy the story and let it take you on a journey.
I’m excited for the second book in this series for the same reason: a lot of the heavily lifting has already been done. I can’t wait to see where this all goes. It’s new and fascinating territory.
lordofthemoon's review
3.0
In the far-distant future, Humanity has splintered into a Prism of related species, with the Amaranthine at the top of the pyramid: a small number of immortals who rule ever more precariously, keeping their power by playing the various Prism races against each other. Sotiris, one of the Amaranthine, must travel to Earth (the 'Old World') following the death of his sister. Meanwhile, Lycaste is a mortal, living on the Old World, who's fallen in love with Pentas, but who doesn't love him back. The arrival of an outsider into their small community changes Lycaste's life forever.
There is a huge amount of world-building going on here, especially in the early chapters of this book. It throws you right into the middle of things, with explanations only coming later. It makes for a difficult first half or so. It didn't help that this was the first book that I read after getting an e-reader for the first time, and although there's a search function, flipping around to reread something the context of what I've just read was much more difficult than it would be on paper.
However, even once I got past that and was into the main body of the story, I found it difficult. I didn't really care an awful lot about Lycaste for most of the book. I found him pampered, whiny and irritating. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that he goes through a lot in the course of the book and develops as a character, but he's still not really fun to hang around with. Sotiris, our other main PoV character, doesn't really work for me for a different reason. He's an immortal, over twelve thousand years old. To him, the mortals are mayflies, and although he tries to protect Lycaste, his motives aren't pure. And I felt he remained a cipher for the duration of the book (although to be fair, it must be really difficult to write the mind-state of people that old).
The nominal adversary, Aaron, someone who lays claim to the throne of the Amaranthine by virtue of claiming to be older than anyone else, is mostly a shadow figure, only gaining any solid definition in the final pages of the book. But his motivations remain opaque.
Although the pace picked up a lot towards the end of the book, I'm afraid I just don't feel invested enough to read the rest of the series.
(I got a copy of this book for free from NetGalley[1] in exchange for an honest review)
[1] The author messaged me on GoodReads, *goes to check* good grief, two years ago, and asked if I'd like to review the book. Many apologies for how long it's to read and review it!
There is a huge amount of world-building going on here, especially in the early chapters of this book. It throws you right into the middle of things, with explanations only coming later. It makes for a difficult first half or so. It didn't help that this was the first book that I read after getting an e-reader for the first time, and although there's a search function, flipping around to reread something the context of what I've just read was much more difficult than it would be on paper.
However, even once I got past that and was into the main body of the story, I found it difficult. I didn't really care an awful lot about Lycaste for most of the book. I found him pampered, whiny and irritating. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that he goes through a lot in the course of the book and develops as a character, but he's still not really fun to hang around with. Sotiris, our other main PoV character, doesn't really work for me for a different reason. He's an immortal, over twelve thousand years old. To him, the mortals are mayflies, and although he tries to protect Lycaste, his motives aren't pure. And I felt he remained a cipher for the duration of the book (although to be fair, it must be really difficult to write the mind-state of people that old).
The nominal adversary, Aaron, someone who lays claim to the throne of the Amaranthine by virtue of claiming to be older than anyone else, is mostly a shadow figure, only gaining any solid definition in the final pages of the book. But his motivations remain opaque.
Although the pace picked up a lot towards the end of the book, I'm afraid I just don't feel invested enough to read the rest of the series.
(I got a copy of this book for free from NetGalley[1] in exchange for an honest review)
[1] The author messaged me on GoodReads, *goes to check* good grief, two years ago, and asked if I'd like to review the book. Many apologies for how long it's to read and review it!
philippamary_94's review
3.0
First off I have to say that Toner has created an amazingly detailed and interesting world However I also have to admit that I struggled with the density. There are alot of characters and alot of things going on, which makes it a little confusing. It is well written book with good characters and the world building is at an epic scale. I found the pacing to be a bit uneven at times and overall this book is quite slow - I struggled to get into it at the beginning. There is a lot to learn about this new world, which made it hard to follow at times. I just found it a little hard to keep track of everything that was going on, which then meant that I didn't feel completely invested in the plot. Overall I enjoyed this but I did also struggle with it. I would still recommend this, especially if you are a fan of epic space operas.
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