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theliteraryapothecary's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
4.0
This was the fourth novella I read for SFINCS.
Initial Rating - 4 stars. This was a unique novella with characters who are part human, part - something else.
CAWPILE:
Characters: 8 - I loved the characters, it felt like they were written well and with a lot of thought (more thoughts on our characters later).
Atmosphere/Setting: 7 - The setting was great! The atmosphere could have been a bit better, imo. It was hard to really tell what kind of an atmosphere there was - in terms of feels.
Writing Style: 7 - The writing was fine. It felt a little stiff at times but also felt like it fit the novella. But this is where I want to circle back to the characters. It was hard for me, as a visual reader, to imagine what these "Intalls" look like. They are human, but they're not human. They are humans but with computer-type parts and also wings? Without a full image description, it's hard for me to visualize while reading.
Plot: 8 - The plot was pretty easy to follow and I loved how it changed with the characters' growth and story.
Intrigue: 7.5 - The intrigue was great at times. I felt solid intrigue throughout.
Logic/Relationships: 6.5 - Logic made sense in this book, everything made sense as it happened. Relationships were very fluid. Sometimes they were amazing, sometimes unexpected and hard to read - whether that was intenional or not.
Enjoyment: 7.5 - Overall, I enjoyed this novella a lot. It was different and I'm glad I read it. I'd read more from this author.
CAWPILE total - 51.5/7 = 7.3 = 4 solid stars.
Initial Rating - 4 stars. This was a unique novella with characters who are part human, part - something else.
CAWPILE:
Characters: 8 - I loved the characters, it felt like they were written well and with a lot of thought (more thoughts on our characters later).
Atmosphere/Setting: 7 - The setting was great! The atmosphere could have been a bit better, imo. It was hard to really tell what kind of an atmosphere there was - in terms of feels.
Writing Style: 7 - The writing was fine. It felt a little stiff at times but also felt like it fit the novella. But this is where I want to circle back to the characters. It was hard for me, as a visual reader, to imagine what these "Intalls" look like. They are human, but they're not human. They are humans but with computer-type parts and also wings? Without a full image description, it's hard for me to visualize while reading.
Plot: 8 - The plot was pretty easy to follow and I loved how it changed with the characters' growth and story.
Intrigue: 7.5 - The intrigue was great at times. I felt solid intrigue throughout.
Logic/Relationships: 6.5 - Logic made sense in this book, everything made sense as it happened. Relationships were very fluid. Sometimes they were amazing, sometimes unexpected and hard to read - whether that was intenional or not.
Enjoyment: 7.5 - Overall, I enjoyed this novella a lot. It was different and I'm glad I read it. I'd read more from this author.
CAWPILE total - 51.5/7 = 7.3 = 4 solid stars.
jaybatson's review
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
3.0
Full disclosure: I am reviewing this book after receiving a free advance review copy from Netgalley. The price I pay for a book does not affect my reviews; I'm honest (for better or worse).
I’m of mixed mind about these related, but not continuing-story novellas, which are packaged as a single book.
On one hand, they do a decent job at creating medium-hard sci-fi stories of characters with nano-and macro-tech body enhancements, providing rapid body repair, mind-to-mind wireless conversations, and other nit-original, but well-executed themes. And the notion of creating a character/story the first novella but not slavishly creating a single-story, multi-book series, and instead developing other story lines and characters in the same universe, is more akin to Banks’ Culture series (which is good).
And the stories themselves were artfully crafted, moved at a good pace, and though the properties of the enhanced persons are pretty miracle-ish, the author only pulled really big miracles out of hats infrequently.
OTOH, at the end, I felt like the books were a little lightweight.
And, (this reviewer now braces himself for the ire of some readers of this review) the books felt like they were written so that hard sci-fi books with women heroes & characters exist. Like the need to have that as a key element meant the happy endings were a little lame. It felt kinda like a female-first version of the “youth-first” aspect of young adult science fiction. Okay, but maybe better consumed by that target audience than the audience that might like medium-hard sci-fi.
