Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Bonds of Brass by Emily Skrutskie

13 reviews

dreamerfreak's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death of parent, Violence, Gun violence, Grief, Colonisation, Genocide, Alcohol, and War

kell_xavi's review against another edition

adventurous dark

2.0

The first half was exciting and politically intriguing, the second half was full of absurd coincidence and moral flip-flopping with little critical nuance, which resolved into a book I didn’t want or enjoy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Death of parent

luxluthors's review

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, War, Violence, Blood, and Gun violence

Minor: Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Panic attacks/disorders

stailysh1's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book is almost exactly what I thought it would be.  It is a fun adventure reminiscent of Star Wars but with a slight romantic bend.  The main problem with the book is that there is a shocking lack of chemistry between two people who are supposed to be in love and I don't buy the romance.  The space politics and history are a bit flat.  For some reason, being the blood heir is super meaningful across very different parts of the galaxy and everyone just buys into it.  Coincidence drives the story forward too many times.  Despite these major issues, the book kept me interested and engaged and it was a fast read.  It was exciting enough that its flaws, which should majorly lower its rating, just don't bother me that much.  This book enchanted me and I plan to read the sequels.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide and Colonisation

Moderate: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and War

Minor: Alcohol and Blood

axel_p's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense

• 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Grief, War, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Violence, Xenophobia, and Toxic relationship

judassilver's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, War, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Genocide

breadwitchery's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Gun violence

Minor: Alcohol and Blood

kew16's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Violence, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Death

Minor: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder

bluejayreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I wasn’t sure about this book going in. I picked it up on author alone, because everything I’ve read from Emily Skrutskie so far has been good. By the time I got around to reading it the only thing I remembered was that it was sci-fi and set at some kind of military school, so I went in blind and more than a little doubtful. 

I warmed up to the story pretty quickly, though. There was plenty of action, the protagonist is hopelessly in love with his best friend who turns out to be the heir to the empire that destroyed his life, and they end up on the run from people with vastly superior firepower armed with nothing but their wits and their military school education. Said best friend/heir was charismatic, funny, and a good friend and solid love interest. There was plenty of action and an interesting galactic world to explore. I was interested to keep going. 

Then the middle almost entirely lost me. The only thing hampering the romance was Ettian’s insistence that it wouldn’t work out, the duo picked up a hanger-on who was teeth-grindingly obnoxious up until the penultimate scene, and at some point the goal “get Gal to his galactic ruler parents where he’ll be safe” became “Gal must return home a conquering hero” for no discernable reason (unless Plot Requires More Complicated Nonsense counts as a reason, because that’s the only one I saw). It wasn’t actually boring – there was plenty of action, plots and counter-plots, and the idea of the heroes leading a revolution turned on its head – but I couldn’t see the reasoning behind the characters’ choices so it all felt unnecessary. 

I am also confused and a bit concerned about the themes and message of this book. On one hand, Ettian is a member of a conquered people dealing with the trauma of working for the empire that killed his family and destroyed his life while living in the colonized wreckage of his former world and choosing between bad and worse options for survival. On the other hand, everything else. Ettian allying with the colonial power is not only 100% a good thing but portrayed as the only reasonable choice, and his crisis at choosing the colonizer prince over the remnants of his genocided people takes him like three pages total to get over. The whole trilogy is called the Bloodright Trilogy because everything in this world hinges on blood rights – things pass only from parents to children and what kind of life you have is decided only by who your parents are. This is portrayed as universally a good thing and the best system. There’s even a bit about how crime only happens in a democracy and crime couldn’t exist if everything was based on blood inheritance. I am not sure what kind of message one is supposed to get from all this, but I have the feeling I don’t like it. 

(I realize that there is potential for the other two books in the series to break down these ideas, but the message of “colonizers are the good guys and blood inheritance is the best, actually” seems promoted by the narrative itself, not just the characters. If the theme of the trilogy is going to be our protagonists realizing how screwed up this all is, absolutely none of it comes through in this book.) 

Despite a pretty good climax and a solid ending reveal (even though I did see it coming as soon as I got how this world works), most of the conflict felt unnecessary contrived, and unless the next two books make some major changes I do not like what this book says thematically. I will not be continuing this series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, War, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, and Colonisation

Moderate: Torture, Fire/Fire injury, and Child death

Minor: Sexual content and Kidnapping

xoodlebooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Grief, and Colonisation

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

Minor: Alcohol and Injury/Injury detail