I don’t believe I’m sexist (though I will allow that I may have unconscious biases), nor do I think only male characters can be heroes. In fact, immediately after reading this set of novellas, I read “Nucleation” by Kimberly Unger - a woman author writing a story with key women as lead heroes and villains. And that was amazing; I gave it a rare 5-star review. Importantly, it didn’t leave me with the sticky-sweet female-forward feeling I did after these novellas.
So, I guess I’ll just say that these were okay, well-executed, kinda hard sci-fi, with some neat elements that make them worth reading - just, colored by the above.
So, three stars according to my rules, which are:
-- Five stars is when you read a book to the end, put it down, take a deep breath, pick it up and start reading it all over again - or you would if you weren't so anxious to read the next book in a multi-book series. Or, it's simply one of the best books you’ve ever read, period.
-- Four stars is when you tell yourself : ”This is good, this is well-written, this is full of interesting ideas, characters and plot points”, but you know you will never read it again.
-- Three stars is when you read it to the end, put it down and proceed to forget all about it in the next instant.
-- Two stars when it's so bad that it makes you laugh, or sigh, and want to write a review, but you can't remember the name of the book or dislike it so much that you don't write it.
-- One star when you can't read past chapter 3, even as penance for your sins, and write tye review to help others avoid wasting their time.
I’m of mixed mind about these related, but not continuing-story novellas, which are packaged as a single book.
On one hand, they do a decent job at creating medium-hard sci-fi stories of characters with nano-and macro-tech body enhancements, providing rapid body repair, mind-to-mind wireless conversations, and other nit-original, but well-executed themes. And the notion of creating a character/story the first novella but not slavishly creating a single-story, multi-book series, and instead developing other story lines and characters in the same universe, is more akin to Banks’ Culture series (which is good).
And the stories themselves were artfully crafted, moved at a good pace, and though the properties of the enhanced persons are pretty miracle-ish, the author only pulled really big miracles out of hats infrequently.
OTOH, at the end, I felt like the books were a little lightweight.
And, (this reviewer now braces himself for the ire of some readers of this review) the books felt like they were written so that hard sci-fi books with women heroes & characters exist. Like the need to have that as a key element meant the happy endings were a little lame. It felt kinda like a female-first version of the “youth-first” aspect of young adult science fiction. Okay, but maybe better consumed by that target audience than the audience that might like medium-hard sci-fi.
I don’t believe I’m sexist (though I will allow that I may have unconscious biases), nor do I think only male characters can be heroes. In fact, immediately after reading this set of novellas, I read “Nucleation” by Kimberly Unger - a woman author writing a story with key women as lead heroes and villains. And that was amazing; I gave it a rare 5-star review. Importantly, it didn’t leave me with the sticky-sweet female-forward feeling I did after these novellas.
So, I guess I’ll just say that these were okay, well-executed, kinda hard sci-fi, with some neat elements that make them worth reading - just, colored by the above.
So, three stars according to my rules, which are:
-- Five stars is when you read a book to the end, put it down, take a deep breath, pick it up and start reading it all over again - or you would if you weren't so anxious to read the next book in a multi-book series. Or, it's simply one of the best books you’ve ever read, period.
-- Four stars is when you tell yourself : ”This is good, this is well-written, this is full of interesting ideas, characters and plot points”, but you know you will never read it again.
-- Three stars is when you read it to the end, put it down and proceed to forget all about it in the next instant.
-- Two stars when it's so bad that it makes you laugh, or sigh, and want to write a review, but you can't remember the name of the book or dislike it so much that you don't write it.
-- One star when you can't read past chapter 3, even as penance for your sins, and write tye review to help others avoid wasting their time.
abetterjulie's review
4.0
Ah, this has all the good things I like. Internal, personal conflict surrounded by complex social situations plopped on top of larger societal struggle. And keeping secrets from the hot guy!
It was just the right size. Or maybe the pacing was perfect. Either way, I didn't want to put it down before it ended. I haven't read the excerpt of the next one included in the back of this one yet, but I'm excited to see where Held goes with this fascinating mix of ex-soldiers and Infecteds.
It was just the right size. Or maybe the pacing was perfect. Either way, I didn't want to put it down before it ended. I haven't read the excerpt of the next one included in the back of this one yet, but I'm excited to see where Held goes with this fascinating mix of ex-soldiers and Infecteds.
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